Receiving abuse reports for Non-Exit Relay
Hello all, In the past 24 hrs, I have been receiving complaints from my hosting provider that they're receiving hundreds of abuse reports related to port scanning. I have no clue why I'm all of the sudden receiving abuse reports when this non-exit relay has been online for months without issues. In addition, I have other non-exit relays hosted by the same provider with no issues and more across other providers. I proceeded to reinstall the OS and reconfigure Tor. I was then quickly notified by my hosting provider again of more abuse reports all showing port 22 as target port. I have not changed my torrc at all and it's still setup as a non-exit relay. No other applications/services were installed alongside Tor. Tor Metrics does not show the relay as Exit either. It feels like Tor Exit Traffic is leaking through my non-exit relay? Has anyone else experienced any behavior similar to this? Any ideas on how to fix or prevent this? prsv admin
In the past 24 hrs, I have been receiving complaints from my hosting provider that they're receiving hundreds of abuse reports related to port scanning. I have no clue why I'm all of the sudden receiving abuse reports when this non-exit relay has been online for months without issues. In addition, I have other non-exit relays hosted by the same provider with no issues and more across other providers.
I proceeded to reinstall the OS and reconfigure Tor. I was then quickly notified by my hosting provider again of more abuse reports all showing port 22 as target port.
I have not changed my torrc at all and it's still setup as a non-exit relay. No other applications/services were installed alongside Tor. Tor Metrics does not show the relay as Exit either.
It feels like Tor Exit Traffic is leaking through my non-exit relay? Hello,
To me it seems like bogus or invalid reports. With certainity over 19 in 20. The picture simply does not fit port scanning. 1. Not only middle relays, but exit nodes can only perform complete TCP connections. Port scanning usually involves a SYN or UDP scan, which is technically not possible to be done using any Tor node. 2. Even if we assume somebody is hurting oneself by performing a full-connection TCP scan, you mention only one port is being reported. A port scan involves many ports. And this is not merely pedanticism regarding naming. The detection of a port scan relies on this. In other words: there is no way to classify traffic as a port scan, if only one port is affected. Since only port 22 is affected and 22 is not a common port for Tor relays, you may simply block egress traffic to this port altogether. The same as IP address ranges for which reports come. If the reports continue coming, you can be almost sure they are false. The little uncertainity remains for some attacker having root (or above-root) access to your machine, but this is not coming from your Tor relay. Before blocking IP address ranges, check if they are not relays. I do not want to make positive statements about one trying to affect Tor network, but such a possibility should also not be excluded without checking. Cheers
From the abuseipdb report, it almost seems like your server has been compromised and a rogue actor is attempting to ssh brute force attack the reporting plaintiffs' servers. As suggested previously, use tcpdump on the server in question to confirm the outbound tcp/22 traffic. If the issue is confirmed, you can configure the machine layer firewall to block all outbound tcp/22 traffic initiated from the server in question with iptables, etc. I doubt it is Tor related.
Best Wishes! Gary— This Message Originated by the Sun. iBigBlue 63W Solar Array (~12 Hour Charge) + 2 x Charmast 26800mAh Power Banks = iPhone XS Max 512GB (~2 Weeks Charged) On Thursday, July 27, 2023, 2:14:52 PM MDT, John Crow via tor-relays <tor-relays@lists.torproject.org> wrote: Hello, It is honestly still puzzling to me considering that the relay wasn’t compromised or misconfigured. If you or anyone wants to check out the reportshttps://www.abuseipdb.com/check/23.132.184.31 On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 2:16 PM, mpan - tor-1qnuaylp at mpan.pl <tor-1qnuaylp_at_mpan_pl_zcbqwoytkh@simplelogin.co> wrote:
In the past 24 hrs, I have been receiving complaints from my hosting provider that they're receiving hundreds of abuse reports related to port scanning. I have no clue why I'm all of the sudden receiving abuse reports when this non-exit relay has been online for months without issues. In addition, I have other non-exit relays hosted by the same provider with no issues and more across other providers.
I proceeded to reinstall the OS and reconfigure Tor. I was then quickly notified by my hosting provider again of more abuse reports all showing port 22 as target port.
