Defending Tor from Network Adversaries: A Case Study of Network Path Prediction

The Tor anonymity network has been shown vulnerable to traffic analysis attacks by Autonomous Systems and Internet Exchanges who can observe different overlay hops belonging to the same circuit. We perform a case study to determine whether network path prediction techniques are suitable for avoiding such adversaries. We perform a measurement study by running traceroutes from Tor relays to destinations around the Internet. We use the data to evaluate the accuracy of the Autonomous Systems and Internet Exchanges that are predicted to appear on the path using state-of-the-art path inference techniques. We also consider to what extent overestimation can improve prediction accuracy.