$Id$ TC: A Tor control protocol (Version 1) 0. Scope This document describes an implementation-specific protocol that is used for other programs (such as frontend user-interfaces) to communicate with a locally running Tor process. It is not part of the Tor onion routing protocol. This protocol replaces version 0 of TC, which is now deprecated. For reference, TC is described in "control-spec-v0.txt". Implementors are recommended to avoid using TC directly, but instead to use a library that can easily be updated to use the newer protocol. 1. Protocol outline TC is a bidirectional message-based protocol. It assumes an underlying stream for communication between a controlling process (the "client" or "controller") and a Tor process (or "server"). The stream may be implemented via TCP, TLS-over-TCP, a Unix-domain socket, or so on, but it must provide reliable in-order delivery. For security, the stream should not be accessible by untrusted parties. In TC, the client and server send typed messages to each other over the underlying stream. The client sends "commands" and the server sends "replies". By default, all messages from the server are in response to messages from the client. Some client requests, however, will cause the server to send messages to the client indefinitely far into the future. Such "asynchronous" replies are marked as such. Servers respond to messages in the order messages are received. 2. Message format 2.1. Description format The message formats listed below use ABNF as described in RFC2234. The protocol itself is loosely based on SMTP (see RFC 2821). We use the following nonterminals from RFC2822: atom, qcontent We define the following general-use nonterminals: String = DQUOTE *qcontent DQUOTE There are explicitly no limits on line length. All 8-bit characters are permitted unless explicitly disallowed. 2.2. Commands from controller to Tor Command = Keyword Arguments CRLF / "+" Keyword Arguments CRLF Data Keyword = 1*ALPHA Arguments = *(SP / VCHAR) Specific commands and their arguments are described below in section 3. 2.3. Replies from Tor to the controller Reply = *(MidReplyLine / DataReplyLine) EndReplyLine MidReplyLine = "-" ReplyLine DataReplyLine = "+" ReplyLine Data EndReplyLine = SP ReplyLine ReplyLine = StatusCode [ SP ReplyText ] CRLF ReplyText = XXXX StatusCode = XXXX Specific replies are mentioned below in section 3, and described more fully in section 4. 2.4. General-use tokens ; Identifiers for servers. ServerID = Nickname / Fingerprint Nickname = 1*19 NicknameChar NicknameChar = "a"-"z" / "A"-"Z" / "0" - "9" Fingerprint = "$" 40*HEXDIG ; Unique identifiers for streams or circuits. Currently, Tor only ; uses digits, but this may change StreamID = 1*16 IDChar CircuitID = 1*16 IDChar IDChar = ALPHA / DIGIT Address = ip4-address / ip6-address / hostname (XXXX Define these) ; A "Data" section is a sequence of octets concluded by the terminating ; sequence CRLF "." CRLF. The terminating sequence may not appear in the ; body of the data. Leading periods on lines in the data are escaped with ; an additional leading period as in RFC2821 section 4.5.2 Data = *DataLine "." CRLF DataLine = CRLF / "." 1*LineItem CRLF / NonDotItem *LineItem CRLF LineItem = NonCR / 1*CR NonCRLF NonDotItem = NonDotCR / 1*CR NonCRLF 3. Commands All commands and other keywords are case-insensitive. 3.1. SETCONF Change the value of one or more configuration variables. The syntax is: "SETCONF" 1*(SP keyword ["=" String]) CRLF Tor behaves as though it had just read each of the key-value pairs from its configuration file. Keywords with no corresponding values have their configuration values reset to 0 or NULL (use RESETCONF if you want to set it back to its default). SETCONF is all-or-nothing: if there is an error in any of the configuration settings, Tor sets none of them. Tor responds with a "250 configuration values set" reply on success. Tor responds with a "513 syntax error in configuration values" reply on syntax error, or a "553 impossible configuration setting" reply on a semantic error. When a configuration option takes multiple values, or when multiple configuration keys form a context-sensitive group (see GETCONF below), then setting _any_ of the options in a SETCONF command is taken to reset all of the others. For example, if two ORBindAddress values are configured, and a SETCONF command arrives containing a single ORBindAddress value, the new command's value replaces the two old values. 3.2. RESETCONF Remove all settings for a given configuration option entirely, assign its default value (if any), and then assign the String provided. Typically the String is left empty, to simply set an option back to its default. The syntax is: "RESETCONF" 1*(SP keyword ["=" String]) CRLF Otherwise it behaves like SETCONF above. 