tor-webwml.git

1) ## translation metadata

2) # Revision: $Revision$

3) # Translation-Priority: 4-optional
4) 
5) #include "head.wmi" TITLE="Tor: Volunteer" CHARSET="UTF-8"
6) <div id="content" class="clearfix">
7)   <div id="breadcrumbs">

8)     <a href="<page index>">Home &raquo; </a>

9)     <a href="<page getinvolved/volunteer>">Volunteer</a>
10)   </div>
11)   <div id="maincol"> 
12)     <!-- PUT CONTENT AFTER THIS TAG -->
13)     <h1>A few things everyone can do now:</h1>
14)     <ol>
15)     <li>Please consider <a href="<page docs/tor-doc-relay>">running
16)     a relay</a> to help the Tor network grow.</li>
17)     <li>Tell your friends! Get them to run relays. Get them to run hidden
18)     services. Get them to tell their friends.</li>
19)     <li>If you like Tor's goals, please <a href="<page donate/donate>">take a moment
20)     to donate to support further Tor development</a>. We're also looking
21)     for more sponsors &mdash; if you know any companies, NGOs, agencies,
22)     or other organizations that want anonymity / privacy / communications
23)     security, let them know about us.</li>
24)     <li>We're looking for more <a href="<page about/torusers>">good examples of Tor
25)     users and Tor use cases</a>. If you use Tor for a scenario or purpose not
26)     yet described on that page, and you're comfortable sharing it with us,
27)     we'd love to hear from you.</li>
28)     </ol>
29)     
30)     <p>Tor has <a href="<page getinvolved/open-positions>">two open positions</a>.
31)     Please <a href="<page about/contact>">contact us</a> if you are qualified!</p>
32)     
33)     <a id="Documentation"></a>
34)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Documentation">Documentation</a></h2>
35)     <ol>
36)     <li>Help translate the web page and documentation into other
37)     languages. See the <a href="<page getinvolved/translation>">translation
38)     guidelines</a> if you want to help out. We especially need Arabic or
39)     Farsi translations, for the many Tor users in censored areas.</li>
40)     <li>Evaluate and document
41)     <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TheOnionRouter/TorifyHOWTO">our
42)     list of programs</a> that can be configured to use Tor.</li>
43)     <li>We have a huge list of <a
44)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TheOnionRouter/SupportPrograms">potentially useful
45)     programs that interface to Tor</a>. Which ones are useful in which
46)     situations? Please help us test them out and document your results.</li>
47)     </ol>
48)     
49)     <a id="Advocacy"></a>
50)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Advocacy">Advocacy</a></h2>
51)     <ol>

52)     <li>Create a presentation that can be used for various user group
53) meetings around the world.</li>

54)     <li>Create a video about the positive uses of Tor, what Tor is,
55)     or how to use it.  Some have already started on <a

56)     href="https://media.torproject.org/video/">Tor's Media server</a>,

57)     <a

58)     href="http://www.howcast.com/videos/90601-How-To-Circumvent-an-Internet-Proxy">Howcast</a>,

59)     and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/thetorproject">YouTube</a>.</li> 

60)     <li>Create a poster, or a set of posters, around a theme,

61)     such as "Tor for Freedom!".</li>

62)     <li>Create a t-shirt design that incorporates "Congratulations!
63)     You are using Tor!" in any language.</li>

64)     </ol>
65)     

66)     <a id="Projects"></a>
67)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Projects">Projects</a></h2>
68)     
69)     <p>
70)     Below are a list of Tor related projects we're developing and/or
71)     maintaining. Most discussions happen on IRC so if you're interested in any
72)     of these (or you have a project idea of your own), then please <a

73)     href="<page about/contact>#irc">join us in #tor-dev</a>. Don't be shy
74)     to ask questions, and don't hesitate to ask even if the main contributors
75)     aren't active at that moment.

76)     </p>
77)     
78)     <table id="projects">
79)       <tr>
80)         <th>Name</th>
81)         <th>Category</th>
82)         <th>Language</th>
83)         <th>Activity</th>
84)         <th>Contributors</th>
85)       </tr>
86)       
87)       <tr>
88)         <td><a href="#project-tor">Tor</a></td>
89)         <td>Core</td>
90)         <td>C</td>
91)         <td>Heavy</td>

92)         <td>nickm, arma, Sebastian</td>

93)       </tr>
94)       
95)       <tr class="alt">

96)         <td>*<a href="#project-jtor">JTor</a></td>
97)         <td>Core</td>
98)         <td>Java</td>
99)         <td>None</td>
100)         <td></td>
101)       </tr>
102)       
103)       <tr>

104)         <td><a href="#project-tbb">TBB</a></td>
105)         <td>Usability</td>

106)         <td>Sys Admin</td>
107)         <td>Moderate</td>

108)         <td>Erinn</td>

109)       </tr>
110)       

111)       <tr class="alt">

112)         <td><a href="#project-tails">Tails</a></td>

113)         <td>Usability</td>

114)         <td>Sys Admin</td>

115)         <td>Heavy</td>

116)         <td><a href="https://tails.boum.org/chat/">#tails</a></td>

117)       </tr>
118)       

119)       <tr>

120)         <td><a href="#project-torsocks">Torsocks</a></td>
121)         <td>Usability</td>
122)         <td>C</td>
123)         <td>Light</td>
124)         <td>mwenge</td>
125)       </tr>
126)       

127)       <tr class="alt">

128)         <td>*<a href="#project-torouter">Torouter</a></td>
129)         <td>Usability</td>

130)         <td>Sys Admin</td>

131)         <td>Light</td>
132)         <td>ioerror, Runa</td>
133)       </tr>
134)       

135)       <tr>

136)         <td><a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a></td>
137)         <td>User Interface</td>
138)         <td>C++, Qt</td>
139)         <td>Light</td>
140)         <td>chiiph</td>
141)       </tr>
142)       

143)       <tr class="alt">

144)         <td><a href="#project-arm">Arm</a></td>
145)         <td>User Interface</td>
146)         <td>Python, Curses</td>
147)         <td>Heavy</td>
148)         <td>atagar</td>
149)       </tr>
150)       

151)       <tr>

152)         <td><a href="#project-orbot">Orbot</a></td>
153)         <td>User Interface</td>
154)         <td>Java</td>

155)         <td>Moderate</td>

156)         <td>n8fr8</td>
157)       </tr>
158)       

159)       <tr class="alt">

160)         <td><a href="#project-torbutton">Torbutton</a></td>
161)         <td>Browser Add-on</td>
162)         <td>Javascript</td>
163)         <td>Moderate</td>
164)         <td>mikeperry</td>
165)       </tr>
166)       

167)       <tr>

168)         <td>*<a href="#project-thandy">Thandy</a></td>
169)         <td>Updater</td>
170)         <td>Python</td>
171)         <td>Light</td>

172)         <td>Sebastian, Erinn, nickm</td>

173)       </tr>
174)       

175)       <tr class="alt">

176)         <td><a href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a></td>
177)         <td>Library</td>
178)         <td>Python</td>
179)         <td>Light</td>
180)         <td>mikeperry</td>
181)       </tr>
182)       

183)       <tr>

184)         <td><a href="#project-metrics">Metrics</a></td>
185)         <td>Client Service</td>
186)         <td>Java</td>
187)         <td>Heavy</td>
188)         <td>karsten</td>
189)       </tr>
190)       

