[tor-bugs] #1949 [Tor Client]: set up a hidden service without using a filesystem directory?

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#1949: set up a hidden service without using a filesystem directory?
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  arma         |       Owner:     
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:     
Component:  Tor Client   |     Version:     
 Keywords:               |      Parent:     
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
 In the original hidden services model, the expert user would set up a
 directory on the disk somewhere, edit her torrc to configure a hidden
 service to write its hostname and key in that directory, start tor, and go
 look in that directory to find out the new name for the hidden service.

 That model sucks if we want hidden services to be easy and safe for
 ordinary users.

 In particular, there are two reasons why it's bad. First, the Tor client
 runs as whatever user it runs as, and the user needs to pick a directory
 that Tor can write to and read from. Where that might be probably varies
 from Linux distro to distro. Second, the private key of the service gets
 written unencrypted to disk. We could imagine expert users who know how to
 handle that, but we can also imagine that most users won't.

 So it would be good to make an easier way to do it. One way would be to
 allow controllers to set up hidden services. The controller could even
 remember the key (and store it in a safe way), and import it to Tor when
 it connects to the control port. (We don't want controllers generating
 hidden service keys though -- that's Tor's job.)

 I could imagine an API in the control protocol that allows this -- with
 operations like "make me a new hidden service and tell me the key" or
 "here's the key, please set up a hidden service". I wonder if there's a
 more general way to extend the controller protocol though?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/1949>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online