[tor-relays] Choosing to run vanilla or obfuscated bridge

[Matthew Finkel]

On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 08:20:15AM +0000, eliaz wrote:
> I know that vanilla bridges cannot carry obfsproxy traffic. But can
> obfsproxied bridges carry vanilla traffic? If not, are there criteria to
> help me decide which bridge configuration is useful at any particular
> time? - eliaz

Hi eliaz,

As a followup to Andreas message, vanilla bridges (only setting the
torrc Bridge line) will only speak and look like the Tor protocol on
the wire. Pluggable transports usually sit directly in front of Tor
and transform the Tor-protocol-looking-data into whatever the pluggable
transport creates. At this point, Tor only speaks the Tor protocol and
each pluggable transport only speak their specific protocols. Each
component does what it does best.

So, to answer your question, only Obfsproxy understands the obfuscated
protocols (obfs2, obfs3, scramblesuit) and Tor understands Tor. If you
are thinking about running a bridge then it would be awesome if you
can run a bridge and run the pluggable transports[0]. And, if your
brave, you can also try running the new Obfs4proxy[1] pluggable
transport.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions.

- Matt

[0] https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-debian-instructions.html.en#instructions
[1] https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/2014-September/005372.html