3.3. GETCONF Request the value of a configuration variable. The syntax is: "GETCONF" 1*(SP keyword) CRLF If all of the listed keywords exist in the Tor configuration, Tor replies with a series of reply lines of the form: 250 keyword=value If any option is set to a 'default' value semantically different from an empty string, Tor may reply with a reply line of the form: 250 keyword If some of the listed keywords can't be found, Tor replies with a "552 unknown configuration keyword" message. If an option appears multiple times in the configuration, all of its key-value pairs are returned in order. Some options are context-sensitive, and depend on other options with different keywords. These cannot be fetched directly. Currently there is only one such option: clients should use the "HiddenServiceOptions" virtual keyword to get all HiddenServiceDir, HiddenServicePort, HiddenServiceNodes, and HiddenServiceExcludeNodes option settings. 3.4. SETEVENTS Request the server to inform the client about interesting events. The syntax is: "SETEVENTS" [SP "EXTENDED"] *(SP EventCode) CRLF EventCode = "CIRC" / "STREAM" / "ORCONN" / "BW" / "DEBUG" / "INFO" / "NOTICE" / "WARN" / "ERR" / "NEWDESC" / "ADDRMAP" Any events *not* listed in the SETEVENTS line are turned off; thus, sending SETEVENTS with an empty body turns off all event reporting. The server responds with a "250 OK" reply on success, and a "552 Unrecognized event" reply if one of the event codes isn't recognized. (On error, the list of active event codes isn't changed.) If the flag string "EXTENDED" is provided, Tor may provide extra information with events for this connection; see 4.1 for more information. NOTE: All events on a given connection will be provided in extended format, or none. NOTE: "EXTENDED" is only supported in Tor 0.1.1.9-alpha or later. 3.5. AUTHENTICATE Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "AUTHENTICATE" [ SP 1*HEXDIG / QuotedString ] CRLF The server responds with "250 OK" on success or "515 Bad authentication" if the authentication cookie is incorrect. The format of the 'cookie' is implementation-dependent; see 5.1 below for information on how the standard Tor implementation handles it. If Tor requires authentication and the controller has not yet sent an AUTHENTICATE message, Tor sends a "514 authentication required" reply to any other kind of message. 3.6. SAVECONF Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "SAVECONF" CRLF Instructs the server to write out its config options into its torrc. Server returns "250 OK" if successful, or "551 Unable to write configuration to disk" if it can't write the file or some other error occurs. 3.7. SIGNAL Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "SIGNAL" SP Signal CRLF Signal = "RELOAD" / "SHUTDOWN" / "DUMP" / "DEBUG" / "HALT" / "HUP" / "INT" / "USR1" / "USR2" / "TERM" The meaning of the signals are: RELOAD -- Reload: reload config items, refetch directory. (like HUP) SHUTDOWN -- Controlled shutdown: if server is an OP, exit immediately. If it's an OR, close listeners and exit after 30 seconds. (like INT) DUMP -- Dump stats: log information about open connections and circuits. (like USR1) DEBUG -- Debug: switch all open logs to loglevel debug. (like USR2) HALT -- Immediate shutdown: clean up and exit now. (like TERM) The server responds with "250 OK" if the signal is recognized (or simply closes the socket if it was asked to close immediately), or "552 Unrecognized signal" if the signal is unrecognized. 3.8. MAPADDRESS Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "MAPADDRESS" 1*(Address "=" Address SP) CRLF The first address in each pair is an "original" address; the second is a "replacement" address. The client sends this message to the server in order to tell it that future SOCKS requests for connections to the original address should be replaced with connections to the specified replacement address. If the addresses are well-formed, and the server is able to fulfill the request, the server replies with a 250 message: 250-OldAddress1=NewAddress1 250 OldAddress2=NewAddress2 containing the source and destination addresses. If request is malformed, the server replies with "512 syntax error in command argument". If the server can't fulfill the request, it replies with "451 resource exhausted." The client may decline to provide a body for the original address, and instead send a special null address ("0.0.0.0" for IPv4, "::0" for IPv6, or "." for hostname), signifying that the server should choose the original address itself, and return that address in the reply. The server should ensure that it returns an element of address space that is unlikely to be in actual use. If there is already an address mapped to the destination address, the server may reuse that mapping. If the original address is already mapped to a different address, the old mapping is removed. If the original address and the destination address are the same, the server removes any mapping in place for the original address. Example: C: MAPADDRESS 0.0.0.0=tor.eff.org 1.2.3.4=tor.freehaven.net S: 250-127.192.10.10=tor.eff.org S: 250 1.2.3.4=tor.freehaven.net {Note: This feature is designed to be used to help Tor-ify applications that need to use SOCKS4 or hostname-less SOCKS5. There are three approaches to doing this: 1. Somehow make them use SOCKS4a or SOCKS5-with-hostnames instead. 