[tor-relays] Why MyFamily?

nusenu nusenu-lists at riseup.net
Sat Feb 22 16:10:00 UTC 2020


Michael Gerstacker:
>>> But as long as my family is still a small
>> It is rather hard, time consuming and error prone
>> to asses group sizes without proper MyFamily declarations.
>>
> I am the operator of my relays so if i for whatever reason decide to not
> publish that i run a bigger family then this should be my own decision.

There are two notions to this, depending on what you mean by 'publish'.

'publish' in the sense of linkability relays <-> operator identity:
Correct there is no need for that.

'publish' in the sense of declaring a proper MyFamily set:

from the tor manual page:
"If you run more than one relay, the MyFamily option on each relay **must** list all other relays"

> If the torproject needs these information urgently they need to force it

The Torproject Inc does not run the Tor network, nor the majority of Tor directory authorities,
but yes, some Torproject employees play a key role on what gets actually enforced on the network and what not
and The Torproject produces the software that dir auths run so they have at least partial/indirect control over the imposed rules
and the network.
As far as I know there is no formal or informal written agreement between Tor directory authorities as to how they run the network. 
Past attempts by a Torproject employee an me, to establish something like that unfortunately failed [1].


> Not proposing relays of honest operators for removal should be in the
> interest of all to help protect tor users

It is hard to tell honest operators from others if the relay has no ContactInfo 
or does not reply to emails. Even if they reply it can be non-trivial. So if there were actual technical rules
they should apply to all relays equally and not just to dishonest operators
because how do you define and measure "honest" operator?
Should an operator who confirms to bad-relays@ that he setup modified relays to collect onion addresses
be allowed on the network because he is at least honest about it? 


> but an opt-in solution for
> MyFamily which gets forced by random people on a public [tor-]bad-relays
> mailinglist 

bad-relays@ is not public in the sense that everyone can read it, but everyone can send to it,
which is its main purpose.




[1] https://medium.com/@nusenu/the-growing-problem-of-malicious-relays-on-the-tor-network-2f14198af548


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