[tor-bugs] #17031 [Ponies]: hardware tor relay

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Thu Sep 10 23:32:42 UTC 2015


#17031: hardware tor relay
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     Reporter:  elypter  |      Owner:
         Type:  task     |     Status:  new
     Priority:  normal   |  Milestone:
    Component:  Ponies   |    Version:
   Resolution:           |   Keywords:
Actual Points:           |  Parent ID:
       Points:           |
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Comment (by cypherpunks):

 Replying to [comment:5 elypter]:
 > Replying to [comment:4 cypherpunks]:
 > > That's simply wrong. There are plenty of devices where the encryption
 has been broken, including smartcards and game consoles with very
 eloborate hardware lock-down mechanisms.
 > but thats all consumer electronics plus there is a big difference.
 No, that's not all consumer electronics. Smartcards have been used for all
 kinds of systems that are supposed to be highly secure. The manufacturers
 of those systems had orders of magnitude higher R&D budgets than the Tor
 project will ever have. The game console manufactures have thrown HUGE
 amounts of money at locking down their hardware.

 > for those devices you only have to hack into one single device.
 Not for smartcards.

 > if you hack a tor hardware box you would only get one relay out of it.
 besides that those chips came in normal plastic packages which can be
 dissolved with acid. if you added something that destroys the chip when it
 gets in contact with acid that would make it very hard to crack.
 A very large number of attacks is non-destructive and will leave no traces
 of tampering (e.g. power/timing/RF analysis, fault injection, ...). Do
 some research on side channel attacks.

 Running an attack against each intercepted piece of Tor hardware would be
 very practical.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17031#comment:6>
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