-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512
Since I originally started keeping an eye on these on my Raspberry Pi relay (read: slow, resource-limited), I've got to wonder if the circuit creation storms I was seeing months ago weren't normal network phenomena but some kind of test run.
We are talking going from 50-250 circuits to thousands of requests per *second* out of nowhere, and then if the machine survived it, the storm disappearing as suddenly as it came. This was happening months ago, but less frequently and only on lower-end hardware. Now it's happening everywhere.
Even if the previous case *were* "normal" Tor network operation, I'd say it's a bug, but I'm suspicious that it was whatever is going on now in its test phase.
tor@t-3.net:
Also see a repeat of the odd log message with the 154.x net address someone else described with the huge hexidecimal string (40 hex chars, + sign, 40 more, on and on).
Here as well. I believe this is the sign of an overloaded Tor directory server.
Over roughly the same time frame I received an incredibly high number of spam e-mails in one e-mail account that normally gets 20 or so a day on quiet days. Perhaps this is another example of mal-ware in action.
Funny, one of the dropped connections during my storm last night was to port 993... :P
Best, - -Gordon M.