[tor-project] Network team meeting notes, 6 August 2018

Nick Mathewson nickm at torproject.org
Tue Aug 7 12:28:53 UTC 2018


Hi, everyone!

Logs here:

http://meetbot.debian.net/tor-meeting/2018/tor-meeting.2018-08-06-16.58.html

Pad contents below:

= Network team meeting pad! =


Welcome to our meeting! Mondays at 1700 UTC on #tor-meeting on OFTC.

(This channel is logged while meetings are in progress.)

Want to participate?  Awesome!  Here's what to do:
    1. If you have updates, enter them below, under your name.
    2. If you see anything you want to talk about in your updates, put
them in boldface!
    3. Show up to the IRC meeting and say hi!

Note the meeting location: #tor-meeting on OFTC!
 (See https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2017-September/001459.html
for background.)

After each week's meetings, the contents of this pad will be sent to
tor-project @ lists.torproject.org.  After that is done, the pad can
be used for the next week.


== Previous notes ==
11 June: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-June/001828.html
18 June: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-June/001835.html
25 June: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-July/001863.html
2 July: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-July/001866.html
9 July: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-July/001884.html
16 July: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-July/001888.html
23 July: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-July/001926.html
30 July: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2018-July/001928.html

== Stuff to do every week =

* Let's check and update the roadmap.  What's done, and what's coming up?

url to roadmap:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ufrun1khEo5Cwd6OwngERn829wU3W3eskdrriaYfUBQ/edit#gid=856122210yy

* Check reviewer assignments at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ufrun1khEo5Cwd6OwngERn829wU3W3eskdrriaYfUBQ/edit#gid=95993070

* Also, let's check for things we need update on our spreadsheet!  Are
there important documents we should link to?  Things we should
archive?

* Check rotations at
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/TeamRotations

* Community guides, it's time to hand off to the next guide!

* Let's look at proposed tickets!  [but see discussion]
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=merge_ready&status=needs_information&status=needs_review&status=needs_revision&status=new&status=reopened&keywords=~035-roadmap-proposed&max=200&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=status&col=type&col=priority&col=component&order=priority

== Reminders ==

* Remember to "/me status: foo" at least once daily.
* Remember that our current code reviews should be done by end-of-week.
* Make sure you are in touch with everybody with whom you are doing
work for the next releases



-------------------------------
---- 6 August 2018
-------------------------------

== Announcements ==


== Discussion ==


* Roadmap revision status -- please get back on that by today.
https://pad.riseup.net/p/huDStrBDgqi5
* Backlog on reviews -- is anything stuck?

* teor: our current rotations give each person 4 weeks on, then 3
weeks off. I'd prefer 1-2 weeks on, 1 week off.
    - Let's change starting in september, if there are no objections.

* ahf on vacation from wednesday and to the 23rd: i have document
planning duty this week, then community hero, then bug triage -
anybody up for taking these over the next weeks until i am back? I
will happily take yours when I'm back :-)
  - nick does bug triage on week of 8/20
  - Need a CH for next week

== Updates ==

nickm:
    Last week:
        * PETS backlog
        * Port RSA code to nss
        * various subtickets of 25510 (mobile API):
            * start tor with owning control port (24204)
            * fix a bug when restarting with version command
            * API to expose API implementor
        * Asked for more 25510 (mobile API) feedback
        * Prepared for 035 roadmap re-triage with Isabela -- sent email
        * Finished PETS discussion and meta-review
        * Diagnosed tricky 27003 regression in 034, due to interesting
combination of effects. Needs another review; blocking release
candidate.
        * Revised NSS+DH branch based on feedback from catalyst
    This week:
        * Release candidate?
        * Visiting inlaws Thurdsay through Monday; might miss next
monday's meeting.
        * Revising roadmap.
        - Other TBD: possibly NSS+TLS depending on backlog status.

