New Dream Market-Based Saṃsāra Market Faces Security and Legitimacy Concerns
Summary
Saṃsāra, a market launched by a former Dream moderator using Dream Market source code, drew skepticism over its legitimacy, early security bugs, legacy Tor mirrors and apparent IP-address leaks.
Key points
- Former Dream Market moderator waterchain announced Saṃsāra, which is based on Dream Market source code; the article reports skepticism about the market’s legitimacy.
- The market advertised anti-phishing protection and PGP-key or two-factor authentication logins, but users quickly reported bugs, including problems saving PGP keys.
- The administrator said the former moderator’s PGP key was lost in a corrupted Tails configuration; the replacement key was created with 2096-bit security rather than the former key’s 4096 bits.
- The article reports that Saṃsāra’s mirrors used Tor’s legacy V2 hidden-service domains, while Dream Market had issued V3 mirrors amid DDoS attacks.
- A request to the market’s /server-status/ path appeared to show a status page for another forum, and HTTP headers appeared to expose IP addresses associated with hosts in the Netherlands and the United States.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Announcement and launch of Saṃsāra, a dark-web marketplace based on Dream Market’s source code, accompanied by reported security and legitimacy concerns.
- Impact
- The article reports bugs involving public PGP key storage, uncertainty about the administrator’s identity and replacement PGP key, and HTTP headers that appeared to expose IP addresses associated with hosts in the Netherlands and the United States. A request to /server-status/ also appeared to reveal a status page for Torum. The article says the market had more than 400 listings, mostly drugs, and that vendors were using it. These findings raise concerns about the marketplace’s security and legitimacy; the article does not confirm that the exposed information was exploited.
People
Products
DreadIn recent days, user waterchain has been banned on Dread forum for rule violations.Dream MarketAs Dream Market staff mentioned prior to their shutdown, a new market was on the horizon.SaṃsāraOn Friday, former official Dream moderator, waterchain, announced the opening of Saṃsāra, based on the source code of the infamous Dream Market.TorumFirst, when requesting /server-status/ on the Saṃsāra url, we find what looks like a status page for another darkweb forum, Torum.