Mixnet Literature Overview
We are presenting our overview of existing Mixnet literature. It takes some liberties with what is included or not. It proposes new ways to talk about some issues, and provides a critical analysis of some of the existing papers. It also endeavors to introduce the reader to the language of anonymity systems, while maintaining mathematical rigor.
This doc, in particular, does not talk about the Katzenpost design. It does introduce the reader to some of the reasons why we’ve been making certain design decisions, and a keen eye might be led to some of the similar conclusions. But here we focus on already published research. We also stick to theory and don’t focus on any practical systems being built today.
The specific networking decisions implemented in Katzenpost so far, and the threats they mitigate and don’t, will be addressed in an upcoming, detailed threat model document.
We thank Wau Holland Stiftung for funding this work.
Note form Eva: I understand that the tone of some of this analysis may come across as harsh. I personally take full responsibility for this tone and critique in particular.
At the same time, the point of this doc is not to present original research. Some exploitable mistakes in existing research were withheld from this version, and original contributions are included if I, personally, feel like they are merely reinventing the wheel in bridging some of the gaps between Mixnets and Mathematics. Some of the other original research is mentioned, but will be expanded on elsewhere.