mirror of
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor.git
synced 2024-11-24 12:23:32 +01:00
d230827912
Tor doesn't use SVN anymore, making $Revision$, $Id$ and $Date$ meaningless. Remove them without replacement.
86 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
86 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
Filename: 113-fast-authority-interface.txt
|
|
Title: Simplifying directory authority administration
|
|
Author: Nick Mathewson
|
|
Created:
|
|
Status: Superseded
|
|
|
|
Overview
|
|
|
|
The problem:
|
|
|
|
Administering a directory authority is a pain: you need to go through
|
|
emails and manually add new nodes as "named". When bad things come up,
|
|
you need to mark nodes (or whole regions) as invalid, badexit, etc.
|
|
|
|
This means that mostly, authority admins don't: only 2/4 current authority
|
|
admins actually bind names or list bad exits, and those two have often
|
|
complained about how annoying it is to do so.
|
|
|
|
Worse, name binding is a common path, but it's a pain in the neck: nobody
|
|
has done it for a couple of months.
|
|
|
|
Digression: who knows what?
|
|
|
|
It's trivial for Tor to automatically keep track of all of the
|
|
following information about a server:
|
|
name, fingerprint, IP, last-seen time, first-seen time, declared
|
|
contact.
|
|
|
|
All we need to have the administrator set is:
|
|
- Is this name/fingerprint pair bound?
|
|
- Is this fingerprint/IP a bad exit?
|
|
- Is this fingerprint/IP an invalid node?
|
|
- Is this fingerprint/IP to be rejected?
|
|
|
|
The workflow for authority admins has two parts:
|
|
- Periodically, go through tor-ops and add new names. This doesn't
|
|
need to be done urgently.
|
|
- Less often, mark badly behaved serves as badly behaved. This is more
|
|
urgent.
|
|
|
|
Possible solution #1: Web-interface for name binding.
|
|
|
|
Deprecate use of the tor-ops mailing list; instead, have operators go to a
|
|
webform and enter their server info. This would put the information in a
|
|
standardized format, thus allowing quick, nearly-automated approval and
|
|
reply.
|
|
|
|
Possible solution #2: Self-binding names.
|
|
|
|
Peter Palfrader has proposed that names be assigned automatically to nodes
|
|
that have been up and running and valid for a while.
|
|
|
|
Possible solution #3: Self-maintaining approved-routers file
|
|
|
|
Mixminion alpha has a neat feature where whenever a new server is seen,
|
|
a stub line gets added to a configuration file. For Tor, it could look
|
|
something like this:
|
|
|
|
## First seen with this key on 2007-04-21 13:13:14
|
|
## Stayed up for at least 12 hours on IP 192.168.10.10
|
|
#RouterName AAAABBBBCCCCDDDDEFEF
|
|
|
|
(Note that the implementation needs to parse commented lines to make sure
|
|
that it doesn't add duplicates, but that's not so hard.)
|
|
|
|
To add a router as named, administrators would only need to uncomment the
|
|
entry. This automatically maintained file could be kept separately from a
|
|
manually maintained one.
|
|
|
|
This could be combined with solution #2, such that Tor would do the hard
|
|
work of uncommenting entries for routers that should get Named, but
|
|
operators could override its decisions.
|
|
|
|
Possible solution #4: A separate mailing list for authority operators.
|
|
|
|
Right now, the tor-ops list is very high volume. There should be another
|
|
list that's only for dealing with problems that need prompt action, like
|
|
marking a router as !badexit.
|
|
|
|
Resolution:
|
|
|
|
Solution #2 is described in "Proposal 123: Naming authorities
|
|
automatically create bindings", and that approach is implemented.
|
|
There are remaining issues in the problem statement above that need
|
|
their own solutions.
|