Probabilistic Analysis of Anonymity

  • Authors:
  • Vitaly Shmatikov

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • CSFW '02 Proceedings of the 15th IEEE workshop on Computer Security Foundations
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

We present a formal analysis technique for probabilistic security properties of peer-to-peer communication systems based on random message routing among members. The behavior of group members and the adversary is modeled as a discrete-time Markov chain, and security properties are expressed as PCTL formulas. To illustrate feasibility of the approach, we model the Crowds system for anonymous Web browsing, and use a probabilistic model checker, PRISM, to perform automated analysis of the system and verify anonymity guarantees itprovides. The main result of the Crowds analysis is a demonstration of how certain forms of anonymity degrade with the increase in group size and the number of random routing paths.