Vanguards v0.2.1 is tagged on github at
https://github.com/mikeperry-tor/vanguards. The tag is signed with the
gpg key that signed this mail, and all of my other mails.
Again, the preferred interpreter for vanguards is pypy, but you must use
either stem 1.5.4 (or below), or stem 1.6.0 with this patch:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/stem.git/commit/?id=c52db04
The tests will fail on pypy with an affected stem (which is how I
discovered the stem issue).
If you previously had issues with the tests, please see:
https://github.com/mikeperry-tor/vanguards/blob/master/README_TESTS.md
Hopefully the new test README can help you ensure that you have working
versions of everything.
Iain also wrote a systemd service wrapper that may be useful:
https://salsa.debian.org/pkg-privacy-team/vanguards/blob/master/debian/vang…
I want to write a Tor blog post announcing this new version, but I want
to mention distribution packages in that blog post, since that was a FAQ
in the comments of the initial blogpost. If you are packaging this
addon, please let me know which repositories it will appear at, and give
me a link to instructions for how users can add or enable them on their
systems.
I haven't heard anything from Fedora/RPM people. That would be super
useful. :)
Overall, I think this release is a significant improvement over v0.1.1.
Here's the changelog:
- Read ExcludeNodes from Tor and don't pick layer2 or layer3 guards in
this set. #11
- Add --one_shot_vanguards and --disable_vanguards options (to enable
OnionBalance synchronization). #12
- Don't write to torrc by default. #18
- Keep attempting to reconnect if the control port dies. #19
- Support tighter bounds on dropped data to defend against DropMark,
and change circ_max_dropped_bytes_percent to circ_max_dropped_cells.
However, leave these at NOTICE pending Tor patch #25573. #20.
- Limit rend requests from relays that are not in our consensus. #22.
- Added connectivity accounting: WARN if we're disconnected or can't
build circuits for more than 'conn_max_disconnected_secs' and
'circ_max_disconnected_secs'. Also emit a NOTICE if a connection dies
while there are live circuits on it. #23
- Fix several false positive cases in rendguard. More may remain, so
demote logline to NOTICE for now. #24
- Change rendguard params to lower the false positive rate. If you use a
conf file, be sure to update the values there, if specified. #24.
- Standardize using WARN for messages that we're confident represent
serious issues, and use NOTICE for heuristics that may need more
tuning.
--
Mike Perry
Hella howdy yall,
The vanguards Tor Controller addon is getting close to another release.
It lives at: https://github.com/mikeperry-tor/vanguards
The addon is written in python, and uses the Tor Control Protocol (via
stem) to alter how Tor behaves. It provides protection to onion services
and onion service clients against a variety of attacks. It implements
experimental defenses that need to be tuned to perform optimally for a
variety of different deployment scenarios, known and unknown, that may
exist in the wild.
For more details about what the addon does, see:
https://github.com/mikeperry-tor/vanguards/blob/master/README_TECHNICAL.md
For a comprehensive treatment of the known attacks against onion
services, including how this addon fits in, see:
https://github.com/mikeperry-tor/vanguards/blob/master/README_SECURITY.md
The ultimate goal is to merge these defenses into Tor itself, but they
will take time to study. Because of this, the lifespan of this addon
will be measured in years, especially if your distribution uses the "Tor
Long Term Stable" release by default.
During this time, it is important that this addon is easy to install and
update securely, so that onion service operators can run it in order to
give us feedback on how parameters perform with their particular setups,
in addition to allowing them to benefit from the additional security we
believe that it provides.
The addon does not have to be available in your distribution's official
repositories. It is sufficient that it is available either via a
backports repository, or via one of the torproject package sources for
your distribution. The important thing is that it is authenticated by a
secure GPG key that can be imported into a distribution's package
manager, and that you keep up with updates.
The addon has 98% unit test coverage of its lines under python2.7,
python3.5, and pypy. pypy is the preferred python interpreter for the
addon, because it provides a JIT that improves performance for high
traffic onion services.
The addon has two dependencies: ipaddress, and stem. ipaddress is
included in python3 distributions, and that version is sufficient.
For python2 and pypy, the version in requirements.txt is preferred.
