Is Nobody There? Good! Globally Measuring Connection Tampering without Responsive Endhosts
Sadia Nourin, Erik Rye, Kevin Bock, Nguyen Phong Hoang, Dave Levin
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2025 · Day 2 · Censorship and Traffic Analysis
This talk introduces **Mint** (Measuring Interference with Non-responsive Targets), a groundbreaking tool designed to conduct global network interference measurements without the need for responsive end hosts within the target networks. Presented by Sadia Nourin and her co-authors, Mint addresses a critical limitation in existing censorship and network interference detection methodologies. Traditional tools, such as Ooni, Sensor Planet, and IC lab, rely on in-country participants, servers, or VPNs, which severely restricts their ability to measure interference in regions with low internet penetration, oppressive regimes, or poor infrastructure, and makes large-scale IPv6 measurements nearly impossible.