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
38) <!-- web page and -->
39)     documentation into other

40)     languages. See the <a href="<page getinvolved/translation>">translation
41)     guidelines</a> if you want to help out. We especially need Arabic or
42)     Farsi translations, for the many Tor users in censored areas.</li>
43)     <li>Evaluate and document

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

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

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

48)     programs that interface to Tor</a>. Which ones are useful in which
49)     situations? Please help us test them out and document your results.</li>
50)     </ol>

51) 

52)     <a id="Advocacy"></a>
53)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Advocacy">Advocacy</a></h2>
54)     <ol>

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

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

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

60)     <a

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

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

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

64)     such as "Tor for Freedom!"</li>
65)     <li>Create a t-shirt design that incorporates "<a
66)     href="https://check.torproject.org/">Congratulations! You are using
67)     Tor!</a>" in any language.</li>

68)     </ol>

69) 

70)     <a id="Projects"></a>
71)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Projects">Projects</a></h2>

72) 

73)     <p>
74)     Below are a list of Tor related projects we're developing and/or
75)     maintaining. Most discussions happen on IRC so if you're interested in any
76)     of these (or you have a project idea of your own), then please <a

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

80)     </p>

81) 

82)     <table id="projects">
83)       <tr>
84)         <th>Name</th>
85)         <th>Category</th>
86)         <th>Language</th>
87)         <th>Activity</th>
88)         <th>Contributors</th>
89)       </tr>

90) 

91)       <tr>
92)         <td><a href="#project-tor">Tor</a></td>
93)         <td>Core</td>
94)         <td>C</td>
95)         <td>Heavy</td>

96)         <td>nickm, athena, arma</td>

97)       </tr>

98) 

99)       <tr class="alt">

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

104)         <td>bleidl</td>

105)       </tr>

106) 

107)       <tr>

108)         <td><a href="#project-tbb">TBB</a></td>

109)         <td>Bundle</td>

110)         <td>Sys Admin</td>
111)         <td>Moderate</td>

112)         <td>Erinn</td>

113)       </tr>

114) 

115)       <tr class="alt">

116)         <td><a href="#project-torbrowser">Tor Browser</a></td>
117)         <td>Browser</td>
118)         <td>C</td>
119)         <td>Moderate</td>
120)         <td>mikeperry, pearl crescent</td>

121)       </tr>

122) 

123)       <tr>

124)         <td><a href="#project-torbutton">Torbutton</a></td>
125)         <td>Browser Add-on</td>
126)         <td>Javascript</td>
127)         <td>Moderate</td>
128)         <td>mikeperry</td>

129)       </tr>

130) 

131)       <tr class="alt">

132)         <td><a href="#project-httpseverywhere">HTTPS Everywhere</a></td>
133)         <td>Browser Add-on</td>
134)         <td>Javascript</td>
135)         <td>Moderate</td>
136)         <td>pde, mikeperry</td>

137)       </tr>

138) 

139)       <tr>

140)         <td><a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a></td>
141)         <td>User Interface</td>
142)         <td>C++, Qt</td>

143)         <td>Light</td>

144)         <td>chiiph</td>
145)       </tr>

146) 

147)       <tr class="alt">

148)         <td><a href="#project-arm">Arm</a></td>
149)         <td>User Interface</td>
150)         <td>Python, Curses</td>

151)         <td>Light</td>

152)         <td>atagar</td>
153)       </tr>

154) 

155)       <tr>

156)         <td><a href="#project-orbot">Orbot</a></td>
157)         <td>User Interface</td>
158)         <td>Java</td>

159)         <td>Moderate</td>

160)         <td>n8fr8, ioerror</td>

161)       </tr>

162) 

163)       <tr class="alt">

164)         <td><a href="#project-tails">Tails</a></td>
165)         <td>OS image</td>
166)         <td>Sys Admin</td>
167)         <td>Heavy</td>
168)         <td><a href="https://tails.boum.org/">#tails</a></td>

169)       </tr>

170) 

171)       <tr>
172)         <td><a href="#project-torramdisk">tor-ramdisk</a></td>
173)         <td>OS image</td>
174)         <td>Sys Admin</td>
175)         <td>Light</td>
176)         <td>blueness</td>
177)       </tr>
178) 
179)       <tr class="alt">
180)         <td><a href="#project-torcloud">Tor cloud</a></td>
181)         <td>OS image</td>
182)         <td>Sys Admin</td>
183)         <td>Light</td>
184)         <td>runa</td>
185)       </tr>
186) 