Unfortunately, however, Stem 1.6.0 broke compatibility with pypy:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26207
A fix is available here, but is not present in any stem release:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/stem.git/commit/?id=c52db04
Your distribution will need to backport this fix, if it uses Stem
1.6.0 with pypy. Stem versions prior to 1.6.0 do not have this issue.
The forthcoming stem 1.7.0 will include the fix.
Iain Learmonth (irl) has been working on the packages for debian.
Hopefully he can report any additional issues here.
Please respond to this mail on or off list if you intend to package this
addon for your distribution, for either official repositories or for
torproject ones, so that we may mention this fact in an upcoming
blogpost for the release. Please also ask me any questions you may have
about packaging, on list or off. I'm also on #tor-dev on irc.oftc.net as
mikeperry.
The release tags are signed with the following GPG key, which has also
signed this mail, and also signs all of my other mails to tor
mailinglists:
pub 8192R/29846B3C683686CC 2013-09-11
Key fingerprint = C963 C21D 6356 4E2B 10BB 335B 2984 6B3C 6836 86CC
uid Mike Perry <mikeperry(a)endarken.info>
uid Mike Perry <mikeperry(a)unencrypted.info>
uid Mike Perry (Regular use key) <mikeperry(a)fscked.org>
uid Mike Perry (Regular use key) <mikeperry(a)torproject.org>
--
Mike Perry
Hi! Two new releases are out: 0.3.3.8 (stable) and 0.3.4.4-rc (a
release candidate).
You can get them both, along with their signatures, at
https://dist.torproject.org/ . Official announcements will follow
after the website has updated.
You can find the changelogs at:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/tree/ChangeLog?id=99f9816efa08ab83f90…https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/tree/ChangeLog?id=ab57cf6493f502abf7c…
Other notes:
* 0.3.1.x is no longer supported. If this comes as a surprise,
please have a look at
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/CoreTor…
, where we try to predict this kind of thing in advance.
* 0.3.4.x is almost ready for release (as you can tell from its
release-candidate status). Please make sure that you can build and
package it, even if you don't usually distribute alphas: the time to
find and fix problems is *now*.
* We've decided that the next long-term support (LTS) release will be
0.3.5.x. If you need to distribute a tor version that will stay
patched for a few years, that's the one for you (once it's stable).
cheers, and best wishes,
--
Nick
Hi!
Tor 0.3.4.3-alpha is now available at https://dist.torproject.org/ .
I'll be sending out the official announcement after the website has
updated. The changelog is at
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/tree/ChangeLog?h=tor-0.3.4.3-alpha
I expect to be putting out a new 0.3.3.x stable with minor changes
some time next week; I'm thinking that (if stuff doesn't get exciting)
we'll put out the next 0.3.4.x release as a release candidate.
Also, a reminder: Tor 0.3.1 will no longer be supported after July 1.
If you need a Tor version with long-term support, please stick with
0.2.9 for now. Our release schedule is at
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/CoreTor…
cheers,
--
Nick
Hi!
There is a new stable release (0.3.3.7) and a new alpha release
(0.3.4.2-alpha). Both are available on https://dist.torproject.org/.
I'll be sending out the official announcement once the download page
has updated.
The changelogs are here:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/tree/ChangeLog?h=tor-0.3.3.7https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/tree/ChangeLog?h=tor-0.3.4.2-alpha
Also, I have a request for all of you: If you are maintaining any
patches on Tor, please make sure we know about them, and think about
submitting them upstream! We're going to be refactoring a bunch of
stuff over the upcoming releases, and we want to make sure that any
downstream patches don't break.
best wishes,
--
Nick
Hi!
Tor 0.3.4.1-alpha is available on https://dist.torproject.org.
For a list of changes since 0.3.3.5-rc, see the ChangeLog file
included in the distribution, or online at
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/tree/ChangeLog
I'll be posting official announcements once the website is updated.
Please expect a stable 0.3.3.x release next week.
cheers,
--
Nick
Hi!
I'm planning to release 0.3.4.1-alpha some time later this week -- no
sooner than Wednesday, and probably no later than Friday.
Once it's seen some testing, I hope we can release some more stable
releases some time before the 29th.
--
Nick