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="#user-space-transport">Integrating Tor with user-space
303)     transport protocol libraries</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="#tailsHiddenServicePetnames">Petname system for Tor hidden
353)     services</a></i><br />
354)     <i><a href="#tailsServer">Tails server: Self-hosted services behind
355)     Tails-powered Tor hidden services</a></i>

356)     </p>
357)     

358)     <a id="project-torsocks"></a>
359)     <h3><a href="http://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> (<a
360)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torsocks.git">code</a>, <a
361)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torify&order=priority">bug
362)     tracker</a>)</h3>
363)     
364)     <p>
365)     Utility for adapting other applications to work with Tor. Development has
366)     slowed and compatibility issues remain with some platforms, but it's
367)     otherwise feature complete.
368)     </p>
369)     

370)     <!--

371)     <p>
372)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
373)     <i><a href="#torsocksForOSX">Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</a></i>
374)     </p>

375)     -->

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)     <!--

439)     <p>
440)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

441)     <i><a href="#orbot-torbutton">TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</a></i><br />
442)     <i><a href="#orbot-userInterface">Build a better user interface for Orbot</a></i><br />

443)     <i><a href="#orbot-optimisation">Core Tor mobile optimisation</a></i>

444)     </p>

445)     -->

446)     
447)     <a id="project-torbutton"></a>
448)     <h3><a href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> (<a
449)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbutton.git">code</a>, <a
450)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torbutton&order=priority">bug
451)     tracker</a>)</h3>
452)     
453)     <p>
454)     Firefox addon that addresses many of the client-side threats to browsing
455)     the Internet anonymously. Mike has since continued to adapt it to new
456)     threats, updated versions of Firefox, and possibly <a
457)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/google-chrome-incognito-mode-tor-and-fingerprinting">Chrome
458)     as well</a>.
459)     </p>
460)     
461)     <p>
462)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
463)     <i><a href="#torbuttonForThunderbird">Torbutton equivalent for Thunderbird</a></i>
464)     </p>
465)     

466)     <a id="project-obfsproxy"></a>
467)     <h3><a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/obfsproxy.git/tree/HEAD:/doc">Obfsproxy</a> (<a
468)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/obfsproxy.git">code</a>, <a
469)     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
470)     tracker</a>)</h3>
471)     
472)     <p>
473)     A proxy that shapes Tor traffic, making it harder for censors to detect and
474)     block Tor.
475)     </p>
476)     

477)     <p>
478)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
479)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-new-transports">New and innovative pluggable transports</a></i><br />
480)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-scanning-measures">Defensive bridge active scanning measures</a></i><br />
481)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-fuzzer">Fuzzer for the Tor protocol</a></i>
482)     </p>
483)     

484)     <a id="project-thandy"></a>
485)     <h3>Thandy (<a
486)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/thandy.git">code</a>)</h3>
487)     
488)     <p>
489)     Updater for Tor. The project began in the Summer of 2008 but wasn't
490)     completed. Recently interest in it has been rekindled and many aspects of
491)     its design (including the language it'll be in) are currently in flux.
492)     </p>
493)     

494)     <a id="project-ooni-probe"></a>
495)     <h3>Ooni Probe (<a
496)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/ooni-probe.git">code</a>, <a
497)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Ooni&order=priority">bug
498)     tracker</a>)</h3>
499)     
500)     <p>
501)     Censorship scanner, checking your local connection for blocked or modified
502)     content.
503)     </p>
504)     

505)     <a id="project-shadow"></a>
506)     <h3><a href="https://shadow.cs.umn.edu/">Shadow</a> (<a
507)     href="https://github.com/shadow">code</a>, <a
508)     href="https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues">bug
509)     tracker</a>)</h3>
510)     
511)     <p>
512)     Shadow is a discrete-event network simulator that runs the real
513)     Tor software as a plug-in. Shadow is open-source software that enables
514)     accurate, efficient, controlled, and repeatable Tor experimentation.
515)     </p>
516)     

517)     <a id="project-torctl"></a>
518)     <h3>TorCtl (<a
519)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pytorctl.git">code</a>, <a
520)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torctl&order=priority">bug
521)     tracker</a>)</h3>
522)     
523)     <p>
524)     Python bindings and utilities for using the Tor control port. It has been
525)     stable for several years, with only minor revisions.
526)     </p>
527)     

528)     <a id="project-stem"></a>
529)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem">Stem</a> (<a
530)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/stem.git">code</a>, <a
531)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Stem&order=priority">bug
532)     tracker</a>)</h3>
533)     
534)     <p>
535)     Python controller library with a similar scope to TorCtl, but with better
536)     testing, documentation, and API. This project is not yet feature complete.
537)     </p>
538)     

539)     <p>
540)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
541)     <i><a href="#stemPathsupport">Stem PathSupport Capabilities</a></i>
542)     </p>
543)     

544)     <a id="project-metrics"></a>
545)     <h3><a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/">Metrics</a> (code: <a
546)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-db.git">db</a>, <a
547)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-utils.git">utils</a>, <a
548)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-web.git">web</a>, <a
549)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Metrics&order=priority">bug
550)     tracker</a>)</h3>
551)     
552)     <p>
553)     Processing and analytics of consensus data, provided to users via the
554)     metrics portal. This has been under active development for several years by
555)     Karsten Loesing.
556)     </p>
557)     

558)     <p>
559)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
560)     <i><a href="#metricsSearch">Searchable Tor descriptor and Metrics data archive</a></i> (Python/Django?)
561)     </p>
562)     

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

639)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/torbel-tor-bulk-exit-list-tools">TorBEL</a> (<a
640)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbel.git">code</a>, <a

641)     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
642)     tracker</a>)</h3>
643)     
644)     <p>
645)     The Tor Bulk Exitlist provides a method of identifying if IPs belong to
646)     exit nodes or not. This is a replacement for TorDNSEL which is a stable
647)     (though unmaintained) Haskell application for this purpose. The initial
648)     version of TorBEL was started in GSOC 2010 but since then the project has
649)     been inactive.
650)     </p>
651)     

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

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

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

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

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

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

663)     If one or more of these ideas looks promising to you, please <a
664)     href="<page about/contact>">contact us</a> to discuss your plans rather than
665)     sending blind applications. You may also want to propose your own project
666)     idea &mdash; which often results in the best applications.
667)     </p>
668)     
669)     <ol>
670)     

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

672)     <li>

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

674)     <br>

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

676)     <br>

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

678)     <br>

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

680)     <br>

681)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jacob</i>

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

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

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

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

693)     and Mac OS X, and be comfortable with C/C++ and shell scripting.</p>

694)     </li>
695)     

