March 2022 - tor-relays - lists.torproject.org

How to reduce tor CPU load on a single bridge?
by David Fifield 19 Dec '22

19 Dec '22

The main Snowflake bridge (https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/5481936581E23D2D178105D44DB6…) is starting to become overloaded, because of a recent substantial increase in users. I think the host has sufficient CPU and memory headroom, and pluggable transport process (that receies WebSocket connections and forwards them to tor) is scaling across multiple cores. But the tor process is constantly using 100% of one CPU core, and I suspect that the tor process has become a bottleneck. Here are issues about a recent CPU upgrade on the bridge, and observations about the proportion of CPU used by different processes: https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfl… https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfl… I have the impression that tor cannot use more than one CPU core—is that correct? If so, what can be done to permit a bridge to scale beyond 1×100% CPU? We can fairly easily scale the Snowflake-specific components around the tor process, but ultimately, a tor client process expects to connect to a bridge having a certain fingerprint, and that is the part I don't know how to easily scale. * Surely it's not possible to run multiple instances of tor with the same fingerprint? Or is it? Does the answer change if all instances are on the same IP address? If the OR ports are never used? * OnionBalance does not help with this, correct? * Are there configuration options we could set to increase parallelism? * Is migrating to a host with better single-core performance the only immediate option for scaling the tor process? Separate from the topic of scaling a single bridge, here is a past issue with thoughts on scaling beyond one bridge. it looks as though there are not ways to do it that do not require changes to the way tor handles its Bridge lines. https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfl… * Using multiple snowflake Bridge lines does not work well, despite that we could arrange to have the Snowflake proxy connect the user to the expected bridge, because tor will try to connect to all of them, not choose one at random. * Removing the fingerprint from the snowflake Bridge line in Tor Browser would permit the Snowflake proxies to round-robin clients over several bridges, but then the first hop would be unauthenticated (at the Tor layer). It would be nice if it were possible to specify a small set of permitted bridge fingerprints.

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relayor v22.0.0-rc is released
by nusenu 03 Dec '22

03 Dec '22

Hi, relayor v22.0.0-rc is released. relayor is an ansible role that helps you with running tor relays with minimal effort (automate everything). https://github.com/nusenu/ansible-relayor#main-benefits-for-a-tor-relay-ope… Changes since relayor v21.2.0-rc: * MetricsPort support improvements: * generate nginx reverse server config for remote prometheus scraping on the relay (we do not install nginx) * generate htpasswd file for HTTP basic auth of MetricsPort on the relay * debian/ubuntu: support new alpha repos (branch name is no longer included in the repo name). * FreeBSD 12.3 is supported kind regards, nusenu -- https://nusenu.github.io

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Loss of Guard and HS Dir flags
by Eddie 29 May '22

29 May '22

I currently run 3 relays, across different servers and today I noticed that one has now lost it's Guard and HS Dir flags. What's surprising is that this particular relay has the highest Bandwidth and Consensus Weight of all 3 and has not been restarted for over a month. The stats for all 3 can be found with: OhNoAnotherRelay I know that just running the relay is the important part and caring about what flags it has is a side issue, but I'm just interested in seeing why this has happened. Cheers.

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Next Tor Relay Operator Meetup - April 2 @ 1900 UTC
by gus 08 Apr '22

08 Apr '22

Hello relay operators and Tor friends, The next Tor Relay Operator meetup will happen this Saturday, April 2 @ 1900 UTC / 1500 EDT / 2100 CET. Where: BigBlueButton - https://tor.meet.coop/gus-og0-x74-dzn No need for a registration or anything else, just use the room-link above. The agenda is available here: https://pad.riseup.net/p/tor-relay-meetup-april-2022-keep Everyone is free to bring up additional questions or topics at the meeting itself. Please share with your friends, social media and other mailing lists! cheers, Gus -- The Tor Project Community Team Lead

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Tor Relay Operator Meetup (Saturday, March 5th @ 2000 UTC)
by gus 02 Apr '22

02 Apr '22

Hello everyone, This Saturday, March 5th @ 2000 UTC, we have a Tor Relay Operator Meetup! We'll share some updates about Tor Network Health, Tor Bridges and the ongoing situation in Russia/Ukraine (Snowflake surge, bridges blocked, BBC and DW onionsites). Everyone is free to bring up additional questions or topics at the meeting itself. Date & Time: March 5, 2022 - 2000 UTC Where: BigBlueButton room - https://tor.meet.coop/gus-og0-x74-dzn No need for a registration or anything else, just use the room-link above. Please share with your friends, social media and other mailing lists! cheers, Gus -- The Tor Project Community Team Lead

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Appears things are working again.
by tdukes＠palmettoshopper.com 31 Mar '22

31 Mar '22

Had been using a docker container with not much luck so I switched to using the tor files for centos 8. Working so far. I'm now in the relay search. Not sure or why its saying I'd be better suited for an exit. Fingers crossed!

