July 2014 - tor-dev - lists.torproject.org

little-t tor "projects" in need of another keyboard
by tibicen＠riseup.net 11 Aug '14

11 Aug '14

Hi everyone, Is there any project in little-t tor that needs another hacker? I have (under another name) been writing tor unit tests, which I've "finished". What should I work on next? Happy to work on either new code or more unit tests. I'm also reasonably skilled with python, if any pythonic project needs a hand, particularly OONI, which I love the idea of (I won't CC the ooni dev list, as I assume you're all on here). tibicen

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[GSoC] BridgeDB Twitter Distributor report
by Kostas Jakeliunas 11 Aug '14

11 Aug '14

Hi all, preferring existing code over shiny code and being mad late, I * (re)wrote a simple but working churn control mechanism[1], which uses * a general persistable storage system: * in particular, the bot now has a central storage controller which takes care of storage handlers which, in turn, may be of different varieties. Each variety knows how to handle its own kind of storage containers (simple objects with data as attributes). Some of them may be persistable, others necessarily ephemeral (wipe data on close); * right now we only make use of simple pickle-dump-to-file-and-gzip persistable storage; we use it for churn control and for challenge responses; everything is self-contained so to speak; * we hash the user twitter handles (unique usernames / screen names) and round up bridges-last-given-at timestamps; * we handle bot shutdown by catching the appropriate signal (then properly closing down the twitter stream listener and asking the storage controller to close down the handlers); * we use the storage system in the core bot via a general "bot state" object (which is itself oblivious to how storage is actually implemented); * wrote a simple and generic challenge-response system[2] (which makes use of the persistent storage); * instead of doing something very smart, we use a general CR system which takes care of particular challenge-responses; the general CR is usable as-is; the particular CR objects can be easily subclassed (and that's what we do now); * the current mock/bogus CR system that is in place (for testing etc.) is a naive text-based question-answer CR, which asks the users to add the number of characters in their twitter username to a given verbal/English-word number; * I should now finish up with ``BridgeRequest``s, which are the proper way to handle bridge requests in the bot while doing challenge-responses (the current interaction between the core bot and the CR system will lead / has been leading nowhere); * also, there's a question to be had whether the cached (and hashed) answers to CRs should be persisted to storage (if bot gets shutdown while some challenges are pending) in the first place. I've been unable to find[3] or to come up with a concept of a user-friendly *text-based* CR that would stand against any kind of thief who is able to create lots of Twitter users and to write twenty-line scripts solving any text-based challenges/questions presented. Either it will to be a difficult problem that will be easier solved by a computer than by a human (hence unfeasible general-UX-wise), or it will be so "symmetrical" in the sense that one only has to view the source (if even that) to come up with a script trivially solving the challenge presented. Hence I've been slowly moving on with the captcha-over-twitter-direct-messages idea, which is not pretty, but which would at least ensure that we don't give up bridges more easily than in, say, the current IPDistributor. [1]: https://github.com/wfn/twidibot/compare/master...churn_rewrite [2]: https://github.com/wfn/twidibot/compare/churn_rewrite...simple_cr2 [3] it's quite hard to find anything of use in the "chatroom problem" / "text-based challenge response" area. Basically, it would be great to have a "reverse Turing test"[4] that is not about captcha/OCR. I realize this is in itself a very ambitious topic. [4]: some context on early CAPTCHAs / precursors (have been trying to familiarize myself with the general area), http://www2.parc.com/istl/projects/captcha/docs/pessimalprint.pdf -- Kostas. 0x0e5dce45 @ pgp.mit.edu

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Proposal 236 and the guardiness of a guard
by George Kadianakis 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

