[tor-talk] Tor and P2P

[Jérémy Bobbio]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 02:08:06AM -0400, Robert Ransom wrote:
> On 9/26/12, meh. <meh at schizofreni.co> wrote:
> 
> > After implementing the torchat protocol and seeing how bad it is, but
> > how nice the idea is, I started thinking it would be cool to have a
> > more general protocol for P2P use through hidden services.
> >
> > My question is, how would it scale and what would be the implications
> > of such a system (every user would be a hidden service and would be
> > constantly connected to other hidden services it wants to interact
> > with)?
> 
> DO NOT use implement peer-to-peer software that way.  You will make
> your users more vulnerable to some attacks, and thrash the HS
> directory system excessively, and probably overload the users' Tor
> client processes to the point that they start pounding on the Tor
> network in general (see https://bugs.torproject.org/1307 for one
> failure mode).
> 
> Some parts of the Tor hidden service protocol can be used for
> peer-to-peer communication, but that would require new client-side
> protocols (for communication between the application and the Tor
> client), as well as an overhaul of the hidden service code.  SOCKS and
> Tor's current control-port protocol are not suitable for this.

OnionCat [1] can be seen as implementing P2P-over-HS. I never read a
similarily strong statement about it before.

[1] http://www.cypherpunk.at/onioncat/

-- 
Jérémy Bobbio                        .''`. 
lunar at debian.org                    : :Ⓐ  :  # apt-get install anarchism
                                    `. `'` 
                                      `-   
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/attachments/20120926/d16daf6e/attachment.pgp>