The Last Hop Attack: Why Loop Cover Traffic over Fixed Cascades Threatens Anonymity.

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Advanced mix net designs use a combination of loop cover traffic and fixed cascades to detect when active adversaries delay or drop messages. In this paper, we propose the Last Hop Attack, a new attack algorithm that takes advantage of the fact that users send loop cover, i.e., messages sent to themselves over the same mix nodes that they also use to communicate with others. We use established privacy definitions based on indistinguishability games and prove that our algorithm can break strong anonymity notions. Our research shows that the Last Hop Attack breaks Sender Receiver Pair Unlinkability for any Anonymous Communication Network that utilizes loop cover traffic, fixed cascades, and no additional cover traffic. We furthermore conclude that the notions of Sender Message Unlinkability, Receiver Message Unlinkability~(and Unobservability), and Both Side Unlinkability~(and Unobservability) are unachievable in this setting. To the best of our knowledge, this impossibility result is the first to show that loop cover traffic can threaten anonymity. It allows us to conclude that mix nets that utilize loop cover traffic and fixed cascades must deploy additional cover traffic to achieve strong anonymity.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)382-397
Number of pages16
JournalProceedings on privacy enhancing technologies : PoPETs
Volume2025
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

unpaywall 10.56553/popets-2025-0067
Mendeley f92c0521-e960-31e3-ab84-0c36167e95f0

Keywords