2. Use tor-resolve (or another interface to Tor's resolve-over-SOCKS feature) to resolve the hostname remotely. This doesn't work with special addresses like x.onion or x.y.exit. 3. Use MAPADDRESS to map an IP address to the desired hostname, and then arrange to fool the application into thinking that the hostname has resolved to that IP. This functionality is designed to help implement the 3rd approach.} Mappings set by the controller last until the Tor process exits: they never expire. If the controller wants the mapping to last only a certain time, then it must explicitly un-map the address when that time has elapsed. 3.9. GETINFO Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is as for GETCONF: "GETINFO" 1*(SP keyword) CRLF one or more NL-terminated strings. The server replies with an INFOVALUE message. Unlike GETCONF, this message is used for data that are not stored in the Tor configuration file, and that may be longer than a single line. On success, one ReplyLine is sent for each requested value, followed by a final 250 OK ReplyLine. If a value fits on a single line, the format is: 250-keyword=value If a value must be split over multiple lines, the format is: 250+keyword= value . Recognized keys and their values include: "version" -- The version of the server's software, including the name of the software. (example: "Tor 0.0.9.4") "config-file" -- The location of Tor's configuration file ("torrc"). "desc/id/" or "desc/name/" -- the latest server descriptor for a given OR, NUL-terminated. If no such OR is known, the corresponding value is an empty string. "network-status" -- a space-separated list of all known OR identities. This is in the same format as the router-status line in directories; see tor-spec.txt for details. "addr-mappings/all" "addr-mappings/config" "addr-mappings/cache" "addr-mappings/control" -- a space-separated list of address mappings, each in the form of "from-address=to-address". The 'config' key returns those address mappings set in the configuration; the 'cache' key returns the mappings in the client-side DNS cache; the 'control' key returns the mappings set via the control interface; the 'all' target returns the mappings set through any mechanism. "circuit-status" A series of lines as for a circuit status event. Each line is of the form: CircuitID SP CircStatus SP Path CRLF "stream-status" A series of lines as for a stream status event. Each is of the form: StreamID SP StreamStatus SP CircID SP Target CRLF "orconn-status" A series of lines as for an OR connection status event. Each is of the form: ServerID SP ORStatus CRLF "helper-nodes" A series of lines listing the currently chosen helper nodes, if any. Each is of the form: ServerID SP ((("down" / "unlisted") ISOTime) / "up") CRLF "accounting/enabled" "accounting/hibernating" "accounting/bytes" "accounting/bytes-left" "accounting/interval-start" "accounting/interval-wake" "accounting/interval-end" Information about accounting status. If accounting is enabled, "enabled" is 1; otherwise it is 0. The "hibernating" field is "hard" if we are accepting no data; "soft" if we're accepting no new connections, and "awake" if we're not hibernating at all. The "bytes" and "bytes-left" fields contain (read-bytes SP write-bytes), for the start and the rest of the interval respectively. The 'interval-start' and 'interval-end' fields are the borders of the current interval; the 'interval-wake' field is the time within the current interval (if any) where we plan[ned] to start being active. "config/names" A series of lines listing the available configuration options. Each is of the form: OptionName SP OptionType [ SP Documentation ] CRLF OptionName = Keyword OptionType = "Integer" / "TimeInterval" / "DataSize" / "Float" / "Boolean" / "Time" / "CommaList" / "Dependant" / "Virtual" / "String" / "LineList" Documentation = Text "info/names" A series of lines listing the available GETINFO options. Each is of one of these forms: OptionName SP Documentation CRLF OptionPrefix SP Documentation CRLF OptionPrefix = OptionName "/*" Examples: C: GETINFO version desc/name/moria1 S: 250+desc/name/moria= S: [Descriptor for moria] S: . S: 250-version=Tor 0.1.1.0-alpha-cvs S: 250 OK 3.10. EXTENDCIRCUIT Sent from the client to the server. The format is: "EXTENDCIRCUIT" SP CircuitID SP ServerID *("," ServerID) CRLF This request takes one of two forms: either the Circuit ID is zero, in which case it is a request for the server to build a new circuit according to the specified path, or the Circuit ID is nonzero, in which case it is a request for the server to extend an existing circuit with that ID according