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Bridge lifecycle expectations
by Just a Pleb 30 Mar '22

30 Mar '22

Hi All, I have three lifecycle questions: 1) How long is typical (or what factors are involved ) before the bridge address is given out to users. 2) How do I know when the bridge is burned (identified and blocked) 3) When it is burned and I build a new one on an other address should I copy the key with the config to maintain "trust" continuity or is that neutral or bad for bridges? As a little context I've run relays before and just started up an obfs4proxy Bridge (well 10days ago). https://bridges.torproject.org/status?id=<MY_BRIDGE_ID> says it's good, logs look good but I've yet to see any real traffic, just the same 8 German node that I presume are Tor infrastructure checking status. $ cat bridge-stats bridge-stats-end 2022-03-22 18:44:43 (86400 s) bridge-ips de=8 bridge-ip-versions v4=8,v6=0 bridge-ip-transports <OR>=8,obfs4=8 every day is the same (other than bridge-stats-end) Thanks, A. Pleb

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BadMiddle Nodes Loadbalancing Re: How to reduce tor CPU load on a single bridge?
by Jonas Friedli 26 Mar '22

26 Mar '22

Hi Gary, wait, your Relays are BadMiddle Nodes! It breaks at least all onion features. Thanks for trying to saturate the connection by balancing the single-core tor bottleneck. But think of any client try to establish RendezvousPoints or IntroductionPoints or fetch HsDir with one of your tor instances that all have same descriptor and look same to outside. It will result into fail the connection! 1. a_tor_client => HAProxy server tornode41 192.168.0.41:9001 => RendezvousCookie 46B9FA5B onionservice => HAProxy server tornode51 192.168.0.41:9001 => RendezvousCookie 46B9FA5B 2. tornode51 does not know cookies of tornode41 will: [WARN] Rejecting RENDEZVOUS1 cell with unrecognized rendezvous cookie 46B9FA5B. Didn't recognize cell, but circ stops here circuit_receive_relay_cell (forward) failed This Loadbalancing setup is only valid and usefull for Bridges or ExitNode relay roles. Not for any that have MiddlePropability consensusweigths. just FYI > David, Roger, et al., > > I just got back from holidays and really enjoyed this thread! > > I run my Loadbalanced Tor Relay as a Guard/Middle Relay, very similar to David's topology diagram, without the Snoflake-Server proxy. I'm using Nginx (which forks a child process per core) instead of HAProxy. My Backend Tor Relay Nodes are running on several, different Physical Servers; thus, I'm using Private Address Space instead of Loopback Address Space. > > In this configuration, I discovered that I had to configure Nginix/HAProxy to use Transparent Streaming Mode, use Source IP Address Sticky Sessions (Pinning), configure the Loadbalancer to send the Backend Tor Relay Nodes' traffic back to Nginx/HAProxy (Kernel & IPTables), configure all Backend Tor Relay Nodes to use a copy of the same .tordb (I wasn't able to get the Backend Tor Relay Nodes working with the same .tordb (over NFS) without the DirectoryAuthorities complaining), and configure the Backend Tor Relay Nodes to use the same DirectoryAuthority (to ensure each Backend Tor Relay Node sends Meta-Data to the same DirectoryAuthority). Moreover, I've enabled logging to a central Syslog Server for each Backend Tor Relay Node and created a number of Shell Scripts to help remotely manage each Backend Tor Relay Node. > > Here are some sample configurations for reference. > > Nginx Config: > > upstream orport_tornodes { > #least_conn; > hash $remote_addr consistent; > #server 192.168.0.1:9001 weight=1 max_fails=1 fail_timeout=10s; > #server 192.168.0.1:9001 down; > server 192.168.0.11:9001 weight=4 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0s; > server 192.168.0.21:9001 weight=4 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0s; > #server 192.168.0.31:9001 weight=4 max_fails=3 fail_timeout=300s; > server 192.168.0.41:9001 weight=4 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0s; > server 192.168.0.51:9001 weight=4 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0s; > #zone orport_torfarm 64k; > > > HAProxy Config (Alternate): > > frontend tornodes > # Log to global config > log global > > # Bind to port 443 on a specified interface > bind 0.0.0.0:9001 transparent > > # We're proxying TCP here... > mode tcp > > default_backend orport_tornodes > > # Simple TCP source consistent over several servers using the specified > # source 0.0.0.0 usesrc clientip > backend orport_tornodes > > balance source > hash-type consistent > #server tornode1 192.168.0.1:9001 check disabled > #server tornode11 192.168.0.11:9001 source 192.168.0.1 > server tornode11 192.168.0.11:9001 source 0.0.0.0 usesrc clientip check disabled > server tornode21 192.168.0.21:9001 source 0.0.0.0 usesrc clientip check disabled > #server tornode31 192.168.0.31:9001 source 0.0.0.0 usesrc clientip check disabled > server tornode41 192.168.0.41:9001 source 0.0.0.0 usesrc clientip check disabled > server tornode51 192.168.0.51:9001 source 0.0.0.0 usesrc clientip check disabled > > > Linux Kernel & IPTables Config: > > modprobe xt_socket > modprobe xt_TPROXY > > echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward; cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward > echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_nonlocal_bind; cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_nonlocal_bind > echo 15000 64000 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range; cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range > > ip rule del fwmark 1 lookup 100 2>/dev/null # Ensure Duplicate Rule is not Created > ip rule add fwmark 1 lookup 100 # ip rule show > ip route add local 0.0.0.0/0 dev lo table 100 # ip route show table wan0; ip route show table 100 > > iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 9001 -j ACCEPT > iptables -t mangle -N TOR > iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m socket -j TOR > iptables -t mangle -A TOR -j MARK --set-mark 1 > iptables -t mangle -A TOR -j ACCEPT > #iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -p tcp -s 192.168.0.0/24 --sport 9001 -j MARK --set-xmark 0x1/0xffffffff > #iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 9001 -j TPROXY --tproxy-mark 0x1/0x1 --on-port 9001 --on-ip 127.0.0.1 > > > Backend Tor Relay Node Configs: > > # cat /tmp/torrc > Nickname xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > ORPort xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:9001 NoListen > ORPort 192.168.0.11:9001 NoAdvertise > SocksPort 9050 > SocksPort 192.168.0.11:9050 > ControlPort 9051 > DirAuthority longclaw orport=443 no-v2 v3ident=23D15D965BC35114467363C165C4F724B64B4F66 199.58.81.140:80 74A910646BCEEFBCD2E874FC1DC997430F968145 > FallbackDir 193.23.244.244:80 orport=443 id=7BE683E65D48141321C5ED92F075C55364AC7123 > DirCache 0 > ExitRelay 0 > MaxMemInQueues 192 MB > GeoIPFile /opt/share/tor/geoip > Log notice file /tmp/torlog > Log notice syslog > VirtualAddrNetwork 10.192.0.0/10 > AutomapHostsOnResolve 1 > TransPort 192.168.0.11:9040 > DNSPort 192.168.0.11:9053 > RunAsDaemon 1 > DataDirectory /tmp/tor/torrc.d/.tordb > AvoidDiskWrites 1 > User tor > ContactInfo tor-operator at your-emailaddress-domain > > # cat /tmp/torrc > Nickname xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > ORPort xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:9001 NoListen > ORPort 192.168.0.41:9001 NoAdvertise > SocksPort 9050 > SocksPort 192.168.0.41:9050 > ControlPort 9051 > DirAuthority longclaw orport=443 no-v2 v3ident=23D15D965BC35114467363C165C4F724B64B4F66 199.58.81.140:80 74A910646BCEEFBCD2E874FC1DC997430F968145 > FallbackDir 193.23.244.244:80 orport=443 id=7BE683E65D48141321C5ED92F075C55364AC7123 > DirCache 0 > ExitRelay 0 > MaxMemInQueues 192 MB > GeoIPFile /opt/share/tor/geoip > Log notice file /tmp/torlog > Log notice syslog > VirtualAddrNetwork 10.192.0.0/10 > AutomapHostsOnResolve 1 > TransPort 192.168.0.41:9040 > DNSPort 192.168.0.41:9053 > RunAsDaemon 1 > DataDirectory /tmp/tor/torrc.d/.tordb > AvoidDiskWrites 1 > User tor > ContactInfo tor-operator at your-emailaddress-domain > > > Shell Scripts to Remotely Manage Tor Relay Nodes: > > # cat /usr/sbin/stat-tor-nodes > #!/bin/sh > uptime-all-nodes; memfree-all-nodes; netstat-tor-nodes > > # cat /usr/sbin/uptime-all-nodes > #!/bin/sh > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.11 'hostname; uptime' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.21 'hostname; uptime' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.31 'hostname; uptime' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.41 'hostname; uptime' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.51 'hostname; uptime' > > # cat /usr/sbin/memfree-all-nodes > #!/bin/sh > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.11 'hostname; grep MemFree /proc/meminfo' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.21 'hostname; grep MemFree /proc/meminfo' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.31 'hostname; grep MemFree /proc/meminfo' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.41 'hostname; grep MemFree /proc/meminfo' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.51 'hostname; grep MemFree /proc/meminfo' > > # cat /usr/sbin/netstat-tor-nodes > #!/bin/sh > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.11 'hostname; netstat -anp | grep -i tor | grep -v 192.168.0.1: | wc -l' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.21 'hostname; netstat -anp | grep -i tor | grep -v 192.168.0.1: | wc -l' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.31 'hostname; netstat -anp | grep -i tor | grep -v 192.168.0.1: | wc -l' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.41 'hostname; netstat -anp | grep -i tor | grep -v 192.168.0.1: | wc -l' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.51 'hostname; netstat -anp | grep -i tor | grep -v 192.168.0.1: | wc -l' > > # cat /jffs/sbin/ps-tor-nodes > #!/bin/sh > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.11 'hostname; ps w | grep -i tor' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.21 'hostname; ps w | grep -i tor' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.31 'hostname; ps w | grep -i tor' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.41 'hostname; ps w | grep -i tor' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.51 'hostname; ps w | grep -i tor' > > # cat /usr/sbin/killall-tor-nodes > #!