June 2026 - tor-project - lists.torproject.org

User Support Report for May 2026
by ebanam 29 Jun '26

29 Jun '26

Hello everyone, This is the report from user support team for the month of May 2026. Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been the same from the previous month respectively. - Summary of updates from user support - General user support - Farsi-speaking user support - Russian-speaking user support - Frontdesk (email user support channel) - Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels - Highlights from the Tor Forum - Highlights from Google Play Store # Summary of updates from user support ## General user support * 359 tickets in total (↓96) * 115 tickets on Telegram * 17 tickets on WhatsApp * 2 tickets on Signal * We received several user reports of bridge shared from the automatic bridge distributors and from our user support channels not parsing correctly on [Orbot][] and [Tor VPN beta][]. * Updated the support documentation in light of the upcoming major Tor Browser stable (Tor Browser 16.0) dropping support for [32-bit Linux][] operating systems. [Orbot]: https://github.com/guardianproject/orbot-android/issues/1695 [Tor VPN beta]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/onionmasq/-/work_items/174 [32-bit Linux]: https://support.torproject.org/tor-browser/security/legacy-os/#legacy-linux ## Farsi-speaking user support * 115 tickets in total (↑15) * 50 tickets on Email * 65 tickets on Telegram * Since the end of May, reports emerged stating relaxation in the severe internet shutdown in Iran. We received mixed feedback with some users reporting they were able to reconnect to the global internet while many also reporting about the ongoing internet censorship, unstable connections, and limited access to most websites and platforms. In this timeframe, as per [Tor metrics][], there has been a significant uptick in Tor usage from Iran. At this moment, we are collecting user feedback from users about their experiences with trying to connect to Tor with various Tor apps like Tor Browser, Orbot, Tor VPN beta and little-t tor using different pluggable transports. [Tor metrics]: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-country.html?start=2026-03-… ## Russian-speaking user support * 567 tickets in total (↓48) * 208 tickets on Email (↑14) * 351 tickets on Telegram (↓63) * 6 tickets on WhatsApp * We began collecting user feedback encouraging users to test dnstt bridges to bypass internet restriction during internet shutdowns affecting mobile internet in Russia. # Frontdesk (email user support channel) * 510(↑) RT tickets created * 483(↓) RT tickets resolved Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 208(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 99(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 3. 52(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 4. 50(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 5. 13(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta. 6. 5(↑) tickets: can't use Tor VPN when Private DNS is configured on Android's Network settings. 7. 4(↓) tickets: reports of fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser. 8. 4(↑) tickets: questions about Orbot. 9. 3(↓) tickets: report of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser. + 2 facebook 10. 3(↑) tickets: reports of download links for Tor Browser 15.0.14 showing an error (The issue was temporary and is fixed). 11. 2(↑) tickets: support for Tor Browser on ChromeOS. 12. 2(↑) tickets: query about onion services and how they work. 13. 1(↓) ticket: instructions to install Tor Browser on Linux. 14. 1(↑) ticket: help wioth reactivating Tor GitLab account. 15. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to download and install Tor Browser. 16. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to importing / exporting bookmarks in Tor Browser. 17. 1(↑) ticket: Tor VPN not working on [Android 9][]. 18. 1(↑) ticket: question about support for Tor Browser on legacy operating systems. 19. 1(↑) ticket: question on how Tor works. 20. 1(↑) ticket: how to change the 'exit' in the Tor circuit on Tor VPN. 21. 1(↑) ticket: unable to [save images][] from Tor Browser (The issue is affecting torbrowser-launcher downloaded from Manjaro Linux's repository). 22. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to update Tor VPN. 23. 1(↑) ticket: question about [Funding the Commons][] campaign. 24. 1(↓) ticket: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser for Android. 25. 