commit e18e846f7838bcf3988aa5179ee9f93a679eaea3 Author: Damian Johnson atagar@torproject.org Date: Sun Jan 29 13:09:34 2017 -0800
Drop 'Tails server' project idea
Last year we had a student that did this (segfault). --- getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml | 81 -------------------------------------------- 1 file changed, 81 deletions(-)
diff --git a/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml b/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml index 6f1f3ea..5671320 100644 --- a/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml +++ b/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml @@ -1163,87 +1163,6 @@ implementation. </p> </li>
- <a id="tailsServer"></a> - <li> - <b>Tails server: Self-hosted services behind Tails-powered Tor hidden services</b> - <br> - Likely Mentors: <i>anonym, George (asn)</i> - <p>Let's talk about group collaboration, communication and data sharing - infrastructure, such as chat servers, wikis, or file repositories.</p> - <p>Hosting such data and infrastructure <b>in the cloud</b> generally - implies to trust the service providers not to disclose content, usage or - users location information to third-parties. Hence, there are many threat - models in which cloud hosting is not suitable.</p> - <p>Tor partly answers the <b>users location</b> part; this is great, but - <b>content</b> is left unprotected.</p> - <p>There are two main ways to protect such content: either to encrypt it - client-side (<b>security by design</b>), or to avoid putting it into - untrusted hands in the first place.</p> - <p>Cloud solutions that offer security by design are rare and generally - not mature yet. The <b>Tails server</b> project is about exploring the - other side of the alternative: avoiding to put private data into - untrusted hands in the first place.</p> - <p>This is made possible thanks to Tor hidden services, that allow users - to offer location-hidden services, and make self-hosting possible in - many threat models. Self-hosting has its own lot of problems, however, - particularly in contexts where the physical security of the hosting - place is not assured. Combining Tor hidden services with Tails' - amnesia property and limited support for persistent encrypted data - allows to protect content, to a great degree, even in such contexts.</p> - <p>In short, setting up a new Tails server would be done by:</p> - - <ol style="list-style-type: decimal"> - <li>Alice plugs a USB stick into a running desktop Tails system.</li> - <li>Alice uses a GUI to easily configure the needed services.</li> - <li>Alice unplugs the USB stick, that now contains encrypted services - configuration and data storage space.</li> - <li>Alice plugs that USB stick (and possibly a Tails Live CD) into the - old laptop that was dedicated to run Tails server.</li> - <li>Once booted, Alice enters the encryption passphrase either - directly using the keyboard or through a web interface listening on the - local network.</li> - <li>Then, Bob can use the configured services once he gets a hold on - the hidden service address. (The <b>petname system for Tor hidden - services</b> project would be very complementary to this one, by the - way.)</li> - </ol> - - <p>Tails server should content itself with hardware that is a bit old - (such as a PIII-450 laptop with 256MB of RAM) and/or half broken (e.g. - non-functional hard-disk, screen or keyboard).</p> - <p>The challenges behind this project are:</p> - - <ul> - <li>Design and write the services configuration GUI [keywords: edit - configuration files, upgrade between major Debian versions, - debconf].</li> - <li>How to create the hidden service key? [keywords: Vidalia, control - protocol].</li> - <li>Adapt the Tails boot process to allow switching to "server - mode" when appropriate.</li> - <li>Add support, to the Tails persistence setup process, for asking an - encryption passphrase without X, and possibly with a broken keyboard - and/or screen [keywords: local network, SSL/TLS?, certificate?].</li> - </ul> - - <p>This project can easily grow quite large, so the first task would - probably be to clarify what it would need to get an initial (minimal - but working) implementation ready to be shipped to users.</p> - <p>This project does not require to be an expert in one specific field, - but it requires to be experienced and at ease with a large scope of - software development tools, processes, and operating system knowledge.</p> - <p>Undertaking this project requires in-depth knowledge of Debian-like - systems (self-test: do the "dpkg conffile" and "debconf preseeding" - words sound new to your ear?); the Debian Live persistence system - being written in shell, being at ease with robust shell scripting is - a must; to end with, at least two pieces of software need to be - written from scratch (a GUI and a webapp): the preferred languages for - these tasks would be Python and Perl. Using Behaviour Driven - Development methods to convey expectations and acceptance criteria - would be most welcome.</p> - <p>For more information see https://tails.boum.org/todo/server_edition/</p> - </li> - <a id="feedbackExtension"></a> <li> <b>Feedback Extension for Tor Browser</b>