191)       <tr class="alt">

192)         <td><a href="#project-torstatus">TorStatus</a></td>
193)         <td>Client Service</td>
194)         <td>PHP</td>
195)         <td>None</td>
196)         <td></td>
197)       </tr>
198)       

199)       <tr>

200)         <td><a href="#project-weather">Weather</a></td>
201)         <td>Client Service</td>
202)         <td>Python</td>
203)         <td>Light</td>
204)         <td>kaner</td>
205)       </tr>
206)       

207)       <tr class="alt">

208)         <td><a href="#project-gettor">GetTor</a></td>
209)         <td>Client Service</td>
210)         <td>Python</td>

211)         <td>Light</td>

212)         <td>kaner</td>

213)       </tr>
214)       

215)       <tr>

216)         <td><a href="#project-torcheck">TorCheck</a></td>
217)         <td>Client Service</td>
218)         <td>Python, Perl</td>
219)         <td>None</td>
220)         <td></td>
221)       </tr>
222)       

223)       <tr class="alt">

224)         <td><a href="#project-bridgedb">BridgeDB</a></td>
225)         <td>Backend Service</td>
226)         <td>Python</td>

227)         <td>Moderate</td>

228)         <td>kaner, nickm</td>

229)       </tr>
230)       

231)       <tr>

232)         <td><a href="#project-torflow">TorFlow</a></td>
233)         <td>Backend Service</td>
234)         <td>Python</td>

235)         <td>Light</td>

236)         <td>mikeperry</td>
237)       </tr>
238)       

239)       <tr class="alt">

240)         <td>*<a href="#project-torbel">TorBEL</a></td>
241)         <td>Backend Service</td>
242)         <td>Python</td>
243)         <td>None</td>
244)         <td>Sebastian</td>
245)       </tr>
246)     </table>
247)     
248)     <sub>
249)     * Project is still in an alpha state.
250)     </sub>
251)     
252)     <br /><br />
253)     
254)     <a id="project-tor"></a>
255)     <h3>Tor (<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git">code</a>, <a
256)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Tor+Client&component=Tor+Relay&component=vidalia&order=priority">bug
257)     tracker</a>)</h3>
258)     
259)     <p>
260)     Central project, providing the core software for using and participating in
261)     the Tor network. Numerous people contribute to the project to varying
262)     extents, but the chief architects are Nick Mathewson and Roger Dingledine.
263)     </p>
264)     
265)     <p>
266)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
267)     <i><a href="#resistCensorship">Improving Tor's ability to resist
268)     censorship</a></i><br />

269)     <i><a href="#unitTesting">Improve our unit testing process</a></i><br />
270)     <i><a href="#simulateSlowConnections">Simulator for slow Internet connections</a></i>

271)     </p>
272)     

273)     <a id="project-jtor"></a>
274)     <h3><a href="https://github.com/brl/JTor/wiki">JTor</a> (<a
275)     href="https://github.com/brl/JTor">code</a>, <a
276)     href="https://github.com/brl/JTor/issues">bug
277)     tracker</a>)</h3>
278)     
279)     <p>
280)     Java implementation of Tor and successor to <a
281)     href="http://onioncoffee.sourceforge.net/">OnionCoffee</a>. This project
282)     isn't yet complete, and has been inactive since Fall 2010.
283)     </p>
284)     

285)     <a id="project-tbb"></a>
286)     <h3><a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser Bundle</a> (<a
287)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbrowser.git">code</a>, <a
288)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Tor+bundles/installation&order=priority">bug
289)     tracker</a>)</h3>
290)     
291)     <p>
292)     The Tor Browser Bundle is an easy-to-use portable package of Tor, Vidalia,
293)     and Firefox preconfigured to work together out of the box. This is actively
294)     being worked on by Erinn Clark.
295)     </p>
296)     
297)     <p>
298)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
299)     <i><a href="#auditTBB">Audit Tor Browser Bundles for data leaks</a></i><br />
300)     <i><a href="#usabilityTesting">Usability testing of Tor</a></i>
301)     </p>
302)     

303)     <a id="project-tails"></a>

304)     <h3><a href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live System</a> (<a

305)     href="http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=summary">code</a>, <a

306)     href="https://tails.boum.org/bugs/">bug

307)     tracker</a>)</h3>
308)     
309)     <p>

310)     The Amnesic Incognito Live System is a live CD/USB distribution

311)     preconfigured so that everything is safely routed through Tor and leaves no
312)     trace on the local system. This is a merger of the Amnesia and <a
313)     href="http://www.anonymityanywhere.com/incognito/">Incognito</a> projects,
314)     and still under very active development.
315)     </p>
316)     

317)     <p>
318)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
319)     <i><a href="#tailsStartMenu">Custom GDM3 startup menu, aka.
320)     tails-greeter</a></i><br />
321)     <i><a href="#tailsMetadataAnonymizing">Meta-data anonymizing toolkit for
322)     file publication</a></i><br />
323)     <i><a href="#tailsDebianLive">Improve Debian Live support for
324)     persistence</a></i>
325)     </p>
326)     

327)     <a id="project-torsocks"></a>
328)     <h3><a href="http://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> (<a
329)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torsocks.git">code</a>, <a
330)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torify&order=priority">bug
331)     tracker</a>)</h3>
332)     
333)     <p>
334)     Utility for adapting other applications to work with Tor. Development has
335)     slowed and compatibility issues remain with some platforms, but it's
336)     otherwise feature complete.
337)     </p>
338)     
339)     <p>
340)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
341)     <i><a href="#torsocksForOSX">Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</a></i>
342)     </p>
343)     
344)     <a id="project-torouter"></a>
345)     <h3><a
346)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TheOnionRouter/Torouter">Torouter</a> (<a
347)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torouter&order=priority">bug
348)     tracker</a>)</h3>
349)     
350)     <p>
351)     Project to provide an easy-to-use, embedded Tor instance for routers. This

352)     had high activity in late 2010, but has since been rather quiet.

353)     </p>
354)     
355)     <a id="project-vidalia"></a>
356)     <h3><a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a> (<a
357)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/vidalia/vidalia/trunk/">code</a>, <a
358)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Vidalia&order=priority">bug
359)     tracker</a>)</h3>
360)     
361)     <p>
362)     The most commonly used user interface for Tor. Matt Edman started the
363)     project in 2006 and brought it to its current stable state. Development
364)     slowed for several years, though Tomás Touceda has since taken a lead with
365)     pushing the project forward.
366)     </p>
367)     
368)     <p>
369)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
370)     <i><a href="#vidaliaStatusEventInterface">Tor Controller Status Event Interface for Vidalia</a></i><br />
371)     <i><a href="#vidaliaNetworkMap">An Improved and More Usable Network Map in Vidalia</a></i>
372)     </p>
373)     
374)     <a id="project-arm"></a>
375)     <h3><a href="http://www.atagar.com/arm/">Arm</a> (<a
376)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/arm/trunk/">code</a>, <a
377)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=arm&order=priority">bug
378)     tracker</a>)</h3>
379)     
380)     <p>
381)     Command-line monitor for Tor. This has been under very active development
382)     by its author, Damian Johnson, since early 2009 to make it a better
383)     general-purpose controller for *nix environments.
384)     </p>
385)     
386)     <p>
387)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

388)     <i><a href="#armClientMode">Client Mode Use Cases for Arm</a></i><br />
389)     <i><a href="#armGui">GUI for Arm</a></i>