One of the aims of proposal 236 is to reduce the period of inactiveness when a relay becomes a guard (see 'Phase three' of [0]). This phenomenon will become worse when the lifetime of the guard gets increased to 9 months, so we need to find a good fix. Proposal 236 tries to make young guards more likely to be picked as middle nodes by clients: this way their guard inactivity will be compensated by working as middle nodes . This is specified in section 1.3 of proposal 236 [1] and you can read a discussion about this in [2]. I quote here the most relevant part of that section: A guard N that has been visible for V out of NNN*30*24 consensuses has had the opportunity to be chosen as a guard by approximately F = V/NNN*30*24 of the clients in the network, and the remaining 1-F fraction of the clients have not noticed this change. So when being chosen for middle or exit positions on a circuit, clients should treat N as if F fraction of its bandwidth is a guard (respectively, dual) node and (1-F) is a middle (resp, exit) node. Let Wpf denote the weight from the 'bandwidth-weights' line a client would apply to N for position p if it had the guard flag, Wpn the weight if it did not have the guard flag, and B the measured bandwidth of N in the consensus. Then instead of choosing N for position p proportionally to Wpf*B or Wpn*B, clients should choose N proportionally to F*Wpf*B + (1-F)*Wpn*B. The relevant trac ticket is #9321 and I asked myself various engineering questions in [3]. These engineering questions can be ignored for now but they will need to resolved eventually. This email is more concerned with the research side of this task. I recently wrote a python script that calculates in how many consensuses a guard appears and then calculates the guard/middle weights and probabilities according to section 1.3 of proposal 236 [1]. The results were as expected for the biggest part. That is, new guards got a boost in their middle probabilities. You can see the output of my script here https://people.torproject.org/~asn/guards3/output and you can see boxplots of the guard and middle probabilities here: https://people.torproject.org/~asn/guards3/guard_boxplot.png https://people.torproject.org/~asn/guards3/middle_boxplot.png I mainly uploaded them so that the outliers probs are seen better. I also highlighted some snippets of the output at [4]. Here are some notes: - You can see that old guards (like RichardFeynman) see a shrinkage both on their guard and on their middle probabilities. This happens because both the total guard weight and the total middle weight get bigger [5], so their weight percentage gets smaller. - You can see that weird things happen to relays that are *both* a Guard and an Exit (like thevillage1 and TorLand1). Specifically, even for young guards, their middle probability gets decreased and their guard probability gets increased. This is especially visible for the village1 for which the guard probability gets increased by 0.008 