September 2022 - tor-project - lists.torproject.org

Are there countries where using Tor is illegal?
by Cristian Consonni 12 May '25

12 May '25

Hi, (Sorry if this question has already been asked in the past, feel free to point me to the relevant resources.) I know that the legal FAQs by the EFF state that: «we believe that running a Tor relay — including an exit relay that allows people to anonymously send and receive traffic — is legal under U.S. law.»[1] I also know there is a list of countries for which there is legislation that exclude communication service providers from liability. They are indicated in the Legal of the Tor Exit Guidelines page[2], they are USA, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, France, and Sweden. >From some articles in the press[3a][3b] it may be illegal - depending on how you interpret the wording[*] - to use Tor (and other technologies such as VPNs or proxies) in the UAE, with fines ranging in the millions of dirhams (hundreds of thousand of dollars). A couple of weeks ago it was discussed - on this list as well - that a law was introduced to the state parliament to ban Tor[4a][4b]. This follows a case of some months ago of a Russian Tor exit node operator being arrested for inciting mass riots and terrorism[4c][4d]. The idea of blocking VPNs or Tor seems to have already been considered in the past[4e]. This infographic about pluggable transports[5] suggests access to the Tor network is censored or limited in China, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Kazakhstan. Tor being censored orblocked may be different from it being illegal. What about other countries? Is there a place where I can find more about this topic? Cristian [1]: https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq.html.en [2]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorExitGuidelines [3a]: http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/dh500-000-fine-if-you-use-fraud-ip… [3b]: http://news.softpedia.com/news/people-caught-using-vpns-tor-or-proxies-in-t… [*]: «Whoever uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address (IP address) by using a false address or a third-party address by any other means for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery» [4a]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2017-June/043293.html [4b]: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/22055 [4c]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2017-April/043109.html [4d]: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/24/dmitry-bogatov-tor-russia/ [4e]; https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-and-tor-ban-looming-on-the-horizon-for-russia-… [5]: https://www.torproject.org/images/PT/2016-07-how-to-use-PT.png

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What's happening in Shadow 2022-09
by Jim Newsome 01 Oct '22