390)     </p>
391)     
392)     <a id="project-orbot"></a>
393)     <h3><a href="https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/">Orbot</a> (<a
394)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/android/trunk/Orbot/">code</a>, <a
395)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Orbot&order=priority">bug
396)     tracker</a>)</h3>
397)     
398)     <p>
399)     Provides Tor on the Android platform. This was under very active
400)     development up through Fall 2010, after which things have been quiet.
401)     </p>
402)     
403)     <p>
404)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

405)     <i><a href="#orbot-torbutton">TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</a></i><br />
406)     <i><a href="#orbot-userInterface">Build a better user interface for Orbot</a></i><br />
407)     <i><a href="#orbot-optimisation">Core Tor mobile optimisation</a></i><br />
408)     <i><a href="#orbot-orlibAndOutreach">Orbot integration library and community outreach</a></i>

409)     </p>
410)     
411)     <a id="project-torbutton"></a>
412)     <h3><a href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> (<a
413)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbutton.git">code</a>, <a
414)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torbutton&order=priority">bug
415)     tracker</a>)</h3>
416)     
417)     <p>
418)     Firefox addon that addresses many of the client-side threats to browsing
419)     the Internet anonymously. Mike has since continued to adapt it to new
420)     threats, updated versions of Firefox, and possibly <a
421)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/google-chrome-incognito-mode-tor-and-fingerprinting">Chrome
422)     as well</a>.
423)     </p>
424)     
425)     <p>
426)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
427)     <i><a href="#torbuttonForThunderbird">Torbutton equivalent for Thunderbird</a></i>
428)     </p>
429)     
430)     <a id="project-thandy"></a>
431)     <h3>Thandy (<a
432)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/thandy.git">code</a>)</h3>
433)     
434)     <p>
435)     Updater for Tor. The project began in the Summer of 2008 but wasn't
436)     completed. Recently interest in it has been rekindled and many aspects of
437)     its design (including the language it'll be in) are currently in flux.
438)     </p>
439)     
440)     <a id="project-torctl"></a>
441)     <h3>TorCtl (<a
442)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pytorctl.git">code</a>, <a
443)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torctl&order=priority">bug
444)     tracker</a>)</h3>
445)     
446)     <p>
447)     Python bindings and utilities for using the Tor control port. It has been
448)     stable for several years, with only minor revisions.
449)     </p>
450)     
451)     <a id="project-metrics"></a>
452)     <h3><a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/">Metrics</a> (code: <a
453)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-db.git">db</a>, <a
454)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-utils.git">utils</a>, <a
455)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-web.git">web</a>, <a
456)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Metrics&order=priority">bug
457)     tracker</a>)</h3>
458)     
459)     <p>
460)     Processing and analytics of consensus data, provided to users via the
461)     metrics portal. This has been under active development for several years by
462)     Karsten Loesing.
463)     </p>
464)     
465)     <a id="project-torstatus"></a>
466)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorStatus">TorStatus</a> (<a
467)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/torstatus/trunk/">code</a>)</h3>
468)     
469)     <p>
470)     Portal providing an overview of the Tor network, and details on any of its
471)     current relays. Though very actively used, this project has been
472)     unmaintained for a long while.
473)     </p>
474)     
475)     <a id="project-weather"></a>
476)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/Weather">Weather</a> (<a
477)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/weather.git">code</a>, <a
478)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Tor+Weather&order=priority">bug
479)     tracker</a>)</h3>
480)     
481)     <p>
482)     Provides automatic notification to subscribed relay operators when their
483)     relay's unreachable. This underwent a rewrite by the <a
484)     href="http://hfoss.wesleyan.edu/">Wesleyan HFOSS team</a>, which went live
485)     in early 2011.
486)     </p>
487)     
488)     <a id="project-gettor"></a>
489)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/EmailAutoResponder">GetTor</a> (<a
490)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/gettor/">code</a>, <a
491)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=GetTor&order=priority">bug
492)     tracker</a>)</h3>
493)     
494)     <p>
495)     E-mail autoresponder providing Tor's packages over SMTP. This has been
496)     relatively unchanged for quite a while.
497)     </p>
498)     
499)     <a id="project-torcheck"></a>
500)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorCheck">TorCheck</a> (<a
501)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/check/trunk/">code</a>, <a
502)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Tor+Check&order=priority">bug
503)     tracker</a>)</h3>
504)     
505)     <p>
506)     Provides a simple site for determining if the visitor is using Tor or not.
507)     This has been relatively unchanged for quite a while.
508)     </p>
509)     
510)     <a id="project-bridgedb"></a>
511)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/BridgeDB">BridgeDB</a> (<a
512)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/bridgedb.git">code</a>, <a
513)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=BridgeDB&order=priority">bug
514)     tracker</a>)</h3>
515)     
516)     <p>
517)     Backend bridge distributor, handling the various pools they're distributed
518)     in. This was actively developed until Fall of 2010.
519)     </p>
520)     
521)     <a id="project-torflow"></a>
522)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorFlow">TorFlow</a> (<a
523)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torflow.git">code</a>, <a
524)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torflow&order=priority">bug
525)     tracker</a>)</h3>
526)     
527)     <p>
528)     Library and collection of services for actively monitoring the Tor network.
529)     These include the Bandwidth Scanners (measuring throughput of relays) and
530)     SoaT (scans for malicious or misconfigured exit nodes). SoaT was last
531)     actively developed in the Summer of 2010, and the Bandwidth Scanners a few
532)     months later. Both have been under active use since then, but development
533)     has stopped.
534)     </p>
535)     
536)     <a id="project-torbel"></a>
537)     <h3><a
538)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorBulkExitlist">TorBEL</a> (<a
539)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/tordnsel.git">code</a>, <a
540)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=TorDNSEL/TorBEL&order=priority">bug
541)     tracker</a>)</h3>
542)     
543)     <p>
544)     The Tor Bulk Exitlist provides a method of identifying if IPs belong to
545)     exit nodes or not. This is a replacement for TorDNSEL which is a stable
546)     (though unmaintained) Haskell application for this purpose. The initial
547)     version of TorBEL was started in GSOC 2010 but since then the project has
548)     been inactive.
549)     </p>
550)     

551)     <a id="Coding"></a>
552)     <a id="Summer"></a>

553)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Coding">Project Ideas</a></h2>

554)     
555)     <p>
556)     You may find some of these projects to be good <a href="<page

557)     about/gsoc>">Google Summer of Code 2011</a> ideas. We have labelled each idea

558)     with how useful it would be to the overall Tor project (priority), how
559)     much work we expect it would be (effort level), how much clue you should
560)     start with (skill level), and which of our <a href="<page

561)     about/corepeople>">core developers</a> would be good mentors.