making it the most probable guard of all, with probability 0.0101. This happens because of the Guard+Exit bandwidth weights [6]. Specifically, it happens because Wgd << Wgm. We should decide whether this behavior is a feature or a bug (it might be a feature, since we don't really want to overload exit nodes with middle traffic if they also happen to be young guards) - You can also see that for young guards (like freefrcv2), the feature works as intended: pumping up their middle probability. This is just an update on this task and any comments are welcome :) [0]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/lifecycle-of-a-new-relay [1]: https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/7bd906b6ecef7a0dcf3b420944da… [2]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-March/006571.html https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-April/006654.html [3]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9321#comment:13 [4]: A685A493342B15476A8AA35CE2868B62C0331D6B in 22 out of 1966 consensuses (1%) (tingPLrice5) A685A493342B15476A8AA35CE2868B62C0331D6B: guard prob 0.00001466095664981207628234955862 -> 0.00001236359278611040906223472603 (delta: -0.00000229736386370166722011483259) A685A493342B15476A8AA35CE2868B62C0331D6B: middle prob 0.00001411262320417776315899083553 -> 0.00002313283079875486344342985726 (delta: 0.00000902020759457710028443902173) 2009F87590E626C98E1A5C8D08C23366C58B7951 in 46 out of 1966 consensuses (2%) (thevillage1) 2009F87590E626C98E1A5C8D08C23366C58B7951: guard prob 0.001799671590571654712486494434 -> 0.01018493194688813591277789142 (delta: 0.008385260356316481200291396986) (exit) 2009F87590E626C98E1A5C8D08C23366C58B7951: middle prob 0.002531389208535432867885203535 -> 0.00003970964677012672298440629596 (delta: -0.002491679561765306144900797239) (exit) B1A88CFED023588C713E42B9ABA0AD2A294BECCF in 470 out of 1966 consensuses (23%) (ChronosDaKnObNET) B1A88CFED023588C713E42B9ABA0AD2A294BECCF: guard prob 0.00002846894283361195170183376972 -> 0.0001308372445794862073501048856 (delta: 0.0001023683017458742556482711159) (exit) B1A88CFED023588C713E42B9ABA0AD2A294BECCF: middle prob 0.00004004395860053895959111507317 -> 0.000006418213054140890599306823457 (delta: -0.00003362574554639806899180824971) (exit) 2D958EED2BC8EB672187C99CF6A4D8D8EBDBE412 in 474 out of 1966 consensuses (24%) (freefrcv2) 2D958EED2BC8EB672187C99CF6A4D8D8EBDBE412: guard prob 0.00004462030284725414520715083057 -> 0.00003762832587077081018941003575 (delta: -0.00000699197697648333501774079482) 2D958EED2BC8EB672187C99CF6A4D8D8EBDBE412: middle prob 0.00004295146192575840961431993422 -> 0.00006073004942478721908966913122 (delta: 0.00001777858749902880947534919700) 4A5ADDBAC82BC071D9516FB01429A1CAD493D36C in 865 out of 1966 consensuses (43%) (monoversum) 4A5ADDBAC82BC071D9516FB01429A1CAD493D36C: guard prob 0.008658463528693363891387601646 -> 0.007301687043971002453421233128 (delta: -0.001356776484722361437966368518) 