- tor-relays - lists.torproject.org

NSA's "Tor Stinks"
by Jesse Victors 10 Oct '13

10 Oct '13

I recently ran across several articles related to the NSA's attempts at cracking Tor and de-anonymizing its users. They are after terrorists and other individuals who seek to do harm of course, but their work obviously has implications into other Tor users, the vast majority of whom use Tor for legal and proper activities. So far, it appears that the cryptographic standards and protocols implemented by the Tor devs appear to be holding, which I find interesting. The NSA has been trying other methods to figure out Tor, including identifying and then infecting user machines, trying to control/hijack the Tor network, or by influencing the network as a whole, and they've had a very small amount of success, but not much. One thing that was especially interesting to me (and I expect to everyone on this mailing list) is that they are trying to control more relays via cooperation or direct access, which can then be used for timing attacks or disruptions to the users. They are also trying to shape traffic to friendly exits. For anyone interested, I would highly recommend these links: http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/tor-stinks-nsa-pre… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24429332 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/nsa-gchq-attack-tor-network-en… Also, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/tor-high-secure-in… it appears that their opinion of Tails is that it "adds severe CNE misery to [the] equation". These are all highly informative articles, and it appears that Tor is remaining resilient to their efforts, as long as people (including relay/exit operators) use the latest software, remain aware that Tor doesn't protect them in all aspects, and as long as there are enough non-NSA relays and exits (we need more!) such that everything they see still remains encrypted and anonymous. Interesting I say. Jesse V.

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Re: [tor-relays] NSA's "Tor Stinks"
by Jesse Victors 09 Oct '13

09 Oct '13

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 11:48:01 +0200 > From: Konrad Neitzel <konrad(a)neitzel.de> > To: tor-relays(a)lists.torproject.org > Subject: Re: [tor-relays] NSA's "Tor Stinks" > Message-ID: <1381312081.3204.32.camel(a)opensusevm1.site> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > On Tue, 2013-10-08 at 23:40 -0400, krishna e bera wrote: >> On 13-10-08 03:23 PM, Jesse Victors wrote: >>> ... >>> obviously has implications into other Tor users, the vast majority of >>> whom use Tor for legal and proper activities. >> Could you give some evidence for what "vast majority" means in terms of >> percentages? How are you getting such data? > I think that we first need a clear definition what "legal" means or what > "proper activities" are. The core problem is, that the definition of > these terms can differ a lot (e.g. from country to country but even from > person to person inside a country. At least the interior minister of > germany seems to have some strange ideas :) ). > > And I just read a news article of a german publisher (Heise) about NSA > and what they do and I understood it that NSA is claiming to just check > on non US citizens or illegal things. The "owner" of the data that is > sent between 2 tor nodes cannot be identified so when the NSA attacks > any tor traffic there must be some kind of understanding, that using the > tor network already is something illegal in the minds of these people. > > At least that was, what I understood when I was reading this article. > > With kind regards, > > Konrad Ok, I did not expect that this was going to be a talking point or be otherwise confusing. No I don't have any hard numbers, nor do I run an exit that I can test using tcpdump. But the Torproject repeatedly says that Tor is often used for good, or simply to just hide one's Internet activities for those who feel that they have a right to be hidden even if they have nothing to hide. I have friends who do their browsing over Tor, and there's nothing at all controversial about what they are up to as far as I'm aware. I understand what you're saying: I agree that simply going to Google may be illegal in some countries. I believe that a few bad apples put Tor in the news, make things hard for the exit operators, and spoil things for the rest of us. My point was that the NSA is doing penetration testing on the Tor network and doing what they can to figure it out. No matter what kind of traffic goes through Tor, the fact remains is that they are doing that, and we need to be aware of their efforts, the progress they've made, and what they are planning. That was my main topic that I was introducing to the group. Jesse V. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) iQF8BAEBCgBmBQJSVWhVXxSAAAAAAC4AKGlzc3Vlci1mcHJAbm90YXRpb25zLm9w ZW5wZ3AuZmlmdGhob3JzZW1hbi5uZXQxMjgyMjhENjEyODQ1OTU1NzBCMjgwRkFB RDk3MzY0RkMyMEJFQzgwAAoJEK2XNk/CC+yAnvcIALGb0/r7GNfxozWW27uc/dIN 5asIgWpUCFIm9Rw4pl8EfDeQ7r0ktauM8/MsRrOaIxMiyoj8u1n07HS7bmf6UKyg dLZTIJeyxnjewEw1fSAHAw6e3dxXVQxyNz0eF6EqIJureRXqfzvEa+9oFNBOBxgk qsCDNn38xwnhumOMESmiGzaUO7eEvTNAnwCZTKtrlYwSUf7G8zWjHafJbe68kcGE j5bxa8+sjB6OwdvCnCXEOe+L65L+N0RCPIEL+NWBqn+ff5dwQY5GYPNhszil4qLr RlFgpOwvbwmA5hRAHBKpVLubrPDx9ocLaNBwcWwlP/ccgFfwqYJrOInTueKSs9k= =SOt/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [tor-relays] Admin panel compromised
by Yoriz 06 Oct '13