562)     If one or more of these ideas looks promising to you, please <a
563)     href="<page about/contact>">contact us</a> to discuss your plans rather than
564)     sending blind applications. You may also want to propose your own project
565)     idea &mdash; which often results in the best applications.
566)     </p>
567)     
568)     <ol>
569)     

570)     <a id="auditTBB"></a>

571)     <li>

572)     <b>Audit Tor Browser Bundles for data leaks</b>

573)     <br>

574)     Priority: <i>High</i>

575)     <br>

576)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>

577)     <br>

578)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

579)     <br>

580)     Likely Mentors: <i>Erinn, Jacob, Andrew</i>

581)     <p>The Tor Browser Bundle incorporates Tor, Firefox, Polipo, and the Vidalia

582)     user interface (and optionally the <a href="http://pidgin.im/">Pidgin</a>
583)     Instant Messaging client). Components are pre-configured to operate in a
584)     secure way, and it has very few dependencies on the installed operating
585)     system. It has therefore become one of the most easy to use, and popular,

586)     ways to use Tor on Windows.</p>
587)     <p>This project is to identify all of the traces left behind by
588)     using a Tor Browser Bundle on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.  Developing
589)     ways to stop, counter, or remove these traces is a final step.</p>
590)     <p>Students should be familiar with operating system analysis,

591)     application development on one or preferably all of Windows, Linux,

592)     and Mac OS X, and be comfortable with C/C++ and shell scripting.</p>
593)     <p>If you would like to help extend or do security auditing for
594)     TBB, please contact Erinn.</p>

595)     </li>
596)     

597)     <a id="firewallProbeTool"></a>
598)     <li>
599)     <b>Develop a fully automatic firewall-probing system</b>
600)     <br>
601)     Priority: <i>High</i>
602)     <br>
603)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
604)     <br>
605)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
606)     <br>
607)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom, Nick, Jacob</i>
608)     <p>We would like to have a fully automatic firewall-probing system for
609)     blocking systems with no long-term state (i.e. firewalls that can
610)     examine each connection, but do not change their behaviour for future
611)     connections based on the traffic they have seen).</p>
612)     <p>Ideally, volunteers would only need to set up one or more test servers,
613)     and run the probe client program on a publicly accessible computer
614)     behind the firewall.</p>
615)     <p>The test tool should:</p>
616)     <ul>
617)     <li>generate packet captures on both ends (and send them out to the
618)         extent possible),</li>
619)     <li>cycle through all the SSL configurations we might want to test
620)         through a censorship device, and</li>
621)     <li>also test some other protocols to see whether they are allowed
622)         through the firewall (IMAP and other mail protocols, BitTorrent,
623)         DTLS, etc.).</li>
624)     </ul>
625)     </li>
626)     

627)     <a id="tailsStartMenu"></a>
628)     <li>
629)     <b>Custom GDM3 startup menu, aka. tails-greeter</b>
630)     <br>
631)     Priority: <i>High</i>
632)     <br>
633)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
634)     <br>
635)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
636)     <br>
637)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>

638)     <p>Several major upcoming Tails features need to gather user input at

639)     startup time: bridges support, persistence, MAC address anonymization,
640)     etc.</p>
641)     <p>Existing boot menus lack the graphical widgets and generally

642)     user-friendliness needed. Hence it was decided to implement Tails startup

643)     menu in GDM3: GDM3's default login/password prompt needs to be replaced
644)     with a custom GTK+ application hereby named tails-greeter that allows the
645)     user to provide any input necessary.</p>
646)     <p>Anyone undertaking this project should be familiar with GNU/Linux and
647)     application development; no other skill is required, apart of the ability
648)     to quickly find practical answers in APIs and documentation for many
649)     technologies she knows nothing about: this challenging coding project will
650)     indeed involve getting familiar with some modern GNU/Linux Desktop
651)     technologies such as D-Bus, GNOME and GConf. Python/GTK+ is probably the
652)     best suited language for the task.</p>

653)     <p>For more information see <a href="https://tails.boum.org/todo/boot_menu/">https://tails.boum.org/todo/boot_menu/</a></p>

654)     </li>
655) 

656)     <a id="orbot-torbutton"></a>
657)     <li>
658)     <b>TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</b>
659)     <br>
660)     Priority: <i>High</i>
661)     <br>
662)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
663)     <br>
664)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
665)     <br>
666)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake, Mike Perry</i>
667)     <p>Initial work has been done on implementing a proxy-setting add-on for
668)     Firefox on Android (see <a
669)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/ProxyMob">ProxyMob</a>), but a
670)     full port of TorButton needs to be done (dependent upon Firefox 4 port of
671)     TorButton). The other approach is to implement a custom &quot;Tor
672)     Browser&quot; based on Firefox or Webkit browser. See <a
673)     href="http://code.google.com/p/torora/wiki/Android">Torora</a> for progress
674)     on this so far.</p>
675)     </li>
676)     
677)     <a id="orbot-userInterface"></a>
678)     <li>
679)     <b>Build a better user interface for Orbot</b>
680)     <br>
681)     Priority: <i>High</i>
682)     <br>
683)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
684)     <br>
685)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
686)     <br>
687)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake</i>
688)     <p>Improved home screen to show confirmation of connection (via a TorCheck
689)     API call), better statistics about data transferred (up/down), number of
690)     circuits connected, quality of connection and so on. The &quot;Tether
691)     Wifi&quot; Android application is a good model to follow in how it shows a
692)     realtime count of bytes transferred as well as notifications when wifi
693)     clients connect. In addition, better handling of Tor system and error
694)     messages would also be very helpful, include use of standard Android
695)     operating systems notifications. The addition of a wizard or tutorial
696)     walkthrough for novice users to explain to them exactly what is and what is
697)     not anonymized or protected would greatly improve the likelihood they will
698)     use Orbot correctly. All of this should work on the range of screens and
699)     device types now offered for Android, from 2&quot; phone to 10&quot;
700)     Tablet.</p>
701)     </li>
702)     

703)     <a id="resistCensorship"></a>

704)     <li>
705)     <b>Improving Tor's ability to resist censorship</b>

706)     <br>

707)     Priority: <i>Medium to High</i>

708)     <br>

709)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>

710)     <br>

711)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>

712)     <br>

713)     Likely Mentors: <i>Roger, Nick, Jake, Thomas</i>

714)     <p>The Tor 0.2.1.x series makes <a

715)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html">significant
716)     improvements</a> in resisting national and organizational censorship.
717)     But Tor still needs better mechanisms for some parts of its

718)     anti-censorship design.</p>
719)     <p>One huge category of work is adding features to our <a

720)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/bridgedb.git?a=tree">BridgeDB</a>

721)     service (Python). Tor aims to give out <a href="<page docs/bridges>">bridge
722)     relay addresses</a> to users that can't reach the Tor network
723)     directly, but there's an arms race between algorithms for distributing
724)     addresses and algorithms for gathering and blocking them. See <a

725)     href="<blog>bridge-distribution-strategies">our

726)     blog post on the topic</a> as an overview, and then look at <a

727)     href="https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2009-December/000666.html">Roger's
728)     or-dev post</a> from December 2009 for more recent thoughts &mdash; lots of

729)     design work remains.</p>
730)     <p>If you want to get more into the guts of Tor itself (C), a more minor problem

731)     we should address is that current Tors can only listen on a single
732)     address/port combination at a time. There's

733)     <a href="<specblob>proposals/118-multiple-orports.txt">a

734)     proposal to address this limitation</a> and allow clients to connect
735)     to any given Tor on multiple addresses and ports, but it needs more

736)     work.</p>
737)     <p>This project could involve a lot of research and design. One of the big

738)     challenges will be identifying and crafting approaches that can still
739)     resist an adversary even after the adversary knows the design, and

740)     then trading off censorship resistance with usability and
741)     robustness.</p>

742)     </li>
743)     

744)     <a id="geoIPUpgrade"></a>
745)     <li>
746)     <b>Improve our GeoIP file format</b>
747)     <br>
748)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
749)     <br>
750)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
751)     <br>
752)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
753)     <br>
754)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom</i>
755)     <p>Currently, Tor bridges and relays read an entire IP->country database
756)     into memory from a text file during startup.  We would like to
757)     distribute this database and store it on disk in a much more compact

758)     form, and perform IP->country lookups on it in its on-disk format if
759)     possible.</p>

