Towards Anonymous Communication
Infrastructure
There are many existing anonymous communication
solutions each having advantages and disadvantages
and most importantly – their own user base.
The goal of this project is to create an infrastructure
which these various solutions can be combined via a
generic anonymous network protocol.
Unified Message Structure
The first step to unify different protocols is to have a
standard agreement among network traffic – in this
case a unified network message structure:
Routing Rules and Tables
Much like NAT within routers – nodes within the
generic anonymous network have routing rules and
tables. This means that network data is only
meaningful to its targeted node(s), and more
importantly have little to no meaning for potential
attackers.
Processors
System Processors
Core processors that are
required to interface with
and perform actions on
hosted nodes:
• ReserveRPRProcessor
• FinaliseRPRProcessor
• RelayMessageProcessor
Guest Processors
Guest processors are
externally written and
extend the processor family.
They can be downloaded on
hosted nodes and executed
via route rules.
• AddPublishedProcessor
• AddUnPublishedProcessor
Composite Processors
The real potential of processors is to combine separate,
possibly unrelated processors, into a new short lived
temporary processor – called a composite processor.
Composite processors can use any combination of
system, published and unpublished processors.
Network Unobservability
Any algorithm can be utilised on a node via the
unpublished processors – this introduces a large
degree of uncertainty as to how nodes behave.
Meaning that identical inputs can produce completely
different and unrelated outputs.
System Overview
Combining User Bases
The ultimate goal is to unite different user bases to
expand the anonymous community.
This doesn’t mean to re-invent the wheel – rather the
opposite is proposed. Existing infrastructures have the
opportunity to join the generic network but still keep all
their current users, clients and servers as is.
This is achieved by hosting nodes running published
and/or unpublished processors that either implement an
existing algorithm or bridge the gap between the two
networks.
Network Topologies
Research Benefits
A large user base, existing servers and nodes act as a
established network backbone. Coupled with the ability
to execute external code via unpublished processors
researchers can build and experiment with new types of
anonymous communication methods.
A large problem faced by those building innovative
anonymous protocols is the need to test them – and real
world results are required. Previously lots of time, money
and resources were needed to put together a network
infrastructure to achieve this. The generic anonymous
protocol solves this issue by allowing the existing
networks to be utilised.
Acknowledgements
Matthew Bolger – Student
Shaahin Madani, Ibrahim Khalil – Supervisors