[RESOLVED] Re: seven bloxortsipt* relays ought *not* to be Valid

Scott Bennett bennett at cs.niu.edu
Thu Jul 30 12:36:01 UTC 2009


     A few hours back, I wrote:
>     In the directory, I found seven relays whose names all begin with
>"bloxortsipt":
>
>	bloxortsipt3
>	bloxortsipt11
>	bloxortsipt30
>	bloxortsipt38
>	bloxortsipt58
>	bloxortsipt71
>	bloxortsipt81
>
>These relays
>
>	a) are running an obsolete version of tor (0.1.2.19) under LINUX,
>	   which is far enough back to be a security problem due to the SSL
>	   key generation bug in LINUX, 
>
>	b) publish identical ContactInfo "1024D/E5712ECF IPT Support
>	   <support at truxton.com>", and
>
>	c) are *NOT* listed as a family, so your client might well build a
>	   circuit using two or more of these unsecured relays.  Note that
>	   the rule of only one relay in a circuit per /16 will not prevent
>	   such a thing from happening in this case because of the offending
>	   relays' diversity of IP addresses.
>
     I am happy indeed to report that Truxton has acted *very* quickly and
appears to have corrected the two problems of an obsolete, unsecure version
of tor and lack of a node family specification on all of the nodes listed
above, according to latest directory information.  I have removed these nodes
and a NodeFamily specification from my torrc and no longer know of any reason
not to let your clients go ahead and build circuits through them.
     A look at the Family specifications appearing in the new directory entries
for these nodes reveals an astonishingly long list of Nicknames, several times
as many as I had listed in my earlier complaint.  Truxton appears to have
absolutely *humongous* plans for the future. :-)
     Now if we can just get similarly great responses from the rest of the
operators of obsolete tor nodes, it will be wonderful.  Finding other cases
of Family violations will be a lot trickier, I suspect.


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
**********************************************************************
* Internet:       bennett at cs.niu.edu                              *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------*
* "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good  *
* objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments *
* -- a standing army."                                               *
*    -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790         *
**********************************************************************



More information about the tor-talk mailing list