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Revision 710 - (show annotations) (download)
Wed Jan 21 00:47:21 2004 UTC (9 years, 4 months ago) by rabbi
File size: 8273 byte(s)
Updated copyright dates, doc issues, misc fixes.
1 Mixmaster 3.0 -- anonymous remailer software -- (C) 1999 - 2004 Anonymizer Inc.
2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3
4 PREVIEW VERSION --- WARNING: THIS SOFTWARE IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT!
5
6 This program consists of
7
8 * a remailer client:
9
10 The remailer client supports sending anonymous mail using Cypherpunk
11 and Mixmaster remailers. It supports OpenPGP encryption (compatible
12 with PGP 2, PGP 5 and up, and GnuPG).
13
14 The client can be used with a menu-based user interface and with
15 command line options.
16
17 * a remailer:
18
19 The remailer supports the Cypherpunk and Mixmaster message formats.
20 It can be integrated with the mail delivery system of Unix-based
21 computers or use the POP3 and SMTP protocols for mail transfer.
22 Mixmaster includes an automated abuse-handling system.
23
24 Please report any problems via the bug and patch trackers at
25 http://sourceforge.net/projects/mixmaster/
26
27
28 Installation:
29 ------------
30
31 Libraries:
32
33 Mixmaster requires the libraries OpenSSL, zlib, and pcre.
34
35 If you want to use the menu-based user interface, you also need the
36 ncurses library. If these libraries are not installed on your
37 system, you will need to obtain the latest versions from the
38 sources below and extract them in the the Src/ directory first.
39
40 OpenSSL is available from http://www.openssl.org/source/
41
42 Ncurses can be obtained from http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/
43
44 The Perl Compatable Regular Expressions library can be obtained from
45 ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/
46
47 The zlib compression libraries can be obtained from
48 http://www.gzip.org/zlib/
49
50 To install or upgrade Mixmaster, type `./Install'.
51
52 Mixmaster uses lists of currently operating remailers and information
53 about their reliability. You can get the current remailer lists from
54 http://stats.melontraffickers.com/ and http://www.noreply.org/ and via
55 finger from nym.alias.net:
56
57 pubring.asc Type 1 remailer keys
58 pubring.mix Type 2 remailer keys
59 rlist.txt List of reliable type 1 remailers
60 mlist.txt List of reliable type 2 remailers
61 type2.list List of known type 2 remailers (optional)
62
63 If you wish to participate in the Remailer Abuse Blocklist[1], you will need
64 to obtain the blocklist file from http://www.paracrypt.com/remailerabuse/
65 and place it in your Mix directory. This may be automated with cron.
66
67 For support for multiple RAB services, edit the file Src/config.h manually,
68 and add additional block files to the existing line, such as:
69
70 #define DESTBLOCK "dest.blk rab.blk rab2.blk rab3.blk"
71
72 Note that only the first file should the the local block list, as it is the
73 only file mixmaster will open for writing. Most users will not need to edit
74 config.h.
75
76 [1] Update: As of the release of Mixmaster 3.0, the Paracrypt RAB site is
77 defunct. This information has been left in the documentation should
78 another service take its place.
79
80 Using the remailer client:
81 -------------------------
82
83 To use the menu-based user interface, simply run `mixmaster'. To send an
84 anonymous or pseudonymous reply to a message from within your mail or
85 news reader, you can pipe it to `mixmaster'.
86
87 The interactive mode supports sending mail and contains a simple
88 mail reading function. OpenPGP messages are encrypted and decrypted
89 automatically.
90
91 In the non-interactive mode, Mixmaster reads a message from a file or
92 from its standard input. The command line options are described in the
93 manual page (mixmaster.1).
94
95
96 Mixmaster as a remailer:
97 -----------------------
98
99 The Mixmaster remailer can be installed on any account that can
100 receive mail. Non-remailer messages will be delivered as usual. If
101 you have root access, you may want to create a new user (e.g.,
102 `remailer') and install Mixmaster under that user id.