4A5ADDBAC82BC071D9516FB01429A1CAD493D36C: middle prob 0.008334628921307881865635891998 -> 0.01016060938520887622674424842 (delta: 0.001825980463900994361108356422) B7A4718F146139B8137BBD7CF2890AFA61C2BAB7 in 1065 out of 1966 consensuses (54%) (PPTOR0001) B7A4718F146139B8137BBD7CF2890AFA61C2BAB7: guard prob 0.00001880427048562853262301356431 -> 0.00001585765161696769857982280078 (delta: -0.00000294661886866083404319076353) B7A4718F146139B8137BBD7CF2890AFA61C2BAB7: middle prob 0.00001810097324014104405174911514 -> 0.00002026262077783844197435510639 (delta: 0.00000216164753769739792260599125) E1E922A20AF608728824A620BADC6EFC8CB8C2B8 in 1616 out of 1966 consensuses (82%) (TorLand1) E1E922A20AF608728824A620BADC6EFC8CB8C2B8: guard prob 0.001442840154510033519493482607 -> 0.002483448551109987826331785865 (delta: 0.001040608396599954306838303258) (exit) E1E922A20AF608728824A620BADC6EFC8CB8C2B8: middle prob 0.002029475830980993592356240765 -> 0.001118418926871964944505332348 (delta: -0.000911056904109028647850908417) (exi) 8699371415DC052A60BCA3AAD68E55D9B759CAE0 in 1858 out of 1966 consensuses (94%) (torrorist) 8699371415DC052A60BCA3AAD68E55D9B759CAE0: guard prob 0.000009508374059117252371523807943 -> 0.000008018417060557113123695710000 (delta: -0.000001489956998560139247828097943) 8699371415DC052A60BCA3AAD68E55D9B759CAE0: middle prob 0.000009152752005608042048765795507 -> 0.000006628989446427573975351367609 (delta: -0.000002523762559180468073414427898) 3FE4CF4366E128154E951FEBB3B448CC2F3E1EBA in 1966 out of 1966 consensuses (100%) (RichardFeynman) 3FE4CF4366E128154E951FEBB3B448CC2F3E1EBA: guard prob 0.0003304027187022866466529501978 -> 0.0002786287939478505230692028838 (delta: -0.0000517739247544361235837473140) 3FE4CF4366E128154E951FEBB3B448CC2F3E1EBA: middle prob 0.0003180453490216872711917499891 -> 0.0002132317299501384937260708373 (delta: -0.0001048136190715487774656791518) 7E43F05A970431239898FDDCE014B1BA5134703F in 1966 out of 1966 consensuses (100%) (PrivacyRepublic0003) 7E43F05A970431239898FDDCE014B1BA5134703F: guard prob 0.0002102202590710855289154482723 -> 0.0001772788598061129408325756509 (delta: -0.0000329413992649725880828726214) (exit) 7E43F05A970431239898FDDCE014B1BA5134703F: middle prob 0.0002956924463418544427572802405 -> 0.0001982453510501193425034660120 (delta: -0.0000974470952917351002538142285) (exit) [5]: total guard weight: 11176705.8531 new total guard weight: 13253526.12584313326551373350 total middle weight: 7945992.6321 new total middle weight: 11851828.99651449643947100714 [6]: Wme=0 # Weight for Exit-flagged nodes in the middle Position Wmd=867 # Weight for Guard+Exit flagged nodes in the middle Position Wmg=4063 # Weight for Guard-flagged nodes in the middle Position Wmm=10000 # Weight for non-flagged nodes in the middle Position Wgd=867 # Weight for Guard+Exit-flagged nodes in the guard Position Wgg=5937 # Weight for Guard-flagged nodes in the guard position Wgm=5937 # Weight for non-flagged nodes in the guard Position

