Hello my fellow relay operators,
I just received an email that was sent to many relay operators' contact emails. The content is as follows:
// Start message
Hello to all the relays operators.
My name is Zakwan Kalb. I'm investigating a possible ongoing end-to-end confirmation attack run by the Torproject.
Please reply to me if you have encountered one of the following and provide as much information as possible:
1. Your relay has been removed by the Torproject. (You've seen something like that in your log files: "http status 400 ("Fingerprint and/or ed25519 identity is marked rejected ...")
2. The Torproject added flags it's not supposed to add to your relays (BadExit, MiddleOnly)
3. You have been asked by the Torproject to install unknown software, spy on users or do something else that's suspicious
4. You know something about the ongoing attack
I have some evidence of the attack: the Torproject doesn't allow people to run relays by removing them from the network or making them unusable as Guard or Exit for no known reason for years. A random person cannot run a Guard or Exit relay. Thus the Tor network is entirely run by the people chosen by the Torproject by unknown criteria.
More evidence and details are needed. I think we need to discuss this issue with each other, contact the media and freedom of speech organizations and let people know what's happening.
// End message
Looking through his mailing list history it looks like he was asking about this same thing back in 2021. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up.
It doesn't seem like there's any malicious intent, maybe a bit of schizophrenia perhaps, but I've reached back out simply asking if he has any proof of anything actually going on just to appease my own curiosity.
I have no further comment about this.
Zachary
