[tor-bugs] #25686 [Core Tor/Tor]: Mystery bug causes relays to attempt many many descriptor publishes, with no X-Desc-Gen-Reason header

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#25686: Mystery bug causes relays to attempt many many descriptor publishes, with
no X-Desc-Gen-Reason header
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  arma                                 |          Owner:  nickm
     Type:  defect                               |         Status:
                                                 |  needs_review
 Priority:  Medium                               |      Milestone:  Tor:
                                                 |  0.3.4.x-final
Component:  Core Tor/Tor                         |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  034-roadmap-proposed 034-must        |  Actual Points:
  regression 033-backport                        |
Parent ID:                                       |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
Changes (by nickm):

 * status:  accepted => needs_review


Comment:

 Please have a look at my branch `bug25686_diagnostic_032`, with PR at
 https://github.com/torproject/tor/pull/142 .

 There are four possible reasons for a Tor reason to upload without X-Desc-
 Gen-Reason:

       1. They are running an old version of our software, before
 0.3.2.stable.
       2. They are not running our software, but they are claiming they
          are.
       3. They are uploading through a proxy that strips X-Desc-Gen-Reason.
       4. They somehow had a bug in their software.

 I think that everybody who has this problem IRL is in condition 1, 2, or
 3.  This patch is an attempt to make it so 4 is very very obvious, so we
 can diagnose it easily.  It's potentially backportable as far as 0.3.2.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25686#comment:11>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online