1(↑) ticket: report of [Tor Browser Launcher Flatpak][] on Linux not working (The issue has been resolved.) 26. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to verify Tor Browser's GPG signature. 27. 1(↑) ticket: query on why Tor Browser Android is not available on Android's Sharesheet options. 28. 1(↑) ticket: help with configuring little-t-tor. 29. 1(↑) ticket: query about using the password manager on Tor Browser desktop. [Android 9]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/work_items/488 [save images]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/cant-save-images/21440/10 [Funding the Commons]: https://blog.torproject.org/fund-internet-freedom/ [Tor Browser Launcher Flatpak]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/torbrowser-launcher/-/work_i… # Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels * 556(↓) tickets resolved Breakdown: * 531(↓) tickets on Telegram * 2(↓) tickets on Signal * 23(↑) tickets on WhatsApp Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 357(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 65(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 3. 28(↑) tickets: instructions to use [dnstt bridges with Orbot][]. 4. 23(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 5. 16(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta. 6. 16(↑) tickets: questions about which Tor app to install on iOS (i.e. Onion Browser or Orbot). 7. 14(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 8. 10(-) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods. 9. 10(-) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Android. 10. 9(↓) tickets: instructions to fetch bridges from Bridge distributors on Telegram or Email and use them with Tor Browser and Tor VPN beta. 11. 9(↓) tickets: help with using bridges with Tor VPN Beta. 12. 8(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 13. 4(↑) tickets: help with installing Tor Browser on Desktop on Linux. 14. 4(-) tickets: help with using bridges with Tails. 15. 2(↓) tickets: help with configuring bridges to use with little-t tor (the network daemon). 16. 2(-) tickets: reports of fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser. 17. 2(↑) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them. 18. 2(↑) tickets: report of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser. 19. 2(↑) tickets: can't use Tor VPN when Private DNS is configured on Android's Network settings. 20. 1(↑) ticket: [captcha][] when requesting bridges from within Tor Browser not working (The issue has been resolved.) 21. 1(↓) ticket: query about Tor Browser support legacy operating systems. 22. 1(↑) ticket: [GMS apps][] (e.g. Gemini) are not present on Apps view on Tor VPN. 23. 1(↑) ticket: [GetTor][] email distributor not working with some Russian email providers. 24. 1(↑) ticket: feature request to [pause Tor VPN][] for specific time periods. [captcha]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/work_items/449… [GMS apps]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/work_items/486 [GetTor]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/gettor-project/OnionSprou… [pause Tor VPN]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/work_items/498 # Highlights from the Tor Forum * Increase in [Snowflake proxy][] traffic. * [WebTunnel bridges][] getting blocked in Turkmenistan. [Snowflake proxy]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/big-increase-in-snowflake-proxy-traffic-rece… [WebTunnel bridges]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/webtunnel-bridge-blocked-by-ip-in-turkmenist… # Highlights from Google Play Store ## Tor Browser for Android * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) had a Google Play rating of 4.43 stars in May, which is higher compared to in April. * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 531 (↑23) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 69,226. * For Tor Browser, the most common issue mentioned on reviews was the censorship against Tor in countries like Russia, China, Iran. ## Tor Browser for Android Alpha * Tor Browser for Android Alpha app had a rating of 4.125 (↓0.003) in May which is lower compared to April. * In May, Tor Browser for Android Alpha got 13 (↑1) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 8,789. ## Tor VPN Beta * Tor VPN beta number of unique daily users is around 73,000 at the end of May. * The top 5 countries by the number of installations being (in descending order): Russia, Iran, India, the United States, and Turkmenistan. Thanks! -- ebanam