760)     <p>We have <a href='https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2506'>a
761)     sketch of a design</a> for a moderately optimized format for IPv4 GeoIP
762)     data; this project will involve both implementing the IPv4 format and
763)     designing and implementing a format for IPv6 GeoIP data.</p>

764)     <!--<p>Since the core of this project is researching IPv6 GeoIP data and
765)     designing the IPv6 format, this is not likely to be a good GSoC
766)     project.</p>-->

767)     </li>
768)     

769)     <a id="armClientMode"></a>

770)     <li>
771)     <b>Client Mode Use Cases for Arm</b>
772)     <br>
773)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
774)     <br>
775)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
776)     <br>
777)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
778)     <br>

779)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>

780)     <p><a href="<page projects/arm>">Arm</a> is a Tor command line status
781)     monitor on *nix environments (Linux, Mac, and BSD). It functions much like
782)     top does, giving a CLI overlay of Tor's bandwidth usage, connections,
783)     configuration, log, etc. Thus far its design has been geared for Tor relay
784)     operators. However, this doesn't need to be the case. This project would be
785)     to expand and simplify arm to make it useful for Tor's client users
786)     too.</p>
787)     
788)     <p>This would include UI design, experimenting, and a lot of python
789)     hacking. Here's some ideas for client functionality arm could provide:</p>
790)     
791)     <ul>
792)       <li>A panel for client connections, showing each hop of the user's
793)       circuits with the ISP, country, and jurisdiction where those relays
794)       reside. Other interesting information would be the circuit's latency, how
795)       long its been around, and its possible exit ports. Some of this will be
796)       pretty tricky and require some experimentation to figure out what
797)       information can be fetched safely (for instance, scraping rdns and whois
798)       lookups could give hints about a relay's ISP, but we'd need to do it on
799)       all Tor relays to avoid leaking our connections to the resolver).</li>
800)       
801)       <li>Options to let the user request new circuits (the &quot;New
802)       Identity&quot; feature in Vidalia), select the exit country, etc.</li>
803)       
804)       <li>A panel showing Internet application and if their connections are
805)       being routed through Tor or not (giving a warning if there's leaks).</li>
806)       
807)       <li>The status of the bridges we're configured to use (ie, are they up?).
808)       This would include adding control port functionality to Tor for <a
809)       href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2068">ticket
810)       2068</a>.</li>
811)       
812)       <li>A one click option to set Tor to be a client, relay, or bridge. The
813)       goal would be to make it trivial for users to voluntarily contribute to
814)       the Tor network.</li>
815)       
816)       <li>Menus as an alternative to hotkeys to make the interface more
817)       intuitive and usable for beginners (<a
818)       href="http://gnosis.cx/publish/programming/charming_python_6.html">example</a>).</li>
819)       
820)       <li>Look at Vidalia and TorK for ideas and solicit input from the Tor community.</li>
821)     </ul>
822)     

823)     <p>
824)     More information is available in the following sections of arm's dev notes: <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/arm#ConnectionListingExpansion">Connection Listing Expansion</a>, <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/arm#CircuitDetails">Circuit Details</a>, and <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/arm#ClientModeUseCases">Client Mode Use Cases</a>
825)     </p>

826)     </li>
827)     

828)     <a id="unitTesting"></a>

829)     <li>
830)     <b>Improve our unit testing process</b>

831)     <br>

832)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

833)     <br>

834)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

835)     <br>

836)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

837)     <br>

838)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick, Erinn</i>

839)     <p>Tor needs to be tested far more thoroughly. This is a
840)     multi-part effort. To start with, our unit test coverage should
841)     rise substantially, especially in the areas outside the utility
842)     functions. This will require significant refactoring of some parts
843)     of Tor, in order to dissociate as much logic as possible from
844)     globals.</p>

845)     <p>Additionally, we need to automate our performance testing. We've got

846)     buildbot to automate our regular integration and compile testing already
847)     (though we need somebody to set it up on Windows),
848)     but we need to get our network simulation tests (as built in <a
849)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/torflow/trunk/README">TorFlow</a>)
850)     updated for more recent versions of Tor, and designed to launch a test
851)     network either on a single machine, or across several, so we can test

852)     changes in performance on machines in different roles automatically.</p>

853)     </li>
854)     

855)     <a id="simulateSlowConnections"></a>

856)     <li>
857)     <b>Simulator for slow Internet connections</b>

858)     <br>

859)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

860)     <br>

861)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

862)     <br>

863)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

864)     <br>

865)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick</i>

866)     <p>

867)     Many users of Tor have poor-quality Internet connections, giving low
868)     bandwidth, high latency, and high packet loss/re-ordering. User
869)     experience is that Tor reacts badly to these conditions, but it is
870)     difficult to improve the situation without being able to repeat the
871)     problems in the lab.

872)     </p>
873)     
874)     <p>

875)     This project would be to build a simulation environment which
876)     replicates the poor connectivity so that the effect on Tor performance
877)     can be measured. Other components would be a testing utility to
878)     establish what are the properties of connections available, and to
879)     measure the effect of performance-improving modifications to Tor.

880)     </p>
881)     
882)     <p>

883)     The tools used would be up to the student, but dummynet (for FreeBSD)
884)     and nistnet (for Linux) are two potential components on which this
885)     project could be built. Students should be experienced with network
886)     programming/debugging and TCP/IP, and preferably familiar with C and a
887)     scripting language.

888)     </p>

889)     </li>
890)     

891)     <a id="torbuttonForThunderbird"></a>

892)     <li>
893)     <b>Torbutton equivalent for Thunderbird</b>

894)     <br>

895)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

896)     <br>

897)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>

898)     <br>

899)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>

900)     <br>

901)     Likely Mentors: <i>Mike</i>

902)     <p>

903)     We're hearing from an increasing number of users that they want to use
904)     Thunderbird with Tor. However, there are plenty of application-level
905)     concerns, for example, by default Thunderbird will put your hostname in
906)     the outgoing mail that it sends. At some point we should start a new
907)     push to build a Thunderbird extension similar to Torbutton.

908)     </p>

909)     </li>
910)     

911)     <a id="usabilityTesting"></a>

912)     <li>
913)     <b>Usability testing of Tor</b>

914)     <br>

915)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

916)     <br>

917)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

918)     <br>

919)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>

920)     <br>

921)     Likely Mentors: <i>Andrew</i>

922)     <p>

923)     Especially the browser bundle, ideally amongst our target demographic.
924)     That would help a lot in knowing what needs to be done in terms of bug
925)     fixes or new features. We get this informally at the moment, but a more
926)     structured process would be better.

