[tor-bugs] #2576 [Tor Bridge]: Can we try to extend from the bridge to a website and learn if the website is reachable?

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#2576: Can we try to extend from the bridge to a website and learn if the website
is reachable?
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 Reporter:  arma        |          Owner:     
     Type:  task        |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal      |      Milestone:     
Component:  Tor Bridge  |        Version:     
 Keywords:              |         Parent:     
   Points:              |   Actualpoints:     
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Comment(by arma):

 Replying to [comment:1 rransom]:
 > Replying to [ticket:2576 arma]:
 > > A much simpler approach would be to build a circuit to the bridge,
 extend that circuit to baidu.com:80, and then look at the failure error
 code and discern whether it was reachable and just didn't TLS right or
 whether it was unreachable.
 >
 > So Tor bridges, and ''only'' Tor bridges, will try to open TLS
 connections to baidu.com:80?  Do I really need to tell you that this is a
 bad idea?

 I guess you do. But I don't agree. I want to know if this is as simple to
 do with our current protocol as I think it might be. I do not accept that
 learning that answer is a bad idea.

 Also, I think you overestimate China's interest in playing the arms race.
 Unless you can tell me a perfect scalable usable uncensorable design, we
 will need to make some compromises. Most of these compromises are
 tradeoffs between blocking-resistance and usability. We need to explore
 various points in that space. And it's not like our current bridges are
 all that valuable, so now is a great time to experiment.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2576#comment:3>
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