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 2026-06-25
by onyinyang 25 Jun '26

25 Jun '26

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: https://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2026/tor-meeting.2026-06-25-16.00.ht… And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Anti-censorship -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday, July 2 16:00 UTC Facilitator: shelikhoo ^^^(See Facilitator Queue at tail) Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) This week's Facilitator: onyinyang == 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 the Tor Project and Tor community. == 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 projects, we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Projects the TPI anti-censorship team is working on: * Project 146: Expanding access to digital media through the use of secure communications, infrastructure, tools, and techniques * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/issues/?label_na… * Project 170: Monitoring and reporting on censorship against the Tor network * epic: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/epics/17 * Project 201: Signaling channels * board https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards/2675?label_name[]=Project… == Announcements == * Tor mid-year break: July 6-10 * no meeting on July 9 == Discussion == * == 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? * Next in the Reading Group Queue: * == 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): 2026-06-25 Last week: - fixed security issue in Snowflake where malformed webrtc offers and answers could cause crashes in the client, proxy, and broker (snowflake#40546) - worked on rate limiting feature of proxy fairness proposal (snowflake#40506) Next week: - continue to review PT spec implementation in UAT - make proxy-bridge reachability checks robust to bridge outages (snowflake#40504) - more work on letting broker inform proxies how often to poll - rate limiting - follow up about running shadow simulations for snowflake performance - revisit conjure integration with lyrebird - take a look at potential snowflake orbot bug - https://github.com/guardianproject/orbot-android/issues/1183 dcf: 2026-06-25 Last week: Next week: - look at issues https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/meek… meek-server session ID file descriptor limit https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/meek… goptlib upgrade in meek Help with: meskio: 2026-06-25 Last week: - telegram distributing bridges with local addresses (rdsys#306) - research security report on rdsys memory exhaustion (rdsys#309) - update meek dependencies (meek!2) Next week: - telegram distributing bridges with local addresses (rdsys#306) Shelikhoo: 2026-06-18 Last Week: - [Testing] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) testing environment setup/research - Merge request Reviews - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add Socks5 Based Interactive Connectivity Test for snowflake (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) (Done) - [Research] Request for Comment: Rust Library for TLS Fingerprint Imitation with Delegation Route Usage in Tor Browser) https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/work_items/450… Next (working) Week/TODO: - Merge request reviews - [Deployment]Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) Building custom Tor Browser with patch applied - Vantage point maintaince - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add 3 type nat bucket to snowflake broker - [Research] Request for Comment: Rust Library for TLS Fingerprint Imitation with Delegation Route Usage in Tor Browser) https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/work_items/450… (cont.) onyinyang: 2026-06-25 Last week(s): - Work for project #170 to detect bridge blocking Next week: - Continue tasks for project #170 Switch back to some of these: As time allows: - Continue work on rdsys#196 - Continue Investigating rdsys#248 i.e., why dysfunctional webtunnel bridges are being distributed - Troubleshooting conjure not connecting in China - waiting for more information from conjure authors/maintainers - Lox still seems to be filling up the disk on the rdsys-test server despite changes made to delete old entries, look into what's going wrong Blog post for conjure: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/conj… - review Tor browser Lox integration https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/merge_requests… - add TTL cache to lox MR for duplicate responses: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/lox/-/merge_requests/305 - Work on outstanding milestone issues: - key rotation automation Later: pending decision on abandoning lox wasm in favour of some kind of FFI? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43096) - add pref to handle timing for pubkey checks in Tor browser - add trusted invitation logic to tor browser integration: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42974 - improve metrics collection/think about how to show Lox is working/valuable - sketch out Lox blog post/usage notes for forum (long term things were discussed at the meeting!): - brainstorming grouping strategies for Lox buckets (of bridges) and gathering context on how types of bridges are distributed/use in practice Question: What makes a bridge usable for a given user, and how can we encode that to best ensure we're getting the most appropriate resources to people? 1. Are there some obvious grouping strategies that we can already consider? e.g., by PT, by bandwidth (lower bandwidth bridges sacrificed to open-invitation buckets?), by locale (to be matched with a requesting user's geoip or something?) 2. Does it make sense to group 3 bridges/bucket, so trusted users have access to 3 bridges (and untrusted users have access to 1)? More? Less? theodorsm: 2026-05-28 Last weeks: - Researching possible DTLS block in Russia - https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/603#issuecomment-4451730751 - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Next weeks: - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Help with: - Facilitator Queue: onyinyang shelikhoo cohosh meskio 1. First available staff in the Facilitator Queue will be the facilitator for the meeting 2. After facilitating the meeting, the facilitator will be moved to the tail of the queue -- --- onyinyang GPG Fingerprint 3CC3 F8CC E9D0 A92F A108 38EF 156A 6435 430C 2036

