[tor-bugs] #21075 [Core Tor/Tor]: Tor should listen to the old consensus as long as it helps download fresh one

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#21075: Tor should listen to the old consensus as long as it helps download fresh
one
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 Reporter:  anonymous35654       |          Owner:
     Type:  enhancement          |         Status:  closed
 Priority:  Medium               |      Milestone:
Component:  Core Tor/Tor         |        Version:
 Severity:  Major                |     Resolution:  wontfix
 Keywords:  dircache, consensus  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                       |         Points:
 Reviewer:                       |        Sponsor:
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Changes (by teor):

 * status:  new => closed
 * resolution:   => wontfix


Comment:

 Replying to [ticket:21075 anonymous35654]:
 > Core of the problem is that without any good (fresh, valid or existing)
 consensus tor daemon attempts to fetch fresh one from main dir authorities
 (maatuska\gabelmoo\dizum\etc), that are blocked in my case.

 You are using an older tor client, please upgrade to tor 0.2.8 or later,
 which implements a "fallback directory mirror" feature that solves this
 problem by hard-coding a list of stable directory mirrors:

 https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/FallbackDirectoryMirrors

 > However when it has a valid and working consensus, it can successfully
 download it from guard nodes\other nodes.

 Tor does this for 24 hours, beyond that the risk of using a malicious
 directory guard (or being forced to use outdated information) is
 considered too great. See networkstatus_consensus_reasonably_live().

 > In cases like this it is usually recommended to get obfs bridge and get
 on with it, it does the job for the most people, however it is not an
 option for me.

 We actually recommend getting tor 0.2.8 rather than a bridge, it is
 faster, and will work in most cases.

 > ...

 > I've already tried to place my usual guard nodes into FallbackDir
 option, but seems that it does something else. In the meantime i did place
 a public proxy into HTTPProxy option, but that is really a "dirty hack".

 In older Tor versions, the FallbackDir option had some bugs. It was rarely
 used in those versions, and might not work. In Tor 0.2.8, every client
 uses the FallbackDir option, so we know it works well.

 > If this feature (to allow tor to use old consensus) won't make it into
 mainstream default tor, i wish it would at least exist as an option for
 torrc. I would use it.

 Using older consensuses would make your client stand out. That's why there
 is no option for this.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21075#comment:1>
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