I have not changed my torrc at all and it's still setup as a non-exit relay. No other applications/services were installed alongside Tor. Tor Metrics does not show the relay as Exit either.
It feels like Tor Exit Traffic is leaking through my non-exit relay? Hello,
To me it seems like bogus or invalid reports. With certainity over 19 in 20. The picture simply does not fit port scanning. 1. Not only middle relays, but exit nodes can only perform complete TCP connections. Port scanning usually involves a SYN or UDP scan, which is technically not possible to be done using any Tor node. 2. Even if we assume somebody is hurting oneself by performing a full-connection TCP scan, you mention only one port is being reported. A port scan involves many ports. And this is not merely pedanticism regarding naming. The detection of a port scan relies on this. In other words: there is no way to classify traffic as a port scan, if only one port is affected. Since only port 22 is affected and 22 is not a common port for Tor relays, you may simply block egress traffic to this port altogether. The same as IP address ranges for which reports come. If the reports continue coming, you can be almost sure they are false. The little uncertainity remains for some attacker having root (or above-root) access to your machine, but this is not coming from your Tor relay. Before blocking IP address ranges, check if they are not relays. I do not want to make positive statements about one trying to affect Tor network, but such a possibility should also not be excluded without checking. Cheers _______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays _______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
Hi John, Would it be possible that another device on your network is responsible for the network scanning? If you have an infected PC for instance, your provider would not see the difference. Regards, Paul ------- Original Message ------- Op donderdag 27 juli 2023 om 21:54 schreef John Crow via tor-relays <tor-relays@lists.torproject.org>:
Hello,
It is honestly still puzzling to me considering that the relay wasn’t compromised or misconfigured.
If you or anyone wants to check out the reports https://www.abuseipdb.com/check/23.132.184.31
On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 2:16 PM, mpan - tor-1qnuaylp at mpan.pl <tor-1qnuaylp_at_mpan_pl_zcbqwoytkh@simplelogin.co> wrote:
In the past 24 hrs, I have been receiving complaints from my hosting provider that they're receiving hundreds of abuse reports related to port scanning. I have no clue why I'm all of the sudden receiving abuse reports when this non-exit relay has been online for months without issues. In addition, I have other non-exit relays hosted by the same provider with no issues and more across other providers.
I proceeded to reinstall the OS and reconfigure Tor. I was then quickly notified by my hosting provider again of more abuse reports all showing port 22 as target port.
I have not changed my torrc at all and it's still setup as a non-exit relay. No other applications/services were installed alongside Tor. Tor Metrics does not show the relay as Exit either.
It feels like Tor Exit Traffic is leaking through my non-exit relay? Hello,
To me it seems like bogus or invalid reports. With certainity over 19 in 20. The picture simply does not fit port scanning.
1. Not only middle relays, but exit nodes can only perform complete TCP connections. Port scanning usually involves a SYN or UDP scan, which is technically not possible to be done using any Tor node.
2. Even if we assume somebody is hurting oneself by performing a full-connection TCP scan, you mention only one port is being reported. A port scan involves many ports. And this is not merely pedanticism regarding naming. The detection of a port scan relies on this. In other words: there is no way to classify traffic as a port scan, if only one port is affected.
Since only port 22 is affected and 22 is not a common port for Tor relays, you may simply block egress traffic to this port altogether. The same as IP address ranges for which reports come. If the reports continue coming, you can be almost sure they are false. The little uncertainity remains for some attacker having root (or above-root) access to your machine, but this is not coming from your Tor relay.
Before blocking IP address ranges, check if they are not relays. I do not want to make positive statements about one trying to affect Tor network, but such a possibility should also not be excluded without checking.
