[tor-relays] Tor 0.3.0.10 not listed as a recommended version

[teor]

> On 7 Aug 2017, at 21:50, Ralph Seichter <tor-relays-ml at horus-it.de> wrote:
> 
> On 07.08.2017 08:32, teor wrote:
> 
>> This would be a single point of failure (and possibly compromise).
>> We try to avoid those by having people involved in the updates.
> 
> Since Tor configuration is text file based, I generally use Cron jobs to
> pull shared config data from a central repository. The changes, which I
> verify using "diff", don't come into effect until I manually send a HUP
> signal to the Tor processes.

This is better, but still insecure: if an adversary can cause the tor
process to crash, or the machine to restart, or logrotate is turned on,
the config will be applied without human intervention.

> Perhaps something similar would work for
> the Tor directory authorities as well, to avoid recommended-version-
> hiccups? If a central repository is not desirable for security reasons,
> how about using Git to sync changes between shared Tor directory auth
> servers, akin to Linux Kernel changes?

This is already how some changes are distributed.

> Security is of course more important than automation, but this is not a
> black or white kind of situation, and I think it would be help if the
> Tor directory authorities were kept in sync here.

Distributing changes conveniently is different to deciding whether to
apply them. Machines are good at the first task, but the second task
needs multiple people.

Otherwise, it's a single point of failure.

(Or, we can decide that some kinds of changes *don't* need multiple
people involved. That's ok, too.)

T

--
Tim Wilson-Brown (teor)

teor2345 at gmail dot com
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xmpp: teor at torproject dot org
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