696)     <a id="firewallProbeTool"></a>
697)     <li>
698)     <b>Develop a fully automatic firewall-probing system</b>
699)     <br>
700)     Priority: <i>High</i>
701)     <br>
702)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
703)     <br>
704)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
705)     <br>

706)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom, Jacob</i>

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

726)     <!--

727)     <a id="orbot-torbutton"></a>
728)     <li>
729)     <b>TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</b>
730)     <br>
731)     Priority: <i>High</i>
732)     <br>
733)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
734)     <br>
735)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
736)     <br>

737)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jake</i>

738)     <p>Initial work has been done on implementing a proxy-setting add-on for
739)     Firefox on Android (see <a
740)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/ProxyMob">ProxyMob</a>), but a
741)     full port of TorButton needs to be done (dependent upon Firefox 4 port of
742)     TorButton). The other approach is to implement a custom &quot;Tor
743)     Browser&quot; based on Firefox or Webkit browser. See <a
744)     href="http://code.google.com/p/torora/wiki/Android">Torora</a> for progress
745)     on this so far.</p>
746)     </li>

747)     -->

748)     

749)     <a id="obfsproxy-new-transports"></a>
750)     <li>
751)     <b>New and innovative pluggable transports</b>
752)     <br>
753)     Priority: <i>High</i>
754)     <br>
755)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
756)     <br>
757)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
758)     <br>

759)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn, Steven</i>

760)     <p>Not-very-smart transports like ROT13 and base64 are nice but not super
761)     interesting. Other ideas like bittorrent transports might be relevant,
762)     but you will have to provide security proofs on why they are harder to
763)     detect and block than other less-sophisticated transports.</p>
764)     
765)     <p>The whole point of this project, though, is to come up with new
766)     transports that we haven't already thought of. Be creative.</p>
767)     
768)     <p>Bonus points if your idea is interesting and still implementable
769)     through the summer period.</p>
770)     
771)     <p>More bonus points if it's implemented on top of obfsproxy, or if your
772)     implementation has a pluggable transport interface on top of it (as
773)     specified <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/180-pluggable-transport.txt">here</a>).</p>
774)     </li>
775)     
776)     <a id="obfsproxy-scanning-measures"></a>
777)     <li>
778)     <b>Defensive bridge active scanning measures</b>
779)     <br>
780)     Priority: <i>High</i>
781)     <br>
782)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
783)     <br>
784)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
785)     <br>
786)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn</i>
787)     <p>Involves providing good answers to <a
788)     href="https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2011-November/003073.html">this
789)     thread</a> as well as concrete implementation plans for it.</p>
790)     
791)     <p>This also involves implementing proposals <a
792)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/189-authorize-cell.txt">189</a>
793)     and <a
794)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/190-shared-secret-bridge-authorization.txt">190</a>.</p>
795)     </li>
796)     

797)     <a id="stemPathsupport"></a>
798)     <li>
799)     <b>Stem PathSupport Capabilities</b>
800)     <br>
801)     Priority: <i>High</i>
802)     <br>
803)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
804)     <br>
805)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
806)     <br>
807)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>
808)     <p><a
809)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem">Stem</a> is a
810)     python controller library for tor. Like it's predecessor, <a
811)     href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a>, it uses tor's <a
812)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/control-spec.txt">control
813)     protocol</a> to help developers program against the tor process, enabling
814)     them to build things similar to <a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a> and
815)     <a href="#project-arm">arm</a>.</p>
816)     
817)     <p>While TorCtl provided a fine first draft for this sort of functionality,
818)     it has not proved to be extensible nor maintainable. Stem is a rewrite of
819)     TorCtl with a heavy focus on testing, documentation, and providing a
820)     developer friendly API.</p>
821)     
822)     <p>At the moment stem is still very much incomplete, missing several pieces
823)     of functionality that TorCtl provides. This is a project to fix that by
824)     porting TorCtl's <a
825)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pytorctl.git/blob/HEAD:/PathSupport.py">PathSupport
826)     module</a> to stem, writing tests for it, and migrate a couple clients to
827)     use it.</p>
828)     
829)     <p>PathSupport provides applications with programmatic control over how
830)     tor's circuits are built, for instance letting you exit from particular
831)     relays. This is used by projects like <a href="#project-torbel">TorBEL</a>,
832)     <a href="#project-torflow">the Bandwidth Scanners, and SoaT</a>.</p>
833)     
834)     <p>This project can be broken into three parts...</p>
835)     
836)     <ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
837)       <li><p>Look at PathSupport's clients to figure out how it is used and
838)       come up with the API that we will use for stem. Note that the goal if
839)       this project is <b>not</b> to simply copy PathSupport, but to make it
840)       better. This task would ideally be done as part of writing the GSoC
841)       application.</p></li>
842)       <li><p>Implement the PathSupport counterpart for stem. This should be
843)       done in an incremental fashion, writing the feature, tests, and going
844)       through a code review before moving on. I'll be pretty anal about making
845)       it as good as we can during these code reviews so plan for this to take a
846)       while. ;)</p></li>
847)       <li><p>The real test of the API that you've developed will come when we
848)       use it in some real applications. Try to migrate a TorCtl client or two
849)       to stem, filling in functionality that we're missing and improving our
850)       API as we discover issues. A particularly good client to start with would
851)       be TorBEL.</p></li>
852)     </ol>
853)     

854)     <!--

855)     <a id="orbot-userInterface"></a>
856)     <li>
857)     <b>Build a better user interface for Orbot</b>
858)     <br>
859)     Priority: <i>High</i>
860)     <br>
861)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
862)     <br>
863)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
864)     <br>

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

866)     <p>Improved home screen to show confirmation of connection (via a TorCheck
867)     API call), better statistics about data transferred (up/down), number of
868)     circuits connected, quality of connection and so on. The &quot;Tether
869)     Wifi&quot; Android application is a good model to follow in how it shows a
870)     realtime count of bytes transferred as well as notifications when wifi
871)     clients connect. In addition, better handling of Tor system and error
872)     messages would also be very helpful, include use of standard Android
873)     operating systems notifications. The addition of a wizard or tutorial
874)     walkthrough for novice users to explain to them exactly what is and what is
875)     not anonymized or protected would greatly improve the likelihood they will
876)     use Orbot correctly. All of this should work on the range of screens and
877)     device types now offered for Android, from 2&quot; phone to 10&quot;
878)     Tablet.</p>
879)     </li>

880)     -->

881)     

