Monero Talk

Breaking Monero Episode 13: Blockchain Explorer OpSec

May 16th, 2019  |  6 mins 53 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, technology, xmr, xmrnews

This is a quick reminder to pay attention to the information you give block explorers. Connecting to them over Tor may not be enough for some threat models. They may not be malicious, but you are giving them the opportunity to collect information about you. Run your own full node instead, and consider running your own block explorer.

Breaking Monero Episode 12: Input/Output Metadata

May 9th, 2019  |  19 mins 54 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, technology, xmr, xmrnews

In this episode, we discuss how the metadata collected by looking at the number of inputs and outputs can limit privacy in some circumstances. We warn against leaking metadata through unusual or repeated, predictable behavior.

Breaking Monero Episode 11: Mailbag Episode

April 29th, 2019  |  40 mins 50 secs

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In this episode, we answer several questions from audience members.

Breaking Monero Episode 10: Public Mining Pools

February 25th, 2019  |  19 mins 55 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, publicminingpools, technology, xmr, xmrnews

Public mining pools provide a service to miners, but they also reveal a lot of output information that observers can use to learn more about transactions. Sarang and Justin discuss the impact of these and ways users can optionally reduce their exposure to these risks.

Breaking Monero Episode 09 Poisoned Outputs (EAE Attack)

February 8th, 2019  |  31 mins 41 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, monero, moneronews, poisonedoutputs, privacy, privacycoin, technology, xmr, xmrnews

Monero's ring signatures provide plausible deniability, but they aren't perfect. We model examples where two colluding parties 'E' attempt to learn information about an individual 'A.' By sending outputs to individuals and tracing their transaction graphs, these colluding parties may perform powerful statistical tests to learn significant information, especially for repeated transactions where they would not normally occur by chance.

Breaking Monero Episode 07: Remote Nodes

January 24th, 2019  |  21 mins 41 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, remotenodes, technology, xmr, xmrnews

Remote nodes are convenient, and many wallets are configured to use them by default. Unfortunately, there are privacy and security limitations when users rely on others to provide copies of blockchain data. We discuss some of these limitations, some remote node attacks, and how to mitigate against them.

Breaking Monero Episode 06: Unusual Ringsize

January 18th, 2019  |  11 mins 32 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, ringsize, technology, xmr, xmrnews

In this short episode, we discuss the unfortunate tradeoff when sending Monero transactions with unusual ringsizes. Some transactions were sent with ringsizes over 1000. Monero moved to consensus-mandated ringsizes in a recent update instead of minimum ringsizes. Thus, the concerns in this video serve an informative purpose, but they do not have any current relevance.

Breaking Monero Episode 05: Input Selection Algorithm

January 17th, 2019  |  14 mins 12 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, inputselectionalgorithm, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, technology, xmr, xmrnews

In this episode, Sarang and Justin explain more about how Monero selects decoys for ring signatures, more than just "randomly." We explain how Monero's selection algorithm has evolved over time, and how a strong input selection algorithm is critical for protective ring signatures.

"An Empirical Analysis of Traceability in the Monero Blockchain"
Malte Möser, Kyle Soska, Ethan Heilman, Kevin Lee, Henry Heffan, Shashvat Srivastava, Kyle Hogan, Jason Hennessey, Andrew Miller, Arvind Narayanan, Nicolas Christin
https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.04299

Breaking Monero Episode 04: Chain Splits (Key Image Reuse Attack)

January 11th, 2019  |  24 mins 57 secs

bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, chainsplits, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, keyimagereuseattack, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, technology, xmr, xmrnews

In this episode, Sarang, Brandon (Suare), and Justin introduce key image reuse concerns. We explain some techniques to protect security and privacy under a number of circumstances. Ultimately, users should not claim "airdrop" funds if they have not thought long and hard about the implications.

Breaking Monero Episode 03: 0-Decoy and Chain Reactions

January 8th, 2019  |  21 mins

0-decoy, bitcoin, blockchain, breakingmonero, chainreactions, crypto, cryptocurrency, decentralized, monero, moneronews, privacy, privacycoin, technology, xmr, xmrnews

Sarang and Justin discuss 0-decoy (0-mixin) rings, perhaps the oldest and best-studied past limitation of Monero. We discuss how research created for 0-decoy rings can be applied to other analysis types. We show a spreadsheet tool we use to test chain reaction impacts, which can be caused by a large number of possible Monero attacks. By understanding the basics of 0-decoy research, individuals can more easily understand how we study the potential impacts of other attacks and analysis.