Experience with obfuscated bridge on Raspberry Pi Raspian
Hi, As lately there were many discussions on getting Tor from the experimental repository running on Raspian, I thought I would share my experiences here. First, I tried to install Tor following [1] and [2] and ran into the same compatibility issues as most of you. But then I just downloaded the soft-float version of Raspian "wheezy" from [3]. And I could install Tor and obsproxy from the experimental repository without any issues (i.e. without any compiling or complex configurations). I ran the obfuscated bridge for a week and it relayed a few 100 MB without any problems. The bridge is connected to a standard home cable connection in Switzerland (router runs pfSense). Of course the load was not too high due to only running an obfuscated bridge. After the week I decided to shut the bridge down because I heard from people being contacted by the police even though only running a non-exit relay. As I share a flat with some friends, I absolutely cannot afford being raided or similar. If anyone can give me some advice on running non-exit relays at home in Switzerland, I might consider running the bridge again. Hope this helps. Cheers, Damian [1] https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-debian-instructions.html.en#in... [2] https://www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html.en#development [3] http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads
Hi, Most of the people that get raided are exit node operators. So, not a big problem for you to run a non-exit relay since you're not the one who connecting with other people outside the Tor network and it won't trace back to you. It's even safer if you run a bridge relay. By the way, what was the reason or issue given by police when the non-exit relay operator got contacted? And is that person also in Switzerland? Tony
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 01:00:35 +0200 From: damian.goeldi@gmail.com To: tor-relays@lists.torproject.org Subject: [tor-relays] Experience with obfuscated bridge on Raspberry Pi Raspian
Hi,
As lately there were many discussions on getting Tor from the experimental repository running on Raspian, I thought I would share my experiences here.
First, I tried to install Tor following [1] and [2] and ran into the same compatibility issues as most of you. But then I just downloaded the soft-float version of Raspian "wheezy" from [3]. And I could install Tor and obsproxy from the experimental repository without any issues (i.e. without any compiling or complex configurations).
I ran the obfuscated bridge for a week and it relayed a few 100 MB without any problems. The bridge is connected to a standard home cable connection in Switzerland (router runs pfSense). Of course the load was not too high due to only running an obfuscated bridge.
After the week I decided to shut the bridge down because I heard from people being contacted by the police even though only running a non-exit relay. As I share a flat with some friends, I absolutely cannot afford being raided or similar. If anyone can give me some advice on running non-exit relays at home in Switzerland, I might consider running the bridge again.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Damian
[1] https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-debian-instructions.html.en#in... [2] https://www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html.en#development [3] http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads _______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
Thanks for sharing your experience!
After the week I decided to shut the bridge down because I heard from people being contacted by the police even though only running a non-exit relay.
Do you remember where you did hear this? Was it in writing, are you by chance maybe able to link to it? It would be interesting to know more. All non-bridge relays (exit or non-exit) can be enumerated by anyone (that's by design); this is not the case with bridges. However I suppose the extent to which any potential efforts to do just that may be happening does very much depend on the jurisdiction where that bridge is being run; China's internet censorship / 'firewall' thing seems to have been trying to enumerate bridges for a while now. [1] In any case, as far as I'm concerned, it would be *really* interesting to hear of any incidents between the police and non-exit relay operators. [1]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/knock-knock-knockin-bridges-doors On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 2:00 AM, z0rc <damian.goeldi@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
As lately there were many discussions on getting Tor from the experimental repository running on Raspian, I thought I would share my experiences here.
First, I tried to install Tor following [1] and [2] and ran into the same compatibility issues as most of you. But then I just downloaded the soft-float version of Raspian "wheezy" from [3]. And I could install Tor and obsproxy from the experimental repository without any issues (i.e. without any compiling or complex configurations).
I ran the obfuscated bridge for a week and it relayed a few 100 MB without any problems. The bridge is connected to a standard home cable connection in Switzerland (router runs pfSense). Of course the load was not too high due to only running an obfuscated bridge.
After the week I decided to shut the bridge down because I heard from people being contacted by the police even though only running a non-exit relay. As I share a flat with some friends, I absolutely cannot afford being raided or similar. If anyone can give me some advice on running non-exit relays at home in Switzerland, I might consider running the bridge again.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Damian
[1] https://www.torproject.org/**projects/obfsproxy-debian-** instructions.html.en#**instructions<https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-debian-instructions.html.en#instructions> [2] https://www.torproject.org/**docs/debian.html.en#**development<https://www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html.en#development> [3] http://www.raspberrypi.org/**downloads<http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads> ______________________________**_________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.**org <tor-relays@lists.torproject.org> https://lists.torproject.org/**cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-**relays<https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays>
On 20/08/13 12:01, Kostas Jakeliunas wrote:
Do you remember where you did hear this? Was it in writing, are you by chance maybe able to link to it? It would be interesting to know more.
Hi, It was actually on this list a few weeks ago. Paul Staroch was contacted by the German authorities for running a non-exit relay [1]. It seems like they knew too little about Tor and thought he was providing child pornography through his relay as they used it as entry node. So I was wondering whether it was possible that some criminal used my bridge to do some nasty stuff and when the authorities find him, they will see my IP on his PC and come after me? But maybe this is just a little too paranoid. Are there any other known incidences like this one? Damian [1] https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/2013-August/002365.html
On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 1:58 AM, z0rc <damian.goeldi@gmail.com> wrote:
On 20/08/13 12:01, Kostas Jakeliunas wrote:
Do you remember where you did hear this? Was it in writing, are you by chance maybe able to link to it? It would be interesting to know more.
Hi,
It was actually on this list a few weeks ago. Paul Staroch was contacted by the German authorities for running a non-exit relay [1]. It seems like they knew too little about Tor and thought he was providing child pornography through his relay as they used it as entry node. So I was wondering whether it was possible that some criminal used my bridge to do some nasty stuff and when the authorities find him, they will see my IP on his PC and come after me? But maybe this is just a little too paranoid. Are there any other known incidences like this one?
Damian
[1] https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/2013-August/002365.html
Oh, this is interesting (I wasn't yet subscribed to @tor-relays at the time probably). It seems that these kinds of things might be unavoidable, but there shouldn't be any trouble after the operator explains / links to explanations of how Tor works. I think there's much less chance of this happening if one is running a bridge, since in that case it won't be part of the public relay list, and it won't be possible to connect to any .onions through it automatically, without first getting the bridge IP through one of the bridge pools and deliberately adding it to Vidalia/wherever (and configuring your Tor to actually use bridges.) I wouldn't be afraid. (Ideally, operators wouldn't be afraid of some confrontation in any case - they would kindly explain how Tor works, and would defend Tor as a tool for empowerment of users, etc.) Kostas.
Hello. I don't think you will be raided for running a non-exit Tor relay. Especially, if you run a bridge, since bridges are not public, are not mentioned in consensus. Even if an oppressive regime scans the internet for bridges, in order to block its citizens from accessing it, i don't think you'll have a problem in Switzerland. On 08/20/2013 02:00 AM, z0rc wrote:
After the week I decided to shut the bridge down because I heard from people being contacted by the police even though only running a non-exit relay. As I share a flat with some friends, I absolutely cannot afford being raided or similar. If anyone can give me some advice on running non-exit relays at home in Switzerland, I might consider running the bridge again.
participants (4)
-
irregulator＠riseup.net -
Kostas Jakeliunas -
TonyXue -
z0rc