187)       <tr>
188)         <td>*<a href="#project-torouter">Torouter</a></td>
189)         <td>OS image</td>
190)         <td>Sys Admin</td>

191)         <td>Light</td>

192)         <td>ioerror</td>
193)       </tr>
194) 
195)       <tr class="alt">
196)         <td><a href="#project-torsocks">Torsocks</a></td>
197)         <td>Usability</td>
198)         <td>C</td>

199)         <td>Heavy</td>

200)         <td>ioerror, nickm</td>
201)       </tr>
202) 

203)       <tr>

204)         <td><a href="#project-torbirdy">TorBirdy</a></td>
205)         <td>Browser Add-on</td>
206)         <td>JavaScript</td>
207)         <td>Heavy</td>
208)         <td>Sukhbir (sukhe), ioerror</td>
209)       </tr>

210) 

211)       <tr class="alt">

212)         <td><a href="#project-obfsproxy">Obfsproxy</a></td>
213)         <td>Client Add-on</td>
214)         <td>C</td>

215)         <td>Light</td>
216)         <td>nickm, asn</td>

217)       </tr>
218) 

219)       <tr class="alt">

220)         <td><a href="#project-flash-proxy">Flash Proxy</a></td>
221)         <td>Client Add-on</td>
222)         <td>Python, JavaScript, Go</td>

223)         <td>Moderate</td>

224)         <td>dcf, aallai, jct</td>
225)       </tr>

226) 

227)       <tr>
228)         <td><a href="#project-brdgrd">bridge-guard</a></td>
229)         <td>Client Add-on</td>
230)         <td>C</td>
231)         <td>Light</td>
232)         <td>phw</td>
233)       </tr>
234) 

235)       <tr class="alt">

236)         <td>*<a href="#project-thandy">Thandy</a></td>
237)         <td>Updater</td>
238)         <td>Python</td>

239)         <td>Light</td>

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

241)       </tr>

242) 

243)       <tr>

244)         <td><a href="#project-shadow">Shadow</a></td>

245)         <td>Simulator</td>

246)         <td>C, Python</td>

247)         <td>Moderate</td>

248)         <td>robgjansen</td>
249)       </tr>

250) 

251)       <tr class="alt">
252)         <td><a href="#project-experimentor">ExperimenTor</a></td>
253)         <td>Simulator</td>
254)         <td>C, Perl</td>
255)         <td>Light</td>
256)         <td></td>
257)       </tr>
258) 
259)       <tr>
260)         <td><a href="#project-chutney">Chutney</a></td>
261)         <td>Simulator</td>
262)         <td>Python</td>
263)         <td>Light</td>
264)         <td>nickm</td>
265)       </tr>
266) 

267)       <tr class="alt">

268)         <td><a href="#project-stem">Stem</a></td>

269)         <td>Library</td>
270)         <td>Python</td>
271)         <td>Heavy</td>

272)         <td>atagar, neena</td>

273)       </tr>

274) 

275)       <tr>

276)         <td><a href="#project-txtorcon">Txtorcon</a></td>
277)         <td>Library</td>
278)         <td>Python, Twisted</td>

279)         <td>Moderate</td>

280)         <td>meejah</td>
281)       </tr>

282) 

283)       <tr class="alt">

284)         <td><a href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a></td>
285)         <td>Library</td>
286)         <td>Python</td>
287)         <td>None</td>
288)         <td>aagbsn</td>
289)       </tr>
290) 
291)       <tr>

292)         <td><a href="#project-tlsdate">Tlsdate</a></td>
293)         <td>Utility</td>
294)         <td>C</td>

295)         <td>Light</td>

296)         <td>ioerror</td>
297)       </tr>

298) 
299)       <tr class="alt">

300)         <td><a href="#project-metrics">Metrics</a></td>
301)         <td>Client Service</td>
302)         <td>Java</td>
303)         <td>Heavy</td>
304)         <td>karsten</td>
305)       </tr>

306) 
307)       <tr>

308)         <td><a href="#project-atlas">Atlas</a></td>
309)         <td>Client Service</td>
310)         <td>JavaScript</td>

311)         <td>Moderate</td>

312)         <td>hellais</td>
313)       </tr>

314) 
315)       <tr class="alt">

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

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

319)         <td>None</td>
320)         <td></td>
321)       </tr>

322) 
323)       <tr>

324)         <td><a href="#project-compass">Compass</a></td>
325)         <td>Client Service</td>
326)         <td>Python</td>