01 Oct '22

Mirrored from https://github.com/shadow/shadow/discussions/2428 : This is part of a series of periodic updates of development in Shadow. This work is sponsored by the [NSF](https://shadow.github.io/docs/guide/nsf_sponsorship.html). Previous update: [2022-06](https://github.com/shadow/shadow/discussions/2243). We've merged [103 non-dependabot pull requests](https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pulls?q=is%3Apr+merged%3A2022-06… and closed [12 issues](https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues?q=closed%3A2022-06-27..2022… since our previous update. Release status ============== We've released [Shadow 2.2.0](https://github.com/shadow/shadow/releases/tag/v2.2.0)! Notable user-facing changes, from the release notes: * We have removed ptrace-mode, and the associated experimental options `use-o-n-waitpid-workaround` and `--interpose-method`. ptrace-mode was an alternative to Shadow's current interposition mechanism that uses `LD_PRELOAD` and `seccomp`. This change should be transparent to most users, since it hasn't been the default for several releases, and was only accessible via experimental options. See https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues/1945 * `dup()` and related syscalls are now supported for all file descriptors * Fixed behavior when multiple threads are blocked in `epoll_wait` on the same epoll file description. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues/2260 * Fixed bugs causing `timerfd_settime` to not reset the internal timer's expiration count (https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2279) and not cancel previously scheduled timer-fire events (https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2282) * Fixed a panic when patching the VDSO in newer kernels, such as those in Ubuntu 22.04. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues/2273 * Fixed the errno returned from calling `connect()` on a unix socket. This fixes a `getaddrinfo()` test failure on some systems. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues/2286 * Fixed minor memory leaks. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2249 Other user-facing improvements since last update ================================================ We also continue to make compatibility improvements: * Added support for escaping additional "busy loops" - ones that only use `rdtsc` without making any actual syscalls. This affected some versions of [libopenblas](https://github.com/shadow/shadow/discussions/2299#discussionco…. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2314 * Replaced custom cmake code for locating glib with pkg-config. This makes shadow easier to compile in environments with non-standard layouts such as guix or nix. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2331 * Fixed a bug handling files opened with `O_NOFOLLOW`. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2353 * Fixed our documentation and CI to support mapping pages with `PROT_EXEC` when run under Docker, fixing [2400](https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues/2400). When using `docker run`, you should also pass the `--tmpfs /dev/shm:rw,nosuid,nodev,exec,size=1024g`. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2402 * Made the shadow installation directory relocatable. e.g. installing to `$HOME/opt/shadow` and later moving to `$HOME/opt/shadow-old` now behaves as expected. This also makes it easier to share and reuse pre-built shadow binaries, e.g. for CI, though we still do not yet publish pre-compiled binaries. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2391 * Added support for emulating `PR_SET_DUMPABLE`, which fixes compatibility with managed programs that "harden" themselves against debuggers, including [arti](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/arti). https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2370 * Fixed a bug affecting getaddrinfo on some systems. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2292 * Partly implemented fcntl. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2259 * Made failures due to running out of tmpfs space easier to understand. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2267 Other notable changes since last update ======================================= Since the 2.2.0 release, our current focus is primarily on migrating Shadow's C code to Rust. These changes should be mostly invisible to Shadow's end users, but may be of interest to folks interested in hacking on Shadow itself. Along those lines we've: * Migrated Shadow's scheduler to Rust. This is a fairly complex and performance-sensitive component, and we're taking care to prevent performance regressions during the migration: * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2340 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2343 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2344 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2352 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2412 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2414 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2416 * Migrated other modules to Rust. * Event: https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2327 * TokenBucket: https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2306 * Manager: https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2277 * Implemented a Rust mutex suitable for use in shared memory, and compatible with [rkyv](https://rkyv.org/). https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2386 * Moved most of the compilation and linking of Shadow's remaining C code from cmake into Cargo build scripts. This fixes some dependency issues and will make it easier to start migrating some of our additional support libraries from C to Rust. https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2404 * Improved organization of global state in Rust. * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2361 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2363 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2367 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2372 * https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2373 * Refactored other components to simplify migration to Rust. * Controller, Manager, Scheduler: https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2255 * Thread: https://github.com/shadow/shadow/pull/2328 Shadow in Tor ============= We've been working on using Shadow to help test and evaluate [arti](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/arti) - The Tor Projects's new Rust-based implementation of tor. This has driven many of the compatibility fixes above, and we are happy to report that arti now runs under Shadow! We plan to merge a shadow-based continuous integration test into arti itself within the next few days: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/arti/-/merge_requests/634 Happy simulating! The Shadow team

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Anti-censorship team meeting notes, 2022-09-29
by meskio 29 Sep '22

