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 them removing any identifying information from the header.

Sending a Cypherpunk Message

Step 1: Retrieving the remailer's Public Key.

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

Step 2: Import remailer's public keys into PGP or GPG.

Step 3: Compose Message

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

::
Anon-To: <Recipient Email Address>

##
Subject: <Subject>

<Message Text>

Step 4: Encrypt Message

Use PGP and/or GPG to encrypt the message that you just composed using the remailer's public key.

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-----
<place encrypted output here>
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

Then send it.

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

Howtos and Examples

• About.com: Send Email Anonymously — Chaining Remailers with PGP
• Feraga.com: Howto use a Type I Anonymous Remailer (link not active 12 May 2010, see archive version)

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.

Further reading

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