[tor-relays] Why MyFamily?

[Roman Mamedov]

On Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:23:00 +0000
nusenu <nusenu-lists at riseup.net> wrote:

> > I already knew that not all of my relays have a correct MyFamily setup
> > because as long as i am not sure if they will stay i usually dont
> > include them in MyFamily because it is a pain to edit every torrc
> 
> Yes, manually managing MyFamily is a pain with that many relays.
> It is best to automate it so you don't have to worry about it 
> no matter how long your relays might run.

What helps greatly is that the MyFamily string on each relay doesn't have to
list all OTHER relays, it can list just ALL relays, including that one, i.e.
simply be the same on all relays. This should vastly simplify any automation
that you might think of.

Secondly, even though not recommended at all, MyFamily accepts nicknames;
If there's no practical way for you to automate it (such as to set up a
centralized system to manage torrcs and push them to hosts), you can make a
MyFamily like this:

MyFamily MyNode1,MyNode2,MyNode3,...,MyNodeN

That way at any time you can spin up to N relays named "MyNode" 1 to N (or
other arbitrary prefix of your choosing), and they will automatically join
your family without any torrc updates anymore.

> - allow the identification of "false-friends" and actual malicious relays
> By setting MyFamily you make it easier to detect relays that claim to be you
> since MyFamily requires mutual configuration malicious entities can not add their relays to your MyFamily.

...of course using Nicknames doesn't provide this, so in case using such a
system you should keep an eye on relay list for your prefix:

https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#search/MyNode

and stop doing so in case you see unfamiliar entries there.

-- 
With respect,
Roman