06 Oct '13

All, I have successfully reinstalled the 'privshield' exit: https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/BA2D32ECE096FC423D6DC1975021A01D96C01… Unfortunately, as fresh server keys have been generated, the node will keep its "unnamed" flag for another 6 months (why?!), and consensus weight started at the bottom again so I am not seeing a lot of traffic yet. And most importantly: I have to start all over again to try to earn my Tor T-Shirt! ;-) @Lunar and @Jon: thank you for your kind words. // Yoriz

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Anyone using obfsproxy on Ubuntu Lucid?
by Lunar 05 Oct '13

05 Oct '13

Hi! Ubuntu Lucid is getting old. Building an obfsproxy package for Lucid now requires some extra work. weasel stopped building tor master branch for Lucid already. Is there anyone providing obfsproxy bridges using Ubuntu Lucid? -- Lunar <lunar(a)torproject.org>

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Re: [tor-relays] NSA v TOR Guardian article
by tor＠t-3.net 05 Oct '13

05 Oct '13

The tech articles had fascinating info which I know the Tor devs will be eating right up like a cupcake :) Does anyone have any insights into the articles which would be specific to tor relay operators, and would allow us to be better node hosts? Didn't like that the NSA has in essence verified that they run some nodes. Could have guessed it was the case, but still. Would love to know which nodes belong to them. They would have a big budget for donated bandwidth if they so chose, since they get to dip the soup ladle deep into the US/UK taxpayer cauldron. On Saturday 05/10/2013 at 1:26 am, Roger Dingledine wrote: > On Fri, Oct 04, 2013 at 09:12:07PM -0800, I wrote: >> >> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/nsa-gchq-attack-tor-network-en… > > Hi! > > This is best discussed on the big thread on tor-talk. > > But see also > https://blog.torproject.org/blog/yes-we-know-about-guardian-article > > Thanks, > --Roger > > _______________________________________________ > tor-relays mailing list > tor-relays(a)lists.torproject.org > https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays

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NSA v TOR Guardian article
by I 05 Oct '13

05 Oct '13

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Running more nets than Tor?
by grarpamp 04 Oct '13

04 Oct '13

Anyone also offering up vpngate, i2p, mail mixes, other p2p/networks, etc to the public on their relay platform?

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BBG and Tor funding
by mick 04 Oct '13

04 Oct '13

See http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/nsa-gchq-attack-tor-network-en… Note the new addition at the end of this article, presumably added at the request of BBG "• This article was amended on 4 October after the Broadcasting Board of Governors pointed out that its support of Tor ended in October 2012." So. How does this square with BBG's alleged support for financing new fast exit relays? https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/2013-September/002824.html Best Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Admin panel compromised
by Yoriz 04 Oct '13

04 Oct '13

For your info: I am the operator of the "privshield" exit. I just got notice from my hoster (5gbps.com) that their backoffice admin panel was compromised. Indeed my firstname and password to the admin panel have been changed. Fortunately, I have SSH on my VPS configured to only accept public key-based logins, and see no signs of entry of the VPS. As the backoffice panel provides direct console access, there is a slight chance they logged in directly by a safe-mode boot, but my uptime is a month, and I see no dip in the tor bandwidth: https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/DA3F7BD5428F88C79C9C7006B791982DA0115… However, as a precaution I have shut down my tor exit. I will request a clean Ubuntu image and reinstall my tor exit this weekend. I will generate new server keys just to be sure. My mail is hosted on the same system, I won't have access to this email address for a few days. // Yoriz

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need help with running tor in combination with shorewall
by Jan Hendrik den Besten 03 Oct '13

03 Oct '13

Hi, I installed tor a few days ago. It only runs fine if I stop my shorewall firewall. I found here some online help: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorFAQ However, the shorewall-rules example given there doesn't work. It's mentioned the example is for shorewall v2.2.3 whereas the current version is v4.5.16.1. Does anyone have a latest exmple of the /etc/shorewall/rules file? thanks, Jan Hendrik --

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