[tor-bugs] #25057 [Webpages/Blog]: Warn Tor users not run BitCoin in same tor instance using blog and official twitter.

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#25057: Warn Tor users not run BitCoin in same tor instance using blog and official
twitter.
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 Reporter:  cypherpunks    |          Owner:  hiro
     Type:  task           |         Status:  new
 Priority:  High           |      Milestone:
Component:  Webpages/Blog  |        Version:
 Severity:  Critical       |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                 |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                 |         Points:
 Reviewer:                 |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by cypherpunks):

 6 CONCLUSION

 We show that using Bitcoin as a payment method for Tor hidden ser-
 vices leaks information that can be used to deanonymize their users.

 This represents a serious threat to these users, because they actively
 seek to maintain their anonymity by using Tor. The deanonymiza-
 tion is mainly due to the lack of retroactive operational security
 present in Bitcoin’s pseudonymity model.

 In particular, by inspecting historical transactions in the Blockchain,
 an adversary can link users, who publicly share their Bitcoin addresses
 on online social networks, with hidden services, which publicly share
 their Bitcoin addresses on their onion landing pages.

 In a real-world experiment, we were able to link many users
 of Twitter and the BitcoinTalk forum to various hidden services,
 including WikiLeaks, Silk Road, and The Pirate Bay.

 Using information from their public user profiles, we were able to show
 concrete
 case studies where the anonymity of the users is broken.

 Our results has one immediate implication:
 Bitcoin addresses should always be assumed compromised as they can be used
 to deanonymize users.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25057#comment:1>
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The Tor Project: anonymity online