[tor-bugs] #6354 [Tor Client]: PING msg to check if socket is not closed

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#6354: PING msg to check if socket is not closed
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 Reporter:  gsathya      |          Owner:          
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  assigned
 Priority:  minor        |      Milestone:          
Component:  Tor Client   |        Version:          
 Keywords:               |         Parent:          
   Points:               |   Actualpoints:          
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Changes (by atagar):

  * priority:  normal => minor


Comment:

 More context: it would be nice for us to have an active method to test 'is
 this controller connection alive'. The only trouble with using a GETINFO
 query or something else is that unauthenticated controller connections
 detach after getting a message other than AUTHENTICATE or PROTOCOLINFO
 (and we can only query PROTOCOLINFO once).

 Personally I've felt that this auto-detachment was a poorly done hack. As
 I understand, it comes from an old attack against tor where a user's
 browser was tricked into sending garbage along with some malicious
 controller commands to the local control port. This hack defeated the
 attack by making that garbage data disconnect the socket (probably from
 the days before authentication). That said, this was all before my time.
 :)

 Lowering the priority since this is merely a nice-to-have addition, and
 isn't blocking anything for stem.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6354#comment:4>
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