When Bandwidth Buys Power: Quantifying Anonymity in Tor

When Bandwidth Buys Power: Quantifying Anonymity in Tor | Authorea try { document.documentElement.classList.add('js'); } catch (e) { } var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'G-8VDV14Y67G']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Skip to main content Preprints Collections Wiley Open Research IET Open Research Ecological Society of Japan All Collections About About Authorea FAQs Contact Us Quick Search anywhere Search for preprint articles, keywords, etc. Search Search ADVANCED SEARCH SCROLL This is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed. Data may be preliminary. 13 February 2026 V1 Latest version Share on When Bandwidth Buys Power: Quantifying Anonymity in Tor Authors : Sunkanmi Oluwadare 0009-0004-8717-523X [email protected] and Jacques Bou Abdo Authors Info & Affiliations https://doi.org/10.22541/au.177101825.55171745/v1 242 views 94 downloads Contents Abstract Supplementary Material Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract The structural integrity of the Tor network is fundamental to the privacy of millions of daily users; however, its reliance on a bandwidth-weighted path selection algorithm introduces a centralization paradox. Existing evaluations of Tor security primarily rely on aggregate entropy metrics, which can obscure localized structural vulnerabilities and misrepresent individual user risk. In this work, we formally quantify Tor's anonymity guarantees within the context of its emergent network topology and assess its resilience to strategic resource injection by an internal adversary. By analyzing the network as a tripartite weighted network model, we derive structural anonymity bounds and validate these metrics through a Monte Carlo simulation of 10 5 circuits using live Tor consensus data. Our results reveal a Glass Cannon topology: while the network maintains a substantial baseline safety margin for typical users (K ≈ 10 4) under nominal conditions, it exhibits extreme fragility under targeted pressure. We demonstrate a 16:1 leverage ratio, where an adversary controlling only the top 1% of relays by consensus bandwidth weight can compromise 16.58% of user circuits. These findings show that anonymity loss in this topology is a binary state and suggest that implementing a Tunable Security Parameter is a promising mechanism to decouple performance from structural risk and ensure demonstrable network resilience. Supplementary Material File (when_bandwidth_buys_power__quantifying_anonymity_in_tor.pdf) Download 2.38 MB Information & Authors Information Version history V1 Version 1 13 February 2026 Copyright This work is licensed under a Non Exclusive No Reuse License. Keywords anonymity networks k-anonymity system science tor tor network Authors Affiliations Sunkanmi Oluwadare 0009-0004-8717-523X [email protected] School of Information Technology, University of Cincinnati View all articles by this author Jacques Bou Abdo School of Information Technology, University of Cincinnati View all articles by this author Metrics & Citations Metrics Article Usage 242 views 94 downloads .FvxKWukQNSOunydq8rnd { width: 100px; } Citations Download citation Sunkanmi Oluwadare, Jacques Bou Abdo. When Bandwidth Buys Power: Quantifying Anonymity in Tor. Authorea . 13 February 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.177101825.55171745/v1 If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download. For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu . 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