Re: [Tails-dev] Let's share username, /etc/hostname and /et…

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Autor: Griffin Boyce
Datum:  
To: The Tails public development discussion list, Abel Luck, Patrick Schleizer, freepto, matth
Betreff: Re: [Tails-dev] Let's share username, /etc/hostname and /etc/host among all anonymity distributions
intrigeri wrote:
> As you can see in my comment #6 there, it's unclear to me what's best,
> between sharing fixed values and randomizing it. Each solution has
> pros and cons. What do you think?


So I think that a better approach is to pick some themes that are
common and create a list to randomly select from rather than generate a
gibberish hostname.

My thoughts are:
- Randomly-generated hostnames may identify people as users of an
anonymity system by virtue of being random strings.
- "mercurious" seems like a person, while "ytrjtkhkn" looks like a bot.
- If the pool of created names is shared between anonymity OSs, then
that's all the better to avoid fingerprinting.

As for what to pick for themes, mythological deities, comic book
characters, and the top first names [1] seem like common choices. I
frequently reference Jungian psychology in hostnames[2]. The key is to
find themes that are common *enough* that they don't stick out from the
crowd of typical non-anonymous users.

best,
Griffin


[1] http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/century.html
[2] Though my pocket router's access point is "Keith Alexander's iPad"

--
Wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.
-Bill Hicks