[tor-bugs] #20511 [Core Tor/Tor]: add a failsafe where if you're about to serve a consensus that you know is obsolete, don't do it

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Tue Nov 1 04:31:59 UTC 2016


#20511: add a failsafe where if you're about to serve a consensus that you know is
obsolete, don't do it
------------------------------+-----------------
     Reporter:  arma          |      Owner:
         Type:  enhancement   |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium        |  Milestone:
    Component:  Core Tor/Tor  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal        |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                |  Parent ID:
       Points:                |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                |
------------------------------+-----------------
 http://77.247.181.162/tor/status-vote/current/consensus-microdesc
 is offering me a microdesc consensus document which is {{{valid-until
 2016-09-28 22:00:00}}}. Today is Oct 31.

 That relay knows what time it is -- when I establish my Tor channel to it
 and do a begindir fetch, it gives me good answers in the http header
 responses.

 Yet it is happy to give me a consensus that's a month old. And my Tor
 client doesn't complain in any obvious useful way. I just get the cryptic
 line:
 {{{
 Oct 31 23:12:29.455 [notice] I learned some more directory information,
 but not enough to build a circuit: We have no recent usable consensus.
 }}}

 Is there a consensus age past which the correct answer for a dir cache in
 that situation should be "I'm really sorry, but it's for your own good:
 404"?

 We wouldn't want that age to be too small, or the network would fall over
 a lot faster in the case where it really has been 15 hours since the
 directory authorities made a consensus.

 (Also, is 404 the right return code? It isn't that I don't have it, it's
 that you're not going to like it.)

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/20511>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
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