Virtual Private Services
Karsten Loesing, Guido Wirtz · 2008
Abstract. Providing an Internet service is no longer only a domain of organizations and enterprises, but becomes increasingly popular for private persons. Virtual private services are defined as services that are offered by private users over public Internet connections and for a limited, possibly changing set of other private users. Virtual private services demand extended security properties, e.g. hiding service activity from unauthorized clients, that are less important in public services. Two common approaches exist to utilize Tor hidden services for offering virtual private services. These are examined for security problems that might be privacy-relevant for the service provider. Subsequently, an extension of the hidden service protocol is presented that is designed to better support virtual private services. This design is not meant to replace the existing hidden service design, but should complement it. 1 Problem Statement Providing an Internet service has first and foremost been a domain of