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DNS proposal for Tor hidden services
by Jesse Victors 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Hello everyone, I have a proposal for Tor hidden services, which if it's a good idea and workable I may be writing my Master's thesis on. My description here is very early, and I would like to run it by you guys before I continue further. I have already run it past Tor developers, but have seen limited response, so I'm opening it up to a wider audience. Basically, I propose integrating Namecoin into supporting Tor relays, so as to provide a secure DNS service for .onion sites within Tor itself. The result is that a human-readable address can be translated into its .onion counterpart, analogous to a domain name resolving into an IP address on the regular Internet, a square of Zooko's Triangle conjecture. Namecoin has a nearly identical codebase to Bitcoin, but instead of currency its primary focus is holding information, with a focus in DNS. Domains in Namecoin have the .bit extension, and registrations are secured with hashes in a blockchain. Anyone with the Namecoin blockchain can look up information in it, and indeed there are already Namecoin-supporting DNS servers that use the Namecoin blockchain to look up registrations in it. These basic premises are at the heart of my idea. Now, 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion is the address for the DuckDuckGo hidden service, but it's hard to remember: even worse than a traditional IP address. Under my idea, a user could type in duckduckgo.tor, would see a secure translation to 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion transparently and with masking, increasing the usability and popularity of hidden services significantly. My plan is in the context of Tor, to use the .tor domain, so as to not conflict with existing Namecoin registrations. The .onion address is a hash of the hidden service's public key, so if I own the private keys to 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion, I should be able to sign something (perhaps the Namecoin public DSA key) to prove my ownership and set duckduckgo.tor.bit to point to 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion. I then upload this to the Namecoin network as usual, (this costs 0.01 Namecoin) so that it becomes integrated into the blockchain. So now duckduckgo.tor.bit points to 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion, and everyone with the blockchain knows it. Global DNS propagation may take less than 15 minutes. Namecoin domain registrations expire after 36,000 blocks (about 200 days) so a registration would have to be renewed occasionally for it to still remain. This is free to do, but ensures that domains don't endure indefinitely. It's impractical for Tor users to download the Namecoin blockchain in order to use this system, (even with Merkle trees) so instead supporting Tor relays can hold a copy and the Tor client can send out queries to them. At startup, Tor clients build several circuits through the network in preparation for use. Now let's say the user wants to look up duckduckgo.tor. To avoid spoofing attacks from a malicious relay, Tor clients will query multiple relays and gain a consensus. To do this, the Tor client generates three nonces, N1, N2, and N3. It then picks three random relays, possible trusted relays like guards, R1, R2, and R3. These relays have public RSA keys K1, K2, and K3, respectively. For each of the three relays, the Tor client takes the request for duckduckgo.tor, nonce Nj, and encrypts the pair with the relay's public key Kj. Along with a special new Tor flag specifying the use of this protocol, it then sends the trio through the circuit to the middle relay. The middle relay then queries the three relays. Each relay decrypts the request using its private key, checks the blockchain for duckduckgo.tor.bit, finds 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion, and encrypts this answer with the nonce, and sends it back, signing the result. The client receives the answers, checks the signatures, decrypts the responses from the three relays using the nonces, and compares the response. If all three match, it then looks up 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion in the traditional way. If two or less match, it restarts with a different set of three relays. If all three relays return that duckduckgo.tor can't be found, it throws the standard DNS error message. So I am simply building on top of the existing Tor hidden service infrastructure, not modifying it. I can write up a proposal for torspec.git once I have more details. I've already taken Tor 0.2.5.6-alpha code, installed Tor from source, and used Chutney to set up a mini Tor network on localhost of 5 authorities, 10 relays, and 1 client. That seems a good platform for development on this. What do you guys think about my proposal? Is this a good idea, and feasible? Anything I should watch out for as I go forward? What security threats exist that I should specifically defend against? Thank you for your time. - -- Jesse V. /CS, Network Security/ /Utah State University/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.14 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ iQF8BAEBCgBmBQJT2BouXxSAAAAAAC4AKGlzc3Vlci1mcHJAbm90YXRpb25zLm9w ZW5wZ3AuZmlmdGhob3JzZW1hbi5uZXQxMjgyMjhENjEyODQ1OTU1NzBCMjgwRkFB RDk3MzY0RkMyMEJFQzgwAAoJEK2XNk/CC+yA98MH/ih8VMQ8ZaKInYDDe3HBiU/s 9XBoGUT7ouXqnmtjSLjeTJjDfaNmLYBIRsAJTk8n/mJ7Zz9ld/5FW/QNKd1hAelE wtL4hKyVhS70fWVkFqZTLLyeVHVbegJx5sF2YdkDD6cJDU//KNbXTCO7A1Bx9vOu vPFoA+3ytlKcpx8HZn//k0mD7cB/dcS2GwSQmG2C+X0pWooJIsAJCgKyetbAaiHL ub/sd6Sr0bgkItGOi9vlAdPo+p7nNMWVxQQPfNqzz1zQJzE3WRXpXKmIYAOtngWp VT6SyrSkOmir/1+LN/s9d22VMaQKAzUVz21gbugBr64moeQW/IWbWBOQSbFA0J0= =8zWV -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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[DRAFT] Proposal: All Routers are Directory Servers
by Matthew Finkel 01 Aug '14