327)         <td>Heavy</td>

328)         <td>gsathya, karsten</td>
329)       </tr>

330) 
331)       <tr class="alt">

332)         <td><a href="#project-torperf">Torperf</a></td>
333)         <td>Client Service</td>
334)         <td>C, Python</td>
335)         <td>Light</td>
336)         <td>karsten</td>
337)       </tr>
338) 
339)       <tr>

340)         <td><a href="#project-onionoo">Onionoo</a></td>
341)         <td>Backend Service</td>
342)         <td>Java, Python</td>
343)         <td>Moderate</td>
344)         <td>karsten, gsathya</td>
345)       </tr>
346) 

347)       <tr class="alt">

348)         <td><a href="#project-weather">Weather</a></td>
349)         <td>Client Service</td>
350)         <td>Python</td>

351)         <td>None</td>

352)         <td>kaner</td>
353)       </tr>

354) 

355)       <tr>

356)         <td><a href="#project-gettor">GetTor</a></td>
357)         <td>Client Service</td>
358)         <td>Python</td>

359)         <td>None</td>

360)         <td>kaner</td>

361)       </tr>

362) 

363)       <tr class="alt">

364)         <td><a href="#project-torcheck">TorCheck</a></td>
365)         <td>Client Service</td>
366)         <td>Python, Perl</td>
367)         <td>None</td>

368)         <td>ioerror</td>

369)       </tr>

370) 

371)       <tr>

372)         <td><a href="#project-bridgedb">BridgeDB</a></td>
373)         <td>Backend Service</td>
374)         <td>Python</td>

375)         <td>None</td>

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

377)       </tr>

378) 

379)       <tr class="alt">
380)         <td>*<a href="#project-ooni-probe">Ooni Probe</a></td>

381)         <td>Scanner</td>
382)         <td>Python</td>

383)         <td>Moderate</td>

384)         <td>hellais, isis, ioerror</td>
385)       </tr>
386) 

387)       <tr>

388)         <td><a href="#project-torflow">TorFlow</a></td>
389)         <td>Backend Service</td>
390)         <td>Python</td>

391)         <td>None</td>

392)         <td>aagbsn, mikeperry</td>

393)       </tr>

394) 

395)       <tr class="alt">

396)         <td>*<a href="#project-torbel">TorBEL</a></td>
397)         <td>Backend Service</td>
398)         <td>Python</td>
399)         <td>None</td>
400)         <td>Sebastian</td>
401)       </tr>

402) 

403)       <tr>

404)         <td><a href="#project-tor2web">Tor2web</a></td>
405)         <td>Client Service</td>

406)         <td>Python</td>

407)         <td>Light</td>

408)         <td>hellais</td>

409)       </tr>

410) 
411)       <tr class="alt">
412)         <td><a href="#project-anonbib">Anonbib</a></td>
413)         <td>Website</td>

414)         <td>Python</td>

415)         <td>Light</td>
416)         <td>arma, nickm</td>
417)       </tr>
418) 

419)     </table>

420) 

421)     <sub>
422)     * Project is still in an alpha state.
423)     </sub>

424) 

425)     <br /><br />

426) 

427)     <a id="project-tor"></a>
428)     <h3>Tor (<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git">code</a>, <a

429)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/12">bug

430)     tracker</a>)</h3>

431) 

432)     <p>
433)     Central project, providing the core software for using and participating in
434)     the Tor network. Numerous people contribute to the project to varying
435)     extents, but the chief architects are Nick Mathewson and Roger Dingledine.
436)     </p>

437) 

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

440)     <i><a href="#limitCapabilities">Run With Limited Capabilities</a></i><br />
441)     <i><a href="#torCleanup">Tor Codebase Cleanup</a></i><br />

442)     <i><a href="#httpsImpersonation">HTTPS Server Impersonation</a></i><br />

443)     <i><a href="#chutneyExpansion">Make Chutney Do More, More Reliably</a></i>

444)     </p>

445) 

446)     <a id="project-jtor"></a>
447)     <h3><a href="https://github.com/brl/JTor/wiki">JTor</a> (<a
448)     href="https://github.com/brl/JTor">code</a>, <a
449)     href="https://github.com/brl/JTor/issues">bug
450)     tracker</a>)</h3>