927)     </p>

928)     
929)     <p>
930)     Please note that since this isn't a coding project, it isn't suitable for
931)     Google Summer of Code.
932)     </p>

933)     </li>

934)     

935)     <a id="tailsMetadataAnonymizing"></a>
936)     <li>
937)     <b>Meta-data anonymizing toolkit for file publication</b>
938)     <br>
939)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
940)     <br>
941)     Effort Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
942)     <br>
943)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
944)     <br>
945)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>

946)     <p>Tor helps greatly in publishing files anonymously. However, much personal
947)     information can be enclosed *inside* such published files' meta-data: GPS
948)     coordinates, author's name and so on. Anyone who wants to anonymously

949)     publish a file can thus far too easily de-anonymize herself.</p>

950)     <p>A set of tools allowing users to easily inspect and clean up meta-data in files

951)     would benefit Tor users, and would e.g. be shipped in Tails.</p>

952)     <p>A graphical user interface is a must, but library and command-line
953)     interfaces are most welcome so that future work can add support for

954)     cleaning published files to various publishing tools, such as desktop

955)     social networking clients and Web content management systems.</p>

956)     <p>This project mostly consists of writing glue between the many existing
957)     tools and libraries that provide read/write access to files' meta-data. An

958)     extensible program design would probably be the best bet, so that support
959)     for other kinds of files can easily be added later.</p>
960)     <p>The meta-data cleaning toolkit would run at least on GNU/Linux;
961)     additional Windows and/or Mac OS X support would be welcome. The tools used
962)     would be up to the students. The detailed specification is ready and will
963)     be published soon.</p>

964)     </li>   
965)  

966)     <a id="tailsDebianLive"></a>
967)     <li>
968)     <b>Improve Debian Live support for persistence</b>
969)     <br>
970)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
971)     <br>
972)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
973)     <br>
974)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
975)     <br>
976)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>
977)     <p>Data persistence is a somewhat tricky topic in a Live system context,

978)     especially one such as Tails, which is explicitly designed to avoid

979)     leaving any trace of its use.</p>
980)     <p>Some real-life use cases, however, require some kind of data

981)     persistence. To start with, Tails should (carefully) support persistence of

982)     application-specific configurations (e.g. GnuPG keyring) and of a user

983)     arbitrary data store. Note that persistence in Tails will always be opt-in

984)     and require encrypted storage.</p>

985)     <p>The backend work consists of improving Debian Live's existing

986)     persistence features to make them suit the specific context of Tails. A trust

987)     relationship is already established with upstream who is happy to merge our
988)     changes. The codebase is not that small and much refactoring is needed, so
989)     this really is a programming project rather than a fire'n'forget shell
990)     script hack contest.</p>
991)     <p>Anyone undertaking this project must be familiar with GNU/Linux, and
992)     preferably with Debian. Being able to (quickly learn to) write clean and
993)     safe programs in shell is also needed.</p>

994)     <p>For more information, see <a href="https://tails.boum.org/todo/persistence/">https://tails.boum.org/todo/persistence/</a>.</p>

995)     </li>

996)     

997)     <a id="torsocksForOSX"></a>

998)     <li>
999)     <b>Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</b>

1000)     <br>

1001)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1002)     <br>

1003)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1004)     <br>

1005)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1006)     <br>

1007)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Hogan</i>

1008)     <p>

1009)     <a href="https://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> and <a
1010)     href="https://code.google.com/p/dsocks/">dsocks</a> are wrappers that will

1011)     run applications, intercept their outgoing network connections, and push
1012)     those connections through Tor. The goal is to handle applications that
1013)     don't support proxies (or don't supporting them well). To get it right,
1014)     they need to intercept many system calls. The syscalls you need to
1015)     intercept on Linux differ dramatically from those on BSD. So Torsocks
1016)     works fine on Linux, dsocks works ok on BSD (though it may be less
1017)     maintained and thus might miss more syscalls), and nothing works well
1018)     on both. First, we should patch dsocks to use Tor's <i>mapaddress</i>
1019)     commands from the controller interface, so we don't waste a whole
1020)     round-trip inside Tor doing the resolve before connecting. Second,
1021)     we should make our <i>torify</i> script detect which of torsocks or
1022)     dsocks is installed, and call them appropriately. This probably means
1023)     unifying their interfaces, and might involve sharing code between them
1024)     or discarding one entirely.

1025)     </p>
1026)     </li>
1027)     

1028)     <a id="vidaliaStatusEventInterface"></a>

1029)     <li>
1030)     <b>Tor Controller Status Event Interface for Vidalia</b>
1031)     <br>
1032)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1033)     <br>
1034)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1035)     <br>
1036)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1037)     <br>

1038)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

1039)     <p>There are a number of status changes inside Tor of which the user may need
1040)     to be informed. For example, if the user is trying to set up his Tor as a
1041)     relay and Tor decides that its ports are not reachable from outside
1042)     the user's network, we should alert the user. Currently, all the user
1043)     gets is a couple of log messages in Vidalia's 'message log' window, which they
1044)     likely never see since they don't receive a notification that something
1045)     has gone wrong. Even if the user does actually look at the message log,
1046)     most of the messages make little sense to the novice user.</p>
1047)     <p>Tor has the ability to inform Vidalia of many such status
1048)     changes, and we recently implemented support for a couple of these
1049)     events. Still, there are many more status events which the user should
1050)     be informed of, and we need a better UI for actually displaying them
1051)     to the user.</p>
1052)     <p>The goal of this project then is to design and implement a UI for
1053)     displaying Tor status events to the user. For example, we might put a
1054)     little badge on Vidalia's tray icon that alerts the user to new status
1055)     events they should look at. Double-clicking the icon could bring up a
1056)     dialog that summarizes recent status events in simple terms and maybe
1057)     suggests a remedy for any negative events if they can be corrected by
1058)     the user. Of course, this is just an example and one is free to
1059)     suggest another approach.</p>
1060)     <p>A person undertaking this project should have good UI design and layout
1061)     skills and some C++ development experience. Previous experience with Qt and
1062)     Qt's Designer will be very helpful, but are not required. Some
1063)     English writing ability will also be useful, since this project will
1064)     likely involve writing small amounts of help documentation that should
1065)     be understandable by non-technical users. Bonus points for some graphic
1066)     design/Photoshop fu, since we might want/need some shiny new icons too.</p>
1067)     </li>
1068)     

1069)     <a id="orbot-optimisation"></a>
1070)     <li>
1071)     <b>Core Tor mobile optimisation</b>
1072)     <br>
1073)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1074)     <br>
1075)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1076)     <br>
1077)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1078)     <br>
1079)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake</i>
1080)     <p>
1081)     The existing port of Tor to Android is basically a straight
1082)     cross-compile to Linux ARM. There has been no work done in looking at
1083)     possible optimizations of Tor within a mobile hardware environment or on
1084)     mobile networks. In addition, a number of additional Android OS APIs are
1085)     available (such as wireless network status) that could be taken
1086)     advantage of.
1087)     </p>
1088)     
1089)     <p>
1090)     It should be noted, that even without optimisation, Tor is handling the
1091)     mobile network environment very well, automatically detecting change in
1092)     IP addresses, opening circuits, etc, as the device switches from no
1093)     coverage to 2G, 3G or Wifi constantly as it changes position. However,
1094)     this observation of &quot;very well&quot;, is just based on user
1095)     experience, and not any detailed study of what exactly is happening, and
1096)     what threats might exist because of this constantly changing network state.
1097)     </p>
1098)     
1099)     <p>
1100)     Finally, the build process needs to be moved to the Android NDK from the
1101)     custom GCC toolchain we are now using, and compatibility with Android
1102)     2.3 and 3.x Honeycomb OS need to be verified.
1103)     </p>
1104)     
1105)     <p>
1106)     For more information see the <a
1107)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/android/trunk/Orbot/BUILD">Orbot
1108)     build documentation</a>.
1109)     </p>
1110)     </li>
1111)     
1112)     <a id="orbot-orlibAndOutreach"></a>
1113)     <li>
1114)     <b>Orbot integration library and community outreach</b>
1115)     <br>
1116)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1117)     <br>
1118)     Effort Level: <i>Low</i>
1119)     <br>
1120)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1121)     <br>
1122)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8)</i>
1123)     <p>
1124)     We need additional work on <a
1125)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/orlib">ORLib</a>, our library for
1126)     use with third-party application to easily enable them to support
1127)     &quot;Torification&quot; on non-rooted devices (i.e. w/o transparent
1128)     proxying). This library includes a SOCKS client, a wrapper for the Apache
1129)     HTTPClient library, a utility class for detecting the state of Orbot
1130)     connectivity, and other relevant/useful things an Android app might need to
1131)     anonymize itself. This work would includes direct development of the
1132)     library, documentation, and sample code. Outreach or effort to implement
1133)     the library within other open-source apps is also needed.
1134)     </p>
1135)     </li>
1136)     

1137)     <a id="vidaliaNetworkMap"></a>

1138)     <li>
1139)     <b>An Improved and More Usable Network Map in Vidalia</b>
1140)     <br>
1141)     Priority: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1142)     <br>
1143)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1144)     <br>
1145)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1146)     <br>

1147)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

1148)     <p>
1149)     One of Vidalia's existing features is a network map that shows the user
1150)     the approximate geographic location of relays in the Tor network and
1151)     plots the paths the user's traffic takes as it is tunneled through the
1152)     Tor network. The map is currently not very interactive and has rather
1153)     poor graphics. Instead, we implemented KDE's Marble widget such
1154)     that it gives us a better quality map and enables improved interactivity,
1155)     such as allowing the user to click on individual relays or circuits to
1156)     display additional information. We want to add the ability
1157)     for users to click on a particular relay or a country containing one or
1158)     more Tor exit relays and say, "I want my connections to exit
1159)     from here."
1160)     </p>
1161)     
1162)     <p>
1163)     This project will first involve getting familiar with Vidalia
1164)     and the Marble widget's API. One will then integrate the widget
1165)     into Vidalia and customize Marble to be better suited for our application,
1166)     such as making circuits clickable, storing cached map data in Vidalia's
1167)     own data directory, and customizing some of the widget's dialogs.
1168)     </p>
1169)     
1170)     <p>
1171)     A person undertaking this project should have good C++ development
1172)     experience. Previous experience with Qt and CMake is helpful, but not
1173)     required.
1174)     </p>

1175)     </li>
1176)     

1177)     <a id="armGui"></a>
1178)     <li>
1179)     <b>GUI for Arm</b>
1180)     <br>
1181)     Priority: <i>Low</i>
1182)     <br>
1183)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1184)     <br>
1185)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1186)     <br>

1187)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>

1188)     <p>
1189)     Arm has several unique features, some of the most interesting being its
1190)     connection listing (correlating netstat results against the Tor consensus)
1191)     and configuration editor (a quick method for editing Tor's config, with
1192)     information pulled from the control port and man page). However, since arm
1193)     is a command line controller it's of limited appeal to certain sets of
1194)     users. This project would be to build a GTK or Qt frontend for the
1195)     controller, providing similar features set but with a windowed interface.
1196)     </p>
1197)     
1198)     <p>
1199)     The vast majority of arm's more interesting functionality lies in its

1200)     backend <a href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/arm/trunk/src/util/">utilities</a>, so

1201)     there should be little to no work decoupling the CLI from its backend.
1202)     Instead, this project would mostly be UI hacking and experimentation,
1203)     trying different interfaces to find something that's elegant and simple,
1204)     but matches the information found in the current terminal application.
1205)     </p>
1206)     </li>
1207)     

1208)     <li>
1209)     <b>Bring up new ideas!</b>

1210)     <br>

1211)     Don't like any of these? Look at the <a

1212)     href="/press/presskit/2008-12-19-roadmap-full.pdf">Tor development

1213)     roadmap</a> for more ideas, or just try out Tor, Vidalia, and Torbutton,
1214)     and find out what you think needs fixing.

1215)     Some of the <a href="<spectree>proposals">current proposals</a>

1216)     might also be short on developers.
1217)     </li>
1218)     
1219)     </ol>
1220)     
1221)     <a id="OtherCoding"></a>
1222)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#OtherCoding">Other Coding and Design related ideas</a></h2>
1223)     <ol>
1224)     <li>Tor relays don't work well on Windows XP. On
1225)     Windows, Tor uses the standard <tt>select()</tt> system
1226)     call, which uses space in the non-page pool. This means
1227)     that a medium sized Tor relay will empty the non-page pool, <a
1228)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/TheOnionRouter/WindowsBufferProblems">causing
1229)     havoc and system crashes</a>. We should probably be using overlapped IO
1230)     instead. One solution would be to teach <a
1231)     href="http://www.monkey.org/~provos/libevent/">libevent</a> how to use
1232)     overlapped IO rather than select() on Windows, and then adapt Tor to
1233)     the new libevent interface. Christian King made a
1234)     <a href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/libevent-urz/trunk/">good
1235)     start</a> on this in the summer of 2007.</li>
1236)     
1237)     <li>We need to actually start building our <a href="<page
1238)     docs/documentation>#DesignDoc">blocking-resistance design</a>. This involves
1239)     fleshing out the design, modifying many different pieces of Tor, adapting
1240)     <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a> so it supports the
1241)     new features, and planning for deployment.</li>
1242)     
1243)     <li>We need a flexible simulator framework for studying end-to-end
1244)     traffic confirmation attacks. Many researchers have whipped up ad hoc
1245)     simulators to support their intuition either that the attacks work
1246)     really well or that some defense works great. Can we build a simulator
1247)     that's clearly documented and open enough that everybody knows it's
1248)     giving a reasonable answer? This will spur a lot of new research.
1249)     See the entry <a href="#Research">below</a> on confirmation attacks for
1250)     details on the research side of this task &mdash; who knows, when it's
1251)     done maybe you can help write a paper or three also.</li>
1252)     

1253)     <li>Tor 0.1.1.x and later include support for hardware crypto
1254)     accelerators via OpenSSL. It has been lightly tested and is
1255)     possibly very buggy.  We're looking for more rigorous testing,

1256)     performance analysis, and optimally, code fixes to OpenSSL and

1257)     Tor if needed.</li>

1258)     
1259)     <li>Perform a security analysis of Tor with <a

1260)     href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fuzz_testing">"fuzz"</a>. Determine

1261)     if there are good fuzzing libraries out there for what we want. Win fame by
1262)     getting credit when we put out a new release because of you!</li>
1263)     
1264)     <li>Tor uses TCP for transport and TLS for link
1265)     encryption. This is nice and simple, but it means all cells
1266)     on a link are delayed when a single packet gets dropped, and
1267)     it means we can only reasonably support TCP streams. We have a <a

1268)     href="<page docs/faq>#TransportIPnotTCP">list

1269)     of reasons why we haven't shifted to UDP transport</a>, but it would
1270)     be great to see that list get shorter. We also have a proposed <a

1271)     href="<specblob>proposals/100-tor-spec-udp.txt">specification

1272)     for Tor and
1273)     UDP</a> &mdash; please let us know what's wrong with it.</li>
1274)     
1275)     <li>We're not that far from having IPv6 support for destination addresses
1276)     (at exit nodes). If you care strongly about IPv6, that's probably the
1277)     first place to start.</li>
1278)     
1279)     <li>We need a way to generate the website diagrams (for example, the "How
1280)     Tor Works" pictures on the <a href="<page about/overview>">overview page</a>
1281)     from source, so we can translate them as UTF-8 text rather than edit
1282)     them by hand with Gimp. We might want to
1283)     integrate this as an wml file so translations are easy and images are
1284)     generated in multiple languages whenever we build the website.</li>
1285)     
1286)     <li>How can we make the various LiveCD/USB systems easier
1287)     to maintain, improve, and document?  One example is <a