882)     <a id="user-space-transport"></a>
883)     <li>
884)     <b>Integrating Tor with user-space transport protocol libraries</b>
885)     <br>
886)     Priority: <i>Medium to High</i>
887)     <br>
888)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
889)     <br>
890)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
891)     <br>
892)     Likely Mentors: <i>Steven</i>
893)     <p>Tor currently sends data over TCP links between nodes. <a
894)     href="http://static.usenix.org/events/sec09/tech/full_papers/reardon.pdf">Prior
895)     research</a> has indicated that this may not be optimal, and instead the
896)     role that TCP plays (congestion control and reliability) should be moved
897)     into Tor itself. This would allow a number of desirable changes, such as
898)     preventing errors on one circuit delaying another, and giving Tor control
899)     and visibility of congestion control.</p>
900)     <p>There are <a
901)     href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/papers/tor11datagramcomparison.pdf">many
902)     ways to do this</a>, each with their own tradeoffs and difficulty of
903)     implementation. This project will be to select one (or more) option and
904)     implement it in Tor. The primary goal will be to test this modified version
905)     of Tor in simulation, but if it turns out to work well, it could be
906)     deployed in the live Tor network.</p>
907)     <p>Excellent C programming skills are needed, and knowledge of Tor
908)     internals are highly desirable.</p>
909)     </li>
910)     

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

912)     <li>
913)     <b>Improving Tor's ability to resist censorship</b>

914)     <br>

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

916)     <br>

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

918)     <br>

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

920)     <br>

921)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jake, Thomas</i>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

948)     then trading off censorship resistance with usability and
949)     robustness.</p>

950)     </li>
951)     

952)     <a id="tailsHiddenServicePetnames"></a>
953)     <li>
954)     <b>Petname system for Tor hidden services</b>
955)     <br>
956)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
957)     <br>
958)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
959)     <br>
960)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
961)     <br>
962)     Likely Mentors: <i>ague</i>
963)     <p>Tor provides hidden services. These services are only reachable through
964)     Tor itself, and provide greater anonymity both for the providers of the
965)     service and for its users.</p>
966)     <p>One current downside of Tor hidden services is that they are addressed
967)     using 80-bit base32-encoded addresses such as "v2cbb2l4lsnpio4q.onion".
968)     These addresses are hard to remember; this makes them hard to use
969)     within amnesic environment like Tails.</p>
970)     <p>The project is to implement a petname system for Tor hidden services:
971)     a way for users or providers of Tor hidden services to add a simple
972)     'nickname' to a central database. Users could then query this central
973)     database to retrieve a full hidden service address by giving
974)     a nickname.</p>
975)     <p>Adding petnames to the database could be done using a web interface or
976)     automated fetch like those described in the <a
977)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/ideas/xxx-onion-nyms.txt">&quot;.onion
978)     nym system&quot; proposal</a>.</p>
979)     <p>Querying the database could be done using a web interface, a REST API and
980)     a DNS interface.</p>
981)     <p>In order not to grow indefinitely, the software should make regular tests to
982)     see if hidden services are still reachable and, depending on the last time
983)     a nickname was accessed, cleanup the database as necessary.</p>
984)     <p>The software should allow a distributed, fault-tolerant setup.
985)     All nodes should have a synchronized copy of the database, should be
986)     ready to answer queries and should coordinate the tests for hidden
987)     service availability.</p>
988)     <p>The resulting codebase must be easy to deploy: it should not be hard to
989)     setup new databases.</p>
990)     <p>It is expected that the volunteer will be using Behaviour Driven
991)     Development methods. Either in Ruby using Cucumber and RSpec, or in
992)     Python using similar tools.</p>
993)     </li>
994)     
995)     <a id="tailsServer"></a>
996)     <li>
997)     <b>Tails server: Self-hosted services behind Tails-powered Tor hidden services</b>
998)     <br>
999)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1000)     <br>
1001)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1002)     <br>
1003)     Skill Level: <i>Medium, but wide-scoped</i>
1004)     <br>
1005)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>
1006)     <p>Let's talk about group collaboration, communication and data sharing
1007)     infrastructure, such as chat servers, wikis, or file repositories.</p>
1008)     <p>Hosting such data and infrastructure <b>in the cloud</b> generally
1009)     implies to trust the service providers not to disclose content, usage or
1010)     users location information to third-parties. Hence, there are many threat
1011)     models in which cloud hosting is not suitable.</p>
1012)     <p>Tor partly answers the <b>users location</b> part; this is great, but
1013)     <b>content</b> is left unprotected.</p>
1014)     <p>There are two main ways to protect such content: either to encrypt it
1015)     client-side (<b>security by design</b>), or to avoid putting it into
1016)     untrusted hands in the first place.</p>
1017)     <p>Cloud solutions that offer security by design are rare and generally
1018)     not mature yet. The <b>Tails server</b> project is about exploring the
1019)     other side of the alternative: avoiding to put private data into
1020)     untrusted hands in the first place.</p>
1021)     <p>This is made possible thanks to Tor hidden services, that allow users
1022)     to offer location-hidden services, and make self-hosting possible in
1023)     many threat models. Self-hosting has its own lot of problems, however,
1024)     particularly in contexts where the physical security of the hosting
1025)     place is not assured. Combining Tor hidden services with Tails'
1026)     amnesia property and limited support for persistent encrypted data
1027)     allows to protect content, to a great degree, even in such contexts.</p>
1028)     <p>In short, setting up a new Tails server would be done by:</p>
1029)     
1030)     <ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
1031)       <li>Alice plugs a USB stick into a running desktop Tails system.</li>
1032)       <li>Alice uses a GUI to easily configure the needed services.</li>
1033)       <li>Alice unplugs the USB stick, that now contains encrypted services
1034)       configuration and data storage space.</li>
1035)       <li>Alice plugs that USB stick (and possibly a Tails Live CD) into the
1036)       old laptop that was dedicated to run Tails server.</li>
1037)       <li>Once booted, Alice enters the encryption passphrase either
1038)       directly using the keyboard or through a web interface listening on the
1039)       local network.</li>
1040)       <li>Then, Bob can use the configured services once he gets a hold on
1041)       the hidden service address. (The <b>petname system for Tor hidden
1042)       services</b> project would be very complementary to this one, by the
1043)       way.)</li>
1044)     </ol>
1045)     
1046)     <p>Tails server should content itself with hardware that is a bit old
1047)     (such as a PIII-450 laptop with 256MB of RAM) and/or half broken (e.g.
1048)     non-functional hard-disk, screen or keyboard).</p>
1049)     <p>The challenges behind this project are:</p>
1050)     
1051)     <ul>
1052)       <li>Design and write the services configuration GUI [keywords: edit
1053)       configuration files, upgrade between major Debian versions,
1054)       debconf].</li>
1055)       <li>How to create the hidden service key? [keywords: Vidalia, control
1056)       protocol].</li>
1057)       <li>Adapt the Tails boot process to allow switching to &quot;server
1058)       mode&quot; when appropriate.</li>
1059)       <li>Add support, to the Tails persistence setup process, for asking an
1060)       encryption passphrase without X, and possibly with a broken keyboard
1061)       and/or screen [keywords: local network, SSL/TLS?, certificate?].</li>
1062)     </ul>
1063)     
1064)     <p>This project can easily grow quite large, so the first task would
1065)     probably be to clarify what it would need to get an initial (minimal
1066)     but working) implementation ready to be shipped to users.</p>
1067)     <p>This project does not require to be an expert in one specific field,
1068)     but it requires to be experienced and at ease with a large scope of
1069)     software development tools, processes, and operating system knowledge.</p>
1070)     <p>Undertaking this project requires in-depth knowledge of Debian-like
1071)     systems (self-test: do the "dpkg conffile" and "debconf preseeding"
1072)     words sound new to your ear?); the Debian Live persistence system
1073)     being written in shell, being at ease with robust shell scripting is
1074)     a must; to end with, at least two pieces of software need to be
1075)     written from scratch (a GUI and a webapp): the preferred languages for
1076)     these tasks would be Python and Perl. Using Behaviour Driven
1077)     Development methods to convey expectations and acceptance criteria
1078)     would be most welcome.</p>
1079)     <p>For more information see https://tails.boum.org/todo/server_edition/</p>
1080)     </li>
1081)     