01 Aug '14

Hi All, Below is a draft proposal for making all relays also be directory servers (by default). It's almost ready for a number, but it can use some feedback beforehand (give or take a few days). Tonight I also found that Nick actually created a similar proposal a few moons ago (Proposal 185: Directory caches without DirPort). This new proposal may benefit from superseding that one, but I recommend they remain distinct proposals, for now. In general I'm not tied to any of the proposed names, so suggestions are welcome. Thanks! ======================================================================= Filename: directory-servers-for-all.txt Title: All routers are directory servers Author: Matthew Finkel Created: 29-Jul-2014 Status: Draft Target: 0.2.6.x Overview: (In practice we refer to the servers that mirror directory documents as directory servers, directory mirrors, and directory caches. Sometimes we also shorten directory to dir. This proposal attempts to consistently use directory server to refer to this functionality. We also typically use the term router and relay interchangably. This proposal uses (onion) router.) This proposal aims at removing part of the distinction between the router and the directory server. Currently operators have the options of being one of: an onion router, a directory server, or both. With the acceptance of this proposal the options will be simplified to being either only a directory server or a combined router and directory server. All routers will serve directory requests. Motivation: Fetching directory documents and descriptors is sometimes a non-trivial operation for clients. If they do not have a consensus then they must contact a directory authority (until directory sources are added or clients are able to use a fallback consensus). If they have a consensus and have at least one entry guard then the client can query that guard for documents. If the document isn't available then after a period of time the client will attempt to retry downloading it. If the entry guard isn't a directory server, as well, a directory server and/or directory guard must be chosen (based on the server having an open DirPort) and queried for the document. At a minimum, this has a potential performance impact, at worst it's an attack vector that allows for profiling clients and partitioning users. With the orthogonally proposed move to clients using a single guard, the potential performance bottleneck and ability to profile users could be increased. If the client selects an entry guard and it is not a directory server then the client may select a distinct directory guard which will leak client behavior to a second node. In the case where the client does not use guards, it is important to have the largest possible amount of diversity in the set of directory servers. In a network where every router is a directory server, the profiling and partitioning attack vector is reduced to the guard (for clients who use them), which is already in a privileged position for this. In addition, with the increased set size, relay descriptors and documents are more readily available and it diversifies the providers. Design: The changes needed to achieve this should be simple. Currently all routers download and cache the majority of router documents in any case, so the slight increased memory usage from downloading all of them should have minimal consequences. There will be necessary logical changes in the client, router, and directory code. Currently directory servers are defined as such if they advertise having an open directory port. We can no longer assume this is true. To this end, we will introduce a new server descriptor line. "tunnelled-dir-server" The presence of this line indicates that the router accepts tunnelled directory requests. For a router that implements this proposal, this line MUST be added to its descriptor if it does not advertise a directory port, and MAY be added if it also advertises an open directory port. In addition to this, routers will now download and cache all descriptors and documents listed in the consensus, regardless of whether they are deemed useful or usable, exactly like the current directory servers. All routers will also accept directory requests when they are tunnelled over a connection established with a BEGIN_DIR cell, the same way these connections are already accepted by bridges and directory servers with an open DirPort. Directory Authorities will now assign the V2Dir flag to a server if it supports a version of the directory protocol which is useful to clients and it has at least an open directory port or it has an open OR port and advertises "tunnelled-dir-server" in its server descriptor. Clients choose a directory by using the current criteria with the additional qualification that a server only needs the V2Dir status flag instead of requiring an open DirPort. When the client chooses which directory server it will query, it checks if the server has an open directory port and uses begindir if it does not. This will minimize the increased number of clients that prefer begindir over direct connections and thus also minimizes the additional overhead on the network from clients establishing OR connections for directory requests. Security Considerations and Implications: Currently all directory servers are explicitly configured. This is necessary because they must have a configured and reachable external port. However, this is a restriction and results in a reduced number of directory servers on the network. As a result, this could allow an adversary to control a significant fraction of the servers. By increasing the number of directory servers on the network the likelihood of selecting one that is malicious is reduced. Also, with this proposal, it will be more likely that a client's entry guard is also a directory server (as alluded to in Proposal 207). However, the reduced anonymity set caused when the guard does not have, or is unwilling to distribute, a specific document still exists. With the increased diversity in the available servers, the impact of this should be reduced. Another question that may need further consideration is whether we trust bad directories to be good guards and exits. Specification: The version 3 directory protocol specification does not currently document the use of directory guards. This spec should be updated to mention the preferred use of directory guards during directory requests. In addition, the new criteria for assigning the V2Dir flag should be documented. Considerations for Resource Constrained Hardware: If all routers become directory servers, they will choose to download all documents, regardless of whether they are useful, in case another client does want them. This will have very little impact on the "typical" router, however on memory constrained routers (Raspberry Pi and similar), every kilobyte allocated to directory documents is not available for new circuits. Should we add a config option that allows operators to disable being a directory server? Is it more worthwhile for them to serve these documents or to relay cells? Future Considerations: Should the DirPort be deprecated at some point in the future?

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[android dev] probably a stupid noob question… but
by CJ 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

… how may I add netcipher lib to an Android Studio project? I've searched on the Net, but nothing seems to match my needs :( sorry for this stupid question, but I'm a bit stuck (yes, first android app, blah)… Cheers, C.