451) 

452)     <p>
453)     Java implementation of Tor and successor to <a
454)     href="http://onioncoffee.sourceforge.net/">OnionCoffee</a>. This project
455)     isn't yet complete, and has been inactive since Fall 2010.
456)     </p>

457) 

458)     <a id="project-tbb"></a>
459)     <h3><a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser Bundle</a> (<a
460)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbrowser.git">code</a>, <a
461)     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

462)     tracker</a>, <a href="https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/">design doc</a>)</h3>
463) 

464)     <p>
465)     The Tor Browser Bundle is an easy-to-use portable package of Tor, Vidalia,

466)     Torbutton, and a Firefox fork preconfigured to work together out of
467)     the box. This is actively being worked on by Erinn Clark.

468)     </p>

469) 

470)     <!--

471)     <p>
472)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
473)     <i><a href="#auditTBB">Audit Tor Browser Bundles for data leaks</a></i><br />
474)     <i><a href="#usabilityTesting">Usability testing of Tor</a></i>
475)     </p>

476)     -->

477) 
478)     <a id="project-torbrowser"></a>
479)     <h3><a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser</a> (<a
480)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbrowser.git">code</a>, <a
481)     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

482)     tracker</a>)</h3>

483) 

484)     <p>

485)     The Tor Browser is a modified Firefox that aims to resolve the privacy
486)     and security issues in mainline Firefox.

487)     </p>

488) 
489)     <a id="project-torbutton"></a>
490)     <h3><a href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> (<a
491)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbutton.git">code</a>, <a
492)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torbutton&order=priority">bug

493)     tracker</a>)</h3>

494) 

495)     <p>

496)     Firefox addon that addresses many of the client-side threats to browsing
497)     the Internet anonymously. Mike has since continued to adapt it to new
498)     threats, updated versions of Firefox, and possibly <a
499)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/google-chrome-incognito-mode-tor-and-fingerprinting">Chrome
500)     as well</a>.

501)     </p>

502) 
503)     <a id="project-httpseverywhere"></a>
504)     <h3><a href="https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere">HTTPS Everywhere</a> (<a
505)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/https-everywhere.git">code</a>, <a
506)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/19">bug

507)     tracker</a>)</h3>

508) 

509)     <p>

510)     HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox and Chrome extension that encrypts
511)     your communications with many major websites, making your browsing
512)     more secure.

513)     </p>

514) 

515)     <a id="project-vidalia"></a>
516)     <h3><a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a> (<a

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

518)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Vidalia&order=priority">bug
519)     tracker</a>)</h3>

520) 

521)     <p>
522)     The most commonly used user interface for Tor. Matt Edman started the
523)     project in 2006 and brought it to its current stable state. Development

524)     slowed for several years, though Tomás Touceda has since taken the
525)     lead with pushing the project forward.

526)     </p>

527) 

528)     <!--

529)     <p>
530)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

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

533)     </p>

534)     -->

535) 

536)     <a id="project-arm"></a>
537)     <h3><a href="http://www.atagar.com/arm/">Arm</a> (<a

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

539)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=arm&order=priority">bug
540)     tracker</a>)</h3>

541) 

542)     <p>

543)     The anonymizing relay monitor (arm) is a terminal status monitor for Tor,
544)     intended for command-line aficionados, ssh connections, and anyone with a
545)     tty terminal. This works much like top does for system usage, providing
546)     real time statistics for bandwidth, resource usage, connections, and quite
547)     a bit more.

548)     </p>

549) 

550)     <!--

551)     <p>
552)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

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

555)     </p>

556)     -->

557) 

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

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

561)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Orbot&order=priority">bug
562)     tracker</a>)</h3>

