Open-Access Usenet Server
news.tcpreset.net operates as a truly open-access system with no registration requirements or posting restrictions. We champion unrestricted communication while maintaining platform integrity through sophisticated automated defenses.
Our infrastructure employs Cleanfeed and SpamAssassin to neutralize spam and malicious content, ensuring a secure environment for legitimate discourse without compromising accessibility.
Privacy-Preserving Pseudonymous Infrastructure
We defend unrestricted expression, metadata privacy, and resistance to censorship through infrastructure designed to decouple network identity from content attribution.
The m2usenet web interface routes posts through our Tor hidden NNTP server (peannyjkqwqfynd24p6dszvtchkq7hfkwymi5by5y332wmosy5dwfaqd.onion), ensuring originating IP addresses remain unlogged. Posts relay via onion mail2news gateway (primary) with clearnet fallback, both posting to our Tor NNTP server.
Hashcash Proof-of-Work Anti-Abuse System
To prevent resource exhaustion and bulk attacks, we implement Hashcash computational puzzles:
- Challenge: Client assembles header (timestamp, destination, 64-bit nonce) canonicalized with message content.
- Hash Grinding: Client increments nonce computing SHA-1 hashes until finding 24 leading zero bits (~16M operations, 5-15 seconds).
- Economic Asymmetry: Negligible overhead for legitimate users; spammers face prohibitive costs (1000 messages = ~5 CPU-hours).
- Validation: Server performs instant SHA-1 verification, checks timestamp freshness (±2h), and prevents replay via spent-token database.
Cryptographic Message Authentication
All submissions undergo Ed25519 signature verification:
- Keypair Generation: Client generates fresh Ed25519 keypair (32-byte private/public) via CSPRNG, single-use or session-scoped.
- Signing: Complete message body signed with ephemeral private key, producing 64-byte signature transmitted with public key.
- Verification: Server validates Ed25519 signature against public key and message. Only authentic messages propagate.
- Integrity: Ephemeral keypairs ensure sender unlinkability while preventing tampering and replay. Each signature binds content to unique session.
Dual-layer defense (Hashcash + Ed25519) creates robust anti-abuse barrier preserving open, registration-free Usenet ethos.
