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(mailcrypt.info)Mixmaster Support

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Mixmaster Support
=================

   "Mixmaster" is a new kind of remailer which provides excellent
security against traffic analysis and replay attacks.  (For more
information on these attacks and Mixmaster, see Lance Cottrell's home
page at `http://www.obscura.com/~loki/'.

   If you do not use Mixmaster, you may skip this section entirely;
Mailcrypt's default configuration treats Mixmaster as if it did not
exist.

   If you have the Mixmaster executable installed, you can tell
Mailcrypt to use it by placing lines like the following into your
`.emacs' file:

     (setq mc-mixmaster-path "mixmaster")
     (setq mc-mixmaster-list-path "/foo/bar/baz/type2.list")

   `mc-mixmaster-path' is a string representing the Mixmaster
executable.  `mc-mixmaster-list-path' is the complete path to the
`type2.list' file.

   Once these variables are defined, Mailcrypt will automatically try to
use the Mixmaster executable whenever possible.  Specifically, when you
rewrite a message for a chain, Mailcrypt will find maximal length
sub-chains which have the `mix' property and will use the Mixmaster
executable to rewrite for those sub-chains.

   This allows arbitrary intermingling of Mixmaster and normal (also
called "Type 1") remailers, but you should note that this is _not
recommended_.  The recommended procedure is to have a single Mixmaster
sub-chain which is most or all of the whole chain.

   There are advantages and disadvantages to having the Mixmaster
sub-chain at the end of the whole chain.  The primary advantage is that
Mixmaster remailers support multiple recipients.  The primary
disadvantages are that they do not support pseudonyms nor posting.

   So here, as always, it is the last element of the chain which needs
to support the special features you want.  In general, the remaining
elements do not matter, and the superior security of Mixmaster remailers
is a good argument for using them for the bulk of your chains.

   Mixmaster remailers also have a "Type 1 compatibility mode" which you
might want to invoke to use a pseudonym or make a post.  You can do this
with the function `mc-demix'.  Here is an example of its use:

     (setq mc-remailer-user-chains
           '(("Foo" "vishnu" "spook")
             ("Bar" "Foo" (mc-demix "replay"))))

   This makes "Bar" a chain of three remailers, and guarantees that the
last one ("replay") will be used in compatibility mode.

   Note that Mixmaster remailers cannot be used for response blocks.
Mailcrypt will ignore the `mix' property when generating a response
block.