29 Sep '22

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2022/tor-meeting.2022-09-29-15.58.html And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday Oct 6 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) == Goal of this meeting == Weekly check-in about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == * Our anti-censorship roadmap: * Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards * The anti-censorship team's wiki page: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home * Past meeting notes can be found at: * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ * Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Sponsor 28 * must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 * possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… * Sponsor 96 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/24 == Announcements == * == Discussion == * snowflake-01 bridge resources * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2022-September/… and following * summary of optimizations so far: https://forum.torproject.net/t/iran-circumventing-censorship-with-tor/4590/… * cumulative merge request https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * the bridge is doing about 2.5 Gbps for most of the day, but it clearly has hit some kind of resource limitation, even with apparent CPU and RAM headroom * current thinking is that it has to do with conntrack in the kernel and perhaps network interface driver tuning * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2022-September/… * will require some preparation and a reboot, planned to happen later today * move some operation to second NIC https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * disable conntrack https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * reboot https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * Snowflake Enable Distributed Snowflake Support at broker src shell * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/95 * we are blocked to enable it as it will reject all proxies that are not updated, mostly standalone proxies * 28% of the unrestricted proxies haven't updated * current Tor Browser's snowflake-client doesn't have relay URL support, we need to change that: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/issues/4… * we will try to reject old proxy next Monday, and a revert guide will be prepared by shelikhoo to help every team member revert this chance as if needed * snowflake proxy resources * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2022-September/… and following * there is a squeeze on proxies with unrestricted NAT * merge request to have existing proxies provide more service: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * had probetest restart itself more frequently, 4h instead of 7d https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2022-September/… * Moat went down, has now been fixed * Too many file descriptors issue, probably from increased load * meskio will regenerate the captchas * Iran obfs4 block by protocol src shell * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/96#note_283… * a connection to fresh new private bridge was blocked when crossing the Iranian border * Iran might be blocking random looking protocols, or just anything they can't recognize == Actions == == Interesting links == == Reading group == * We will discuss "" on * * Questions to ask and goals to have: * What aspects of the paper are questionable? * Are there immediate actions we can take based on this work? * Are there long-term actions we can take based on this work? * Is there future work that we want to call out in hopes that others will pick it up? == Updates == Name: This week: - What you worked on this week. Next week: - What you are planning to work on next week. Help with: - Something you need help with. cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2022-09-29 Last week: - monitored snowflake proxy pool - implemented more frequent polling and higher max clients for unrestricted proxies - https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - set timeout for probetest to 4h - https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2022-September/… - answered forum posts and did some ticket maintenance - handled moat outage - https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/121 This week: - continue monitoring snowflake proxy pool and implement some improvements - resume Conjure work - wrap up manifest v3 candidate Needs help with: dcf: 2022-09-29 Last week: - did a bunch of profiling and performance optimizations on the snowflake-01 bridge - profiling: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ff. - increase instances from 4 to 8 https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfl… - increase instances from 8 to 12 https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfl… - reduce websocketconn allocation, reduce keepalive timeout https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - reduce copy buffer allocations https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - reduce the size of send queues https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfl… - reduce allocation in queuing incoming packets (didn't have an effect) https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - made a graph of Tor usage in Iran in the past week - https://forum.torproject.net/t/graphs-of-user-counts-from-iran-since-the-on… Next week: - assist with disabling of conntrack and reboot of snowflake-01 bridge https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - disable non-WireGuard SSH access to snowflake-02 - migrate goptlib to gitlab https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/86#note_282… - try Conjure PT development version https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-dev-introducing-a-conjure-pt-for-tor/4429 Help with: meskio: 2022-09-29 Last week: - try and fail to do the final deploy of rdsys-gettor - catch up after two weeks AFK - set up a Bridge for Iran Next week: - deploy rdsys-gettor - fix language issues in BridgeDB (bridgedb#40056) Shelikhoo: 2022-09-29 Last Week: - [Merge Request Awaiting] Add SOCKS5 forward proxy support to snowflake (snowflake!64) - [Discussion & Deployment] Rollout of Distributed Snowflake Support - [Coding & Deployment] Proposal: Centralized Probe Result Collector (anti-censorship/team#54) - [Research] HTTPT Planning https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/http… - [Research] Generate Charts for presention: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/92#note_283… - [Research] Iran 2 hop Bridge investigation (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/96#note_283…, https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/127) - [Research] Investigate Distributed Snowflake Rollout Issue (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/95) Next Week: - [Research] WebTunnel Planning (Continue) - Generate Charts for presention: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/92#note_283… (Continue) - [Research] Add upload connection info to rdsys in WebTunnel - [Research] Fix vantage point summary upload in China Itchy Onion: 2022-09-29 Last week: - update snowflake plugin API to RACE 2.3.0 - continue debugging the message dropping issue This week: - continue debugging the message dropping issue -- meskio | https://meskio.net/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- My contact info: https://meskio.net/crypto.txt -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Nos vamos a Croatan.