1082)     <a id="geoIPUpgrade"></a>
1083)     <li>
1084)     <b>Improve our GeoIP file format</b>
1085)     <br>
1086)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1087)     <br>
1088)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1089)     <br>
1090)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1091)     <br>
1092)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom</i>

1093)     <p>Currently, Tor bridges and relays read an entire IP-&gt;country database

1094)     into memory from a text file during startup.  We would like to
1095)     distribute this database and store it on disk in a much more compact

1096)     form, and perform IP->country lookups on it in its on-disk format if

1097)     possible.</p>

1098)     <p>We have <a href='https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2506'>a
1099)     sketch of a design</a> for a moderately optimized format for IPv4 GeoIP
1100)     data; this project will involve both implementing the IPv4 format and
1101)     designing and implementing a format for IPv6 GeoIP data.</p>

1102)     <p>Since the core of this project is researching IPv6 GeoIP data and

1103)     designing the IPv6 format, this is not likely to be a good GSoC

1104)     project.</p>

1105)     </li>
1106)     

1107)     <!--

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

1109)     <li>
1110)     <b>Client Mode Use Cases for Arm</b>
1111)     <br>
1112)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1113)     <br>
1114)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1115)     <br>
1116)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1117)     <br>

1118)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>

1119)     <p><a href="<page projects/arm>">Arm</a> is a Tor command line status
1120)     monitor on *nix environments (Linux, Mac, and BSD). It functions much like
1121)     top does, giving a CLI overlay of Tor's bandwidth usage, connections,
1122)     configuration, log, etc. Thus far its design has been geared for Tor relay
1123)     operators. However, this doesn't need to be the case. This project would be
1124)     to expand and simplify arm to make it useful for Tor's client users
1125)     too.</p>
1126)     
1127)     <p>This would include UI design, experimenting, and a lot of python
1128)     hacking. Here's some ideas for client functionality arm could provide:</p>
1129)     
1130)     <ul>
1131)       <li>A panel for client connections, showing each hop of the user's
1132)       circuits with the ISP, country, and jurisdiction where those relays
1133)       reside. Other interesting information would be the circuit's latency, how
1134)       long its been around, and its possible exit ports. Some of this will be
1135)       pretty tricky and require some experimentation to figure out what
1136)       information can be fetched safely (for instance, scraping rdns and whois
1137)       lookups could give hints about a relay's ISP, but we'd need to do it on
1138)       all Tor relays to avoid leaking our connections to the resolver).</li>
1139)       
1140)       <li>Options to let the user request new circuits (the &quot;New
1141)       Identity&quot; feature in Vidalia), select the exit country, etc.</li>
1142)       
1143)       <li>A panel showing Internet application and if their connections are
1144)       being routed through Tor or not (giving a warning if there's leaks).</li>
1145)       
1146)       <li>The status of the bridges we're configured to use (ie, are they up?).
1147)       This would include adding control port functionality to Tor for <a
1148)       href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2068">ticket
1149)       2068</a>.</li>
1150)       
1151)       <li>A one click option to set Tor to be a client, relay, or bridge. The
1152)       goal would be to make it trivial for users to voluntarily contribute to
1153)       the Tor network.</li>
1154)       
1155)       <li>Menus as an alternative to hotkeys to make the interface more
1156)       intuitive and usable for beginners (<a
1157)       href="http://gnosis.cx/publish/programming/charming_python_6.html">example</a>).</li>
1158)       
1159)       <li>Look at Vidalia and TorK for ideas and solicit input from the Tor community.</li>
1160)     </ul>
1161)     

1162)     <p>
1163)     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>
1164)     </p>

1165)     </li>

1166)     -->

1167)     

1168)     <a id="vidalia-hidden-service-panel"></a>
1169)     <li>
1170)     <b>Torrc plugin and improved hidden service configuration panel</b>
1171)     <br>
1172)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1173)     <br>
1174)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1175)     <br>
1176)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1177)     <br>
1178)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>
1179)     <p>Vidalia's configuration handling has changed in the alpha branch. Now
1180)     every Tor option is saved in the torrc file. With that change, the
1181)     Hidden Service configuration panel was removed due to its specificity
1182)     and its multiple bugs.</p>
1183)     
1184)     <p>The idea would be to provide the new Torrc class' functionality to the
1185)     Plugin Engine and with that, create a better Hidden Service
1186)     configuration panel as a plugin.</p>
1187)     
1188)     <p>A person undertaking this project should have good UI design, layout
1189)     skills and some C++ development experience. Previous experience with Qt
1190)     and Qt's Designer will be very helpful, but are not required. Javascript
1191)     knowledge is a plus, but it shouldn't be a problem if the person
1192)     complies with the previous requirements.</p>
1193)     </li>
1194)     