103
104 The Install script provides a simple way to set up the remailer. More
105 information about configuring Mixmaster can be found in the manual
106 page. Typically, incoming mail is piped to "mixmaster -RM". In a UUCP
107 setting, it may be useful to use just "mixmaster -R", and run
108 "mixmaster -S" once all messages have arrived.
109
110 Announcing a new remailer to the public is most commonly done by posting
111 the remailer keys and capabilities to alt.privacy.anon-server as well as
112 the "remops" mailing list. Information about the remops list can be found
113 here: http://lexx.shinn.net/mailman/listinfo/remops
114
115
116 Installation problems:
117 ---------------------
118
119 In case one of the libraries Mixmaster uses is installed incorrectly
120 on your system, place the library source code (available from
121 the locations listed above) in the Src directory, remove the old
122 Makefile, run the Install script again and answer `y' when asked
123 whether to use the source code.
124
125 The ncurses library can use termcap and terminfo databases. The
126 Mixmaster Install script tries to find out whether terminfo is
127 available. If you get a "Can't open display" error when starting
128 the Mixmaster menu, run "./configure --enable-termcap; make lib/libncurses.a"
129 in the ncurses directory.
130
131
132 Security notes:
133 --------------
134
135 The ciphers and the anonymizing mix-net protocol used in Mixmaster
136 correspond to the state of the art (see the Security Considerations
137 section of the Mixmaster Protocol specification for details). However,
138 no security proofs exist for any practical cryptosystem. It is
139 unlikely that their security will be broken, but there is no "perfect
140 security". Software can also contain implementation errors. The
141 complete Mixmaster source code is available for public review, so that
142 everyone can verify what the program does, and it is unlikely that
143 security related errors or secret back doors in the software would go
144 unnoticed.
145
146 No software is secure if run in an insecure environment. For that
147 reason you must make sure that there is no malicious software (such as
148 viruses) running on your computer. Deleted files and even passphrases
149 can in many cases be read from the hard disk if an adversary has
150 access to the computer. The use of disk encryption programs is
151 recommended to avoid this risk.
152
153 Anonymous messages are secure as long as at least one of the remailers
154 you use in a chain is honest. You can use up to 20 remailers in a
155 chain, but reliability and speed decrease with longer chains. Four is
156 a reasonable number of remailers to use. Many remailer operators sign
157 their keys. You should verify those signatures with OpenPGP to make
158 sure that you have the actual remailer keys.
159
160 Anonymous keys usually cannot be introduced to the OpenPGP web of
161 trust without giving up anonymity. For that reason, this client will
162 use any OpenPGP key found on the key ring, whether it is certified or
163 not. Your key ring must not contain any invalid keys when used with
164 this program.
165
166 If you want to use a pseudonym, the client will ask you for a
167 passphrase to protect the nym database. Your passphrase should be
168 long, and hard to guess. Anyone who gets hold of your nym database and
169 private keys and can determine the passphrase will be able to
170 compromise your pseudonymous identities. Note that some operating
171 systems may store your passphrase on your hard disk in clear.
172
173 While a good client passphrase can protect your keys if someone gets
174 hold of your files, the remailer passphrase offers only casual
175 protection for the remailer keys. If you install a remailer, the
176 remailer passphrase must be different from your private passphrases.
177
178
179 Copyright:
180 ---------
181
182 Mixmaster may be redistributed and modified under certain conditions.
183 This software is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
184 ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the file COPYRIGHT for
185 details.
186
187 A license is required to use the IDEA(TM) algorithm for commercial
188 purposes; see the file idea.txt for details.
189
190 Mixmaster uses the compression library zlib by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark
191 Adler, the free ncurses library and the regex library by Philip Hazel.
192 This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young
193 (eay@cryptsoft.com). This product includes software developed by the
194 OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.OpenSSL.org/).
195 For some platforms: This product includes software developed by the
196 University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.
197
198 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
199
200 $Id$

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