Mike:
    Last Week:
       * Continued to update Open Research Topics post.
         * Can we link it and Chelsea's post on
research.torproject.org? Can we replace the stuff that's there?
       * Fell into a deep rabbithole with vanguards bugfixing
       * Wrote https://github.com/mikeperry-tor/vanguards/blob/master/README_SECURITY.md
- future blogpost on onion service security.
         * May contain some heresy. Please comment before it's too late!
       * Wrote a patch to eliminate the last class of unaccounted-for
dropped cells in Tor that I would like in 0.3.4. It's just a CIRC_BW
event thing for vanguards. Does not affect behavior normally, and does
not change the format of CIRC_BW:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25573
           * Is a merge commit forward from maint-0.3.4 to master
still the way we're handling backports after the code reorg? Can I
wait on the maint-0.3.4 review for making this? There are some
annoying conflicts to deal with.
       * Have questions for asn/dgoulet:
           1. I am noticing RPs being used that are not in my
service's current consensus. Is this legit? Can clients use relays
              that are not in *any* consensus as RPs? (Like if I
decide to use a bridge as an RP?) Will other relays prevent this?
              [This is legal -- clients and onion services aren't
required to have the same consensus. A bridge should not serve as an
RP or IP, but I'm not sure we prevent that. -nickm]
           2. Can I safely close all of those circuits? What happens
to clients when rend circs are ignored/closed?
              [Clients retry another RP if the service does not
respond to a RP, but it's slow, because they have to do another intro
as well. -teor]
           3. Related: Is it better to close a rend circuit right
after the extend to the rend point, or ignore the intro before the
rend circuit gets built? [For the network? Ignore the intro. -teor]
What happens if you never act on an intro request that you
successfully ack (or don't ack)? [The intro point acks the intro, not
the service. https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/rend-spec-v3.txt#n1645
-teor] Is there any difference between either of those and what I'm
actually doing wrt performance or security? Can you help me dig/test?
(Is ignoring intro requests for certain rends the same as
https://bugs.torproject.org/25882 ?)
    This week:
       * Sponsor2 report
       * Catch up on code reviews :/
       * Vangaurds release?


teor (offline):
   last week:
       - I was on the design meetings rotation, but I couldn't find
any proposals to progress.
         I think we did ok with reviewing proposals and updating specs
2 weeks ago.
       - bwauth mentoring (mainly
https://github.com/pastly/simple-bw-scanner/issues/182 )
       - PrivCount in Tor: blinding and encryption (#25669, #23126, #26970)
       - New reviews (#23588)
       - Fast fixes (#26979, #26986, #23576)
       - Set up desk and chair
       - Tor meeting planning
       - reviewed 0.3.5 roadmap
       - helped recover consensuses from a Collector outage
   this week:
       - I am on the community hero rotation
       - revise macOS CI for Core Tor (#24629)
       - Work on PrivCount in Tor blinding and secret sharing branch (#25669)
   rest of 0.3.5:
       - Implement PrivCount in Tor noise generation (#26637, maybe #26398)
       - Merge PrivCount in Tor
       - Reduce my revision backlog

komlo:
    - Last week:

- Reviewed/commented on PrivCount tickets, let me know if we should
schedule a meeting to talk over #26970

- This week:

- Will finally get the chance to start on #26296, hoping to get a set
of initial patches by this week/next week

- Prep for RustConf

- Send an email this week to aggregate Rust issues that I can check in
with Rust people about, such as remaining issues for #25386

ahf:
    Last week:
        Sponsor 8:
            - Helped Arturo with building an embedable Tor .so.
        Marionette:
            - Talked with Roger + Georg shortly about Marionette.
            - Spend some time looking at changes to Marionette since Rome.
            - Participated in the PT meeting to discuss the above.
        Misc:
            - End of month stuff.
            - Reviewed: #27003, #26903, #26850, #20424, #26952
    This week:
        - Finish all outstanding code reviews before going on vacation.
        - Write to John from Marionette about contact info etc. in
case of troubles with their development efforts.
        - Make sure everything is good for my Mexico trip.
        - Go on vacation (8'th of august to 23'rd of august) to do
BornHack. Will give a talk on Tor there :-)

catalyst:
    last week (2018-W31):
        - benefits bureaucracy
        - reviewed NSS patches some more
        - reviewed #24649 (macosx builds, really also massive
.travis.yml cleanup; thanks teor!)
        - prop#295 is waiting for Ashur to respond; when should we
ping them next? [teor: another week or two?]
    this week (2018-W32):
        - ticket review
        - talk with ahf about #25502 (intermediate PT progress reporting)
        - create subtickets for #22266 (jump-to-80% problem) and
sketch out designs
        - mikeperry, komlo: is it ok to use/adapt text from your
research blog posts for the "big patches" guide?

asn:
 Last week:
 - Did some triaging on 035/tor-hs tickets.
 - Looked at some vanguard related issues/code.
 - Did some more debugging on #26980.
 - Was on vacations for the better part of the week.
 This week:
 - Catch up on backlog from last week.
 - Do reviews.
 - Check some updates on ahmia TSOP.
 - Debug #26980 some more.
 - Read mike's vanguard updates.


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