1195)     <a id="metricsSearch"></a>
1196)     <li>
1197)     <b>Searchable Tor descriptor and Metrics data archive</b>
1198)     <br>
1199)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1200)     <br>
1201)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1202)     <br>
1203)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1204)     <br>
1205)     Likely Mentors: <i>Karsten</i>
1206)     <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>
1207)     
1208)     <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>
1209)     
1210)     <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>
1211)     
1212)     <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>
1213)     

1214)     <!--

1215)     <a id="unitTesting"></a>

1216)     <li>
1217)     <b>Improve our unit testing process</b>

1218)     <br>

1219)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1220)     <br>

1221)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1222)     <br>

1223)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1224)     <br>

1225)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick, Erinn</i>

1226)     <p>Tor needs to be tested far more thoroughly. This is a
1227)     multi-part effort. To start with, our unit test coverage should
1228)     rise substantially, especially in the areas outside the utility
1229)     functions. This will require significant refactoring of some parts
1230)     of Tor, in order to dissociate as much logic as possible from
1231)     globals.</p>

1232)     <p>Additionally, we need to automate our performance testing. We've got

1233)     buildbot to automate our regular integration and compile testing already
1234)     (though we need somebody to set it up on Windows),
1235)     but we need to get our network simulation tests (as built in <a
1236)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/torflow/trunk/README">TorFlow</a>)
1237)     updated for more recent versions of Tor, and designed to launch a test
1238)     network either on a single machine, or across several, so we can test

1239)     changes in performance on machines in different roles automatically.</p>

1240)     </li>

1241)     -->

1242)     

1243)     <!--

1244)     <a id="simulateSlowConnections"></a>

1245)     <li>
1246)     <b>Simulator for slow Internet connections</b>

1247)     <br>

1248)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1249)     <br>

1250)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1251)     <br>

1252)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1253)     <br>

1254)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick</i>

1255)     <p>

1256)     Many users of Tor have poor-quality Internet connections, giving low
1257)     bandwidth, high latency, and high packet loss/re-ordering. User
1258)     experience is that Tor reacts badly to these conditions, but it is
1259)     difficult to improve the situation without being able to repeat the
1260)     problems in the lab.

1261)     </p>
1262)     
1263)     <p>

1264)     This project would be to build a simulation environment which
1265)     replicates the poor connectivity so that the effect on Tor performance
1266)     can be measured. Other components would be a testing utility to
1267)     establish what are the properties of connections available, and to
1268)     measure the effect of performance-improving modifications to Tor.

1269)     </p>
1270)     
1271)     <p>

1272)     The tools used would be up to the student, but dummynet (for FreeBSD)
1273)     and nistnet (for Linux) are two potential components on which this
1274)     project could be built. Students should be experienced with network
1275)     programming/debugging and TCP/IP, and preferably familiar with C and a
1276)     scripting language.

1277)     </p>

1278)     </li>

1279)     -->

1280)     

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

1282)     <li>
1283)     <b>Torbutton equivalent for Thunderbird</b>

1284)     <br>

1285)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1286)     <br>

1287)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>

1288)     <br>

1289)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>

1290)     <br>

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

1292)     <p>

1293)     We're hearing from an increasing number of users that they want to use
1294)     Thunderbird with Tor. However, there are plenty of application-level
1295)     concerns, for example, by default Thunderbird will put your hostname in
1296)     the outgoing mail that it sends. At some point we should start a new
1297)     push to build a Thunderbird extension similar to Torbutton.

1298)     </p>

1299)     </li>
1300)     

1301)     <a id="usabilityTesting"></a>

1302)     <li>
1303)     <b>Usability testing of Tor</b>

1304)     <br>

1305)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1306)     <br>

1307)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1308)     <br>

1309)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>

1310)     <br>

1311)     Likely Mentors: <i>Andrew</i>

1312)     <p>

1313)     Especially the browser bundle, ideally amongst our target demographic.
1314)     That would help a lot in knowing what needs to be done in terms of bug
1315)     fixes or new features. We get this informally at the moment, but a more
1316)     structured process would be better.

1317)     </p>

1318)     
1319)     <p>
1320)     Please note that since this isn't a coding project, it isn't suitable for
1321)     Google Summer of Code.
1322)     </p>

1323)     </li>

1324)     

1325)     <!--

1326)     <a id="torsocksForOSX"></a>

1327)     <li>
1328)     <b>Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</b>

1329)     <br>

1330)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>

1331)     <br>

1332)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1333)     <br>

1334)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1335)     <br>

1336)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Hogan</i>

1337)     <p>

1338)     <a href="https://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> and <a
1339)     href="https://code.google.com/p/dsocks/">dsocks</a> are wrappers that will

1340)     run applications, intercept their outgoing network connections, and push
1341)     those connections through Tor. The goal is to handle applications that
1342)     don't support proxies (or don't supporting them well). To get it right,
1343)     they need to intercept many system calls. The syscalls you need to
1344)     intercept on Linux differ dramatically from those on BSD. So Torsocks
1345)     works fine on Linux, dsocks works ok on BSD (though it may be less
1346)     maintained and thus might miss more syscalls), and nothing works well
1347)     on both. First, we should patch dsocks to use Tor's <i>mapaddress</i>
1348)     commands from the controller interface, so we don't waste a whole
1349)     round-trip inside Tor doing the resolve before connecting. Second,
1350)     we should make our <i>torify</i> script detect which of torsocks or
1351)     dsocks is installed, and call them appropriately. This probably means
1352)     unifying their interfaces, and might involve sharing code between them
1353)     or discarding one entirely.

1354)     </p>
1355)     </li>

1356)     -->

1357)     

1358)     <a id="vidaliaStatusEventInterface"></a>

1359)     <li>
1360)     <b>Tor Controller Status Event Interface for Vidalia</b>
1361)     <br>
1362)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1363)     <br>
1364)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1365)     <br>
1366)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1367)     <br>

