[tor-relays] Suspension of service (ISP Scaleway / tor exit)

[Nathaniel Suchy]

For DoS traffic, it'd be nice to have some agreed upon rate limit rules of
obvious syn flood and similar traffic which both stop the attacks, or slow
them down so they don't affect anything and cause complaints, while still
allowing legitimate traffic to flow as normal. Scaleway knows about Tor,
but they are also operating out of France and have stricter legal
requirements to follow - it's understandable they want a rapid response to
any complaints.

My advice for dealing with future complaints...
1) Respond explaining the traffic is coming from the Tor network and you
can't stop entirely but you can stop the traffic from coming from your exit.
2) Block outgoing traffic to the affected IP with your exit policy, if it's
an attack directed towards a website I'd go through DNS Records and block
all related IP Addresses. Perhaps the affected /24 or /16, better safe than
losing out on 100Mbps so of bandwidth or from the Tor network :)
3) BE FAST: Scaleway isn't playing games anymore when it comes to managing
abuse. They're allowing Tor Exits, but only if you are very fast about
managing abuse. If you get to the point where they say next complaint and
they suspend your service - stop running an exit node and operate in relay
only mode. Exit bandwidth is important, BUT, unique guards controlled by a
variety of people are still necessary. It's something to consider if you've
damaged your relationship with Scaleway beyond repair.
4) Maybe only allow DNS, HTTP, and HTTPS ports. That's less port choice for
sending out a syn flood and makes you less likely to get a complaint.

Cordially,
Nathaniel

On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 5:00 PM Paul <pa011 at web.de> wrote:

> I made the same experience as you several times in the last few weeks with
> Scaleway.
>
> Usually you have 48 hours to respond - that's at least what they tell you
> somewhere on their pages.
>
> My impression is that you can place anything you want in your answer -
> important is your answer within time.
>
> If it happens to often within a short period they seem to get nervous and
> want to get rid of you (to protect their reputation as they say)
>
> Next time they shut my relay forever they promised :-)
>
> I would doubt that they know anything about tor, or do not care?
>
> Paul
>
> p.s. bad that they offer uncomparable speed/price relation
>
>
> Am 04.09.2018 um 22:27 schrieb Olaf Grimm:
> > Dear readers,
> >
> > some days ago I change my relay to an exit relay with a very strict
> > policy. Today came the suspension message into my regular mail account.
> > After login into the Scaleway account I saw that the time between the
> > abuse log message and the deactivation of my exit relay were 6 hours
> > only. At these time I was at work! I was not able to react of the
> > message, neither I knew it.
> >
> > The "abuse message" was a raw firewall log, without spaces hard to read.
> > I'm not a professional, so I could read only "SYNFLOOD src IP xxxx dest
> > IP xxxx". That's all.
> > After I learnt what this is, I responded to the provider that good
> > providers realize own DDOS protection in the network and protect
> > customers too. Why log the provider bad outgoing traffic and ignore bad
> > incoming traffic? They don't know the source of the bad traffic, but
> > have the customer to beat someone!
> > The answer field for the reply were some lines only. Without comment
> > from the ISP the ticket was closed and the VPS locked yet.
> > I try to delete the old instance and build a new one. If the same occur
> > I leave Scaleway (and give info about that again).
> >
> > Now I recommend to set the ISP Scaleway (in France) of the list of bad
> > providers.
> >
> > Scaleway message:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > We have tried to contact you about an abuse report concerning one of
> your server. Unfortunately at this time you did not reply to this report.
> As stated in our terms of service, we have suspended your account.
> >
> > Sincerly,
> > Scaleway
> >
> > End message
> >
> >
> > To avoid a big shitstorm: I know what I do and it is not my first and
> only exit. Scaleway was the first trouble and in such a way, that I must
> leave a comment.
> >
> > To the tor website editors:
> > It is possible to include a basic abuse protection chapter in the tor
> documentation (config guide)? I've found some iptable rules, but I use the
> user-friedly "ufw", the overlay to iptables.
> > It would be fine if some good guys could help with an easy configuration
> guide in the config chapter for tor relays.
> >
> > Have a good time. I feel me better.
> >
> > Olaf
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
> > https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
> >
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