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Tomorrow we hangout! Friday from Noon UTC
by emma peel 22 Sep '22

22 Sep '22

Fellow translators! Tomorrow we have our monthly hangout, from 12:00 UTC on irc, and from 13 UTC on videocall. Tomorrow we will talk about moving our translations from Transifex to Weblate: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/tor/ Please bring any other topics you have! More information: https://community.torproject.org/localization/hangouts/

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Anti-censorship team meeting notes, 2022-09-22
by Shelikhoo 22 Sep '22

22 Sep '22

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2022/tor-meeting.2022-09-22-15.58.html And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday Sept 29 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) == Goal of this meeting == Weekly check-in about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == * Our anti-censorship roadmap: * Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards * The anti-censorship team's wiki page: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home * Past meeting notes can be found at: * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ * Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Sponsor 28 * must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 * possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… * Sponsor 96 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/24 == Announcements == * == Discussion == * snowflake-01 bridge running into resource limitations * need to increase number of tor instances at least * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * also running into other resource limitations: CPU cannot be increased much more, and snowflake-server is periodically restarting due to a lack of memory * the snowflake-01 bridge is one of the largest relays in the network. compare to https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#toprelays. snowflake-01 had 72 MB/s average throughout August 2022, so it is right up there with the top relays. * tried in the past to decrease resource requirements of snowflake-server, without much results https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * will at least recompile snowflake-server with a recent golang compiler when redeploying this time * what about making snowflake the default recommendation in Iran? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/rdsys/-/issues/119 * possible, but there are still concerns about load at the bridge * how close are we to being able to start using the snowflake-02 bridge? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * will be necessary soon, because snowflake-01 cannot scale forever * the limiting factor at this point is the number of proxies that multi-bridge aware * only about 30% of available proxies are multi-bridge aware * is 30% sufficient for current client demand? * most proxies are browser add-ons, which should automatically update * shelikhoo will investigate why such a large fraction of proxies have not updated * does connection assist help with getting clients to use a second bridge, or does it require a new Tor Browser release? * connection assist likely does not help, since old clients will not know how to send the bridge fingerprint they want to the broker -- if they use the -02 fingerprint but do not tell the broker that, the broker will connect them with the -01 bridge, and the connection will fail * Gettor Telegram Bot down. Fix deployed * increase in user result in hit Telegram API Limit * Fix deployed to restore it to working state * Community Team developed a guide for IR circumvention * https://forum.torproject.net/t/iran-circumventing-censorship-with-tor/4590 * currently awaiting translation == Actions == == Interesting links == == Reading group == * We will discuss "" on * * Questions to ask and goals to have: * What aspects of the paper are questionable? * Are there immediate actions we can take based on this work? * Are there long-term actions we can take based on this work? * Is there future work that we want to call out in hopes that others will pick it up? == Updates == Name: This week: - What you worked on this week. Next week: - What you are planning to work on next week. Help with: - Something you need help with. cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2022-09-08 Last week: - took a look at Snowflake mDNS issue (snowflake#40123) - worked on Snowflake manifest v3 webextension fixes (snowflake-webext#29) This week: - Snowflake web extension v3 manifest - usability improvements to chrome badge helper - finish updating Firefox extension to mv3 - a few quality of life conjure issues - https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/conj… Needs help with: dcf: 2022-09-22 Last week: - snowflake CDN bookkeeping https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/Snowflake-co… - submitted merge request to change the format of placeholder pluggable transport addresses to work with FascistFirewall, ReachableAddresses https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser-build/-/issues/4… - investigated recent increased usage of snowflake and opened issue to increase the number of tor instances https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: - increase number of tor instances on snowflake-01 bridge https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… - disable non-WireGuard SSH access to snowflake-02 - migrate goptlib to gitlab https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/86#note_282… - try Conjure PT development version https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-dev-introducing-a-conjure-pt-for-tor/4429 Help with: meskio: 2022-09-08 Last week: - plan obfs4proxy 0.0.14 update (obfs4#40008) - package obfs4proxy 0.0.14 for debian - test obfs4proxy backward compatibility - rdsys-gettor is deployed, planning for the final switch - deploy more BridgeDB fixes - submit a project proposal for Outreachy Next week: - deploy rdsys-gettor - fix language issues in BridgeDB (bridgedb#40056) Shelikhoo: 2022-09-22 Last Week: - [Merge Request Awaiting] Add SOCKS5 forward proxy support to snowflake (snowflake!64) - [Discussion & Deployment] Rollout of Distributed Snowflake Support - [Coding & Deployment] Proposal: Centralized Probe Result Collector (anti-censorship/team#54) - [Research] HTTPT Planning https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/http… - In Person Meetup! - [Research] Log Collector Performance Collection (Bootstrap time) - Write Survival Guide For Log Collector https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/Survival-Gui… - [Deployment] Emergency fix for OnionSproutsBot https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/gettor-project/onionsprou… Next Week: - [Research] WebTunnel Planning (Continue) - Generate Charts for presention: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/92#note_283… Itchy Onion: 2022-09-22 Last week: - several attempts (adjusting various timeout, trying the obfs approach of creating a smux session, and reserching other options) to fix the RACE unclosed TCP connection issue (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) This week: - update snowflake plugin API to RACE 2.3.x (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/58) - I learned yesterday that there is a working build of snowflake 2.2.x from Eliana. I have requested the code and am still waiting for it. Will ask again in my 1-1 meeting with Eliana later today

