[tor-talk] "Safeplug"

[Roman Mamedov]

On Fri, 22 Nov 2013 06:25:33 -0500
Sean Alexandre <sean at alexan.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 04:50:44PM +0600, Roman Mamedov wrote:
> > https://pogoplug.com/safeplug
> > 
> > Someone should buy this and post a teardown. :)
> > 
> > (via
> > http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/11/22/49-safeplug-tor-router-let-you-browse-the-net-anonymously/ )
> 
> I think these kind of devices configured for Tor make good relays, but aren't
> great for anonymity. Tor anonymizes your IP address and DNS requests, but
> application protocols can still reveal your identity.

If it acts as anonymizing middlebox[1] then perhaps it can provide reasonable
anonymity, assuming the user acts as suggested and cleans out the cookies etc,
each time before browsing (yes, that's an unreasonable assumption right there).

But it's not clear at all if that's what it does, the intro and even their FAQ
are all extremely sketchy, and from the described connection scheme ("plug
into your router"?), the middlebox method of operation doesn't appear likely.

Would be nice to know more details about hardware, software, principles of
operation, default configuration (e.g. does it really setup a relaying node by
default?) and the horrendous blunders they baked in, when designing all of
this. :) That's why I mentioned that a teardown would be nice.

[1]
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TransparentProxy#AnonymizingMiddlebox

-- 
With respect,
Roman
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