to the specified path. If the request is successful, the server sends a reply containing a message body consisting of the Circuit ID of the (maybe newly created) circuit. The syntax is "250" SP "EXTENDED" SP CircuitID CRLF. 3.11. ATTACHSTREAM Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "ATTACHSTREAM" SP StreamID SP CircuitID CRLF This message informs the server that the specified stream should be associated with the specified circuit. Each stream may be associated with at most one circuit, and multiple streams may share the same circuit. Streams can only be attached to completed circuits (that is, circuits that have sent a circuit status 'BUILT' event or are listed as built in a GETINFO circuit-status request). If the circuit ID is 0, responsibility for attaching the given stream is returned to Tor. Tor responds with "250 OK" if it can attach the stream, 552 if the circuit or stream didn't exist, or 551 if the stream couldn't be attached for another reason. {Implementation note: By default, Tor automatically attaches streams to circuits itself, unless the configuration variable "__LeaveStreamsUnattached" is set to "1". Attempting to attach streams via TC when "__LeaveStreamsUnattached" is false may cause a race between Tor and the controller, as both attempt to attach streams to circuits.} 3.12. POSTDESCRIPTOR Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "+POSTDESCRIPTOR" CRLF Descriptor CRLF "." CRLF This message informs the server about a new descriptor. The descriptor, when parsed, must contain a number of well-specified fields, including fields for its nickname and identity. If there is an error in parsing the descriptor, the server must send a "554 Invalid descriptor" reply. If the descriptor is well-formed but the server chooses not to add it, it must reply with a 251 message whose body explains why the server was not added. If the descriptor is added, Tor replies with "250 OK". 3.13. REDIRECTSTREAM Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "REDIRECTSTREAM" SP StreamID SP Address CRLF Tells the server to change the exit address on the specified stream. No remapping is performed on the new provided address. To be sure that the modified address will be used, this event must be sent after a new stream event is received, and before attaching this stream to a circuit. Tor replies with "250 OK" on success. 3.14. CLOSESTREAM Sent from the client to the server. The syntax is: "CLOSESTREAM" SP StreamID SP Reason *(SP Flag) CRLF Tells the server to close the specified stream. The reason should be one of the Tor RELAY_END reasons given in tor-spec.txt, as a decimal. Flags is not used currently; Tor servers SHOULD ignore unrecognized flags. Tor may hold the stream open for a while to flush any data that is pending. 3.15. CLOSECIRCUIT The syntax is: CLOSECIRCUIT SP CircuitID *(SP Flag) CRLF Flag = "IfUnused" Tells the server to close the specified circuit. If "IfUnused" is provided, do not close the circuit unless it is unused. Other flags may be defined in the future; Tor SHOULD ignore unrecognized flags. 3.16. QUIT Tells the server to hang up on this controller connection. This command can be used before authenticating. 4. Replies Reply codes follow the same 3-character format as used by SMTP, with the first character defining a status, the second character defining a subsystem, and the third designating fine-grained information. The TC protocol currently uses the following first characters: 2yz Positive Completion Reply The command was successful; a new request can be started. 4yz Temporary Negative Completion reply The command was unsuccessful but might be reattempted later. 5yz Permanent Negative Completion Reply The command was unsuccessful; the client should not try exactly that sequence of commands again. 6yz Asynchronous Reply Sent out-of-order in response to an earlier SETEVENTS command. The following second characters are used: x0z Syntax Sent in response to ill-formed or nonsensical commands. x1z Protocol Refers to operations of the Tor Control protocol. x5z Tor Refers to actual operations of Tor system. The following codes are defined: 250 OK 251 Operation was unnecessary [Tor has declined to perform the operation, but no harm was done.] 451 Resource exhausted 500 Syntax error: protocol 510 Unrecognized command 511 Unimplemented command 512 Syntax error in command argument 513 Unrecognized command argument 514 Authentication required 515 Bad authentication 550 Unspecified Tor error 551 Internal error [Something went wrong inside Tor, so that the client's request couldn't be fulfilled.] 552 Unrecognized entity [A configuration key, a stream ID, circuit ID, event, mentioned in the command did not actually exist.] 553 Invalid configuration value [The client tried to set a configuration option to an incorrect, ill-formed, or impossible value.] 