BIG-MIX: A Mapping-Based Approach Towards Measuring Anonymity

Tianbo Lu, Cheng Wang, Xiaofeng Du, Yang Li
2016 International Journal of Database Theory and Application  
As the Internet is becoming a virtual platform for people's sharing information and communicating daily, more and more people are connected together and the contact area between their personal privacy and the outside world turn to be unprecedented large. Therefore, the users of the Internet are faced with an enormous privacy threat. Anonymous P2P technology is a good way to solve the above problems. The ultimate goal of all anonymous P2P systems is to obtain the anonymity. Anonymity assessment
more » ... n different anonymous P2P systems can be used to compare the amount of anonymity offered by different systems or to adjust the parameter setting of the same system according to different need, which is of great guiding significance to improve anonymous communication systems. In this paper, from the angle of relationship anonymity between the sender and the receiver, we presents the BIG-MIX anonymity method, taking the paths cross of different messages into consideration, to make anonymity assessment on anonymous P2P networks with the use of mapping. And with this method, this paper makes a quantitative analysis on the relationship anonymity of anonymous P2P networks under the mechanism of Threshold Mixes, Timed Mixes or Pool Mixes. 216 Copyright ⓒ 2016 SERSC message, this method is no longer applicable. At this time, parameter setting within the system effect the anonymity must be considered. What"s more, they apply the method to threshold mixes, timed mixes and pool mixes and make a comparison of the anonymity performance of these three mechanisms. However, they assume the attacker only observe one Mix"s initial input message, and all input messages along the same path (Mixes) output system, it means each round just have one Mix, this assumption couldn't reaction the actual situation between path cross in a real system. In this paper, based-on the method of Matthew Edman, we will propose BIG-MIX method. This method allows a round between multiple Mixs and Mix can participate in any cross pass messages, the initial input message can be multiple paths output system. Because this method put the multiple Mixs round as confused more input and output messages, so named it as BIG-MIX. The method taking the paths cross of different messages into consideration, to make anonymity assessment on anonymous P2P networks with the use of mapping. And all messages are no longer limited to a single path through anonymous communication systems, taking into account the system path between different messages the cross-cutting issues. In 2008, Benedikt Gierlichs et al [13] think Matthew"s approach fails to capture the anonymity loss caused by subjects sending or receiving more than one message. Based on this method they propose an idea which can be applied to cases where subjects send and receive an arbitrary number of messages. In addition, Jean-Charles Gregoire [14] and Rajiv Bagai [15] are also to improve Matthew Edman's method , considering the anonymity in the condition of the communication subject to send or receive multiple messages and system in the infeasibility of attacks.
doi:10.14257/ijdta.2016.9.7.19 fatcat:6dgpla6hifhi7ag4odiz3a5es4