On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 06:52:13PM -0700, Martin Stone Davis wrote:
> Is the point *only* to prevent proof beyond a reasonable doubt?
> 
> In a civil case (such as those RIAA lawsuits), or under a regime such as 
> AAIR where standards of proof are reduced, wouldn't it be good enough to 
> say "there's a 95% chance that the defendant requested the key"?  So I 
> would think that the goal of Freenet would be to provide a defense 
> against such an accusation.

Good point. The term is "on the balance of probabilities". That scares
me - I wonder what sort of probability courts would accept for civil
cases (if they even know what the word probability means, which is by no
means certain in english courts!).
> 
> -Martin
> 
> Brandon Low wrote:
> 
> >Rare yes, impossible no...  The main point of freenet is that nobody can
> >prove beyond a reasonable doubt ... anything ... about anyone ... using
> >freenet.
> >
> >--b
> >
> >On Wed, 10/15/03 at 18:34:34 -0700, Martin Stone Davis wrote:
> >
> >>Pcaching only kicks in when the DS is 90% full, I thought.  So it 
> >>wouldn't apply to a node which kept a huge DS.
> >>
> >>Also, isn't it the case that when inserting a large splitfile, the 
> >>various parts go through many different nodes? ...and so it would be 
> >>rare for you to have every part if you hadn't requested it.
> >>
> >>-Martin
> >>
> >>Brandon Low wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>I believe that pcaching applies to local requests too... so why not just
> >>>let freenet take care of itself and stick to plausible deniability?  You
> >>>could just have been the first person in line for the insertion of said
> >>>key or whatever...
> >>>
> >>>--B
> >>>
> >>>On Wed, 10/15/03 at 18:14:21 -0700, Martin Stone Davis wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>AFAIK, it is possible right now to discover whether a node has 
> >>>>requested a particular large splitfile by measuring how much time it 
> >>>>takes the node to search for each part of the splitfile.
> >>>>
> >>>>To prevent such "timing attacks on the datastore", I thought at first 
> >>>>that a solution would be
> >>>>
> >>>>SOLUTION #1: that the the node itself would flag any keys that the 
> >>>>operator has requested as "requested only by me".  Then, if the node 
> >>>>was asked later for a key that held such a flag, it would pretend that 
> >>>>it didn't have it, search for the key on other nodes, and then reset 
> >>>>the key's flag if it found it on another node.
> >>>>
> >>>>However, Iakin (I believe) pointed out that this is a bad idea because 
> >>>>we don't want freenet itself to break it's own anonymity: we don't want 
> >>>>someone to be able to inspect the operator's hard drive and say "ah ha! 
> >>>>you requested this key!".
> >>>>
> >>>>He suggested instead (if I understood correctly)
> >>>>
> >>>>SOLUTION #2: that keys that we request would somehow be moved into a 
> >>>>separate, encrypted store, and never placed in the main datastore.
> >>>>
> >>>>However, isn't there a problem with that as well?
> >>>>
> >>>>Say that over a long period of time, node A requests keys K1-K1000 from 
> >>>>node B.  K1-K100 were requested by the operator of node A, while 
> >>>>K101-K1000 were requested by nodes connected to node A.   Also, K1-K100 
> >>>>are all related to documents describing plans to overthrow the evil 
> >>>>government of AAIR (it's a tropical country which depends mostly on 
> >>>>tourism).  Node B is run by (you guessed it) the AAIR.  At the same 
> >>>>time, the AAIR is running another node C, which mounts a timing attack 
> >>>>on node A to see whether it has keys K1-K1000.  Under either solution 
> >>>>#1 or #2, node C would see that node A takes longer to find keys 
> >>>>K101-1000 than it does to find keys K1-K100.  But since the AAIR know 
> >>>>that node A requested all of the keys, it also knows that the operator 
> >>>>of node A requested keys K1-K100 and is trying to hide that fact.
> >>>>
> >>>>Note that in the above scenario, K1-K100 don't have to be part of the 
> >>>>same splitfile.  They just have to be of similar-enough subject matter 
> >>>>that the operator of node A would appear to have requested it IF 
> >>>>someone were to inspect his datastore.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a good solution.  Thoughts?
> >>>>
> >>>>-Martin
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>_______________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
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> 
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-- 
Matthew J Toseland - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Freenet Project Official Codemonkey - http://freenetproject.org/
ICTHUS - Nothing is impossible. Our Boss says so.

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