[tor-relays] Identifying a relay

[lists at for-privacy.net]

On Wednesday, June 15, 2022 8:17:54 PM CEST Eddie wrote:
> Have a question about how a server I connect to can tell I am running a
> guard/middle relay.  All I can think of is that they check the published
> list of tor nodes against the IP.
Unfortunately, many people do this, often because they have no idea about the 
different Tor relays.

> Background:  The corp my wife works for blocked our IP.  The excuse they
> gave was that it was due to a change made by a vendor they use to
> identify malicious IP addresses.  I have been running the relay for
> almost 5 years without any previous flagging.  They also state that
> running a middle relay is not in violation of any policy, but the vendor
> mis-identified our relay as an exit, hence blocking it.
> 
> After changing the IP, the new IP was also blocked in less than 24
> hours.  My feeling is that the vendor is now just using the full list of
> tor nodes and indiscriminately blocking everything, despite what the
> corp security folks say.

Workarounts:
- In Germany, almost every ISP has (www & ftp) proxies for its customers. I 
use it generally, also for IRC, then the proxy IP is displayed.
- In Germany we have '¹Freifunk' in almost every city. Firmware is OpenWrt 
with wireguard (VPN) and can be flashed on many WLAN-AP's/router. I have one 
at home too.

¹Anonymous citizens wifi mesh networks. No registration, no logs.

> 
> I'm looking for some sort of validation I can use to counter their claims.


-- 
╰_╯ Ciao Marco!

Debian GNU/Linux

It's free software and it gives you freedom!
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