[tor-bugs] #30794 [Circumvention/Censorship analysis]: Create lightweight censorship analyser for users

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#30794: Create lightweight censorship analyser for users
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     Reporter:  phw                              |      Owner:  phw
         Type:  project                          |     Status:  assigned
     Priority:  Medium                           |  Milestone:
    Component:  Circumvention/Censorship         |    Version:
  analysis                                       |
     Severity:  Normal                           |   Keywords:  tbb-bridges
Actual Points:                                   |  Parent ID:
       Points:  5                                |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:  Sponsor28-can                    |
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 Users occasionally show up on #tor and wonder why they are unable to
 connect to the network. We sometimes suspect censorship but it's often
 difficult to confirm this hypothesis. It would be useful to have a
 lightweight censorship analysis tool for users to run. Think of it as a
 small, specialised OONI: It should be a self-contained executable that
 tests if the user's computer can do the following:

 * Connect to the TCP port of our directory authorities.
 * Connect to the TCP port of a handful of relays.
 * Connect to the TCP port of our default bridges.
 * Resolve critical domains (e.g., bridges.tp.o) correctly.
 * Fetch the index page of critical websites (e.g., bridges.tp.o) over
 HTTPS.
 * Establish a TLS connection with a bridge authority and a relay.
 * ...

 The output of the tool can be a simple text file that the user can then
 email to us, or paste in a chat window. We originally had this idea
 several years ago and [https://censorbib.nymity.ch/#Winter2013a documented
 it in a research paper] but nobody every followed up. Such a tool could
 also be useful as part of an anti-censorship rapid response process.

 If this sounds like a good idea, then I suggest that we build the tool in
 Go because 1) we have several talented Go hackers, 2) Go binaries are
 self-contained, and 3)
 [https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/WindowsCrossCompiling since Go 1.5],
 cross-compiling for Windows seems relatively simple.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/30794>
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