[tor-bugs] #8673 [Flashproxy]: host a flashproxy-reg-url on s3.amazonaws.com

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Wed Apr 10 00:05:29 UTC 2013


#8673: host a flashproxy-reg-url on s3.amazonaws.com
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 Reporter:  proper      |          Owner:  dcf
     Type:  task        |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal      |      Milestone:     
Component:  Flashproxy  |        Version:     
 Keywords:              |         Parent:     
   Points:              |   Actualpoints:     
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Comment(by dcf):

 Thank you for your suggestion. I think perhaps the purpose of `flashproxy-
 reg-url` is not clear. The domain that the URL points to is ''not'' meant
 to be unblockable. If it was, then we would just put the facilitator there
 and not have to do any fancy rendezvous. Actually, we would just put a Tor
 bridge there and not deal with flash proxies at all.

 The idea, rather, is that it's pretty easy to get someone on the "free
 Internet" to retrieve a URL for you. (Where "someone" may be an automated
 web service.) We hypothesize that it's hard to block all the services that
 will do that for you, or even a lot of them, and even if blocked there is
 collateral damage. (Think of an online translation service for example.)

 However it is interesting that Psiphon apparently uses S3 with success.
 One of the potential rendezvous methods we discussed in the flash proxy
 service used such online storage servers, and there was even a prototype
 implementation:
 https://gitweb.torproject.org/flashproxy.git/shortlog/refs/heads/storage.
 I think it doesn't offer anything special for URL registrations, though. I
 could be wrong or misunderstand your request.

 Even if you host a `flashproxy-reg-url` listener on S3, the user still
 needs to know their external address. That's what all that base64 in the
 URL encodes.

 Of course, anyone could host their own web server on S3, that just
 reflects requests to the main facilitator web server, and it would have
 the same effect.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/8673#comment:1>
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