Using NoName Anonymous Email

NoName is Novo Ordo’s anonymous email service. It is based on the open source Mixmaster remailer protocol.

Novo Ordo has added a web based interface written in PHP and served through an encrypted TLS link. An email link is also available to subscribers of our Sub Rosa secure email service.

Use

The NoName web interface provides text fields for the user to enter “To:” and “From:” information. “To:” is the email address of the intended recipient. “From:” is the email address, if any, you want to appear on the “From:” line of the email. Not all remailers support the “From:” line so do not count on it working. There is also a field for the “Subject:” line. Use this as you would on any other email tool.

Next, there is a section labelled “Chain:”.  It is followed by five lines with pull down menus. Use these lines to select up to five remailers for your message to pass through. Using these remails is what makes your message (nearly) untraceable. Selecting “RANDOM” will cause our server to select a remailer. Selecting “========” will select no remailer. For security, you should use at least three remailers.

The “Message:” box is where you type in your email message. The free web interface does not support attachments.

The web interface contains a feature that times how frequently a users sends messages. If you attempt to send messages at a rate that exceeds a normal human’s ability to type, the server will assume you are a spambot and not a legitimate user and ban you from using the service. You will receive a warning before this happens.

How It Works

First, we receive your message over a 256-bit encrypted TLS link. Our web server then processes and reformats it and passes the results to the Mixmaster server.

Mixmaster pads and encrypts your message and places it into a queue. All messages are padded to the same length to prevent identification by size. Encryption prevents anyone from reading the messages in transit or from the server.

Additional dummy messages are generated. Batches of messages are sent at regular intervals to other remailers. Messages are not transmitted in the order in which they are received making traffic analysis even more difficult.

The next remailer in the chain receives the message. Because of the way it is encrypted, this remailer cannot tell where the message originated or who is the final recipient. It puts the message in its queue and eventually transmits it to the next remailer.

The last remailer in the chain can see the address of the recipient and forwards the email to that account.

Depending on the how many and which remailers were chosen, along with some random variables, the time from posting to delivery may range from several hours to a couple of days. Reliability is less than 100%.

Get the Source Code

Because we feel open source is a good idea in general, and a requirement for security related software, we are happy to provide the code for our mixmaster web interface. You may download it here.