563) 
564)     <p>
565)     Provides Tor on the Android platform. This was under very active
566)     development up through Fall 2010, after which things have been quiet.
567)     </p>
568) 
569)     <!--
570)     <p>
571)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
572)     <i><a href="#orbot-torbutton">TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</a></i><br />
573)     <i><a href="#orbot-userInterface">Build a better user interface for Orbot</a></i><br />
574)     <i><a href="#orbot-optimisation">Core Tor mobile optimisation</a></i>
575)     </p>
576)     -->
577) 
578)     <a id="project-tails"></a>
579)     <h3><a href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live System</a> (<a
580)     href="http://git.immerda.ch/?p=amnesia.git;a=summary">code</a>, <a
581)     href="https://tails.boum.org/bugs/">bug
582)     tracker</a>)</h3>
583) 
584)     <p>
585)     The Amnesic Incognito Live System is a live CD/USB distribution
586)     preconfigured so that everything is safely routed through Tor and leaves no
587)     trace on the local system. This is a merger of the Amnesia and <a
588)     href="http://www.anonymityanywhere.com/incognito/">Incognito</a> projects,
589)     and still under very active development.
590)     </p>
591) 
592)     <!--
593)     <p>
594)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
595)     <i><a href="#tailsHiddenServicePetnames">Petname system for Tor hidden
596)     services</a></i><br />
597)     <i><a href="#tailsServer">Tails server: Self-hosted services behind
598)     Tails-powered Tor hidden services</a></i>
599)     </p>
600)     -->
601) 

602)     <a id="project-torramdisk"></a>
603)     <h3><a href="http://opensource.dyc.edu/tor-ramdisk">Tor-ramdisk</a> (<a

604)     href="http://opensource.dyc.edu/gitweb/?p=tor-ramdisk.git;a=summary">code</a>, <a
605)     href="http://opensource.dyc.edu/tor-ramdisk-documentation">documentation</a>)</h3>

606) 
607)     <p>

608)     Tor-ramdisk is a uClibc-based micro Linux distribution whose sole
609)     purpose is to securely host a Tor server purely in RAM.

610)     </p>
611) 
612)     <a id="project-torcloud"></a>
613)     <h3><a href="https://cloud.torproject.org/">Tor cloud</a> (<a
614)     href="">code</a>, <a
615)     href="">bug tracker</a>)</h3>
616) 
617)     <p>
618)     Tor cloud
619)     </p>
620) 

621)     <a id="project-torouter"></a>
622)     <h3><a
623)     href="<wiki>doc/Torouter">Torouter</a> (<a
624)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torouter&order=priority">bug
625)     tracker</a>)</h3>
626) 
627)     <p>
628)     Project to provide an easy-to-use, embedded Tor instance for routers. This
629)     had high activity in late 2010, but has since been rather quiet.
630)     </p>
631) 
632)     <a id="project-torsocks"></a>
633)     <h3><a href="http://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> (<a
634)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torsocks.git">code</a>, <a
635)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torify&order=priority">bug
636)     tracker</a>)</h3>
637) 

638)     <p>

639)     Utility for adapting other applications to work with Tor. Development has
640)     slowed and compatibility issues remain with some platforms, but it's
641)     otherwise feature complete.

642)     </p>

643) 

644)     <!--

645)     <p>
646)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

647)     <i><a href="#torsocksForOSX">Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</a></i>

648)     </p>

649)     -->

650) 

651)     <a id="project-torbirdy"></a>
652)     <h3>TorBirdy (<a
653)     href="https://github.com/ioerror/torbirdy">code</a>, <a
654)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/torbirdy/dev">bug
655)     tracker</a>)</h3>

656) 

657)     <p>
658)     TorBirdy is Torbutton for Thunderbird and related Mozilla mail clients.
659)     </p>

660) 

661)     <p>
662)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
663)     <i><a href="#improveTorbirdy">Improving TorBirdy</a></i><br />
664)     </p>

665) 

666)     <a id="project-obfsproxy"></a>

667)     <h3><a href="<page projects/obfsproxy>">Obfsproxy</a> (<a

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

669)     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
670)     tracker</a>)</h3>

671) 

672)     <p>
673)     A proxy that shapes Tor traffic, making it harder for censors to detect and

674)     block Tor.

675)     </p>

676) 

677)     <!--

678)     <p>
679)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
680)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-new-transports">New and innovative pluggable transports</a></i><br />
681)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-scanning-measures">Defensive bridge active scanning measures</a></i><br />
682)     <i><a href="#obfsproxy-fuzzer">Fuzzer for the Tor protocol</a></i>
683)     </p>

684)     -->

685) 

686)     <a id="project-flash-proxy"></a>
687)     <h3><a href="https://crypto.stanford.edu/flashproxy/">Flash Proxy</a> (<a
688)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/flashproxy.git">code</a>, <a
689)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_information&status=needs_review&status=needs_revision&status=new&status=reopened&component=Flashproxy">bug
690)     tracker</a>)</h3>

691) 

692)     <p>
693)     Pluggable transport using proxies running in web browsers to defeat
694)     address-based blocking.
695)     </p>