554 Invalid descriptor 555 Unmanaged entity 650 Asynchronous event notification Unless specified to have specific contents, the human-readable messages in error replies should not be relied upon to match those in this document. 4.1. Asynchronous events These replies can be sent after a corresponding SETEVENTS command has been received. They will not be interleaved with other Reply elements, but they can appear between a command and its corresponding reply. For example, this sequence is possible: C: SETEVENTS CIRC S: 250 OK C: GETCONF SOCKSPORT ORPORT S: 650 CIRC 1000 EXTENDED moria1,moria2 S: 250-SOCKSPORT=9050 S: 250 ORPORT=0 But this sequence is disallowed: C: SETEVENTS CIRC S: 250 OK C: GETCONF SOCKSPORT ORPORT S: 250-SOCKSPORT=9050 S: 650 CIRC 1000 EXTENDED moria1,moria2 S: 250 ORPORT=0 Clients SHOULD tolerate more arguments in an asynchonous reply than expected, and SHOULD tolerate more lines in an asynchronous reply than expected. For instance, a client that expects a CIRC message like: 650 CIRC 1000 EXTENDED moria1,moria2 should tolerate: 650-CIRC 1000 EXTENDED moria1,moria2 0xBEEF 650-EXTRAMAGIC=99 650 ANONYMITY=high If clients ask for extended events, then each event line as specified below will be followed by additional extensions. Clients that do so MUST tolerate additional arguments and lines. Additional lines will be of the form "650" ("-"/" ") KEYWORD ["=" ARGUMENTS] CRLF Additional arguments will be of the form SP KEYWORD ["=" ( QuotedString / * NonSpDquote ) ] Such clients MUST tolerate lines with keywords they do not recognize. 4.1.1. Circuit status changed The syntax is: "650" SP "CIRC" SP CircuitID SP CircStatus SP Path CircStatus = "LAUNCHED" / ; circuit ID assigned to new circuit "BUILT" / ; all hops finished, can now accept streams "EXTENDED" / ; one more hop has been completed "FAILED" / ; circuit closed (was not built) "CLOSED" ; circuit closed (was built) Path = ServerID *("," ServerID) 4.1.2. Stream status changed The syntax is: "650" SP "STREAM" SP StreamID SP StreamStatus SP CircID SP Target SP StreamStatus = "NEW" / ; New request to connect "NEWRESOLVE" / ; New request to resolve an address "SENTCONNECT" / ; Sent a connect cell along a circuit "SENTRESOLVE" / ; Sent a resolve cell along a circuit "SUCCEEDED" / ; Received a reply; stream established "FAILED" / ; Stream failed and not retriable. "CLOSED" / ; Stream closed "DETACHED" ; Detached from circuit; still retriable. Target = Address ":" Port The circuit ID designates which circuit this stream is attached to. If the stream is unattached, the circuit ID "0" is given. 4.1.3. OR Connection status changed The syntax is: "650" SP "ORCONN" SP ServerID SP ORStatus ORStatus = "LAUNCHED" / "CONNECTED" / "FAILED" / "CLOSED" 4.1.4. Bandwidth used in the last second The syntax is: "650" SP "BW" SP BytesRead SP BytesWritten BytesRead = 1*DIGIT BytesWritten = 1*DIGIT 4.1.5. Log message The syntax is: "650" SP Severity SP ReplyText or "650+" Severity CRLF Data Severity = "DEBUG" / "INFO" / "NOTICE" / "WARN"/ "ERR" 4.1.6. New descriptors available Syntax: "650" SP "NEWDESC" 1*(SP ServerID) 4.1.7. New Address mapping Syntax: "650" SP "ADDRMAP" SP Address SP Address SP Expiry Expiry = DQOUTE ISOTime DQUOTE / "NEVER" 5. Implementation notes 5.1. Authentication By default, the current Tor implementation trusts all local users. If the 'CookieAuthentication' option is true, Tor writes a "magic cookie" file named "control_auth_cookie" into its data directory. To authenticate, the controller must send the contents of this file. If the 'HashedControlPassword' option is set, it must contain the salted hash of a secret password. The salted hash is computed according to the S2K algorithm in RFC 2440 (OpenPGP), and prefixed with the s2k specifier. This is then encoded in hexadecimal, prefixed by the indicator sequence "16:". Thus, for example, the password 'foo' could encode to: 16:660537E3E1CD49996044A3BF558097A981F539FEA2F9DA662B4626C1C2 ++++++++++++++++**^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ salt hashed value indicator You can generate the salt of a password by calling 'tor --hash-password ' or by using the example code in the Python and Java controller libraries. To authenticate under this scheme, the controller sends Tor the original secret that was used to generate the password. 5.2. Don't let the buffer get too big. If you ask for lots of events, and 16MB of them queue up on the buffer, the Tor process will close the socket. 5.3. Backward compatibility For backward compatibility with the "version 0" control protocol, Tor checks whether the third octet the first command is zero. If it is, Tor assumes that version 0 is in use. This feature is deprecated, and will be removed in the 0.1.2.x Tor development series. In order to detect which version of the protocol is supported controllers should send the sequence [00 00 0D 0A]. This is a valid and unrecognized command in both protocol versions, and implementations can detect which error they have received.