remove/resolve several comments

svn:r724
This commit is contained in:
Nick Mathewson 2003-11-03 02:09:31 +00:00
parent 2133ece8e4
commit 3c417a80dc

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@ -191,21 +191,6 @@ circuit building, users can notice failed
nodes while building circuits and route around them. Additionally,
liveness information from directories allows users to avoid
unreliable nodes in the first place.
%We further provide a
%simple mechanism that allows connections to be established despite recent
%node failure or slightly dated information from a directory server. Tor
%permits onion routers to have \emph{router twins}---nodes that share
%the same private decryption key. Note that because connections now have
%perfect forward secrecy, an onion router still cannot read the traffic
%on a connection established through its twin even while that connection
%is active. Also, which nodes are twins can change dynamically depending
%on current circumstances, and twins may or may not be under the same
%administrative authority.
%
%[Commented out; Router twins provide no real increase in robustness
%to failed nodes. If a non-twinned node goes down, the
%circuit-builder notices this and routes around it. Circuit-building
%is offline, so there shouldn't even be a latency hit. -NM]
\item \textbf{Variable exit policies:} Tor provides a consistent
mechanism for
@ -492,14 +477,6 @@ of network traffic; who can generate, modify, delete, or delay traffic
on the network; who can operate onion routers of its own; and who can
compromise some fraction of the onion routers on the network.
%Large adversaries will be able to compromise a considerable fraction
%of the network. (In some circumstances---for example, if the Tor
%network is running on a hardened network where all operators have
%had background checks---the number of compromised nodes could be quite
%small.) Compromised nodes can arbitrarily manipulate the connections that
%pass through them, as well as creating new connections that pass through
%themselves. They can observe traffic, and record it for later analysis.
In low-latency anonymity systems that use layered encryption, the
adversary's typical goal is to observe both the initiator and the
receiver. Passive attackers can confirm a suspicion that Alice is
@ -1105,7 +1082,6 @@ simplifying assumption that all participants agree on who the
directory servers are. Second, Mixminion needs to predict node
behavior, whereas Tor only needs a threshold consensus of the current
state of the network.
% Cite dir-spec or dir-agreement?
Tor directory servers build a consensus directory through a simple
four-round broadcast protocol. In round one, each server dates and
@ -1126,7 +1102,8 @@ signature is not included on the final directory.
The rebroadcast steps ensure that a directory server is heard by
either all of the other servers or none of them, assuming that any two
directory servers can talk directly, or via a third directory server (some of the
directory servers can talk directly, or via a third directory server
(some of the
links between directory servers may be down). Broadcasts are feasible
because there are relatively few directory servers (currently 3, but we expect
to transition to 9 as the network scales). The actual local algorithm
@ -1150,8 +1127,6 @@ Thus directory servers are not a performance
bottleneck when we have many users, and do not aid traffic analysis by
forcing clients to periodically announce their existence to any
central point.
% Mention Hydra as an example of non-clique topologies. -NM, from RD
\Section{Rendezvous points: location privacy}
\label{sec:rendezvous}
@ -1343,18 +1318,15 @@ and its resistance to attacks.
outgoing TCP connections by drop-in libraries such as tsocks.
\item[Flexibility:] Tor's design and implementation is fairly modular,
so that,
for example, a scalable P2P replacement for the directory servers
would not substantially impact other aspects of the system. Tor
runs on top of TCP, so design options that could not easily do so
would be difficult to test on the current network. However, most
so that, for example, a scalable P2P replacement for the directory
servers would not substantially impact other aspects of the system.
Tor runs on top of TCP, so design options that could not easily do
so would be difficult to test on the current network. However, most
low-latency protocols are designed to run over TCP. We are currently
discussing with the designers of MorphMix interoperability of the
two systems, which seems to be relatively straightforward. This will
allow testing and direct comparison of the two rather different
designs.
% Do we want to say this? I don't think we should talk about this
% kind of discussion till we have more positive results.
working with the designers of MorphMix to render our two systems
interoperable. So for, this seems to be relatively straightforward.
Interoperability will allow testing and direct comparison of the two
rather different designs.
\item[Simple design:] Tor opts for practicality when there is no
clear resolution of anonymity tradeoffs or practical means to
@ -1874,7 +1846,8 @@ a unified deployable system. But there are still several attacks that
work quite well, as well as a number of sustainability and run-time
issues remaining to be ironed out. In particular:
% Many of these (Scalability, cover traffic) are duplicates from open problems.
% Many of these (Scalability, cover traffic, morphmix)
% are duplicates from open problems.
%
\begin{tightlist}
\item \emph{Scalability:} Tor's emphasis on design simplicity and
@ -1919,10 +1892,10 @@ issues remaining to be ironed out. In particular:
and development where we can start deploying a wider network. Once
we have are ready for actual users, we will doubtlessly be better
able to evaluate some of our design decisions, including our
robustness/latency tradeoffs, our abuse-prevention mechanisms, and
robustness/latency tradeoffs, our performance trade-offs (including
cell size), our abuse-prevention mechanisms, and
our overall usability.
% XXX work with morphmix spec
% XXX small cells vs large cells
\end{tightlist}
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