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nti-censorship meeting notes, 2026-06-18
by meskio 18 Jun '26

18 Jun '26

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: https://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2026/tor-meeting.2026-06-18-16.00.ht… And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday, June 25 16:00 UTC Facilitator: onyinyang ^^^(See Facilitator Queue at tail) Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) This week's Facilitator: meskio == 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 the Tor Project and Tor community. == 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 projects, we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Projects the TPI anti-censorship team is working on: * Project 201: Signaling channels * milestone for may https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/83 * board https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards/2675?label_name[]=Project… == Announcements == * == Discussion == * TLS imitation route * opened an issue to talk about it with the applications team * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/work_items/450… == 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? * Next in the Reading Group Queue: * == 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): 2026-06-18 Last week: - lead a learning session on snowflake prometheus metrics at all hands - started implementation of rate limiting feature of proxy fairness proposal - reviews Next week: - continue to review PT spec implementation in UAT - make proxy-bridge reachability checks robust to bridge outages (snowflake#40504) - more work on letting broker inform proxies how often to poll - monitor proxy poll rates and adjust as needed - follow up about running shadow simulations for snowflake performance - revisit conjure integration with lyrebird - take a look at potential snowflake orbot bug - https://github.com/guardianproject/orbot-android/issues/1183 dcf: 2026-06-18 Last week: Next week: Help with: meskio: 2026-06-18 Last week: - make debian packages of lyrebird, snowflake and webtunnel with goreleaser (tpa/team#42549) Next week: - telegram distributing bridges with local addresses (rdsys#306) Shelikhoo: 2026-06-18 Last Week: - [Testing] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) testing environment setup/research - Merge request Reviews - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add Socks5 Based Interactive Connectivity Test for snowflake (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) (Done) - [Research] Request for Comment: Rust Library for TLS Fingerprint Imitation with Delegation Route Usage in Tor Browser) https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/work_items/450… Next (working) Week/TODO: - Merge request reviews - [Deployment]Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) Building custom Tor Browser with patch applied - Vantage point maintaince - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add 3 type nat bucket to snowflake broker - [Research] Request for Comment: Rust Library for TLS Fingerprint Imitation with Delegation Route Usage in Tor Browser) https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/work_items/450… (cont.) onyinyang: 2026-06-18 Last week(s): - Work for project #170 to detect bridge blocking Next week: - Continue tasks for project #170 Switch back to some of these: As time allows: - Continue work on rdsys#196 - Continue Investigating rdsys#248 i.e., why dysfunctional webtunnel bridges are being distributed - Troubleshooting conjure not connecting in China - waiting for more information from conjure authors/maintainers - Lox still seems to be filling up the disk on the rdsys-test server despite changes made to delete old entries, look into what's going wrong Blog post for conjure: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/conj… - review Tor browser Lox integration https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/merge_requests… - add TTL cache to lox MR for duplicate responses: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/lox/-/merge_requests/305 - Work on outstanding milestone issues: - key rotation automation Later: pending decision on abandoning lox wasm in favour of some kind of FFI? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43096) - add pref to handle timing for pubkey checks in Tor browser - add trusted invitation logic to tor browser integration: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42974 - improve metrics collection/think about how to show Lox is working/valuable - sketch out Lox blog post/usage notes for forum (long term things were discussed at the meeting!): - brainstorming grouping strategies for Lox buckets (of bridges) and gathering context on how types of bridges are distributed/use in practice Question: What makes a bridge usable for a given user, and how can we encode that to best ensure we're getting the most appropriate resources to people? 1. Are there some obvious grouping strategies that we can already consider? e.g., by PT, by bandwidth (lower bandwidth bridges sacrificed to open-invitation buckets?), by locale (to be matched with a requesting user's geoip or something?) 2. Does it make sense to group 3 bridges/bucket, so trusted users have access to 3 bridges (and untrusted users have access to 1)? More? Less? theodorsm: 2026-05-28 Last weeks: - Researching possible DTLS block in Russia - https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/603#issuecomment-4451730751 - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Next weeks: - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Help with: - Facilitator Queue: onyinyang shelikhoo cohosh meskio 1. First available staff in the Facilitator Queue will be the facilitator for the meeting 2. After facilitating the meeting, the facilitator will be moved to the tail of the queue -- meskio | https://meskio.net/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- My contact info: https://meskio.net/crypto.txt -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Nos vamos a Croatan.