1368)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

1369)     <p>There are a number of status changes inside Tor of which the user may need
1370)     to be informed. For example, if the user is trying to set up his Tor as a
1371)     relay and Tor decides that its ports are not reachable from outside
1372)     the user's network, we should alert the user. Currently, all the user
1373)     gets is a couple of log messages in Vidalia's 'message log' window, which they
1374)     likely never see since they don't receive a notification that something
1375)     has gone wrong. Even if the user does actually look at the message log,
1376)     most of the messages make little sense to the novice user.</p>
1377)     <p>Tor has the ability to inform Vidalia of many such status
1378)     changes, and we recently implemented support for a couple of these
1379)     events. Still, there are many more status events which the user should
1380)     be informed of, and we need a better UI for actually displaying them
1381)     to the user.</p>
1382)     <p>The goal of this project then is to design and implement a UI for
1383)     displaying Tor status events to the user. For example, we might put a
1384)     little badge on Vidalia's tray icon that alerts the user to new status
1385)     events they should look at. Double-clicking the icon could bring up a
1386)     dialog that summarizes recent status events in simple terms and maybe
1387)     suggests a remedy for any negative events if they can be corrected by
1388)     the user. Of course, this is just an example and one is free to
1389)     suggest another approach.</p>
1390)     <p>A person undertaking this project should have good UI design and layout
1391)     skills and some C++ development experience. Previous experience with Qt and
1392)     Qt's Designer will be very helpful, but are not required. Some
1393)     English writing ability will also be useful, since this project will
1394)     likely involve writing small amounts of help documentation that should
1395)     be understandable by non-technical users. Bonus points for some graphic
1396)     design/Photoshop fu, since we might want/need some shiny new icons too.</p>
1397)     </li>
1398)     

1399)     <!--

1400)     <a id="orbot-optimisation"></a>
1401)     <li>
1402)     <b>Core Tor mobile optimisation</b>
1403)     <br>
1404)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1405)     <br>
1406)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1407)     <br>
1408)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1409)     <br>

1410)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jake</i>

1411)     <p>
1412)     The existing port of Tor to Android is basically a straight
1413)     cross-compile to Linux ARM. There has been no work done in looking at
1414)     possible optimizations of Tor within a mobile hardware environment or on
1415)     mobile networks. In addition, a number of additional Android OS APIs are
1416)     available (such as wireless network status) that could be taken
1417)     advantage of.
1418)     </p>
1419)     
1420)     <p>
1421)     It should be noted, that even without optimisation, Tor is handling the
1422)     mobile network environment very well, automatically detecting change in
1423)     IP addresses, opening circuits, etc, as the device switches from no
1424)     coverage to 2G, 3G or Wifi constantly as it changes position. However,
1425)     this observation of &quot;very well&quot;, is just based on user
1426)     experience, and not any detailed study of what exactly is happening, and
1427)     what threats might exist because of this constantly changing network state.
1428)     </p>
1429)     
1430)     <p>
1431)     Finally, the build process needs to be moved to the Android NDK from the
1432)     custom GCC toolchain we are now using, and compatibility with Android
1433)     2.3 and 3.x Honeycomb OS need to be verified.
1434)     </p>
1435)     
1436)     <p>
1437)     For more information see the <a
1438)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/android/trunk/Orbot/BUILD">Orbot
1439)     build documentation</a>.
1440)     </p>
1441)     </li>

1442)     -->

1443)     

1444)     <!--

1445)     <a id="orbot-orlibAndOutreach"></a>
1446)     <li>
1447)     <b>Orbot integration library and community outreach</b>
1448)     <br>
1449)     Priority: <i>Medium</i>
1450)     <br>
1451)     Effort Level: <i>Low</i>
1452)     <br>
1453)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1454)     <br>
1455)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8)</i>
1456)     <p>
1457)     We need additional work on <a
1458)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/orlib">ORLib</a>, our library for
1459)     use with third-party application to easily enable them to support
1460)     &quot;Torification&quot; on non-rooted devices (i.e. w/o transparent
1461)     proxying). This library includes a SOCKS client, a wrapper for the Apache
1462)     HTTPClient library, a utility class for detecting the state of Orbot
1463)     connectivity, and other relevant/useful things an Android app might need to
1464)     anonymize itself. This work would includes direct development of the
1465)     library, documentation, and sample code. Outreach or effort to implement
1466)     the library within other open-source apps is also needed.
1467)     </p>
1468)     </li>

1469)     -->

1470)     

1471)     <!--

1472)     <a id="vidaliaNetworkMap"></a>

1473)     <li>
1474)     <b>An Improved and More Usable Network Map in Vidalia</b>
1475)     <br>
1476)     Priority: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1477)     <br>
1478)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1479)     <br>
1480)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1481)     <br>

1482)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

1483)     <p>
1484)     One of Vidalia's existing features is a network map that shows the user
1485)     the approximate geographic location of relays in the Tor network and
1486)     plots the paths the user's traffic takes as it is tunneled through the
1487)     Tor network. The map is currently not very interactive and has rather
1488)     poor graphics. Instead, we implemented KDE's Marble widget such
1489)     that it gives us a better quality map and enables improved interactivity,
1490)     such as allowing the user to click on individual relays or circuits to
1491)     display additional information. We want to add the ability
1492)     for users to click on a particular relay or a country containing one or
1493)     more Tor exit relays and say, "I want my connections to exit
1494)     from here."
1495)     </p>
1496)     
1497)     <p>
1498)     This project will first involve getting familiar with Vidalia
1499)     and the Marble widget's API. One will then integrate the widget
1500)     into Vidalia and customize Marble to be better suited for our application,
1501)     such as making circuits clickable, storing cached map data in Vidalia's
1502)     own data directory, and customizing some of the widget's dialogs.
1503)     </p>
1504)     
1505)     <p>
1506)     A person undertaking this project should have good C++ development
1507)     experience. Previous experience with Qt and CMake is helpful, but not
1508)     required.
1509)     </p>

1510)     </li>

1511)     -->

1512)     

1513)     <a id="obfsproxy-fuzzer"></a>
1514)     <li>
1515)     <b>Fuzzer for the Tor protocol</b>
1516)     <br>
1517)     Priority: <i>Low to Medium</i>
1518)     <br>
1519)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1520)     <br>
1521)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1522)     <br>
1523)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn</i>
1524)     <p>Involves researching good and smart ways to fuzz stateful network
1525)     protocols, and also implementing the fuzzer.</p>
1526)     
1527)     <p>We are mostly looking for a fuzzer that fuzzes the Tor protocol
1528)     itself, and not the Tor directory protocol.</p>
1529)     
1530)     <p>Bonus points if it's extremely modular. Relevant research:</p>
1531)     
1532)     <ul>
1533)       <li>PROTOS - Security Testing of Protocol Implementations</li>
1534)       <li>INTERSTATE: A Stateful Protocol Fuzzer for SIP</li>
1535)       <li>Detecting Communication Protocol Security Flaws by Formal Fuzz
1536)       Testing and Machine Learning</li>
1537)       <li>SNOOZE: Toward a Stateful NetwOrk prOtocol fuzZE</li>
1538)       <li>Michal Zalewski's &quot;bugger&quot;</li>
1539)       <li>Also look at the concepts of &quot;model checking&quot; and
1540)       &quot;symbolic execution&quot; to get inspired.</li>
1541)     </ul>
1542)     </li>
1543)     