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Applications Team Meeting cancelled next week (2022-09-12)
by Richard Pospesel 10 Sep '22

10 Sep '22

We will resume the following week (2022-09-19) at the usual time and place (1500UTC in #tor-meeting on OFTC irc) best, -Richard

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Anti-censorship team meeting notes, 2022-09-08
by meskio 08 Sep '22

08 Sep '22

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2022/tor-meeting.2022-09-08-15.58.html And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday Sept 22 16:00 UTC Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) == Goal of this meeting == Weekly check-in about the status of anti-censorship work at Tor. Coordinate collaboration between people/teams on anti-censorship at Tor. == Links to Useful documents == * Our anti-censorship roadmap: * Roadmap: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/boards * The anti-censorship team's wiki page: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/wikis/home * Past meeting notes can be found at: * https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/ * Tickets that need reviews: from sponsors we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Sponsor 28 * must-do tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/10 * possible tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&… * Sponsor 96 * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/24 == Announcements == * There will not be a meeting Sept 15th == Discussion == * Next Step for WebTunnel * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/webt… * How to get bridges into rdsys and configure the right args? * The params can be configured in torrc ServerTransportOptions that will get sent to the PT and readable from goptlib.Binaddr.Args and the PT can use goptlib.SmethoArgs to add them to the file descriptor. * This will only be readable by bridge authority and rdsys, and not leaked outside. * Proposal for outreachy * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/team/-/issues/67#note_2834285 * A new format for placeholder addresses in PT bridge lines? * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * 192.0.2.t:n changes to 192.0.2.(16(n−1)+t):80 * t = transport, n = incrementing counter per transport * Would permit the port number to be one that is always permitted by FascistFirewall, working around https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/issues/19487 in tor. == Actions == == Interesting links == == Reading group == * We will discuss "An Empirical Analysis of Plugin-Based Tor Traffic over SSH Tunnel" on Sept 8 * https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9020938 * PDF available from Sci-Hub, DOI 10.1109/MILCOM47813.2019.9020938 * Questions to ask and goals to have: * What aspects of the paper are questionable? * Are there immediate actions we can take based on this work? * Are there long-term actions we can take based on this work? * Is there future work that we want to call out in hopes that others will pick it up? == Updates == Name: This week: - What you worked on this week. Next week: - What you are planning to work on next week. Help with: - Something you need help with. cecylia (cohosh): last updated 2022-09-08 Last week: - took a look at Snowflake mDNS issue (snowflake#40123) - worked on Snowflake manifest v3 webextension fixes (snowflake-webext#29) This week: - Snowflake web extension v3 manifest - usability improvements to chrome badge helper - finish updating Firefox extension to mv3 - a few quality of life conjure issues - https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/conj… Needs help with: dcf: 2022-09-08 Last week: - wrote a patch for an obfs4 distinguisher and had it merged upstream in obfs4proxy-0.0.14 https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/obfs… https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/obfs… - posted a writeup on the cause of obfs4proxy-0.0.12 interoperability problems with earlier versions https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40804#n… - posted a proposal for a new format for placeholder addresses in PT bridge lines https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… Next week: - disable non-WireGuard SSH access to snowflake-02 - migrate goptlib to gitlab https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/86#note_282… - try