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Anti-censorship meeting notes, 2026-06-11
by Cecylia Bocovich 11 Jun '26

11 Jun '26

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: https://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2026/tor-meeting.2026-06-11-16.02.ht… And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday, June 11 16:00 UTC Facilitator: cohosh ^^^(See Facilitator Queue at tail) Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) This week's Facilitator: shelikhoo == 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 the Tor Project and Tor community. == 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 projects, we are working on: All needs review tickets: https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… Projects the TPI anti-censorship team is working on: Project 201: Signaling channels milestone for may https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/83 board https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards/2675?label_name[]=Project… == Announcements == == Discussion == shelikhoo report on TLS fingerprint camouflage in rust https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/work_items/194#not… https://gitlab.torproject.org/-/snippets/243 Need a decision about which route to pursue. "imitate" (utls) or "delegate" (ktls) cohosh recall's arturo's utls-light https://github.com/ooni/utls-light craftls https://github.com/3andne/craftls We are considering "delegate" route first, pending discussion with browser team(Application Team) M4i: submission of UAT to the Open Technology Fund == Actions == == Interesting links == https://medium.com/jigsaw/introducing-the-outline-foundation-an-independent… == Reading group == We will discuss "QUICstep: Evaluating connection migration based QUIC censorship circumvention " on June 11 https://petsymposium.org/popets/2026/popets-2026-0014.pdf 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? Next in the Reading Group Queue: == 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): 2026-06-11 Last week: - revised proxy implementation of broker-informed poll interval - released a new version of the snowflake webextension - released a new version of the snowflake Go library - helped debug some issues with go module updates and the GitLab DoS defenses - https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/work_items/42697 Next week: - continue to review PT spec implementation in UAT - make proxy-bridge reachability checks robust to bridge outages (snowflake#40504) - more work on letting broker inform proxies how often to poll - monitor proxy poll rates and adjust as needed - follow up about running shadow simulations for snowflake performance - revisit conjure integration with lyrebird - take a look at potential snowflake orbot bug - https://github.com/guardianproject/orbot-android/issues/1183 dcf: 2026-06-11 Last week: - commented on Whonix proposal to add a metadata output to lyrebird https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/lyre… Next week: Help with: meskio: 2026-05-28 Last week: - investigate ideas for signaling channels (team#192) - investigate problems with netlify (tor-browser#44997) - c-tor crashed on bridgestrap, add an alert to detect it (bridgestrap#49) Next week: - AFK Shelikhoo: 2026-06-04 Last Week: - [Testing] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) testing environment setup/research - Merge request Reviews - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add Socks5 Based Interactive Connectivity Test for snowflake (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) Next (working) Week/TODO: - Merge request reviews - [Deployment]Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) Building custom Tor Browser with patch applied - Vantage point maintaince - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add Socks5 Based Interactive Connectivity Test for snowflake (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) (cont.) onyinyang: 2026-06-11 Last week(s): - Returned to work for project #170 to detect bridge blocking Next week: - Continue tasks for project #170 (Postponed for May) Switch back to some of these: As time allows: - Continue work on rdsys#196 - Continue Investigating rdsys#248 i.e., why dysfunctional webtunnel bridges are being distributed - Troubleshooting conjure not connecting in China - waiting for more information from conjure authors/maintainers - Lox still seems to be filling up the disk on the rdsys-test server despite changes made to delete old entries, look into what's going wrong Blog post for conjure: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/conj… - review Tor browser Lox integration https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/merge_requests… - add TTL cache to lox MR for duplicate responses: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/lox/-/merge_requests/305 - Work on outstanding milestone issues: - key rotation automation Later: pending decision on abandoning lox wasm in favour of some kind of FFI? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43096) - add pref to handle timing for pubkey checks in Tor browser - add trusted invitation logic to tor browser integration: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42974 - improve metrics collection/think about how to show Lox is working/valuable - sketch out Lox blog post/usage notes for forum (long term things were discussed at the meeting!): - brainstorming grouping strategies for Lox buckets (of bridges) and gathering context on how types of bridges are distributed/use in practice Question: What makes a bridge usable for a given user, and how can we encode that to best ensure we're getting the most appropriate resources to people? 1. Are there some obvious grouping strategies that we can already consider? e.g., by PT, by bandwidth (lower bandwidth bridges sacrificed to open-invitation buckets?), by locale (to be matched with a requesting user's geoip or something?) 2. Does it make sense to group 3 bridges/bucket, so trusted users have access to 3 bridges (and untrusted users have access to 1)? More? Less? theodorsm: 2026-05-28 Last weeks: - Researching possible DTLS block in Russia - https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/603#issuecomment-4451730751 - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Next weeks: - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Help with: - Facilitator Queue: onyinyang cohosh meskio shelikhoo 1. First available staff in the Facilitator Queue will be the facilitator for the meeting 2. After facilitating the meeting, the facilitator will be moved to the tail of the queue