1544)     <!--

1545)     <a id="armGui"></a>
1546)     <li>
1547)     <b>GUI for Arm</b>
1548)     <br>
1549)     Priority: <i>Low</i>
1550)     <br>
1551)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1552)     <br>
1553)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1554)     <br>

1555)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>

1556)     <p>
1557)     Arm has several unique features, some of the most interesting being its
1558)     connection listing (correlating netstat results against the Tor consensus)
1559)     and configuration editor (a quick method for editing Tor's config, with
1560)     information pulled from the control port and man page). However, since arm
1561)     is a command line controller it's of limited appeal to certain sets of
1562)     users. This project would be to build a GTK or Qt frontend for the
1563)     controller, providing similar features set but with a windowed interface.
1564)     </p>
1565)     
1566)     <p>
1567)     The vast majority of arm's more interesting functionality lies in its

1568)     backend <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/arm.git/tree/HEAD:/src/util">utilities</a>, so

1569)     there should be little to no work decoupling the CLI from its backend.
1570)     Instead, this project would mostly be UI hacking and experimentation,
1571)     trying different interfaces to find something that's elegant and simple,
1572)     but matches the information found in the current terminal application.
1573)     </p>
1574)     </li>

1575)     -->

1576)     

1577)     <li>
1578)     <b>Bring up new ideas!</b>

1579)     <br>

1580)     Don't like any of these? Look at the <a

1581)     href="/press/presskit/2008-12-19-roadmap-full.pdf">Tor development

1582)     roadmap</a> for more ideas, or just try out Tor, Vidalia, and Torbutton,
1583)     and find out what you think needs fixing.

1584)     Some of the <a href="<spectree>proposals">current proposals</a>

1585)     might also be short on developers.
1586)     </li>
1587)     
1588)     </ol>
1589)     
1590)     <a id="OtherCoding"></a>
1591)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#OtherCoding">Other Coding and Design related ideas</a></h2>
1592)     <ol>
1593)     <li>Tor relays don't work well on Windows XP. On
1594)     Windows, Tor uses the standard <tt>select()</tt> system
1595)     call, which uses space in the non-page pool. This means
1596)     that a medium sized Tor relay will empty the non-page pool, <a

1597)     href="<wiki>doc/WindowsBufferProblems">causing

1598)     havoc and system crashes</a>. We should probably be using overlapped IO
1599)     instead. One solution would be to teach <a
1600)     href="http://www.monkey.org/~provos/libevent/">libevent</a> how to use
1601)     overlapped IO rather than select() on Windows, and then adapt Tor to
1602)     the new libevent interface. Christian King made a
1603)     <a href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/libevent-urz/trunk/">good
1604)     start</a> on this in the summer of 2007.</li>
1605)     
1606)     <li>We need to actually start building our <a href="<page
1607)     docs/documentation>#DesignDoc">blocking-resistance design</a>. This involves
1608)     fleshing out the design, modifying many different pieces of Tor, adapting
1609)     <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a> so it supports the
1610)     new features, and planning for deployment.</li>
1611)     
1612)     <li>We need a flexible simulator framework for studying end-to-end
1613)     traffic confirmation attacks. Many researchers have whipped up ad hoc
1614)     simulators to support their intuition either that the attacks work
1615)     really well or that some defense works great. Can we build a simulator
1616)     that's clearly documented and open enough that everybody knows it's
1617)     giving a reasonable answer? This will spur a lot of new research.
1618)     See the entry <a href="#Research">below</a> on confirmation attacks for
1619)     details on the research side of this task &mdash; who knows, when it's
1620)     done maybe you can help write a paper or three also.</li>
1621)     

1622)     <li>Tor 0.1.1.x and later include support for hardware crypto
1623)     accelerators via OpenSSL. It has been lightly tested and is
1624)     possibly very buggy.  We're looking for more rigorous testing,

1625)     performance analysis, and optimally, code fixes to OpenSSL and

1626)     Tor if needed.</li>

1627)     
1628)     <li>Perform a security analysis of Tor with <a

1629)     href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fuzz_testing">"fuzz"</a>. Determine

1630)     if there are good fuzzing libraries out there for what we want. Win fame by
1631)     getting credit when we put out a new release because of you!</li>
1632)     
1633)     <li>Tor uses TCP for transport and TLS for link
1634)     encryption. This is nice and simple, but it means all cells
1635)     on a link are delayed when a single packet gets dropped, and
1636)     it means we can only reasonably support TCP streams. We have a <a

1637)     href="<page docs/faq>#TransportIPnotTCP">list

1638)     of reasons why we haven't shifted to UDP transport</a>, but it would
1639)     be great to see that list get shorter. We also have a proposed <a

1640)     href="<specblob>proposals/100-tor-spec-udp.txt">specification

1641)     for Tor and
1642)     UDP</a> &mdash; please let us know what's wrong with it.</li>
1643)     
1644)     <li>We're not that far from having IPv6 support for destination addresses
1645)     (at exit nodes). If you care strongly about IPv6, that's probably the
1646)     first place to start.</li>
1647)     
1648)     <li>We need a way to generate the website diagrams (for example, the "How
1649)     Tor Works" pictures on the <a href="<page about/overview>">overview page</a>
1650)     from source, so we can translate them as UTF-8 text rather than edit
1651)     them by hand with Gimp. We might want to
1652)     integrate this as an wml file so translations are easy and images are
1653)     generated in multiple languages whenever we build the website.</li>
1654)     
1655)     <li>How can we make the various LiveCD/USB systems easier
1656)     to maintain, improve, and document?  One example is <a

1657)     href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live

1658)     System</a>.
1659)     </li>
1660)     
1661)     <li>
1662)     Another anti-censorship project is to try to make Tor
1663)     more scanning-resistant.  Right now, an adversary can identify <a

