[tor-bugs] #4031 [Tor Client]: Firefox fails to find SOCKS proxy after tor is restarted through Vidalia

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#4031: Firefox fails to find SOCKS proxy after tor is restarted through Vidalia
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 Reporter:  rpw         |          Owner:  nickm   
     Type:  defect      |         Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal      |      Milestone:          
Component:  Tor Client  |        Version:          
 Keywords:              |         Parent:          
   Points:              |   Actualpoints:          
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Comment(by rransom):

 Replying to [comment:8 mikeperry]:
 > nick - we have no persistent IPC channel between vidalia and Firefox in
 order to inform Torbutton of new port pairs. We're using environment
 variables for the purpose now..
 >
 > I think having some way to have Tor either prefer ports, or be smarter
 about trying to reusing them is the least-effort most-gain for this
 particular issue.

 Not on 0.2.2.x.

 > Alternatively, maybe Vidalia could be the one who tells Tor "this was
 your port from before the restart" using command line arguments for
 ControlPort and SocksPort to override the torrc auto options from disk.
 The tor manpage says this is possible. Is it a good idea? Is it the best
 idea (that doesn't involve new IPC)?

 If you do not add an IPC mechanism, an attacker could grab Tor's old SOCKS
 and control ports, and Torbutton would continue to connect to them.

 It might be easier to teach Torbutton to launch and control a Tor instance
 on its own.  Tomas has been working with QtScript for Vidalia's plugin
 system; how hard could it be for him to start hacking a Firefox extension?

 > rransom - erinn normally reads Ccs.

 She was not on the CC list until I added her to it.

 > Also, I still think this is best solved in the Tor Client or Vidalia. I
 certainly don't think anything in the build/packaging is going to solve
 this.

 It is a bundle integration problem.  Once you and Tomas make Vidalia tell
 Torbutton Tor's new port numbers (or find some other solution), Erinn will
 need to configure your code to actually work in TBB (and nowhere else).

 The Tor feature you think you want '''will not''' be added to Tor on the
 0.2.2.x branch.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4031#comment:10>
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