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Anti-censorship team meeting notes, 2026-06-04
by Shelikhoo 04 Jun '26

04 Jun '26

Hey everyone! Here are our meeting logs: https://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2026/tor-meeting.2026-06-04-16.01.ht… And our meeting pad: Anti-censorship work meeting pad -------------------------------- Anti-censorship -------------------------------- Next meeting: Thursday, June 11 16:00 UTC Facilitator: cohosh ^^^(See Facilitator Queue at tail) Weekly meetings, every Thursday at 16:00 UTC, in #tor-meeting at OFTC (channel is logged while meetings are in progress) This week's Facilitator: shelikhoo == 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 the Tor Project and Tor community. == 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 projects, we are working on: * All needs review tickets: * https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/anti-censorship/-/merge_requests?s… * Projects the TPI anti-censorship team is working on: * Project 201: Signaling channels * milestone for may https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/milestones/83 * board https://gitlab.torproject.org/groups/tpo/-/boards/2675?label_name[]=Project… == Announcements == * == Discussion == * cohosh created an issue for last week's discussion about broker metrics * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… * shelikhoo report on TLS fingerprint camouflage in rust * https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/work_items/194#not… * https://gitlab.torproject.org/-/snippets/243 * Need a decision about which route to pursue. * Better to wait for a full crew meeting. In the meantime, everyone read the report. == Actions == * == Interesting links == * https://medium.com/jigsaw/introducing-the-outline-foundation-an-independent… == Reading group == * We will discuss "QUICstep: Evaluating connection migration based QUIC censorship circumvention " on June 11 * https://petsymposium.org/popets/2026/popets-2026-0014.pdf * 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? * Next in the Reading Group Queue: * == 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): 2026-06-04 Last week: - worked on documentation of signalling channel use (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/work_items/189) - helped with initial exploration of writing SQS in rust (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/work_items/191) - revised snowflake webext implementation of next poll field (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) - continued review of UAT (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/work_items/178) - tried to reproduce potential webext bug (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) Next week: - continue to review PT spec implementation in UAT - make proxy-bridge reachability checks robust to bridge outages (snowflake#40504) - more work on letting broker inform proxies how often to poll - revise and deploy proxy support - follow up about running shadow simulations for snowflake performance - revisit conjure integration with lyrebird - take a look at potential snowflake orbot bug - https://github.com/guardianproject/orbot-android/issues/1183 dcf: 2026-06-04 Last week: - gave advice on ampcache implementation Next week: Help with: meskio: 2026-05-28 Last week: - investigate ideas for signaling channels (team#192) - investigate problems with netlify (tor-browser#44997) - c-tor crashed on bridgestrap, add an alert to detect it (bridgestrap#49) Next week: - AFK Shelikhoo: 2026-06-04 Last Week: - [Testing] Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) testing environment setup/research - Merge request Reviews - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add Socks5 Based Interactive Connectivity Test for snowflake (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) Next (working) Week/TODO: - Merge request reviews - [Deployment]Unreliable+unordered WebRTC data channel transport for Snowflake rev2 (cont.)( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) Building custom Tor Browser with patch applied - Vantage point maintaince - [Research] proxy pool overload and potential blocking in Iran ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - [Research] Add three NAT type buckets to the snowflake broker ( https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow… ) - Add Socks5 Based Interactive Connectivity Test for snowflake (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snow…) (cont.) onyinyang: 2026-05-28 Last week(s): - Continued working on implementing Project 201: - AMPCache Library in Rust - SQS Rustlang Library in Rust Next week: - Continue working on Project 201 -AMPCache Rustlang Library - SQS Rustlang Library - Continue tasks for project #170 (Postponed for May) Switch back to some of these: As time allows: - Continue work on rdsys#196 - Continue Investigating rdsys#248 i.e., why dysfunctional webtunnel bridges are being distributed - Troubleshooting conjure not connecting in China - waiting for more information from conjure authors/maintainers - Lox still seems to be filling up the disk on the rdsys-test server despite changes made to delete old entries, look into what's going wrong Blog post for conjure: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/conj… - review Tor browser Lox integration https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/merge_requests… - add TTL cache to lox MR for duplicate responses: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/lox/-/merge_requests/305 - Work on outstanding milestone issues: - key rotation automation Later: pending decision on abandoning lox wasm in favour of some kind of FFI? https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/43096) - add pref to handle timing for pubkey checks in Tor browser - add trusted invitation logic to tor browser integration: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42974 - improve metrics collection/think about how to show Lox is working/valuable - sketch out Lox blog post/usage notes for forum (long term things were discussed at the meeting!): - brainstorming grouping strategies for Lox buckets (of bridges) and gathering context on how types of bridges are distributed/use in practice Question: What makes a bridge usable for a given user, and how can we encode that to best ensure we're getting the most appropriate resources to people? 1. Are there some obvious grouping strategies that we can already consider? e.g., by PT, by bandwidth (lower bandwidth bridges sacrificed to open-invitation buckets?), by locale (to be matched with a requesting user's geoip or something?) 2. Does it make sense to group 3 bridges/bucket, so trusted users have access to 3 bridges (and untrusted users have access to 1)? More? Less? theodorsm: 2026-05-28 Last weeks: - Researching possible DTLS block in Russia - https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/603#issuecomment-4451730751 - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Next weeks: - Implementing DTLS 1.3 in pion Help with: - Facilitator Queue: onyinyang cohosh meskio shelikhoo 1. First available staff in the Facilitator Queue will be the facilitator for the meeting 2. After facilitating the meeting, the facilitator will be moved to the tail of the queue

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New Browser Release Calendar Public Link
by Morgan 04 Jun '26

04 Jun '26

Hi folks, We have a new public link for the Tor Browser Release Calendar in NextCloud: - https://nc.torproject.net/apps/calendar/p/rgbZsJPm6wsCC9SR Please update your bookmarks :) best, -morgan

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introducing torprojectstatus.org
by Antoine Beaupré 02 Jun '26

02 Jun '26

Hi, Starting today, our status page is now available under: https://torprojectstatus.org/ This is the same old reliable site you might already know as: https://status.torproject.org/ Both sites are currently available, but in about a week, we will retire the latter and redirect it to the former. The goal of this change is to provide better availability, redundancy and improve our disaster recovery scenarios. And if you didn't know about the site, congratulations, you are one of the lucky people to learn something today! You can read more about the reasoning behind that change in ADR-109: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/wikis/policy/109-status-page-h… Thanks! a. -- Antoine Beaupré torproject.org system administration

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