[tor-bugs] #8673 [Flashproxy]: host a flashproxy-reg-url on s3.amazonaws.com
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki
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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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