1664)     href="<specblob>proposals/125-bridges.txt">Tor bridges</a>

1665)     just by trying to connect to them, following the Tor protocol,
1666)     and seeing if they respond.  To solve this, bridges could <a
1667)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#tth_sEc9.3">act like
1668)     webservers</a> (HTTP or HTTPS) when contacted by port-scanning tools,
1669)     and not act like bridges until the user provides a bridge-specific key.
1670)     To start, check out Shane Pope's <a
1671)     href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37735/index.html">thesis and prototype</a>.
1672)     </li>
1673)     
1674)     </ol>
1675)     
1676)     <a id="Research"></a>
1677)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Research">Research</a></h2>
1678)     <ol>
1679)     <li>The "end-to-end traffic confirmation attack":
1680)     by watching traffic at Alice and at Bob, we can <a
1681)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#danezis:pet2004">compare
1682)     traffic signatures and become convinced that we're watching the same
1683)     stream</a>. So far Tor accepts this as a fact of life and assumes this
1684)     attack is trivial in all cases. First of all, is that actually true? How
1685)     much traffic of what sort of distribution is needed before the adversary
1686)     is confident he has won? Are there scenarios (e.g. not transmitting much)
1687)     that slow down the attack? Do some traffic padding or traffic shaping
1688)     schemes work better than others?</li>
1689)     <li>A related question is: Does running a relay/bridge provide additional
1690)     protection against these timing attacks? Can an external adversary that can't
1691)     see inside TLS links still recognize individual streams reliably?
1692)     Does the amount of traffic carried degrade this ability any? What if the
1693)     client-relay deliberately delayed upstream relayed traffic to create a queue
1694)     that could be used to mimic timings of client downstream traffic to make it
1695)     look like it was also relayed? This same queue could also be used for masking
1696)     timings in client upstream traffic with the techniques from <a
1697)     href="http://www.freehaven.net/anonbib/#ShWa-Timing06">adaptive padding</a>,
1698)     but without the need for additional traffic. Would such an interleaving of
1699)     client upstream traffic obscure timings for external adversaries? Would the
1700)     strategies need to be adjusted for asymmetric links? For example, on
1701)     asymmetric links, is it actually possible to differentiate client traffic from
1702)     natural bursts due to their asymmetric capacity? Or is it easier than
1703)     symmetric links for some other reason?</li>
1704)     <li>Repeat Murdoch and Danezis's <a
1705)     href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/projects/anon/#torta">attack from
1706)     Oakland 05</a> on the current Tor network. See if you can learn why it
1707)     works well on some nodes and not well on others. (My theory is that the
1708)     fast nodes with spare capacity resist the attack better.) If that's true,
1709)     then experiment with the RelayBandwidthRate and RelayBandwidthBurst
1710)     options to run a relay that is used as a client while relaying the
1711)     attacker's traffic: as we crank down the RelayBandwidthRate, does the
1712)     attack get harder? What's the right ratio of RelayBandwidthRate to
1713)     actually capacity? Or is it a ratio at all? While we're at it, does a
1714)     much larger set of candidate relays increase the false positive rate
1715)     or other complexity for the attack? (The Tor network is now almost two
1716)     orders of magnitude larger than it was when they wrote their paper.) Be
1717)     sure to read <a href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#clog-the-queue">Don't
1718)     Clog the Queue</a> too.</li>
1719)     <li>The "routing zones attack": most of the literature thinks of
1720)     the network path between Alice and her entry node (and between the
1721)     exit node and Bob) as a single link on some graph. In practice,
1722)     though, the path traverses many autonomous systems (ASes), and <a
1723)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#feamster:wpes2004">it's not uncommon
1724)     that the same AS appears on both the entry path and the exit path</a>.
1725)     Unfortunately, to accurately predict whether a given Alice, entry,
1726)     exit, Bob quad will be dangerous, we need to download an entire Internet
1727)     routing zone and perform expensive operations on it. Are there practical
1728)     approximations, such as avoiding IP addresses in the same /8 network?</li>
1729)     <li>Other research questions regarding geographic diversity consider
1730)     the tradeoff between choosing an efficient circuit and choosing a random
1731)     circuit. Look at Stephen Rollyson's <a
1732)     href="http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu:8080/ugResearch/uploads/7/ImprovingTor.pdf">position
1733)     paper</a> on how to discard particularly slow choices without hurting
1734)     anonymity "too much". This line of reasoning needs more work and more
1735)     thinking, but it looks very promising.</li>
1736)     <li>Tor doesn't work very well when relays have asymmetric bandwidth
1737)     (e.g. cable or DSL). Because Tor has separate TCP connections between
1738)     each hop, if the incoming bytes are arriving just fine and the outgoing
1739)     bytes are all getting dropped on the floor, the TCP push-back mechanisms
1740)     don't really transmit this information back to the incoming streams.
1741)     Perhaps Tor should detect when it's dropping a lot of outgoing packets,
1742)     and rate-limit incoming streams to regulate this itself? I can imagine
1743)     a build-up and drop-off scheme where we pick a conservative rate-limit,
1744)     slowly increase it until we get lost packets, back off, repeat. We
1745)     need somebody who's good with networks to simulate this and help design
1746)     solutions; and/or we need to understand the extent of the performance
1747)     degradation, and use this as motivation to reconsider UDP transport.</li>
1748)     <li>A related topic is congestion control. Is our
1749)     current design sufficient once we have heavy use? Maybe
1750)     we should experiment with variable-sized windows rather
1751)     than fixed-size windows? That seemed to go well in an <a
1752)     href="http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/hpn-ssh/theory.php">ssh
1753)     throughput experiment</a>. We'll need to measure and tweak, and maybe
1754)     overhaul if the results are good.</li>
1755)     <li>Our censorship-resistance goals include preventing
1756)     an attacker who's looking at Tor traffic on the wire from <a
1757)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#sec:network-fingerprint">distinguishing
1758)     it from normal SSL traffic</a>. Obviously we can't achieve perfect
1759)     steganography and still remain usable, but for a first step we'd like to
1760)     block any attacks that can win by observing only a few packets. One of
1761)     the remaining attacks we haven't examined much is that Tor cells are 512
1762)     bytes, so the traffic on the wire may well be a multiple of 512 bytes.
1763)     How much does the batching and overhead in TLS records blur this on the
1764)     wire? Do different buffer flushing strategies in Tor affect this? Could
1765)     a bit of padding help a lot, or is this an attack we must accept?</li>
1766)     <li>Tor circuits are built one hop at a time, so in theory we have the
1767)     ability to make some streams exit from the second hop, some from the
1768)     third, and so on. This seems nice because it breaks up the set of exiting
1769)     streams that a given relay can see. But if we want each stream to be safe,
1770)     the "shortest" path should be at least 3 hops long by our current logic, so
1771)     the rest will be even longer. We need to examine this performance / security
1772)     tradeoff.</li>
1773)     <li>It's not that hard to DoS Tor relays or directory authorities. Are client
1774)     puzzles the right answer? What other practical approaches are there? Bonus
1775)     if they're backward-compatible with the current Tor protocol.</li>
1776)     <li>Programs like <a

1777)     href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> aim to hide