another reason to keep ExcludeNodes

Adless Haven adlesshaven at embarqmail.com
Tue Feb 17 19:12:43 UTC 2009


Isn't ExcludeNodes widely enough used that if it was discontinued then 
people would use obsolete versions or try to hack Tor to get it back?

The reason I use Tor is that it takes power from those collecting huge 
databases and puts it back in my hands. I would be a bit annoyed if I 
was unable to control my own Tor client to it's fullest.

Lexi Pimenidis wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 05:54:51PM CET, Mitar wrote:
> 
> hej,
> 
>>>     I just read Roger's message from July 2006 on playing down the use of
>>> ExcludeNodes and maybe eventually eliminating it.  I encountered a reason
>>> to use it not long ago that doesn't seem to have been mentioned.  I noticed
>>> that certain image files that are frequently updated and that I look at many
>>> times a day were getting truncated at random points in the files.  After a
>>> little bit of investigation it turned out that one particular relay was
>>> always in a circuit that truncated those files, so I added it to my
>>> ExcludeNodes list.  And voila' complete images from then on.
>> Would not it be better if you would report this node so that its
>> problem can be fixed?
> 
> This could possibly be used to identify anonymous surfers: imagine an $evil
> exit node trying to identify somebody surfing on $evil-site1 (which isn't
> very popular and only a very small subset of people use it). It just needs
> to modify the output a bit and then wait for somebody to complain about it.
> 
> Chances are, the one complaining might give away enough info to identify himself..?
> 
> Just my 2c,
> 
> 	Lexi
> 



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