[tor-talk] Retroactive traffic confirmation attacks on Tor through data retention records?

Phillip equusaustralus at gmail.com
Sat Apr 21 22:08:21 UTC 2012


Just a quick question, might be stupid: if you were to run all of your
traffic through a VPN, including tor, would the same considerations apply?

Or would they only apply to your VPN provider (provided that they keep
records at all)...?

Phillip


> MAC addresses are used by layer 2 protocols (see
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model ).  Once an IP packet
> traverses a layer 3 device (such as a router) the srcMac has been
> changed to that of the router's egress interface.  Unless your ISP
> provided your router, srcMac identifies only which router the packet
> came from, not the particular client.
>
> Decent routers randomize source ports to prevent traffic correlation
> (makes it harder to confirm that two streams from the same router came
> from the same client).
>
> If you need deniability, don't use an ISP provided router, make sure
> your router randomizes source ports, and have an open guest wifi
> network (though obviously make sure the guest network can only access
> the Internet, not your LAN).
>
> -Pascal
>
>
> On 4/21/2012 1:05 PM, Ondrej Mikle wrote:
>> If the ISP's records store [srcIP, srcPort, srcMac, dstIP, dstPort,
>> size,
>> startTime, endTime] for every TCP connection, then it's definitely
>> doable; note
>> that srcMac is MAC of client visible from ISP's side of the router to
>> internet
>> (so that clients behind NAT can be identified, though the srcPort
>> gives that
>> away, too).
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