[tor-relays] How to handle an abuse report

Jeroen Massar jeroen at massar.ch
Wed May 14 10:22:37 UTC 2014


On 2014-05-14 12:08, Ch'Gans wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Since 3 weeks, I'm running a TOR exit node [1] on a server I rent from
> Hetzner (A German hosting company), after reading about using Hetzner to
> run a TOR node,

Did you read the comments about Hetzner here:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/GoodBadISPs

?

> I decided to go for the "restricted" mode to avoid any
> stupid copywrong issue (That is, I allowed only a limited set of ports,
> which sadly excludes p2p).

What is bad about excluding p2p? People who do p2p are causing huge
performance bottlenecks for normal Tor users. People who want to do p2p
should use their p2p network for solving their illegality bypass issues.

> Everything went well so far, until today. Someone, let's call this
> person/group "A", reported an abuse to Hetzner. A TOR User, "B", is
> spamming chat/forums with vociferous insults and disrespectful messages,
> I got a copy of few of them and the insults from B are as bad as the
> ideas defended by A, but I'm not here to judge anyone...
> 
> From A's timezone, it happened from the 9th of May, 8:20PM to the 10th
> of May, 2:30 AM. Given the nature of the TOR network, I assumed that it
> is very unlikely that stupid-B will use my server's IP to insult
> stupid-A any time soon... or is it?

They can just pick another exit. Hence why DNSEL exists, so that the
operator of the site can chose to block accounts from signing up through
Tor.

> Now, I have to report to Hetzner, I will tell them that I'm running a
> TOR exit node in "restricted" mode, but how can I defend myself, I am
> not sure that my "restricted node" and "given the nature of the TOR
> network" arguments will convinced them the Hetzner dudes.

You cannot "defend" yourself. There is no way for anybody to be able to
claim that it was you, not you, or somebody else. That is the bad thing
about an exit. You are responsible what happens from that IP.

> Could anyone gives advice, feedback or stories on how to deal with this
> situation?

See above. Hetzner typically does not allow Tor exits. Too much hassle
for their abuse apartment and they are a budget hoster and abuse costs
money thus you are cutting in on their bottom line: cash.

Greets,
 Jeroen



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