[tor-bugs] #1288 [Tor Client]: Changing time while TOR is running causes endless new connections to be added

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki torproject-admin at torproject.org
Fri Nov 12 02:26:15 UTC 2010


#1288: Changing time while TOR is running causes endless new connections to be
added
------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  torbugtime        |         Type:  defect    
   Status:  new               |     Priority:  minor     
Milestone:  Tor: unspecified  |    Component:  Tor Client
  Version:  0.2.1.22          |   Resolution:  None      
 Keywords:                    |       Parent:            
------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
Changes (by nickm):

  * milestone:  => Tor: unspecified


Old description:

> Windows XP SP2
> Vidalia 0.2.6
> Tor 0.2.1.22
> Qt 4.5.2
> Running TOR as client
> No changes in Tor's torrc
> Running TOR in English
>
> 1) Launch TOR
> 2) Wait for TOR to establish connections (icon turns green)
> 2) Open Date and Time Properties (bottom-right of Windows desktop)
> 3) Reduce/increase time by a few hours
> 4) Connections start to increase endlessly
> 5) Adjust Time back to original time
> 6) Extra connections immediately close and disappear, TOR returns to
> normal number of connections
>
> Reason to do this is that, as I understand it, when javascript is enabled
> the webpage can detect your time zone, so I try to scramble that before I
> visit a website in which I want javascript to work.
>
> I will check back on this webpage every few days, in case there are any
> questions.
>

> [Automatically added by flyspray2trac: Operating System: Windows 2k/XP]

New description:

 Windows XP SP2
 Vidalia 0.2.6
 Tor 0.2.1.22
 Qt 4.5.2
 Running TOR as client
 No changes in Tor's torrc
 Running TOR in English

 1) Launch TOR
 2) Wait for TOR to establish connections (icon turns green)
 2) Open Date and Time Properties (bottom-right of Windows desktop)
 3) Reduce/increase time by a few hours
 4) Connections start to increase endlessly
 5) Adjust Time back to original time
 6) Extra connections immediately close and disappear, TOR returns to
 normal number of connections

 Reason to do this is that, as I understand it, when javascript is enabled
 the webpage can detect your time zone, so I try to scramble that before I
 visit a website in which I want javascript to work.

 I will check back on this webpage every few days, in case there are any
 questions.


 [Automatically added by flyspray2trac: Operating System: Windows 2k/XP]

--

Comment:

 moving to "tor: unspecified" milestone. It's normal for tor to drop and
 reopen all its circuits when the time jumps a lot; this is how Tor
 normally detects coming out of hibernation.  Having "endless" connections
 would indeed be weird; is that actually happening, or is that just in the
 bug summary?

 Using torbutton should be adequate to keep websites from fingerprinting
 timezones.

 Is there a remaining bug here?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/1288#comment:4>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
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