Cheers _______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
_______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
Hello John, Unfortunately I don't have an answer and are not familiar with this problem. It's not exactly clear to me what is scanning what. Are the complains about traffic coming from your relay as port scanning devices around the internet on port 22? Or lots of incoming traffic scanning your port 22 because it's open? Which OS do you use? Are they sure the IP address is your relay only? Or do you share an IP in a cluster for example? It seems improbable that exit relay traffic is leaking through, as that would make many guard and middle relays sensitive for abuse complaints. I hope someone has some insights about this and you can resolve your issue. Regards, -------- Original Message -------- From: John Crow via tor-relays <tor-relays@lists.torproject.org> Sent: July 24, 2023 12:07:44 AM GMT+02:00 To: tor-relays@lists.torproject.org Cc: admin@prsv.ch Subject: [tor-relays] Receiving abuse reports for Non-Exit Relay Hello all, In the past 24 hrs, I have been receiving complaints from my hosting provider that they're receiving hundreds of abuse reports related to port scanning. I have no clue why I'm all of the sudden receiving abuse reports when this non-exit relay has been online for months without issues. In addition, I have other non-exit relays hosted by the same provider with no issues and more across other providers. I proceeded to reinstall the OS and reconfigure Tor. I was then quickly notified by my hosting provider again of more abuse reports all showing port 22 as target port. I have not changed my torrc at all and it's still setup as a non-exit relay. No other applications/services were installed alongside Tor. Tor Metrics does not show the relay as Exit either. It feels like Tor Exit Traffic is leaking through my non-exit relay? Has anyone else experienced any behavior similar to this? Any ideas on how to fix or prevent this? prsv admin -- / Jonathan van der Steege My GnuPG key is: c6f32128e7522f4acb878d6a4a9f0b50ace75416 <https://keys.openpgp.org/search?q=jonathan@jonakeys.nl>
Hey John, Perhaps one thing you can try in debugging is to run tcpdump on the server in question, to check if it is indeed sending out a lot of port-scanning packets. You can use the following command to filter for port 22 only. Make sure to test with tor turned off as well. "*sudo* *tcpdump -vv dst port 22 and host not 123.45.xx.xx*" (Since filter for port 22 will also capture your own ongoing ssh connection to the server, you need to fill in your own computer's public IP address into the filter to suppress it.) Cheers, -- Danny On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 7:07 PM John Crow via tor-relays < tor-relays@lists.torproject.org> wrote:
Hello all,
In the past 24 hrs, I have been receiving complaints from my hosting provider that they're receiving hundreds of abuse reports related to port scanning. I have no clue why I'm all of the sudden receiving abuse reports when this non-exit relay has been online for months without issues. In addition, I have other non-exit relays hosted by the same provider with no issues and more across other providers.
I proceeded to reinstall the OS and reconfigure Tor. I was then quickly notified by my hosting provider again of more abuse reports all showing port 22 as target port.
I have not changed my torrc at all and it's still setup as a non-exit relay. No other applications/services were installed alongside Tor. Tor Metrics does not show the relay as Exit either.
It feels like Tor Exit Traffic is leaking through my non-exit relay?
Has anyone else experienced any behavior similar to this? Any ideas on how to fix or prevent this?
prsv admin _______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
As others have mentioned, this does not look like a Tor issue to me. It more seems like a compromised or misconfigured server. You mentioned you reinstalled the OS. Did you use the same root password? My suggestion is that you go about this step by step. First reinstall the OS with a different root password and no additional software or configuration. Wait to see if you get any abuse reports. The next step, install Tor and wait to see if you get an abuse report. And the last step would be installing any additional packages that you might be currently using for anything else if any. This method could narrow down the cause. On 7/23/2023 6:07 PM, John Crow via tor-relays wrote:
Hello all,
In the past 24 hrs, I have been receiving complaints from my hosting provider that they're receiving hundreds of abuse reports related to port scanning. I have no clue why I'm all of the sudden receiving abuse reports when this non-exit relay has been online for months without issues. In addition, I have other non-exit relays hosted by the same provider with no issues and more across other providers.
I proceeded to reinstall the OS and reconfigure Tor. I was then quickly notified by my hosting provider again of more abuse reports all showing port 22 as target port.
I have not changed my torrc at all and it's still setup as a non-exit relay. No other applications/services were installed alongside Tor. Tor Metrics does not show the relay as Exit either.
It feels like Tor Exit Traffic is leaking through my non-exit relay?
Has anyone else experienced any behavior similar to this? Any ideas on how to fix or prevent this?
prsv admin
_______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
participants (7)
-
admin＠prsv.ch -
Chris Enkidu-6 -
Gary C. New -
Jonathan van der Steege -
mpan -
Tortue -
Xiaoqi Chen (Danny)