696) 
697)     <a id="project-brdgrd"></a>
698)     <h3><a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/brdgrd.git/blob/HEAD:/README">Flash Proxy</a> (<a
699)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/brdgrd.git/tree">code</a>)</h3>
700) 
701)     <p>
702)     brgbrd ("bridge guard") is a simple script that can be run on a
703)     Tor bridge to induce the Tor clients connecting to it to be less
704)     blockable.
705)     </p>
706) 

707)     <a id="project-thandy"></a>
708)     <h3>Thandy (<a

709)     href="http://freehaven.net/~arma/tuf-ccs2010.pdf">paper</a>, <a
710)     href="http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/03/thandy-secure-update-for-tor.html">blog
711)     post</a>, <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/thandy.git">code</a>,
712) <a href="https://www.updateframework.com/">related website</a>)</h3>

713) 

714)     <p>
715)     Updater for Tor. The project began in the Summer of 2008 but wasn't
716)     completed. Recently interest in it has been rekindled and many aspects of
717)     its design (including the language it'll be in) are currently in flux.
718)     </p>

719) 

720)     <a id="project-shadow"></a>
721)     <h3><a href="https://shadow.cs.umn.edu/">Shadow</a> (<a
722)     href="https://github.com/shadow">code</a>, <a
723)     href="https://github.com/shadow/shadow/issues">bug
724)     tracker</a>)</h3>

725) 

726)     <p>
727)     Shadow is a discrete-event network simulator that runs the real
728)     Tor software as a plug-in. Shadow is open-source software that enables
729)     accurate, efficient, controlled, and repeatable Tor experimentation.
730)     </p>

731) 

732)     <a id="project-experimentor"></a>
733)     <h3><a href="">ExperimenTor</a> (<a
734)     href="">code</a>, <a
735)     href="">bug
736)     tracker</a>)</h3>
737) 
738)     <p>
739)     ExperimenTor
740)     </p>
741) 
742)     <a id="project-chutney"></a>
743)     <h3><a href="">Chutney</a> (<a
744)     href="">code</a>, <a
745)     href="">bug
746)     tracker</a>)</h3>
747) 
748)     <p>
749)     Chutney
750)     </p>
751) 

752)     <a id="project-stem"></a>

753)     <h3><a href="https://stem.torproject.org/">Stem</a> (<a

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

755)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem/bugs">bug

756)     tracker</a>)</h3>

757) 

758)     <p>
759)     Python controller library with a similar scope to TorCtl, but with better
760)     testing, documentation, and API. This project is not yet feature complete.
761)     </p>

762) 

763)     <p>
764)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />

765)     <i><a href="#stemUsability">Stem Usability Improvements</a></i>

766)     </p>

767) 

768)     <a id="project-txtorcon"></a>
769)     <h3>Txtorcon (<a
770)     href="https://github.com/meejah/txtorcon">code</a>, <a
771)     href="https://txtorcon.readthedocs.org">docs</a>)</h3>

772) 

773)     <p>
774)     Twisted-based asynchronous Tor control protocol implementation. Includes
775)     unit-tests, examples, state-tracking code and configuration abstraction.
776)     Used by OONI and APAF.
777)     </p>

778) 
779)     <a id="project-torctl"></a>
780)     <h3>TorCtl (<a
781)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pytorctl.git">code</a>, <a
782)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torctl&order=priority">bug
783)     tracker</a>)</h3>
784) 
785)     <p>
786)     Python bindings and utilities for using the Tor control port. It has been
787)     stable for several years, with only minor revisions.
788)     </p>
789) 

790)     <a id="project-tlsdate"></a>
791)     <h3>Tlsdate (<a href="https://github.com/ioerror/tlsdate">code</a>)</h3>

792) 

793)     <p>
794)     tlsdate: secure parasitic rdate replacement
795)     </p>

796) 

797)     <p>
798)     tlsdate sets the local clock by securely connecting with TLS to remote
799)     servers and extracting the remote time out of the secure handshake. Unlike
800)     ntpdate, tlsdate uses TCP, for instance connecting to a remote HTTPS or TLS
801)     enabled service, and provides some protection against adversaries that try
802)     to feed you malicious time information.
803)     </p>

804) 

805)     <a id="project-metrics"></a>
806)     <h3><a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/">Metrics</a> (code: <a
807)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-db.git">db</a>, <a
808)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-utils.git">utils</a>, <a
809)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-web.git">web</a>, <a
810)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Metrics&order=priority">bug
811)     tracker</a>)</h3>

