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\(\text{Drac}\): An Architecture for Anonymous Low-Volume Communications

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Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETS 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 6205))

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Abstract

We present \(\text{Drac}\), a system designed to provide anonymity and unobservability for real-time instant messaging and voice-over-IP communications against a global passive adversary. The system uses a relay based anonymization mechanism where circuits are routed over a social network in a peer-to-peer fashion, using full padding strategies and separate epochs to hide connection and disconnection events. Unlike established systems, \(\text{Drac}\) gives away the identity of a user’s friends to guarantee the unobservability of actual calls, while still providing anonymity when talking to untrusted third parties. We present the core design and components of \(\text{Drac}\), we discuss the key ways in which it challenges our current concepts of anonymity and provide an initial simulation-based security analysis.

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Danezis, G., Diaz, C., Troncoso, C., Laurie, B. (2010). \(\text{Drac}\): An Architecture for Anonymous Low-Volume Communications. In: Atallah, M.J., Hopper, N.J. (eds) Privacy Enhancing Technologies. PETS 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6205. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14527-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14527-8_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-14526-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-14527-8

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