/bin/sh > read -r -p "Are you sure? [y/N] " input > case "$input" in > [yY]) > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.11 'killall tor' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.21 'killall tor' > #/usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.31 'killall tor' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.41 'killall tor' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.51 'killall tor' > return 0 > ;; > *) > return 1 > ;; > esac > > # cat /usr/sbin/restart-tor-nodes > #!/bin/sh > read -r -p "Are you sure? [y/N] " input > case "$input" in > [yY]) > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.11 '/usr/sbin/tor -f /tmp/torrc --quiet' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.21 '/usr/sbin/tor -f /tmp/torrc --quiet' > #/usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.31 '/usr/sbin/tor -f /tmp/torrc --quiet' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.41 '/usr/sbin/tor -f /tmp/torrc --quiet' > /usr/bin/ssh -t admin at 192.168.0.51 '/usr/sbin/tor -f /tmp/torrc --quiet' > return 0 > ;; > *) > return 1 > ;; > esac > > I've been meaning to put together a tutorial on Loadbalancing Tor Relays, but haven't found the time as of yet. Perhaps, this will help, until I am able to find the time. > > I appreciate your knowledge sharing and for furthering the topic of Loadbalancing Tor Relays; especially, with regard to Bridging and Exit Relays. > > Keep up the Great Work! > > Respectfully, > > > Gary > On Tuesday, January 4, 2022, 09:57:52 PM MST, Roger Dingledine <arma at torproject.org> wrote: > > [I'm about to go off-line for some days, so I am sending my current > suboptimally-organized reply, which I hope is better than waiting another > week to respond :)] > > On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 10:42:51PM -0700, David Fifield wrote: > > Let's make a distinction between the "frontend" snowflake-server > > pluggable transport process, and the "backend" tor process. These don't > > necessarily have to be 1:1; either one could be run in multiple > > instances. Currently, the "backend" tor is the limiting factor, because > > it uses only 1 CPU core. The "frontend" snowflake-server can scale to > > multiple cores in a single process and is comparatively unrestrained. > > Excellent point, and yes this simplifies. Great. > > > I believe that the "pinning" of a client session to particular tor > > instance will work automatically by the fact that snowflake-server keeps > > an outgoing connection alive (i.e., through the load balancer) as long > > as a KCP session exists. > >[...] > > But before starting the second instance the first time, copy keys from > > the first instance: > > Hm. It looks promising! But we might still have a Tor-side problem > remaining. I think it boils down to how long the KCP sessions last. > > The details on how exactly these bridge instances will diverge over time: > > The keys directory will start out the same, but after four weeks > (DEFAULT_ONION_KEY_LIFETIME_DAYS, used to be one week but in Tor > 0.3.1.1-alpha, proposal 274, we bumped it up to four weeks) each > bridge will rotate its onion key (the one clients use for circuit-level > crypto). That is, each instance will generate its own fresh onion key. > > The two bridge instances actually haven't diverged completely at that > point, since Tor remembers the previous onion key (i.e. the onion key > from the previous period) and is willing to receive create cells that > use it for one further week (DEFAULT_ONION_KEY_GRACE_PERIOD_DAYS). So it > is after 5 weeks that the original (shared) onion key will no longer work. > > Where this matters is (after this 5 weeks have passed) if the client > connects to the bridge, fetches and caches the bridge descriptor of > instance A, and then later it connects to the bridge again and gets > passed to instance B. In this case, the create cell that the client > generates will use the onion key for instance A, and instance B won't > know how to decrypt it so it will send a destroy cell back. > > If this is an issue, we can definitely work around it, by e.g. disabling > the onion key rotation on the bridges, or setting up a periodic rsync+hup > between the bridges, or teaching clients to use createfast cells in this > situation (this type of circuit crypto doesn't use the onion key at all, > and just relies on TLS for security -- which can only be done for the > first hop of the circuit but that's the one we're talking about here). > > But before we think about workarounds, maybe we don't need one: how long > does "the KCP session" last? > > Tor clients try to fetch a fresh bridge descriptor every three-ish > hours, and once they fetch a bridge descriptor from their "current" > bridge instance, they should know the onion key that it wants to use. So > it is that up-to-three-hour window where I think things could go wrong. > And that timeframe sounds promising. > > (I also want to double-check that clients don't try to use the onion > key from the current cached descriptor while fetching the updated > descriptor. That could become an ugly bug in the wrong circumstances, > and would be something we want to fix if it's happening.) > > Here's how you can simulate a pair of bridge instances that have diverged > after five weeks, so you can test how things would work with them: > > Copy the keys directory as before, but "rm secret_onion_key*" in the > keys directory on n-1 of the instances, before starting them.) > > Thanks! > --Roger >

