Hi everyone,
Here's what the anti-censorship team has been up to in September:
Snowflake =========
- Snowflake will be part of the upcoming Windows version for Tor Browser: https://bugs.torproject.org/25483
- Moved from the Chrome WebRTC standalone library to the Pion/WebRTC library in our proxies and clients.
obfs4 =====
* Published a prototype of sharknado: a flow obfuscator for obfs4 (and other pluggable transports). Sharknado is a net.Conn wrapper that injects padding traffic to thwart traffic classification attacks. Here's some more info: https://bugs.torproject.org/30716#comment:10
* Improved obfs4 bridge setup guides. Thanks to several volunteers who spotted issues in our guides and contributed new guides!
* Updated our obfs4 Docker image to the new Debian buster. Made our image's "latest" tag point to the latest version, which is currently 0.2: https://bugs.torproject.org/31692 Thanks to a volunteer, we now have a list of usability issues that we will tackle soon: https://bugs.torproject.org/31834
BridgeDB ========
* Removed the email link to frontdesk@tpo from BridgeDB's landing page and added links to our documentation: https://bugs.torproject.org/28533 Released BridgeDB version 0.8.2 after the merge.
* Worked on syncing BridgeDB's usage metrics over to the metrics team: https://bugs.torproject.org/19332
* Made lots of progress on updating BridgeDB's requirements.txt file: https://bugs.torproject.org/29484 Got to a point where all unit tests pass with up-to-date libraries.
* Started working on a specification for BridgeDB's usage metrics: https://bugs.torproject.org/31780
* Started experimenting with a language switcher for BridgeDB: https://bugs.torproject.org/26543
* BridgeDB's assignments.log file are now archived by CollecTor again: https://collector.torproject.org/archive/bridge-pool-assignments/ This allows bridge operators to see over what mechanism their bridges are distributed: HTTPS, email, moat, or manual. https://bugs.torproject.org/29480
GetTor ======
* GetTor now uses the Internet Archive and a Google Drive folder to distribute Tor Browser links. Give it a shot by sending an email to gettor@torproject.org and write "windows", "osx", or "linux" in the email's body.
* Updated documentation and added nagios check to monitor GetTor's email responder.
Outreach ========
* Worked with new obfs4 bridge operators who set up a bridge as part of our bridge campaign: https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet So far, we are counting 82 new bridges. Thanks to everyone who participated!
* Provided an NGO with private obfs4 bridges for distribution among its users. We are working with a set of operators to set up new, reliable, and fast private bridges, so we can help other NGOs: https://bugs.torproject.org/28526
Miscellaneous =============
* Deployed a set of new default obfs4 bridges thanks to Tobias Pulls from Karlstad University: https://bugs.torproject.org/31164
* Fixed a number existing papers and added a WebSci'18 paper to CensorBib: https://censorbib.nymity.ch
* Fixed outdated documentation on "BridgeDistribution" in tor's man page: https://bugs.torproject.org/31807