Skip to main content

Timing Attacks in Low-Latency Mix Systems

  • Conference paper
Book cover Financial Cryptography (FC 2004)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 3110))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

A mix is a communication proxy that attempts to hide the correspondence between its incoming and outgoing messages. Timing attacks are a significant challenge for mix-based systems that wish to support interactive, low-latency applications. However, the potency of these attacks has not been studied carefully. In this paper, we investigate timing analysis attacks on low-latency mix systems and clarify the threat they pose. We propose a novel technique, defensive dropping, to thwart timing attacks. Through simulations and analysis, we show that defensive dropping can be effective against attackers who employ timing analysis.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Acquisti, A., Dingledine, R., Syverson, P.: On the Economics of Anonymity. In: Wright, R.N. (ed.) FC 2003. LNCS, vol. 2742, pp. 84–102. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Back, A., Goldberg, I., Shostack, A.: Freedom 2.0 Security Issues and Analysis. Zero-Knowledge Systems, Inc., white paper (November 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Berthold, O., Federrath, H., Kohntopp, M.: Project anonymity and unobservability in the internet. In: Proc. Computers Freedom and Privacy (April 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Berthold, O., Pfitzmann, A., Standtke, R.: The Disadvantages of Free Mix- Routes and How to Overcome Them. In: Proc. Intl. Workshop on Design Issues in Anonymity and Unobservability (July 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bolot, J.: Characterizing End-to-End Packet Delay and Loss in the Internet. Journal of High Speed Networks 2(3) (September 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chaum, D.: Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms. Communications of the ACM 24(2), 84–88 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Dei, W.: Pipenet 1.1 (August. 1996), http://www.eskimo.com/weidai/pipenet.txt

  8. Dingledine, R., Mathewson, N., Syverson, P.: Reliable MIX Cascade Networks through Reputation. In: Proc. Financial Cryptography (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Douceur, J.: The sybil attack. In: Druschel, P., Kaashoek, M.F., Rowstron, A. (eds.) IPTPS 2002. LNCS, vol. 2429, p. 251. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Freedman, M., Morris, R.: Tarzan: A Peer-to-Peer Anonymizing Network Layer. In: Proc. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (November 2002)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gribble, S.: UC Berkeley Home IP HTTP Traces (July 1997), http://www.acm.org/sigcomm/ITA/

  12. Jakobsson, M.: Flash mixing. In: Proc. Sym. on Principles of Distributed Computing (May 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kesdogan, D., Egner, J., Buschkes, R.: Stop-and-go-mixes providing probablilistic anonymity in an open system. In: Proc. Information Hiding (April 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Pfitzmann, A., Pfitzmann, B., Waidner, M.: ISDNMixes: Untraceable Communication with Very Small Bandwidth Overhead. In: Proc. GI/ITG Communication in Distributed Systems (February 1991)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Rackoff, C., Simon, D.R.: Cryptographic defense against traffic analysis. In: Proc. ACM Sym. on the Theory of Computing (May 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Reed, M., Syverson, P., Goldschlag, D.: Anonymous Connections and Onion Routing. IEEE JSAC Copyright and Privacy Protection (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Saroiu, S., Krishna Gummadi, P., Gribble, S.: A Measurement Study of Peer-to- Peer File Sharing Systems. In: Proc. Multimedia Computing and Networking (January 2002)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Serjantov, A., Dingledine, R., Syverson, P.: From a trickle to a flood: active attacks on several mix types. In: Information Hiding (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Syverson, P., Tsudik, G., Reed, M., Landwehr, C.: Towards an Analysis of Onion Routing Security. In: Workshop on Design Issues in Anonymity and Unobservability (July 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wright, M., Adler, M., Levine, B.N., Shields, C.: An Analysis of the Degradation of Anonymous Protocols. In: Proc. ISOC Sym. on Network and Distributed System Security (Febraury 2002)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Wright, M., Adler, M., Levine, B.N., Shields, C.: Defending Anonymous Communication Against Passive Logging Attacks. In: Proc. IEEE Sym. on Security and Privacy (May 2003)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Levine, B.N., Reiter, M.K., Wang, C., Wright, M. (2004). Timing Attacks in Low-Latency Mix Systems. In: Juels, A. (eds) Financial Cryptography. FC 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3110. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27809-2_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27809-2_25

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-22420-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-27809-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics