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>Do you have an Amazon account? Are you willing to spend up to $3 a

18)     month? Then spin up your own Tor <a href="<page
19)     docs/bridges>">bridge</a> in less than 10 minutes with <a

20)     href="https://cloud.torproject.org/">tor cloud</a>!</li>

21)     <li>Tell your friends! Get them to run relays. Get them to run hidden
22)     services. Get them to tell their friends.</li>
23)     <li>If you like Tor's goals, please <a href="<page donate/donate>">take a moment
24)     to donate to support further Tor development</a>. We're also looking
25)     for more sponsors &mdash; if you know any companies, NGOs, agencies,
26)     or other organizations that want anonymity / privacy / communications
27)     security, let them know about us.</li>
28)     <li>We're looking for more <a href="<page about/torusers>">good examples of Tor
29)     users and Tor use cases</a>. If you use Tor for a scenario or purpose not
30)     yet described on that page, and you're comfortable sharing it with us,
31)     we'd love to hear from you.</li>
32)     </ol>
33)     
34)     <a id="Documentation"></a>
35)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Documentation">Documentation</a></h2>
36)     <ol>
37)     <li>Help translate the web page and documentation into other
38)     languages. See the <a href="<page getinvolved/translation>">translation
39)     guidelines</a> if you want to help out. We especially need Arabic or
40)     Farsi translations, for the many Tor users in censored areas.</li>
41)     <li>Evaluate and document

42)     <a href="<wiki>doc/TorifyHOWTO">our

43)     list of programs</a> that can be configured to use Tor.</li>
44)     <li>We have a huge list of <a

45)     href="<wiki>doc/SupportPrograms">potentially useful

46)     programs that interface to Tor</a>. Which ones are useful in which
47)     situations? Please help us test them out and document your results.</li>
48)     </ol>
49)     
50)     <a id="Advocacy"></a>
51)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Advocacy">Advocacy</a></h2>
52)     <ol>

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

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

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

58)     <a

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

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

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

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

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

65)     </ol>
66)     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

109)         <td>Erinn</td>

110)       </tr>
111)       

112)       <tr class="alt">

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

114)         <td>Usability</td>

115)         <td>Sys Admin</td>

116)         <td>Heavy</td>

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

118)       </tr>
119)       

120)       <tr>

121)         <td><a href="#project-torsocks">Torsocks</a></td>
122)         <td>Usability</td>
123)         <td>C</td>

124)         <td>None</td>

125)         <td>mwenge</td>
126)       </tr>
127)       

128)       <tr class="alt">

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

131)         <td>Sys Admin</td>

132)         <td>Light</td>
133)         <td>ioerror, Runa</td>
134)       </tr>
135)       

136)       <tr>

137)         <td><a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a></td>
138)         <td>User Interface</td>
139)         <td>C++, Qt</td>
140)         <td>Light</td>
141)         <td>chiiph</td>
142)       </tr>
143)       

144)       <tr class="alt">

145)         <td><a href="#project-arm">Arm</a></td>
146)         <td>User Interface</td>
147)         <td>Python, Curses</td>

148)         <td>Light</td>

149)         <td>atagar</td>
150)       </tr>
151)       

152)       <tr>

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

156)         <td>Moderate</td>

157)         <td>n8fr8</td>
158)       </tr>
159)       

160)       <tr class="alt">

161)         <td><a href="#project-torbutton">Torbutton</a></td>
162)         <td>Browser Add-on</td>
163)         <td>Javascript</td>
164)         <td>Moderate</td>
165)         <td>mikeperry</td>
166)       </tr>
167)       

168)       <tr>

169)         <td><a href="#project-obfsproxy">Obfsproxy</a></td>
170)         <td>Client Add-on</td>
171)         <td>C</td>
172)         <td>Moderate</td>
173)         <td>nickm, asn</td>
174)       </tr>
175)       
176)       <tr class="alt">

177)         <td>*<a href="#project-thandy">Thandy</a></td>
178)         <td>Updater</td>
179)         <td>Python</td>
180)         <td>Light</td>

181)         <td>chiiph, Erinn, nickm</td>

182)       </tr>
183)       

184)       <tr>

185)         <td>*<a href="#project-ooni-probe">Ooni Probe</a></td>
186)         <td>Scanner</td>
187)         <td>Python</td>
188)         <td>Moderate</td>
189)         <td>hellais, ioerror</td>
190)       </tr>
191)       
192)       <tr class="alt">

193)         <td><a href="#project-shadow">Shadow</a></td>
194)         <td>Experimentation</td>
195)         <td>C, Python</td>
196)         <td>Moderate</td>
197)         <td>robgjansen</td>
198)       </tr>
199)       
200)       <tr>

201)         <td><a href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a></td>
202)         <td>Library</td>
203)         <td>Python</td>
204)         <td>Light</td>
205)         <td>mikeperry</td>
206)       </tr>
207)       

208)       <tr class="alt">

209)         <td>*<a href="#project-stem">Stem</a></td>
210)         <td>Library</td>
211)         <td>Python</td>
212)         <td>Heavy</td>
213)         <td>atagar</td>
214)       </tr>
215)       

216)       <tr>

217)         <td><a href="#project-metrics">Metrics</a></td>
218)         <td>Client Service</td>
219)         <td>Java</td>
220)         <td>Heavy</td>
221)         <td>karsten</td>
222)       </tr>
223)       

224)       <tr class="alt">

225)         <td><a href="#project-torstatus">TorStatus</a></td>
226)         <td>Client Service</td>

227)         <td>Python, Django</td>

228)         <td>None</td>
229)         <td></td>
230)       </tr>
231)       

232)       <tr>

233)         <td><a href="#project-weather">Weather</a></td>
234)         <td>Client Service</td>
235)         <td>Python</td>

236)         <td>None</td>

237)         <td>kaner</td>
238)       </tr>
239)       

240)       <tr class="alt">

241)         <td><a href="#project-gettor">GetTor</a></td>
242)         <td>Client Service</td>
243)         <td>Python</td>

244)         <td>None</td>

245)         <td>kaner</td>

246)       </tr>
247)       

248)       <tr>

249)         <td><a href="#project-torcheck">TorCheck</a></td>
250)         <td>Client Service</td>
251)         <td>Python, Perl</td>
252)         <td>None</td>
253)         <td></td>
254)       </tr>
255)       

256)       <tr class="alt">

257)         <td><a href="#project-bridgedb">BridgeDB</a></td>
258)         <td>Backend Service</td>
259)         <td>Python</td>

260)         <td>None</td>

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

262)       </tr>
263)       

264)       <tr>

265)         <td><a href="#project-torflow">TorFlow</a></td>
266)         <td>Backend Service</td>
267)         <td>Python</td>

268)         <td>Moderate</td>

269)         <td>mikeperry</td>
270)       </tr>
271)       

272)       <tr class="alt">

273)         <td>*<a href="#project-torbel">TorBEL</a></td>
274)         <td>Backend Service</td>
275)         <td>Python</td>
276)         <td>None</td>
277)         <td>Sebastian</td>
278)       </tr>
279)     </table>
280)     
281)     <sub>
282)     * Project is still in an alpha state.
283)     </sub>
284)     
285)     <br /><br />
286)     
287)     <a id="project-tor"></a>
288)     <h3>Tor (<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git">code</a>, <a
289)     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
290)     tracker</a>)</h3>
291)     
292)     <p>
293)     Central project, providing the core software for using and participating in
294)     the Tor network. Numerous people contribute to the project to varying
295)     extents, but the chief architects are Nick Mathewson and Roger Dingledine.
296)     </p>
297)     
298)     <p>
299)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
300)     <i><a href="#resistCensorship">Improving Tor's ability to resist
301)     censorship</a></i><br />

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

304)     </p>
305)     

306)     <a id="project-jtor"></a>
307)     <h3><a href="https://github.com/brl/JTor/wiki">JTor</a> (<a
308)     href="https://github.com/brl/JTor">code</a>, <a
309)     href="https://github.com/brl/JTor/issues">bug
310)     tracker</a>)</h3>
311)     
312)     <p>
313)     Java implementation of Tor and successor to <a
314)     href="http://onioncoffee.sourceforge.net/">OnionCoffee</a>. This project
315)     isn't yet complete, and has been inactive since Fall 2010.
316)     </p>
317)     

318)     <a id="project-tbb"></a>
319)     <h3><a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser Bundle</a> (<a
320)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbrowser.git">code</a>, <a
321)     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
322)     tracker</a>)</h3>
323)     
324)     <p>
325)     The Tor Browser Bundle is an easy-to-use portable package of Tor, Vidalia,
326)     and Firefox preconfigured to work together out of the box. This is actively
327)     being worked on by Erinn Clark.
328)     </p>
329)     
330)     <p>
331)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
332)     <i><a href="#auditTBB">Audit Tor Browser Bundles for data leaks</a></i><br />
333)     <i><a href="#usabilityTesting">Usability testing of Tor</a></i>
334)     </p>
335)     

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

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

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

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

340)     tracker</a>)</h3>
341)     
342)     <p>

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

344)     preconfigured so that everything is safely routed through Tor and leaves no
345)     trace on the local system. This is a merger of the Amnesia and <a
346)     href="http://www.anonymityanywhere.com/incognito/">Incognito</a> projects,
347)     and still under very active development.
348)     </p>
349)     

350)     <p>
351)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
352)     <i><a href="#tailsStartMenu">Custom GDM3 startup menu, aka.
353)     tails-greeter</a></i><br />
354)     <i><a href="#tailsMetadataAnonymizing">Meta-data anonymizing toolkit for
355)     file publication</a></i><br />
356)     <i><a href="#tailsDebianLive">Improve Debian Live support for
357)     persistence</a></i>
358)     </p>
359)     

360)     <a id="project-torsocks"></a>
361)     <h3><a href="http://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> (<a
362)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torsocks.git">code</a>, <a
363)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torify&order=priority">bug
364)     tracker</a>)</h3>
365)     
366)     <p>
367)     Utility for adapting other applications to work with Tor. Development has
368)     slowed and compatibility issues remain with some platforms, but it's
369)     otherwise feature complete.
370)     </p>
371)     
372)     <p>
373)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
374)     <i><a href="#torsocksForOSX">Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</a></i>
375)     </p>
376)     
377)     <a id="project-torouter"></a>
378)     <h3><a

379)     href="<wiki>doc/Torouter">Torouter</a> (<a

380)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torouter&order=priority">bug
381)     tracker</a>)</h3>
382)     
383)     <p>
384)     Project to provide an easy-to-use, embedded Tor instance for routers. This

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

386)     </p>
387)     
388)     <a id="project-vidalia"></a>
389)     <h3><a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a> (<a

390)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/vidalia.git">code</a>, <a

391)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Vidalia&order=priority">bug
392)     tracker</a>)</h3>
393)     
394)     <p>
395)     The most commonly used user interface for Tor. Matt Edman started the
396)     project in 2006 and brought it to its current stable state. Development
397)     slowed for several years, though Tomás Touceda has since taken a lead with
398)     pushing the project forward.
399)     </p>
400)     
401)     <p>
402)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

403)     <i><a href="#vidaliaStatusEventInterface">Tor Controller Status Event Interface for Vidalia</a></i><br />
404)     <i><a href="#vidalia-hidden-service-panel">Torrc plugin and improved hidden service configuration panel</a></i>

405)     </p>
406)     
407)     <a id="project-arm"></a>
408)     <h3><a href="http://www.atagar.com/arm/">Arm</a> (<a

409)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/arm.git">code</a>, <a

410)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=arm&order=priority">bug
411)     tracker</a>)</h3>
412)     
413)     <p>
414)     Command-line monitor for Tor. This has been under very active development
415)     by its author, Damian Johnson, since early 2009 to make it a better
416)     general-purpose controller for *nix environments.
417)     </p>
418)     

419)     <!--

420)     <p>
421)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

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

424)     </p>

425)     -->

426)     
427)     <a id="project-orbot"></a>
428)     <h3><a href="https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/">Orbot</a> (<a

429)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/orbot.git">code</a>, <a

430)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Orbot&order=priority">bug
431)     tracker</a>)</h3>
432)     
433)     <p>
434)     Provides Tor on the Android platform. This was under very active
435)     development up through Fall 2010, after which things have been quiet.
436)     </p>
437)     
438)     <p>
439)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

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

444)     </p>
445)     
446)     <a id="project-torbutton"></a>
447)     <h3><a href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> (<a
448)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbutton.git">code</a>, <a
449)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torbutton&order=priority">bug
450)     tracker</a>)</h3>
451)     
452)     <p>
453)     Firefox addon that addresses many of the client-side threats to browsing
454)     the Internet anonymously. Mike has since continued to adapt it to new
455)     threats, updated versions of Firefox, and possibly <a
456)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/google-chrome-incognito-mode-tor-and-fingerprinting">Chrome
457)     as well</a>.
458)     </p>
459)     
460)     <p>
461)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
462)     <i><a href="#torbuttonForThunderbird">Torbutton equivalent for Thunderbird</a></i>
463)     </p>
464)     

465)     <a id="project-obfsproxy"></a>
466)     <h3><a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/obfsproxy.git/tree/HEAD:/doc">Obfsproxy</a> (<a
467)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/obfsproxy.git">code</a>, <a
468)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Pluggable+transport&order=priority">bug
469)     tracker</a>)</h3>
470)     
471)     <p>
472)     A proxy that shapes Tor traffic, making it harder for censors to detect and
473)     block Tor.
474)     </p>
475)     

476)     <p>
477)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
478)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-new-transports">New and innovative pluggable transports</a></i><br />
479)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-scanning-measures">Defensive bridge active scanning measures</a></i><br />
480)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-fuzzer">Fuzzer for the Tor protocol</a></i>
481)     </p>
482)     

483)     <a id="project-thandy"></a>
484)     <h3>Thandy (<a
485)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/thandy.git">code</a>)</h3>
486)     
487)     <p>
488)     Updater for Tor. The project began in the Summer of 2008 but wasn't
489)     completed. Recently interest in it has been rekindled and many aspects of
490)     its design (including the language it'll be in) are currently in flux.
491)     </p>
492)     

493)     <a id="project-ooni-probe"></a>
494)     <h3>Ooni Probe (<a
495)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/ooni-probe.git">code</a>, <a
496)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Ooni&order=priority">bug
497)     tracker</a>)</h3>
498)     
499)     <p>
500)     Censorship scanner, checking your local connection for blocked or modified
501)     content.
502)     </p>
503)     

504)     <a id="project-shadow"></a>
505)     <h3><a href="https://shadow.cs.umn.edu/">Shadow</a> (<a
506)     href="https://github.com/shadow">code</a>, <a
507)     href="https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues">bug
508)     tracker</a>)</h3>
509)     
510)     <p>
511)     Shadow is a discrete-event network simulator that runs the real
512)     Tor software as a plug-in. Shadow is open-source software that enables
513)     accurate, efficient, controlled, and repeatable Tor experimentation.
514)     </p>
515)     

516)     <a id="project-torctl"></a>
517)     <h3>TorCtl (<a
518)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pytorctl.git">code</a>, <a
519)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torctl&order=priority">bug
520)     tracker</a>)</h3>
521)     
522)     <p>
523)     Python bindings and utilities for using the Tor control port. It has been
524)     stable for several years, with only minor revisions.
525)     </p>
526)     

527)     <a id="project-stem"></a>
528)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem">Stem</a> (<a
529)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/stem.git">code</a>, <a
530)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Stem&order=priority">bug
531)     tracker</a>)</h3>
532)     
533)     <p>
534)     Python controller library with a similar scope to TorCtl, but with better
535)     testing, documentation, and API. This project is not yet feature complete.
536)     </p>
537)     

538)     <p>
539)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
540)     <i><a href="#stemPathsupport">Stem PathSupport Capabilities</a></i>
541)     </p>
542)     

543)     <a id="project-metrics"></a>
544)     <h3><a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/">Metrics</a> (code: <a
545)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-db.git">db</a>, <a
546)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-utils.git">utils</a>, <a
547)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-web.git">web</a>, <a
548)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Metrics&order=priority">bug
549)     tracker</a>)</h3>
550)     
551)     <p>
552)     Processing and analytics of consensus data, provided to users via the
553)     metrics portal. This has been under active development for several years by
554)     Karsten Loesing.
555)     </p>
556)     

557)     <p>
558)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
559)     <i><a href="#metricsSearch">Searchable Tor descriptor and Metrics data archive</a></i> (Python/Django?)
560)     </p>
561)     

562)     <a id="project-torstatus"></a>
563)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorStatus">TorStatus</a> (<a

564)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torstatus.git">code</a>)</h3>

565)     
566)     <p>
567)     Portal providing an overview of the Tor network, and details on any of its
568)     current relays. Though very actively used, this project has been

569)     unmaintained for a long while. The <a
570)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/torstatus/trunk/">original
571)     codebase</a> was written in PHP, and students from Wesleyan wrote the new
572)     Django counterpart.

573)     </p>
574)     
575)     <a id="project-weather"></a>
576)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/Weather">Weather</a> (<a
577)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/weather.git">code</a>, <a
578)     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
579)     tracker</a>)</h3>
580)     
581)     <p>
582)     Provides automatic notification to subscribed relay operators when their
583)     relay's unreachable. This underwent a rewrite by the <a
584)     href="http://hfoss.wesleyan.edu/">Wesleyan HFOSS team</a>, which went live
585)     in early 2011.
586)     </p>
587)     
588)     <a id="project-gettor"></a>
589)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/EmailAutoResponder">GetTor</a> (<a

590)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/gettor.git">code</a>, <a

591)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=GetTor&order=priority">bug
592)     tracker</a>)</h3>
593)     
594)     <p>
595)     E-mail autoresponder providing Tor's packages over SMTP. This has been
596)     relatively unchanged for quite a while.
597)     </p>
598)     
599)     <a id="project-torcheck"></a>
600)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorCheck">TorCheck</a> (<a
601)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/check/trunk/">code</a>, <a
602)     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
603)     tracker</a>)</h3>
604)     
605)     <p>
606)     Provides a simple site for determining if the visitor is using Tor or not.
607)     This has been relatively unchanged for quite a while.
608)     </p>
609)     
610)     <a id="project-bridgedb"></a>
611)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/BridgeDB">BridgeDB</a> (<a
612)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/bridgedb.git">code</a>, <a
613)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=BridgeDB&order=priority">bug
614)     tracker</a>)</h3>
615)     
616)     <p>
617)     Backend bridge distributor, handling the various pools they're distributed
618)     in. This was actively developed until Fall of 2010.
619)     </p>
620)     
621)     <a id="project-torflow"></a>
622)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorFlow">TorFlow</a> (<a
623)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torflow.git">code</a>, <a
624)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torflow&order=priority">bug
625)     tracker</a>)</h3>
626)     
627)     <p>
628)     Library and collection of services for actively monitoring the Tor network.
629)     These include the Bandwidth Scanners (measuring throughput of relays) and
630)     SoaT (scans for malicious or misconfigured exit nodes). SoaT was last
631)     actively developed in the Summer of 2010, and the Bandwidth Scanners a few
632)     months later. Both have been under active use since then, but development
633)     has stopped.
634)     </p>
635)     
636)     <a id="project-torbel"></a>
637)     <h3><a
638)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/projects/TorBulkExitlist">TorBEL</a> (<a
639)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/tordnsel.git">code</a>, <a
640)     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
641)     tracker</a>)</h3>
642)     
643)     <p>
644)     The Tor Bulk Exitlist provides a method of identifying if IPs belong to
645)     exit nodes or not. This is a replacement for TorDNSEL which is a stable
646)     (though unmaintained) Haskell application for this purpose. The initial
647)     version of TorBEL was started in GSOC 2010 but since then the project has
648)     been inactive.
649)     </p>
650)     

651)     <a id="Coding"></a>
652)     <a id="Summer"></a>

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

654)     
655)     <p>
656)     You may find some of these projects to be good <a href="<page

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

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

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

662)     If one or more of these ideas looks promising to you, please <a
663)     href="<page about/contact>">contact us</a> to discuss your plans rather than
664)     sending blind applications. You may also want to propose your own project
665)     idea &mdash; which often results in the best applications.
666)     </p>
667)     
668)     <ol>
669)     

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

671)     <li>

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

673)     <br>

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

675)     <br>

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

677)     <br>

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

679)     <br>

680)     Likely Mentors: <i>Erinn and Jacob</i>

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

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

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

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

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

695)     </li>
696)     

697)     <a id="firewallProbeTool"></a>
698)     <li>
699)     <b>Develop a fully automatic firewall-probing system</b>
700)     <br>
701)     Priority: <i>High</i>
702)     <br>
703)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
704)     <br>
705)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
706)     <br>
707)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom, Nick, Jacob</i>
708)     <p>We would like to have a fully automatic firewall-probing system for
709)     blocking systems with no long-term state (i.e. firewalls that can
710)     examine each connection, but do not change their behaviour for future
711)     connections based on the traffic they have seen).</p>
712)     <p>Ideally, volunteers would only need to set up one or more test servers,
713)     and run the probe client program on a publicly accessible computer
714)     behind the firewall.</p>
715)     <p>The test tool should:</p>
716)     <ul>
717)     <li>generate packet captures on both ends (and send them out to the
718)         extent possible),</li>
719)     <li>cycle through all the SSL configurations we might want to test
720)         through a censorship device, and</li>
721)     <li>also test some other protocols to see whether they are allowed
722)         through the firewall (IMAP and other mail protocols, BitTorrent,
723)         DTLS, etc.).</li>
724)     </ul>
725)     </li>
726)     

727)     <a id="tailsStartMenu"></a>
728)     <li>
729)     <b>Custom GDM3 startup menu, aka. tails-greeter</b>
730)     <br>
731)     Priority: <i>High</i>
732)     <br>
733)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
734)     <br>
735)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
736)     <br>
737)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>

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

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

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

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

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

754)     </li>
755) 

756)     <a id="orbot-torbutton"></a>
757)     <li>
758)     <b>TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</b>
759)     <br>
760)     Priority: <i>High</i>
761)     <br>
762)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
763)     <br>
764)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
765)     <br>
766)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake, Mike Perry</i>
767)     <p>Initial work has been done on implementing a proxy-setting add-on for
768)     Firefox on Android (see <a
769)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/ProxyMob">ProxyMob</a>), but a
770)     full port of TorButton needs to be done (dependent upon Firefox 4 port of
771)     TorButton). The other approach is to implement a custom &quot;Tor
772)     Browser&quot; based on Firefox or Webkit browser. See <a
773)     href="http://code.google.com/p/torora/wiki/Android">Torora</a> for progress
774)     on this so far.</p>
775)     </li>
776)     

777)     <a id="obfsproxy-new-transports"></a>
778)     <li>
779)     <b>New and innovative pluggable transports</b>
780)     <br>
781)     Priority: <i>High</i>
782)     <br>
783)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
784)     <br>
785)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
786)     <br>
787)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn</i>
788)     <p>Not-very-smart transports like ROT13 and base64 are nice but not super
789)     interesting. Other ideas like bittorrent transports might be relevant,
790)     but you will have to provide security proofs on why they are harder to
791)     detect and block than other less-sophisticated transports.</p>
792)     
793)     <p>The whole point of this project, though, is to come up with new
794)     transports that we haven't already thought of. Be creative.</p>
795)     
796)     <p>Bonus points if your idea is interesting and still implementable
797)     through the summer period.</p>
798)     
799)     <p>More bonus points if it's implemented on top of obfsproxy, or if your
800)     implementation has a pluggable transport interface on top of it (as
801)     specified <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/180-pluggable-transport.txt">here</a>).</p>
802)     </li>
803)     
804)     <a id="obfsproxy-scanning-measures"></a>
805)     <li>
806)     <b>Defensive bridge active scanning measures</b>
807)     <br>
808)     Priority: <i>High</i>
809)     <br>
810)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
811)     <br>
812)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
813)     <br>
814)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn</i>
815)     <p>Involves providing good answers to <a
816)     href="https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2011-November/003073.html">this
817)     thread</a> as well as concrete implementation plans for it.</p>
818)     
819)     <p>This also involves implementing proposals <a
820)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/189-authorize-cell.txt">189</a>
821)     and <a
822)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/190-shared-secret-bridge-authorization.txt">190</a>.</p>
823)     </li>
824)     

825)     <a id="orbot-userInterface"></a>
826)     <li>
827)     <b>Build a better user interface for Orbot</b>
828)     <br>
829)     Priority: <i>High</i>
830)     <br>
831)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
832)     <br>
833)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
834)     <br>
835)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake</i>
836)     <p>Improved home screen to show confirmation of connection (via a TorCheck
837)     API call), better statistics about data transferred (up/down), number of
838)     circuits connected, quality of connection and so on. The &quot;Tether
839)     Wifi&quot; Android application is a good model to follow in how it shows a
840)     realtime count of bytes transferred as well as notifications when wifi
841)     clients connect. In addition, better handling of Tor system and error
842)     messages would also be very helpful, include use of standard Android
843)     operating systems notifications. The addition of a wizard or tutorial
844)     walkthrough for novice users to explain to them exactly what is and what is
845)     not anonymized or protected would greatly improve the likelihood they will
846)     use Orbot correctly. All of this should work on the range of screens and
847)     device types now offered for Android, from 2&quot; phone to 10&quot;
848)     Tablet.</p>
849)     </li>
850)     

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

852)     <li>
853)     <b>Improving Tor's ability to resist censorship</b>

854)     <br>

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

856)     <br>

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

858)     <br>

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

860)     <br>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

888)     then trading off censorship resistance with usability and
889)     robustness.</p>

890)     </li>
891)     

892)     <a id="stemPathsupport"></a>
893)     <li>
894)     <b>Stem PathSupport Capabilities</b>
895)     <br>
896)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
897)     <br>
898)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
899)     <br>
900)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
901)     <br>
902)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>
903)     <p><a
904)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem">Stem</a> is a
905)     python controller library for tor. Like it's predecessor, <a
906)     href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a>, it uses tor's <a
907)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/control-spec.txt">control
908)     protocol</a> to help developers program against the tor process, enabling
909)     them to build things similar to <a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a> and
910)     <a href="#project-arm">arm</a>.</p>
911)     
912)     <p>While TorCtl provided a fine first draft for this sort of functionality,
913)     it has not proved to be extensible nor maintainable. Stem is a rewrite of
914)     TorCtl with a heavy focus on testing, documentation, and providing a
915)     developer friendly API.</p>
916)     
917)     <p>At the moment stem is still very much incomplete, missing several pieces
918)     of functionality that TorCtl provides. This is a project to fix that by
919)     porting TorCtl's <a
920)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pytorctl.git/blob/HEAD:/PathSupport.py">PathSupport
921)     module</a> to stem, writing tests for it, and migrate a couple clients to
922)     use it.</p>
923)     
924)     <p>PathSupport provides applications with programmatic control over how
925)     tor's circuits are built, for instance letting you exit from particular
926)     relays. This is used by projects like <a href="#project-torbel">TorBEL</a>,
927)     <a href="#project-torflow">the Bandwidth Scanners, and SoaT</a>.</p>
928)     
929)     <p>This project can be broken into three parts...</p>
930)     
931)     <ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
932)       <li><p>Look at PathSupport's clients to figure out how it is used and
933)       come up with the API that we will use for stem. Note that the goal if
934)       this project is <b>not</b> to simply copy PathSupport, but to make it
935)       better. This task would ideally be done as part of writing the GSoC
936)       application.</p></li>
937)       <li><p>Implement the PathSupport counterpart for stem. This should be
938)       done in an incremental fashion, writing the feature, tests, and going
939)       through a code review before moving on. I'll be pretty anal about making
940)       it as good as we can during these code reviews so plan for this to take a
941)       while. ;)</p></li>
942)       <li><p>The real test of the API that you've developed will come when we
943)       use it in some real applications. Try to migrate a TorCtl client or two
944)       to stem, filling in functionality that we're missing and improving our
945)       API as we discover issues. A particularly good client to start with would
946)       be TorBEL.</p></li>
947)     </ol>
948)     

949)     <a id="geoIPUpgrade"></a>
950)     <li>
951)     <b>Improve our GeoIP file format</b>
952)     <br>
953)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
954)     <br>
955)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
956)     <br>
957)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
958)     <br>
959)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom</i>

960)     <p>Currently, Tor bridges and relays read an entire IP-&gt;country database

961)     into memory from a text file during startup.  We would like to
962)     distribute this database and store it on disk in a much more compact

963)     form, and perform IP->country lookups on it in its on-disk format if

964)     possible.</p>

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

969)     <p>Since the core of this project is researching IPv6 GeoIP data and

970)     designing the IPv6 format, this is not likely to be a good GSoC

971)     project.</p>

972)     </li>
973)     

974)     <!--

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

976)     <li>
977)     <b>Client Mode Use Cases for Arm</b>
978)     <br>
979)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
980)     <br>
981)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
982)     <br>
983)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
984)     <br>

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

986)     <p><a href="<page projects/arm>">Arm</a> is a Tor command line status
987)     monitor on *nix environments (Linux, Mac, and BSD). It functions much like
988)     top does, giving a CLI overlay of Tor's bandwidth usage, connections,
989)     configuration, log, etc. Thus far its design has been geared for Tor relay
990)     operators. However, this doesn't need to be the case. This project would be
991)     to expand and simplify arm to make it useful for Tor's client users
992)     too.</p>
993)     
994)     <p>This would include UI design, experimenting, and a lot of python
995)     hacking. Here's some ideas for client functionality arm could provide:</p>
996)     
997)     <ul>
998)       <li>A panel for client connections, showing each hop of the user's
999)       circuits with the ISP, country, and jurisdiction where those relays
1000)       reside. Other interesting information would be the circuit's latency, how
1001)       long its been around, and its possible exit ports. Some of this will be
1002)       pretty tricky and require some experimentation to figure out what
1003)       information can be fetched safely (for instance, scraping rdns and whois
1004)       lookups could give hints about a relay's ISP, but we'd need to do it on
1005)       all Tor relays to avoid leaking our connections to the resolver).</li>
1006)       
1007)       <li>Options to let the user request new circuits (the &quot;New
1008)       Identity&quot; feature in Vidalia), select the exit country, etc.</li>
1009)       
1010)       <li>A panel showing Internet application and if their connections are
1011)       being routed through Tor or not (giving a warning if there's leaks).</li>
1012)       
1013)       <li>The status of the bridges we're configured to use (ie, are they up?).
1014)       This would include adding control port functionality to Tor for <a
1015)       href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2068">ticket
1016)       2068</a>.</li>
1017)       
1018)       <li>A one click option to set Tor to be a client, relay, or bridge. The
1019)       goal would be to make it trivial for users to voluntarily contribute to
1020)       the Tor network.</li>
1021)       
1022)       <li>Menus as an alternative to hotkeys to make the interface more
1023)       intuitive and usable for beginners (<a
1024)       href="http://gnosis.cx/publish/programming/charming_python_6.html">example</a>).</li>
1025)       
1026)       <li>Look at Vidalia and TorK for ideas and solicit input from the Tor community.</li>
1027)     </ul>
1028)     

1029)     <p>
1030)     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>
1031)     </p>

1032)     </li>

1033)     -->

1034)     

1035)     <a id="vidalia-hidden-service-panel"></a>
1036)     <li>
1037)     <b>Torrc plugin and improved hidden service configuration panel</b>
1038)     <br>
1039)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1040)     <br>
1041)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1042)     <br>
1043)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1044)     <br>
1045)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>
1046)     <p>Vidalia's configuration handling has changed in the alpha branch. Now
1047)     every Tor option is saved in the torrc file. With that change, the
1048)     Hidden Service configuration panel was removed due to its specificity
1049)     and its multiple bugs.</p>
1050)     
1051)     <p>The idea would be to provide the new Torrc class' functionality to the
1052)     Plugin Engine and with that, create a better Hidden Service
1053)     configuration panel as a plugin.</p>
1054)     
1055)     <p>A person undertaking this project should have good UI design, layout
1056)     skills and some C++ development experience. Previous experience with Qt
1057)     and Qt's Designer will be very helpful, but are not required. Javascript
1058)     knowledge is a plus, but it shouldn't be a problem if the person
1059)     complies with the previous requirements.</p>
1060)     </li>
1061)     

1062)     <a id="metricsSearch"></a>
1063)     <li>
1064)     <b>Searchable Tor descriptor and Metrics data archive</b>
1065)     <br>
1066)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1067)     <br>
1068)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1069)     <br>
1070)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1071)     <br>
1072)     Likely Mentors: <i>Karsten</i>
1073)     <p>The <a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/data.html">Metrics data archive</a> of Tor relay descriptors and other Tor-related network data has grown to over 100G in size, bz2-compressed.  We have developed two search interfaces: the <a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/relay-search.html">relay search</a> finds relays by nickname, fingerprint, or IP address in a given month; <a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/exonerator-beta.html">ExoneraTor</a> finds whether a given IP address was a relay on a given day.</p>
1074)     
1075)     <p>We'd like to have a more general search application for Tor descriptors and metrics data.  There are more <a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/formats.html">descriptor types</a> that we'd like to include in the search.  The search application should handle most of them and understand some semantics like what's a timestamp, what's an IP address, and what's a link to another descriptor.  Users should then be able to search for arbitrary strings or limit their search to given time periods or IP address ranges.  Descriptors that reference other descriptors should contain links, and descriptors should be able to say from where they are linked.  The goal is to make the archive easily browsable.</p>
1076)     
1077)     <p>The search application shall be separate from the metrics website and shouldn't rely on the metrics website codebase.  The search application will contain hourly updated descriptor data from the metrics website via rsync.  Programming language and database system are not specified yet, though there's a slight preference for Python/Django and Postgres for maintenance reasons.  If there are good reasons to pick something else, e.g, some NoSQL variant or some search application framework, that's fine, too.  Further requirements are that lookups should be really fast and that changes to the search application can be implemented in reasonable time.</p>
1078)     
1079)     <p>Applications for this project should come with a design of the proposed search application, ideally with a proof-of-concept based on a subset of the available data to show that it will be able to handle the 100G+ of data.</p>
1080)     

1081)     <a id="unitTesting"></a>

1082)     <li>
1083)     <b>Improve our unit testing process</b>

1084)     <br>

1085)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1086)     <br>

1087)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1088)     <br>

1089)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1090)     <br>

1091)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick, Erinn</i>

1092)     <p>Tor needs to be tested far more thoroughly. This is a
1093)     multi-part effort. To start with, our unit test coverage should
1094)     rise substantially, especially in the areas outside the utility
1095)     functions. This will require significant refactoring of some parts
1096)     of Tor, in order to dissociate as much logic as possible from
1097)     globals.</p>

1098)     <p>Additionally, we need to automate our performance testing. We've got

1099)     buildbot to automate our regular integration and compile testing already
1100)     (though we need somebody to set it up on Windows),
1101)     but we need to get our network simulation tests (as built in <a
1102)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/torflow/trunk/README">TorFlow</a>)
1103)     updated for more recent versions of Tor, and designed to launch a test
1104)     network either on a single machine, or across several, so we can test

1105)     changes in performance on machines in different roles automatically.</p>

1106)     </li>
1107)     

1108)     <a id="simulateSlowConnections"></a>

1109)     <li>
1110)     <b>Simulator for slow Internet connections</b>

1111)     <br>

1112)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1113)     <br>

1114)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1115)     <br>

1116)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1117)     <br>

1118)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick</i>

1119)     <p>

1120)     Many users of Tor have poor-quality Internet connections, giving low
1121)     bandwidth, high latency, and high packet loss/re-ordering. User
1122)     experience is that Tor reacts badly to these conditions, but it is
1123)     difficult to improve the situation without being able to repeat the
1124)     problems in the lab.

1125)     </p>
1126)     
1127)     <p>

1128)     This project would be to build a simulation environment which
1129)     replicates the poor connectivity so that the effect on Tor performance
1130)     can be measured. Other components would be a testing utility to
1131)     establish what are the properties of connections available, and to
1132)     measure the effect of performance-improving modifications to Tor.

1133)     </p>
1134)     
1135)     <p>

1136)     The tools used would be up to the student, but dummynet (for FreeBSD)
1137)     and nistnet (for Linux) are two potential components on which this
1138)     project could be built. Students should be experienced with network
1139)     programming/debugging and TCP/IP, and preferably familiar with C and a
1140)     scripting language.

1141)     </p>

1142)     </li>
1143)     

1144)     <a id="torbuttonForThunderbird"></a>

1145)     <li>
1146)     <b>Torbutton equivalent for Thunderbird</b>

1147)     <br>

1148)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1149)     <br>

1150)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>

1151)     <br>

1152)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>

1153)     <br>

1154)     Likely Mentors: <i>Mike</i>

1155)     <p>

1156)     We're hearing from an increasing number of users that they want to use
1157)     Thunderbird with Tor. However, there are plenty of application-level
1158)     concerns, for example, by default Thunderbird will put your hostname in
1159)     the outgoing mail that it sends. At some point we should start a new
1160)     push to build a Thunderbird extension similar to Torbutton.

1161)     </p>

1162)     </li>
1163)     

1164)     <a id="usabilityTesting"></a>

1165)     <li>
1166)     <b>Usability testing of Tor</b>

1167)     <br>

1168)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1169)     <br>

1170)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1171)     <br>

1172)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>

1173)     <br>

1174)     Likely Mentors: <i>Andrew</i>

1175)     <p>

1176)     Especially the browser bundle, ideally amongst our target demographic.
1177)     That would help a lot in knowing what needs to be done in terms of bug
1178)     fixes or new features. We get this informally at the moment, but a more
1179)     structured process would be better.

1180)     </p>

1181)     
1182)     <p>
1183)     Please note that since this isn't a coding project, it isn't suitable for
1184)     Google Summer of Code.
1185)     </p>

1186)     </li>

1187)     

1188)     <a id="tailsMetadataAnonymizing"></a>
1189)     <li>
1190)     <b>Meta-data anonymizing toolkit for file publication</b>
1191)     <br>
1192)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1193)     <br>
1194)     Effort Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1195)     <br>
1196)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1197)     <br>
1198)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>

1199)     <p>Tor helps greatly in publishing files anonymously. However, much personal
1200)     information can be enclosed *inside* such published files' meta-data: GPS
1201)     coordinates, author's name and so on. Anyone who wants to anonymously

1202)     publish a file can thus far too easily de-anonymize herself.</p>

1203)     <p>A set of tools allowing users to easily inspect and clean up meta-data in files

1204)     would benefit Tor users, and would e.g. be shipped in Tails.</p>

1205)     <p>A graphical user interface is a must, but library and command-line
1206)     interfaces are most welcome so that future work can add support for

1207)     cleaning published files to various publishing tools, such as desktop

1208)     social networking clients and Web content management systems.</p>

1209)     <p>This project mostly consists of writing glue between the many existing
1210)     tools and libraries that provide read/write access to files' meta-data. An

1211)     extensible program design would probably be the best bet, so that support
1212)     for other kinds of files can easily be added later.</p>
1213)     <p>The meta-data cleaning toolkit would run at least on GNU/Linux;
1214)     additional Windows and/or Mac OS X support would be welcome. The tools used
1215)     would be up to the students. The detailed specification is ready and will
1216)     be published soon.</p>

1217)     </li>   
1218)  

1219)     <a id="tailsDebianLive"></a>
1220)     <li>
1221)     <b>Improve Debian Live support for persistence</b>
1222)     <br>
1223)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1224)     <br>
1225)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1226)     <br>
1227)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1228)     <br>
1229)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>
1230)     <p>Data persistence is a somewhat tricky topic in a Live system context,

1231)     especially one such as Tails, which is explicitly designed to avoid

1232)     leaving any trace of its use.</p>
1233)     <p>Some real-life use cases, however, require some kind of data

1234)     persistence. To start with, Tails should (carefully) support persistence of

1235)     application-specific configurations (e.g. GnuPG keyring) and of a user

1236)     arbitrary data store. Note that persistence in Tails will always be opt-in

1237)     and require encrypted storage.</p>

1238)     <p>The backend work consists of improving Debian Live's existing

1239)     persistence features to make them suit the specific context of Tails. A trust

1240)     relationship is already established with upstream who is happy to merge our
1241)     changes. The codebase is not that small and much refactoring is needed, so
1242)     this really is a programming project rather than a fire'n'forget shell
1243)     script hack contest.</p>
1244)     <p>Anyone undertaking this project must be familiar with GNU/Linux, and
1245)     preferably with Debian. Being able to (quickly learn to) write clean and
1246)     safe programs in shell is also needed.</p>

1247)     <p>For more information, see <a href="https://tails.boum.org/todo/persistence/">https://tails.boum.org/todo/persistence/</a>.</p>

1248)     </li>

1249)     

1250)     <a id="torsocksForOSX"></a>

1251)     <li>
1252)     <b>Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</b>

1253)     <br>

1254)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1255)     <br>

1256)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1257)     <br>

1258)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1259)     <br>

1260)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Hogan</i>

1261)     <p>

1262)     <a href="https://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> and <a
1263)     href="https://code.google.com/p/dsocks/">dsocks</a> are wrappers that will

1264)     run applications, intercept their outgoing network connections, and push
1265)     those connections through Tor. The goal is to handle applications that
1266)     don't support proxies (or don't supporting them well). To get it right,
1267)     they need to intercept many system calls. The syscalls you need to
1268)     intercept on Linux differ dramatically from those on BSD. So Torsocks
1269)     works fine on Linux, dsocks works ok on BSD (though it may be less
1270)     maintained and thus might miss more syscalls), and nothing works well
1271)     on both. First, we should patch dsocks to use Tor's <i>mapaddress</i>
1272)     commands from the controller interface, so we don't waste a whole
1273)     round-trip inside Tor doing the resolve before connecting. Second,
1274)     we should make our <i>torify</i> script detect which of torsocks or
1275)     dsocks is installed, and call them appropriately. This probably means
1276)     unifying their interfaces, and might involve sharing code between them
1277)     or discarding one entirely.

1278)     </p>
1279)     </li>
1280)     

1281)     <a id="vidaliaStatusEventInterface"></a>

1282)     <li>
1283)     <b>Tor Controller Status Event Interface for Vidalia</b>
1284)     <br>
1285)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1286)     <br>
1287)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1288)     <br>
1289)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1290)     <br>

1291)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

1292)     <p>There are a number of status changes inside Tor of which the user may need
1293)     to be informed. For example, if the user is trying to set up his Tor as a
1294)     relay and Tor decides that its ports are not reachable from outside
1295)     the user's network, we should alert the user. Currently, all the user
1296)     gets is a couple of log messages in Vidalia's 'message log' window, which they
1297)     likely never see since they don't receive a notification that something
1298)     has gone wrong. Even if the user does actually look at the message log,
1299)     most of the messages make little sense to the novice user.</p>
1300)     <p>Tor has the ability to inform Vidalia of many such status
1301)     changes, and we recently implemented support for a couple of these
1302)     events. Still, there are many more status events which the user should
1303)     be informed of, and we need a better UI for actually displaying them
1304)     to the user.</p>
1305)     <p>The goal of this project then is to design and implement a UI for
1306)     displaying Tor status events to the user. For example, we might put a
1307)     little badge on Vidalia's tray icon that alerts the user to new status
1308)     events they should look at. Double-clicking the icon could bring up a
1309)     dialog that summarizes recent status events in simple terms and maybe
1310)     suggests a remedy for any negative events if they can be corrected by
1311)     the user. Of course, this is just an example and one is free to
1312)     suggest another approach.</p>
1313)     <p>A person undertaking this project should have good UI design and layout
1314)     skills and some C++ development experience. Previous experience with Qt and
1315)     Qt's Designer will be very helpful, but are not required. Some
1316)     English writing ability will also be useful, since this project will
1317)     likely involve writing small amounts of help documentation that should
1318)     be understandable by non-technical users. Bonus points for some graphic
1319)     design/Photoshop fu, since we might want/need some shiny new icons too.</p>
1320)     </li>
1321)     

1322)     <a id="orbot-optimisation"></a>
1323)     <li>
1324)     <b>Core Tor mobile optimisation</b>
1325)     <br>
1326)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1327)     <br>
1328)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1329)     <br>
1330)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1331)     <br>
1332)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake</i>
1333)     <p>
1334)     The existing port of Tor to Android is basically a straight
1335)     cross-compile to Linux ARM. There has been no work done in looking at
1336)     possible optimizations of Tor within a mobile hardware environment or on
1337)     mobile networks. In addition, a number of additional Android OS APIs are
1338)     available (such as wireless network status) that could be taken
1339)     advantage of.
1340)     </p>
1341)     
1342)     <p>
1343)     It should be noted, that even without optimisation, Tor is handling the
1344)     mobile network environment very well, automatically detecting change in
1345)     IP addresses, opening circuits, etc, as the device switches from no
1346)     coverage to 2G, 3G or Wifi constantly as it changes position. However,
1347)     this observation of &quot;very well&quot;, is just based on user
1348)     experience, and not any detailed study of what exactly is happening, and
1349)     what threats might exist because of this constantly changing network state.
1350)     </p>
1351)     
1352)     <p>
1353)     Finally, the build process needs to be moved to the Android NDK from the
1354)     custom GCC toolchain we are now using, and compatibility with Android
1355)     2.3 and 3.x Honeycomb OS need to be verified.
1356)     </p>
1357)     
1358)     <p>
1359)     For more information see the <a
1360)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/android/trunk/Orbot/BUILD">Orbot
1361)     build documentation</a>.
1362)     </p>
1363)     </li>
1364)     
1365)     <a id="orbot-orlibAndOutreach"></a>
1366)     <li>
1367)     <b>Orbot integration library and community outreach</b>
1368)     <br>
1369)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1370)     <br>
1371)     Effort Level: <i>Low</i>
1372)     <br>
1373)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1374)     <br>
1375)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8)</i>
1376)     <p>
1377)     We need additional work on <a
1378)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/orlib">ORLib</a>, our library for
1379)     use with third-party application to easily enable them to support
1380)     &quot;Torification&quot; on non-rooted devices (i.e. w/o transparent
1381)     proxying). This library includes a SOCKS client, a wrapper for the Apache
1382)     HTTPClient library, a utility class for detecting the state of Orbot
1383)     connectivity, and other relevant/useful things an Android app might need to
1384)     anonymize itself. This work would includes direct development of the
1385)     library, documentation, and sample code. Outreach or effort to implement
1386)     the library within other open-source apps is also needed.
1387)     </p>
1388)     </li>
1389)     

1390)     <!--

1391)     <a id="vidaliaNetworkMap"></a>

1392)     <li>
1393)     <b>An Improved and More Usable Network Map in Vidalia</b>
1394)     <br>
1395)     Priority: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1396)     <br>
1397)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1398)     <br>
1399)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1400)     <br>

1401)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

1402)     <p>
1403)     One of Vidalia's existing features is a network map that shows the user
1404)     the approximate geographic location of relays in the Tor network and
1405)     plots the paths the user's traffic takes as it is tunneled through the
1406)     Tor network. The map is currently not very interactive and has rather
1407)     poor graphics. Instead, we implemented KDE's Marble widget such
1408)     that it gives us a better quality map and enables improved interactivity,
1409)     such as allowing the user to click on individual relays or circuits to
1410)     display additional information. We want to add the ability
1411)     for users to click on a particular relay or a country containing one or
1412)     more Tor exit relays and say, "I want my connections to exit
1413)     from here."
1414)     </p>
1415)     
1416)     <p>
1417)     This project will first involve getting familiar with Vidalia
1418)     and the Marble widget's API. One will then integrate the widget
1419)     into Vidalia and customize Marble to be better suited for our application,
1420)     such as making circuits clickable, storing cached map data in Vidalia's
1421)     own data directory, and customizing some of the widget's dialogs.
1422)     </p>
1423)     
1424)     <p>
1425)     A person undertaking this project should have good C++ development
1426)     experience. Previous experience with Qt and CMake is helpful, but not
1427)     required.
1428)     </p>

1429)     </li>

1430)     -->

1431)     

1432)     <a id="obfsproxy-fuzzer"></a>
1433)     <li>
1434)     <b>Fuzzer for the Tor protocol</b>
1435)     <br>
1436)     Priority: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1437)     <br>
1438)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1439)     <br>
1440)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1441)     <br>
1442)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn</i>
1443)     <p>Involves researching good and smart ways to fuzz stateful network
1444)     protocols, and also implementing the fuzzer.</p>
1445)     
1446)     <p>We are mostly looking for a fuzzer that fuzzes the Tor protocol
1447)     itself, and not the Tor directory protocol.</p>
1448)     
1449)     <p>Bonus points if it's extremely modular. Relevant research:</p>
1450)     
1451)     <ul>
1452)       <li>PROTOS - Security Testing of Protocol Implementations</li>
1453)       <li>INTERSTATE: A Stateful Protocol Fuzzer for SIP</li>
1454)       <li>Detecting Communication Protocol Security Flaws by Formal Fuzz
1455)       Testing and Machine Learning</li>
1456)       <li>SNOOZE: Toward a Stateful NetwOrk prOtocol fuzZE</li>
1457)       <li>Michal Zalewski's &quot;bugger&quot;</li>
1458)       <li>Also look at the concepts of &quot;model checking&quot; and
1459)       &quot;symbolic execution&quot; to get inspired.</li>
1460)     </ul>
1461)     </li>
1462)     

1463)     <!--

1464)     <a id="armGui"></a>
1465)     <li>
1466)     <b>GUI for Arm</b>
1467)     <br>
1468)     Priority: <i>Low</i>
1469)     <br>
1470)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1471)     <br>
1472)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1473)     <br>

1474)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>

1475)     <p>
1476)     Arm has several unique features, some of the most interesting being its
1477)     connection listing (correlating netstat results against the Tor consensus)
1478)     and configuration editor (a quick method for editing Tor's config, with
1479)     information pulled from the control port and man page). However, since arm
1480)     is a command line controller it's of limited appeal to certain sets of
1481)     users. This project would be to build a GTK or Qt frontend for the
1482)     controller, providing similar features set but with a windowed interface.
1483)     </p>
1484)     
1485)     <p>
1486)     The vast majority of arm's more interesting functionality lies in its

1487)     backend <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/arm.git/tree/HEAD:/src/util">utilities</a>, so

1488)     there should be little to no work decoupling the CLI from its backend.
1489)     Instead, this project would mostly be UI hacking and experimentation,
1490)     trying different interfaces to find something that's elegant and simple,
1491)     but matches the information found in the current terminal application.
1492)     </p>
1493)     </li>

1494)     -->

1495)     

1496)     <li>
1497)     <b>Bring up new ideas!</b>

1498)     <br>

1499)     Don't like any of these? Look at the <a

1500)     href="/press/presskit/2008-12-19-roadmap-full.pdf">Tor development

1501)     roadmap</a> for more ideas, or just try out Tor, Vidalia, and Torbutton,
1502)     and find out what you think needs fixing.

1503)     Some of the <a href="<spectree>proposals">current proposals</a>

1504)     might also be short on developers.
1505)     </li>
1506)     
1507)     </ol>
1508)     
1509)     <a id="OtherCoding"></a>
1510)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#OtherCoding">Other Coding and Design related ideas</a></h2>
1511)     <ol>
1512)     <li>Tor relays don't work well on Windows XP. On
1513)     Windows, Tor uses the standard <tt>select()</tt> system
1514)     call, which uses space in the non-page pool. This means
1515)     that a medium sized Tor relay will empty the non-page pool, <a

1516)     href="<wiki>doc/WindowsBufferProblems">causing

1517)     havoc and system crashes</a>. We should probably be using overlapped IO
1518)     instead. One solution would be to teach <a
1519)     href="http://www.monkey.org/~provos/libevent/">libevent</a> how to use
1520)     overlapped IO rather than select() on Windows, and then adapt Tor to
1521)     the new libevent interface. Christian King made a
1522)     <a href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/libevent-urz/trunk/">good
1523)     start</a> on this in the summer of 2007.</li>
1524)     
1525)     <li>We need to actually start building our <a href="<page
1526)     docs/documentation>#DesignDoc">blocking-resistance design</a>. This involves
1527)     fleshing out the design, modifying many different pieces of Tor, adapting
1528)     <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a> so it supports the
1529)     new features, and planning for deployment.</li>
1530)     
1531)     <li>We need a flexible simulator framework for studying end-to-end
1532)     traffic confirmation attacks. Many researchers have whipped up ad hoc
1533)     simulators to support their intuition either that the attacks work
1534)     really well or that some defense works great. Can we build a simulator
1535)     that's clearly documented and open enough that everybody knows it's
1536)     giving a reasonable answer? This will spur a lot of new research.
1537)     See the entry <a href="#Research">below</a> on confirmation attacks for
1538)     details on the research side of this task &mdash; who knows, when it's
1539)     done maybe you can help write a paper or three also.</li>
1540)     

1541)     <li>Tor 0.1.1.x and later include support for hardware crypto
1542)     accelerators via OpenSSL. It has been lightly tested and is
1543)     possibly very buggy.  We're looking for more rigorous testing,

1544)     performance analysis, and optimally, code fixes to OpenSSL and

1545)     Tor if needed.</li>

1546)     
1547)     <li>Perform a security analysis of Tor with <a

1548)     href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fuzz_testing">"fuzz"</a>. Determine

1549)     if there are good fuzzing libraries out there for what we want. Win fame by
1550)     getting credit when we put out a new release because of you!</li>
1551)     
1552)     <li>Tor uses TCP for transport and TLS for link
1553)     encryption. This is nice and simple, but it means all cells
1554)     on a link are delayed when a single packet gets dropped, and
1555)     it means we can only reasonably support TCP streams. We have a <a

1556)     href="<page docs/faq>#TransportIPnotTCP">list

1557)     of reasons why we haven't shifted to UDP transport</a>, but it would
1558)     be great to see that list get shorter. We also have a proposed <a

1559)     href="<specblob>proposals/100-tor-spec-udp.txt">specification

1560)     for Tor and
1561)     UDP</a> &mdash; please let us know what's wrong with it.</li>
1562)     
1563)     <li>We're not that far from having IPv6 support for destination addresses
1564)     (at exit nodes). If you care strongly about IPv6, that's probably the
1565)     first place to start.</li>
1566)     
1567)     <li>We need a way to generate the website diagrams (for example, the "How
1568)     Tor Works" pictures on the <a href="<page about/overview>">overview page</a>
1569)     from source, so we can translate them as UTF-8 text rather than edit
1570)     them by hand with Gimp. We might want to
1571)     integrate this as an wml file so translations are easy and images are
1572)     generated in multiple languages whenever we build the website.</li>
1573)     
1574)     <li>How can we make the various LiveCD/USB systems easier
1575)     to maintain, improve, and document?  One example is <a

1576)     href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live

1577)     System</a>.
1578)     </li>
1579)     
1580)     <li>
1581)     Another anti-censorship project is to try to make Tor
1582)     more scanning-resistant.  Right now, an adversary can identify <a

1583)     href="<specblob>proposals/125-bridges.txt">Tor bridges</a>

1584)     just by trying to connect to them, following the Tor protocol,
1585)     and seeing if they respond.  To solve this, bridges could <a
1586)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#tth_sEc9.3">act like
1587)     webservers</a> (HTTP or HTTPS) when contacted by port-scanning tools,
1588)     and not act like bridges until the user provides a bridge-specific key.
1589)     To start, check out Shane Pope's <a
1590)     href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37735/index.html">thesis and prototype</a>.
1591)     </li>
1592)     
1593)     </ol>
1594)     
1595)     <a id="Research"></a>
1596)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Research">Research</a></h2>
1597)     <ol>
1598)     <li>The "end-to-end traffic confirmation attack":
1599)     by watching traffic at Alice and at Bob, we can <a
1600)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#danezis:pet2004">compare
1601)     traffic signatures and become convinced that we're watching the same
1602)     stream</a>. So far Tor accepts this as a fact of life and assumes this
1603)     attack is trivial in all cases. First of all, is that actually true? How
1604)     much traffic of what sort of distribution is needed before the adversary
1605)     is confident he has won? Are there scenarios (e.g. not transmitting much)
1606)     that slow down the attack? Do some traffic padding or traffic shaping
1607)     schemes work better than others?</li>
1608)     <li>A related question is: Does running a relay/bridge provide additional
1609)     protection against these timing attacks? Can an external adversary that can't
1610)     see inside TLS links still recognize individual streams reliably?
1611)     Does the amount of traffic carried degrade this ability any? What if the
1612)     client-relay deliberately delayed upstream relayed traffic to create a queue
1613)     that could be used to mimic timings of client downstream traffic to make it
1614)     look like it was also relayed? This same queue could also be used for masking
1615)     timings in client upstream traffic with the techniques from <a
1616)     href="http://www.freehaven.net/anonbib/#ShWa-Timing06">adaptive padding</a>,
1617)     but without the need for additional traffic. Would such an interleaving of
1618)     client upstream traffic obscure timings for external adversaries? Would the
1619)     strategies need to be adjusted for asymmetric links? For example, on
1620)     asymmetric links, is it actually possible to differentiate client traffic from
1621)     natural bursts due to their asymmetric capacity? Or is it easier than
1622)     symmetric links for some other reason?</li>
1623)     <li>Repeat Murdoch and Danezis's <a
1624)     href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/projects/anon/#torta">attack from
1625)     Oakland 05</a> on the current Tor network. See if you can learn why it
1626)     works well on some nodes and not well on others. (My theory is that the
1627)     fast nodes with spare capacity resist the attack better.) If that's true,
1628)     then experiment with the RelayBandwidthRate and RelayBandwidthBurst
1629)     options to run a relay that is used as a client while relaying the
1630)     attacker's traffic: as we crank down the RelayBandwidthRate, does the
1631)     attack get harder? What's the right ratio of RelayBandwidthRate to
1632)     actually capacity? Or is it a ratio at all? While we're at it, does a
1633)     much larger set of candidate relays increase the false positive rate
1634)     or other complexity for the attack? (The Tor network is now almost two
1635)     orders of magnitude larger than it was when they wrote their paper.) Be
1636)     sure to read <a href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#clog-the-queue">Don't
1637)     Clog the Queue</a> too.</li>
1638)     <li>The "routing zones attack": most of the literature thinks of
1639)     the network path between Alice and her entry node (and between the
1640)     exit node and Bob) as a single link on some graph. In practice,
1641)     though, the path traverses many autonomous systems (ASes), and <a
1642)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#feamster:wpes2004">it's not uncommon
1643)     that the same AS appears on both the entry path and the exit path</a>.
1644)     Unfortunately, to accurately predict whether a given Alice, entry,
1645)     exit, Bob quad will be dangerous, we need to download an entire Internet
1646)     routing zone and perform expensive operations on it. Are there practical
1647)     approximations, such as avoiding IP addresses in the same /8 network?</li>
1648)     <li>Other research questions regarding geographic diversity consider
1649)     the tradeoff between choosing an efficient circuit and choosing a random
1650)     circuit. Look at Stephen Rollyson's <a
1651)     href="http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu:8080/ugResearch/uploads/7/ImprovingTor.pdf">position
1652)     paper</a> on how to discard particularly slow choices without hurting
1653)     anonymity "too much". This line of reasoning needs more work and more
1654)     thinking, but it looks very promising.</li>
1655)     <li>Tor doesn't work very well when relays have asymmetric bandwidth
1656)     (e.g. cable or DSL). Because Tor has separate TCP connections between
1657)     each hop, if the incoming bytes are arriving just fine and the outgoing
1658)     bytes are all getting dropped on the floor, the TCP push-back mechanisms
1659)     don't really transmit this information back to the incoming streams.
1660)     Perhaps Tor should detect when it's dropping a lot of outgoing packets,
1661)     and rate-limit incoming streams to regulate this itself? I can imagine
1662)     a build-up and drop-off scheme where we pick a conservative rate-limit,
1663)     slowly increase it until we get lost packets, back off, repeat. We
1664)     need somebody who's good with networks to simulate this and help design
1665)     solutions; and/or we need to understand the extent of the performance
1666)     degradation, and use this as motivation to reconsider UDP transport.</li>
1667)     <li>A related topic is congestion control. Is our
1668)     current design sufficient once we have heavy use? Maybe
1669)     we should experiment with variable-sized windows rather
1670)     than fixed-size windows? That seemed to go well in an <a
1671)     href="http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/hpn-ssh/theory.php">ssh
1672)     throughput experiment</a>. We'll need to measure and tweak, and maybe
1673)     overhaul if the results are good.</li>
1674)     <li>Our censorship-resistance goals include preventing
1675)     an attacker who's looking at Tor traffic on the wire from <a
1676)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#sec:network-fingerprint">distinguishing
1677)     it from normal SSL traffic</a>. Obviously we can't achieve perfect
1678)     steganography and still remain usable, but for a first step we'd like to
1679)     block any attacks that can win by observing only a few packets. One of
1680)     the remaining attacks we haven't examined much is that Tor cells are 512
1681)     bytes, so the traffic on the wire may well be a multiple of 512 bytes.
1682)     How much does the batching and overhead in TLS records blur this on the
1683)     wire? Do different buffer flushing strategies in Tor affect this? Could
1684)     a bit of padding help a lot, or is this an attack we must accept?</li>
1685)     <li>Tor circuits are built one hop at a time, so in theory we have the
1686)     ability to make some streams exit from the second hop, some from the
1687)     third, and so on. This seems nice because it breaks up the set of exiting
1688)     streams that a given relay can see. But if we want each stream to be safe,
1689)     the "shortest" path should be at least 3 hops long by our current logic, so
1690)     the rest will be even longer. We need to examine this performance / security
1691)     tradeoff.</li>
1692)     <li>It's not that hard to DoS Tor relays or directory authorities. Are client
1693)     puzzles the right answer? What other practical approaches are there? Bonus
1694)     if they're backward-compatible with the current Tor protocol.</li>
1695)     <li>Programs like <a

1696)     href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> aim to hide