Conjure PT development version https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-dev-introducing-a-conjure-pt-for-tor/4429 Help with: meskio: 2022-09-08 Last week: - plan obfs4proxy 0.0.14 update (obfs4#40008) - package obfs4proxy 0.0.14 for debian - test obfs4proxy backward compatibility - rdsys-gettor is deployed, planning for the final switch - deploy more BridgeDB fixes - submit a project proposal for Outreachy Next week: - deploy rdsys-gettor - fix language issues in BridgeDB (bridgedb#40056) Shelikhoo: 2022-09-08 Last Week: - [Merge Request Awaiting] Add SOCKS5 forward proxy support to snowflake (snowflake!64) - [Discussion & Deployment] Rollout of Distributed Snowflake Support - [Coding & Deployment] Proposal: Centralized Probe Result Collector (anti-censorship/team#54) - [Research] HTTPT Planning https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/http… - [Research] WebTunnel Planning(Continue) - [Research+Coding] Raw Probe Log Data Collection https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/connectivity-measurement/… - [Deployment] Raw Probe Log Data Collection - [Research+Coding] Log Collector Performance Collection(Bootstrap time) - [Review] Make the extension description more easy to understand (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) - [Coding] Update Log Collector admin script (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/connectivity-measurement/…) - [Coding] Update Snowflake WebExtension translation repo(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports… - [Research] Considering add a server version indication as connection parameter in obfs4(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transport… - [Research] Setting up a staging server for anti-censorship services(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/93) Next Week: - [Research] WebTunnel Planning (Continue) - [Research] Log Collector Performance Collection (Bootstrap time) - In Person Meetup! Itchy Onion: 2022-09-08 Last week: - RACE 2.2.x - Review !98 (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) This week: - RACE 2.2.x (made some progres there; I noticed that snowflake doesn't fail the automated deployment tests on its own, but fails when the tests are run as a larger CI test suite. I suspect this is also because of unclosed connection, which is a known issue. This would also explain why I have a difficult time reproducing the error and the lack of error messages, but not why the issue started happening with 2.2.x) -- meskio | https://meskio.net/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- My contact info: https://meskio.net/crypto.txt -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Nos vamos a Croatan.

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Nina’s Monthly Status Report, August 2022
by nina13＠riseup.net 06 Sep '22

06 Sep '22

Hi! This is my Monthly status report for August 2022. This month my focus was on the support of Russian-speaking users of Tor Browser. Overall: 415 tickets were successfully resolved! - Telegram channel (@TorProjectSupportBot): 226 - Email (frontdesk@tpo): 189 In August, we added and tested a new tech support channel - on Signal: +1 778-743-1312 and started to inform our users about it [1]. The number of requests from Russia was lower as Connection Assist helps to connect to Tor without requesting bridges. However, there are still TB for Android users who need some help. So in August, we updated a post on the TB forum with all the updates on the way to contact us and instructions on how to connect to Tor from Russia [2]. The number of requests from Turkmenistan is getting higher. So, a lot of time and effort in August was dedicated to censorship circumvention in Turkmenistan [3]: looking for working solutions, testing them, and, finally, informing users about them. I also updated the relevant frontdesk template to keep it up to date with our findings. @emmapeel and I found that TB for macOS is not fully translated to Russian and submitted a bug report [4]. [1] https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-user-support-a-new-encrypted-way-to-help… [2] https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-blocked-in-russia-how-to-circumvent-cens… [3] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/iss… [4] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/41113