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Bridges not being distributed
by Spydar007 25 Mar '22

25 Mar '22

Hello, I notice (almost) all bridges are showing their distributor mechanism as None on Tor Metrics.[1] There are also hardly any in the latest pool assignments file from CollecTor.[2] Curious as to why? Is this a change that needs fixing on a bridge operators end, or simply BridgeDB not reporting properly? [1] https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#search/type:bridge%20 [2] https://metrics.torproject.org/collector/recent/bridge-pool-assignments/

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update obfs4proxy if you run a bridge
by meskio 23 Mar '22

23 Mar '22

Hello, TL;RD: if you are a bridge operator please update obfs4proxy to a version>=0.0.12. There is a new version of obfs4proxy (>=0.0.12) which fixes a security issue[0]. Tor Browser has already updated to the new version, which reduces a bit the security problem, but introduces a partial incompatibility between versions[1]. Because of that updating to the latest version greatly will help bridge users. If you use debian you can find the latest version bullseye-backports[2]. If you use docker there is a new version of the official docker image that you can upgrade to[3]. Thank you for running bridges, let me know if you need any help upgrading it. [0] https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/anti-censorship-team/2022-January/00… [1] https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40804 [2] https://packages.debian.org/stable-backports/obfs4proxy [3] https://hub.docker.com/layers/thetorproject/obfs4-bridge/0.11/images/sha256… -- meskio | https://meskio.net/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- My contact info: https://meskio.net/crypto.txt -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Nos vamos a Croatan.

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