[tor-relays] Reaching out to webiron

[Andrew Deason]

On Wed, 8 Feb 2017 15:09:47 +1100
Tor <tor at xemurieh.co.uk> wrote:

> I don't ignore abuse reports, and I've found that Tor's boilerplate
> abuse templates almost always provide a good response. So it's just a
> matter of copying and pasting the relevant section and sending it to them.
> 
> https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorAbuseTemplates

Normally, yes sure, but this isn't some random place that's never heard
of tor before. WebIron is well aware of what tor is, and they seem to
have an issue with the tor network in general, not my specific node.
They used to include this in their automated reports:

>> ====== Tor: Please note as the abuse from Tor has gotten out of hand,
>> we do not give free passes to abuse coming from Tor exits. See the
>> leader board linked below for more details on the issue. ======

And they even gave instructions for how to block ranges from individual
exits:
<https://www.webiron.com/supporthome/view-article/32-blocking-traffic-from-tor-exit-nodes.html>

(They no longer include this info in their reports, from what I can
tell.)

But blocking ranges from individual exits doesn't seem useful to them at
all; it's even counterproductive, since the attacks/abuse will use a
different IP, bypassing their IP-based blacklist.

>From my current conversation with them, they are aware of at least some
suggested ways of blocking tor entirely, but claim some issues with
doing so. (Something having to do with exit node IPs changing too
frequently, making the existing methods useless.)

I am not sure if there are real technical limitations, or there is just
a misunderstanding. Since I don't work with the technical details of tor
in and out every day, I'm a little hesitant to be arguing with them
about the various technical details, since I might get something wrong.

And of course, if there _are_ actual problems with the mechanisms of tor
blacklisting, I can't do anything about it myself, and we have to play
"telephone" with me reporting some issue second-hand or whatever.

So... I was wondering if there's someone I should "pass off" to :)

-- 
Andrew Deason
adeason at dson.org