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Joydeep's Monthly Status Report for August 2022
by Joydeep Sen Gupta 06 Sep '22

06 Sep '22

Hello everyone! Here are my updates from the month of August. Firstly, I am happy to share that we have now launched our user support channel on Signal[0]! For a second consecutive month there has been a major uptick in requests for unlisted obfs4 bridges from users in China and Turkmenistan. Noting that a lot of these users are not using the latest version of Tor Browser and hence unable to take advantage of the new Connection Assist[1], I have updated our internal support docs with instructions on how to update the browser and how to use the Connection Assist. Also hoping to gain some good feedback from the users about Connection Assist in the process[2]. In light of the "Help Smash Tor Bugs!" campaign, we received a bunch of user support requests from users new to the Tor ecosystem on our support channels. Questions ranging from how to get started with Tor Browser, using pluggable transports, using and setting up snowflake proxies to the recommended Tor-based browser on iOS. Now some quick stats and highlights from our official support channels. ## Frontdesk Timeline : 01 August - 31 August 2022 Tickets: new: 33 open: 22 resolved: 906 Breakdown of number of RT tickets received with respect to operating system: (Note: This includes tickets where the user mentioned the operating system or it was evident from the issue they were running into and/or enclosed screenshots.) Windows - 10 macOS - 9 GNU/Linux - 3 Android- 11 Breakdown of most frequent tickets (at least 3 RT tickets): 1. 410 RT Tickets - Private Bridge requests. This is not related to the .ru censorship but requests from Tor users in China, Turkmenistan, etc. 2. 83 RT Tickets - How to use Tor Bridges in Russia.[3] 3. 4 RT Tickets - Bug in rendering webpages on Tor Browser for Android, specific to the Samsung S22 device[4] 4. 3 RT Tickets - Tor app for iOS (Onion Browser)[5] ## Tor Forum Most popular topics in the Support category (in terms of no. of views): 1. "Does connecting to your own Guard increase or decrease overall security?".[6] 2. "New to server operation"[7] 3. "Memory limits for Snowflake process"[8] 4. "Guard relay in Kubernetes"[9] 5. "How quickly is deb.torproject.org updated?"[10] Thanks, -- Joydeep [0]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-user-support-a-new-encrypted-way-to-help… [1]: https://support.torproject.org/glossary/connection-assist/ [2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40088 [3]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-blocked-in-russia-how-to-circumvent-cens… [4]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/41186 [5]: https://support.torproject.org/tormobile/tormobile-3/ [6]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/does-connecting-to-your-own-guard-increase-o… [7]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/new-to-server-operation/4188/ [8]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/memory-limits-for-snowflake-process/4236/ [9]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/guard-relay-in-kubernetes/4298/ [10]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/how-quickly-is-deb-torproject-org-updated/42…

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Marco's Status Report August 2022
by msim 06 Sep '22

06 Sep '22

Hi - here's my monthly status report for August 2022 So this month my goal was to get WebRTC building and running for S131, and I got halfway there! WebRTC is now building locally, and I will be migrating my changes on top of the base-browser branch soon. Why halfway? On the 12th of August a family emergency resulted in me effectively not being able to work for 2.5 weeks, and I ended up finishing getting WebRTC building at the end of the month. Getting WebRTC running is my top priority for September (which from what I've done so far looks like it should be swiftly done), and then getting onto a few to-do tickets :) -Marco

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