1288)     href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live

1289)     System</a>.
1290)     </li>
1291)     
1292)     <li>
1293)     Another anti-censorship project is to try to make Tor
1294)     more scanning-resistant.  Right now, an adversary can identify <a

1295)     href="<specblob>proposals/125-bridges.txt">Tor bridges</a>

1296)     just by trying to connect to them, following the Tor protocol,
1297)     and seeing if they respond.  To solve this, bridges could <a
1298)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#tth_sEc9.3">act like
1299)     webservers</a> (HTTP or HTTPS) when contacted by port-scanning tools,
1300)     and not act like bridges until the user provides a bridge-specific key.
1301)     To start, check out Shane Pope's <a
1302)     href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37735/index.html">thesis and prototype</a>.
1303)     </li>
1304)     
1305)     </ol>
1306)     
1307)     <a id="Research"></a>
1308)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Research">Research</a></h2>
1309)     <ol>
1310)     <li>The "end-to-end traffic confirmation attack":
1311)     by watching traffic at Alice and at Bob, we can <a
1312)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#danezis:pet2004">compare
1313)     traffic signatures and become convinced that we're watching the same
1314)     stream</a>. So far Tor accepts this as a fact of life and assumes this
1315)     attack is trivial in all cases. First of all, is that actually true? How
1316)     much traffic of what sort of distribution is needed before the adversary
1317)     is confident he has won? Are there scenarios (e.g. not transmitting much)
1318)     that slow down the attack? Do some traffic padding or traffic shaping
1319)     schemes work better than others?</li>
1320)     <li>A related question is: Does running a relay/bridge provide additional
1321)     protection against these timing attacks? Can an external adversary that can't
1322)     see inside TLS links still recognize individual streams reliably?
1323)     Does the amount of traffic carried degrade this ability any? What if the
1324)     client-relay deliberately delayed upstream relayed traffic to create a queue
1325)     that could be used to mimic timings of client downstream traffic to make it
1326)     look like it was also relayed? This same queue could also be used for masking
1327)     timings in client upstream traffic with the techniques from <a
1328)     href="http://www.freehaven.net/anonbib/#ShWa-Timing06">adaptive padding</a>,
1329)     but without the need for additional traffic. Would such an interleaving of
1330)     client upstream traffic obscure timings for external adversaries? Would the
1331)     strategies need to be adjusted for asymmetric links? For example, on
1332)     asymmetric links, is it actually possible to differentiate client traffic from
1333)     natural bursts due to their asymmetric capacity? Or is it easier than
1334)     symmetric links for some other reason?</li>
1335)     <li>Repeat Murdoch and Danezis's <a
1336)     href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/projects/anon/#torta">attack from
1337)     Oakland 05</a> on the current Tor network. See if you can learn why it
1338)     works well on some nodes and not well on others. (My theory is that the
1339)     fast nodes with spare capacity resist the attack better.) If that's true,
1340)     then experiment with the RelayBandwidthRate and RelayBandwidthBurst
1341)     options to run a relay that is used as a client while relaying the
1342)     attacker's traffic: as we crank down the RelayBandwidthRate, does the
1343)     attack get harder? What's the right ratio of RelayBandwidthRate to
1344)     actually capacity? Or is it a ratio at all? While we're at it, does a
1345)     much larger set of candidate relays increase the false positive rate
1346)     or other complexity for the attack? (The Tor network is now almost two
1347)     orders of magnitude larger than it was when they wrote their paper.) Be
1348)     sure to read <a href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#clog-the-queue">Don't
1349)     Clog the Queue</a> too.</li>
1350)     <li>The "routing zones attack": most of the literature thinks of
1351)     the network path between Alice and her entry node (and between the
1352)     exit node and Bob) as a single link on some graph. In practice,
1353)     though, the path traverses many autonomous systems (ASes), and <a
1354)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#feamster:wpes2004">it's not uncommon
1355)     that the same AS appears on both the entry path and the exit path</a>.
1356)     Unfortunately, to accurately predict whether a given Alice, entry,
1357)     exit, Bob quad will be dangerous, we need to download an entire Internet
1358)     routing zone and perform expensive operations on it. Are there practical
1359)     approximations, such as avoiding IP addresses in the same /8 network?</li>
1360)     <li>Other research questions regarding geographic diversity consider
1361)     the tradeoff between choosing an efficient circuit and choosing a random
1362)     circuit. Look at Stephen Rollyson's <a
1363)     href="http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu:8080/ugResearch/uploads/7/ImprovingTor.pdf">position
1364)     paper</a> on how to discard particularly slow choices without hurting
1365)     anonymity "too much". This line of reasoning needs more work and more
1366)     thinking, but it looks very promising.</li>
1367)     <li>Tor doesn't work very well when relays have asymmetric bandwidth
1368)     (e.g. cable or DSL). Because Tor has separate TCP connections between
1369)     each hop, if the incoming bytes are arriving just fine and the outgoing
1370)     bytes are all getting dropped on the floor, the TCP push-back mechanisms
1371)     don't really transmit this information back to the incoming streams.
1372)     Perhaps Tor should detect when it's dropping a lot of outgoing packets,
1373)     and rate-limit incoming streams to regulate this itself? I can imagine
1374)     a build-up and drop-off scheme where we pick a conservative rate-limit,
1375)     slowly increase it until we get lost packets, back off, repeat. We
1376)     need somebody who's good with networks to simulate this and help design
1377)     solutions; and/or we need to understand the extent of the performance
1378)     degradation, and use this as motivation to reconsider UDP transport.</li>
1379)     <li>A related topic is congestion control. Is our
1380)     current design sufficient once we have heavy use? Maybe
1381)     we should experiment with variable-sized windows rather
1382)     than fixed-size windows? That seemed to go well in an <a
1383)     href="http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/hpn-ssh/theory.php">ssh
1384)     throughput experiment</a>. We'll need to measure and tweak, and maybe
1385)     overhaul if the results are good.</li>
1386)     <li>Our censorship-resistance goals include preventing
1387)     an attacker who's looking at Tor traffic on the wire from <a
1388)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#sec:network-fingerprint">distinguishing
1389)     it from normal SSL traffic</a>. Obviously we can't achieve perfect
1390)     steganography and still remain usable, but for a first step we'd like to
1391)     block any attacks that can win by observing only a few packets. One of
1392)     the remaining attacks we haven't examined much is that Tor cells are 512
1393)     bytes, so the traffic on the wire may well be a multiple of 512 bytes.
1394)     How much does the batching and overhead in TLS records blur this on the
1395)     wire? Do different buffer flushing strategies in Tor affect this? Could
1396)     a bit of padding help a lot, or is this an attack we must accept?</li>
1397)     <li>Tor circuits are built one hop at a time, so in theory we have the
1398)     ability to make some streams exit from the second hop, some from the
1399)     third, and so on. This seems nice because it breaks up the set of exiting
1400)     streams that a given relay can see. But if we want each stream to be safe,
1401)     the "shortest" path should be at least 3 hops long by our current logic, so
1402)     the rest will be even longer. We need to examine this performance / security
1403)     tradeoff.</li>
1404)     <li>It's not that hard to DoS Tor relays or directory authorities. Are client
1405)     puzzles the right answer? What other practical approaches are there? Bonus
1406)     if they're backward-compatible with the current Tor protocol.</li>
1407)     <li>Programs like <a

1408)     href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> aim to hide