Author: atagar Date: 2012-03-05 16:06:24 +0000 (Mon, 05 Mar 2012) New Revision: 25503

Modified: website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml Log: Adding tails' new gsoc projects

Couple projects sent by intrigeri... * Petname system for Tor hidden services (ague) * Tails server: Self-hosted services behind Tails-powered Tor hidden services (intrigeri, anonym)

Modified: website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml =================================================================== --- website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml 2012-03-05 15:41:00 UTC (rev 25502) +++ website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml 2012-03-05 16:06:24 UTC (rev 25503) @@ -347,17 +347,13 @@ and still under very active development. </p>

- <!-- <p> <b>Project Ideas:</b><br /> - <i><a href="#tailsStartMenu">Custom GDM3 startup menu, aka. - tails-greeter</a></i><br /> - <i><a href="#tailsMetadataAnonymizing">Meta-data anonymizing toolkit for - file publication</a></i><br /> - <i><a href="#tailsDebianLive">Improve Debian Live support for - persistence</a></i> + <i><a href="#tailsHiddenServicePetnames">Petname system for Tor hidden + services</a></i><br /> + <i><a href="#tailsServer">Tails server: Self-hosted services behind + Tails-powered Tor hidden services</a></i> </p> - -->

<a id="project-torsocks"></a> <h3><a href="http://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> (<a @@ -862,6 +858,49 @@ robustness.</p> </li>

+ <a id="tailsHiddenServicePetnames"></a> + <li> + <b>Petname system for Tor hidden services</b> + <br> + Priority: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Effort Level: <i>High</i> + <br> + Skill Level: <i>High</i> + <br> + Likely Mentors: <i>ague</i> + <p>Tor provides hidden services. These services are only reachable through + Tor itself, and provide greater anonymity both for the providers of the + service and for its users.</p> + <p>One current downside of Tor hidden services is that they are addressed + using 80-bit base32-encoded addresses such as "v2cbb2l4lsnpio4q.onion". + These addresses are hard to remember; this makes them hard to use + within amnesic environment like Tails.</p> + <p>The project is to implement a petname system for Tor hidden services: + a way for users or providers of Tor hidden services to add a simple + 'nickname' to a central database. Users could then query this central + database to retrieve a full hidden service address by giving + a nickname.</p> + <p>Adding petnames to the database could be done using a web interface or + automated fetch like those described in the <a + href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/ideas/xxx-oni... + nym system&quot; proposal</a>.</p> + <p>Querying the database could be done using a web interface, a REST API and + a DNS interface.</p> + <p>In order not to grow indefinitely, the software should make regular tests to + see if hidden services are still reachable and, depending on the last time + a nickname was accessed, cleanup the database as necessary.</p> + <p>The software should allow a distributed, fault-tolerant setup. + All nodes should have a synchronized copy of the database, should be + ready to answer queries and should coordinate the tests for hidden + service availability.</p> + <p>The resulting codebase must be easy to deploy: it should not be hard to + setup new databases.</p> + <p>It is expected that the volunteer will be using Behaviour Driven + Development methods. Either in Ruby using Cucumber and RSpec, or in + Python using similar tools.</p> + </li> + <a id="stemPathsupport"></a> <li> <b>Stem PathSupport Capabilities</b> @@ -919,6 +958,93 @@ be TorBEL.</p></li> </ol>

+ <a id="tailsServer"></a> + <li> + <b>Tails server: Self-hosted services behind Tails-powered Tor hidden services</b> + <br> + Priority: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Effort Level: <i>High</i> + <br> + Skill Level: <i>Medium, but wide-scoped</i> + <br> + Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</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 &quot;server + mode&quot; 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="geoIPUpgrade"></a> <li> <b>Improve our GeoIP file format</b>