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Pluggable transports meeting tomorrow (16:00UTC Friday 1st of August 2014)
by George Kadianakis 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

Hello brothers and sisters, just wanted to remind you that the regular biweekly pluggable transports meeting is going to occur tomorrow at 16:00 UTC. Place is the #tor-dev IRC channel in the OFTC network. Thanks!

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Centos 7
by obx 30 Jul '14

30 Jul '14

hi, is somebody working on a rpm for centos 7? Is there an ETA? Thanks in advance.

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Email Bridge Distributor Interactive Commands
by Matthew Finkel 30 Jul '14

30 Jul '14

Hi everyone, A short time ago BridgeDB learned how to accept some more commands via email[0]. Below is an example of the current help/overview autoresponse email[1] that users receive (in English, we do have translations). These commands may not be optimal, so we'd love to be given feedback on this so we can improve it. Currently, with the recent changes, we require all commands begin with 'get' and then we check which keyword follows it ('bridges', 'transport', 'help', 'key', etc). This certainly makes the parsing logic easy (and I am a fan of KISS), but it may be true that this is a bit too strict and decreases its usability. Would it be better if we were more lax? For example, instead of requiring: 'get transport <TYPE>' we change this to: '[[get] transport] <TYPE>' Therefore the 'get' and 'transport' keywords are optional (and 'get' is only used if you use 'transport'). <TYPE> is the pluggable tranport method name you want the bridges to support. I think this simplifies the user interaction but I don't know if it's significant and to what extent most users care about this. It should be mentioned that prior to the recent changes, sending a blank email to bridges(a)bridges.torproject.org was equivilent to sending an email that contained 'get bridges' because we didn't actually check for 'get bridges' at all, we do this now, though. So, the questions I am posing to those in the community who has an opinion about this: What do you think? What problems do you currently have with this? How can this be improved? Thanks! Matt [0] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/7550 [1] > Hey, <you>! Welcome to BridgeDB! > > > > COMMANDs: (combine COMMANDs to specify multiple options simultaneously) > get bridges Request vanilla bridges. > get transport [TYPE] Request a Pluggable Transport by TYPE. > get help Displays this message. > get key Get a copy of BridgeDB's public GnuPG key. > get ipv6 Request IPv6 bridges. > > Currently supported transport TYPEs: > obfs2 > obfs3 > scramblesuit > > > BridgeDB can provide bridges with several types of Pluggable Transports[0], > which can help obfuscate your connections to the Tor Network, making it more > difficult for anyone watching your internet traffic to determine that you are > using Tor. > > Some bridges with IPv6 addresses are also available, though some Pluggable > Transports aren't IPv6 compatible. > > Additionally, BridgeDB has plenty of plain-ol'-vanilla bridges - without any > Pluggable Transports - which maybe doesn't sound as cool, but they can still > help to circumvent internet censorship in many cases. > > [0]: https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-transports.html > > -- > <3 BridgeDB > ______________________________________________________________________ > Public Keys: https://bridges.torproject.org/keys > This email was generated with rainbows, unicorns, and sparkles > for your(a)email.com on Sunday, 20 July, 2014 at 16:59:19. >

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Working on a Globe Fork
by William Papper 29 Jul '14

29 Jul '14

Hi all, I'm a freelance web designer and developer, and I'm working on a fork of Globe after seeing the recent blog post <https://blog.torproject.org/blog/looking-front-end-web-developers-network-s…> on the Tor Project's website. Since none of the other forks have any changes or are actively maintained, I created a fork on GitHub here <https://github.com/wpapper/globe> . I'm going to start by improving the responsive aspects of the design, and also clean up some unclear design decisions (e.g. Changing to something more descriptive than "keyword" for the search box and removing some redundant UI elements). I'll be making GitHub issues for the changes that need to be made. Anyone else can add any issues they see there. If you'd like to help contribute, just take on an issue and submit a pull request. Of course, let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. Sincerely, Will Papper

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