Cypherpunk anonymous remailer

A cypherpunk anonymous remailer is a Type I anonymous remailer that takes messages encrypted with PGP or GPG, or in some cases in plain text, and forwards it removing any identifying information from the header.

Sending a Cypherpunk Message

Step 1: Retrieving the remailers Public Key.

Generally you can get a Cypherpunk remailers public key by sending an email message with the subject "remailer-key" to the server you wish to use.

Step 2: Import remailers public keys into PGP or GPG.

Step 3: Compose Message

Compose the message in your favorite text editor, using the following template:

::
Anon-To: 

#
Subject: 

Step 4: Encrypt Message

Use PGP or GPG to encrypt the message that you just composed.

Step 5: Send Encrypted Message to Remailer

Prepare an email to send to the Cypherpunk remailer using the following template:

:
Encrypted: PGP
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----

-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Then send it.

Notes

• The extra headers are called 'pseudoheaders' because they do not appear in the RFC 822 headers specification for email.
• Messages to Cypherpunk remailers may be layered so they route through several different Cypherpunk remailers to decrease the odds of anyone determining who the sender is.
• Some Cypherpunk remailers are also Mixmaster anonymous remailers and can split long Cypherpunk messages into Mixmaster packets and send them to the next remailer, if it also understands Mixmaster.
• Many Cypherpunk remailer users will repeat steps 1-4 to wrap their message in additional layers to route it through several remailers for additional privacy and security.

See also

• Anonymity
• Anonymous P2P
• Anonymous remailer
• Mixmaster anonymous remailer (Type II)
• Mixminion (Type III)
• Onion routing
• Tor (anonymity network)
• Pseudonymous remailer (a.k.a. nym servers)
• Penet remailer
• Data privacy
• Traffic analysis

External links

• Remailer FAQ

Howtos and Examples:

• About.com: Send Email Anonymously — Chaining Remailers with PGP
• Anonymous.to: Cypherpunk Tutorial
• Feraga.com: Howto use a Type I Anonymous Remailer

Further reading

• Email Security, Bruce Schneier (ISBN 0-471-05318-X)
• Computer Privacy Handbook, Andre Bacard (ISBN 1-56609-171-3)