812) 

813)     <p>
814)     Processing and analytics of consensus data, provided to users via the
815)     metrics portal. This has been under active development for several years by
816)     Karsten Loesing.
817)     </p>

818) 

819)     <p>
820)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
821)     <i><a href="#metricsSearch">Searchable Tor descriptor and Metrics data archive</a></i> (Python/Django?)
822)     </p>

823) 

824)     <a id="project-atlas"></a>
825)     <h3><a href="https://atlas.torproject.org/">Atlas</a> (<a
826)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/atlas.git">code</a>)</h3>

827) 

828)     <p>
829)     Atlas is a web application to discover Tor relays and bridges. It provides
830)     useful information on how relays are configured along with graphics about
831)     their past usage. This is the third evolution of the TorStatus application.
832)     </p>

833) 

834)     <a id="project-torstatus"></a>

835)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/TorStatus">TorStatus</a> (<a

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

837) 

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

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

845)     </p>

846) 

847)     <a id="project-compass"></a>
848)     <h3><a href="https://compass.torproject.org/">Compass</a> (<a
849)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/compass.git">code</a>, <a
850)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Compass&order=priority">bug
851)     tracker</a>)</h3>

852) 

853)     <p>
854)     Compass is a web and command line application that filters and
855)     aggregates the Tor relays based on various attributes.
856)     </p>

857) 

858)     <p>
859)     <b>Project Ideas:</b><br />
860)     <i><a href="#compassRefactoring">Compass Refactoring</a></i>
861)     </p>

862) 

863)     <a id="project-torperf"></a>
864)     <h3><a href="">Torperf</a> (<a
865)     href="">code</a>, <a
866)     href="">bug
867)     tracker</a>)</h3>
868) 
869)     <p>
870)     TorPerf
871)     </p>
872) 

873)     <a id="project-onionoo"></a>
874)     <h3><a href="<page projects/onionoo>">Onionoo</a> (<a
875)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/onionoo.git">java codebase</a>, <a
876)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pyonionoo.git">python

877)     codebase</a>)</h3>

878) 
879)     <p>
880)     Onionoo is a JSON based protocol to learn information about currently
881)     running Tor relays and bridges.
882)     </p>
883) 

884)     <a id="project-weather"></a>

885)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/Weather">Weather</a> (<a

886)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/weather.git">code</a>, <a
887)     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
888)     tracker</a>)</h3>

889) 

890)     <p>
891)     Provides automatic notification to subscribed relay operators when their
892)     relay's unreachable. This underwent a rewrite by the <a
893)     href="http://hfoss.wesleyan.edu/">Wesleyan HFOSS team</a>, which went live
894)     in early 2011.
895)     </p>

896) 

897)     <a id="project-gettor"></a>

898)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/GetTor">GetTor</a> (<a

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

900)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=GetTor&order=priority">bug
901)     tracker</a>)</h3>

902) 

903)     <p>
904)     E-mail autoresponder providing Tor's packages over SMTP. This has been
905)     relatively unchanged for quite a while.
906)     </p>

907) 

908)     <a id="project-torcheck"></a>

909)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/TorCheck">TorCheck</a> (<a

910)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/check/trunk/">code</a>, <a
911)     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
912)     tracker</a>)</h3>

913) 

914)     <p>
915)     Provides a simple site for determining if the visitor is using Tor or not.
916)     This has been relatively unchanged for quite a while.
917)     </p>

918) 

919)     <a id="project-bridgedb"></a>

920)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/BridgeDB">BridgeDB</a> (<a

921)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/bridgedb.git">code</a>, <a
922)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=BridgeDB&order=priority">bug
923)     tracker</a>)</h3>

924) 

925)     <p>
926)     Backend bridge distributor, handling the various pools they're distributed
927)     in. This was actively developed until Fall of 2010.
928)     </p>

929) 
930)     <a id="project-ooni-probe"></a>
931)     <h3>Ooni Probe (<a
932)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/ooni-probe.git">code</a>, <a
933)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Ooni&order=priority">bug
934)     tracker</a>)</h3>
935) 
936)     <p>
937)     Censorship scanner, checking your local connection for blocked or modified
938)     content.
939)     </p>
940) 

941)     <a id="project-torflow"></a>

942)     <h3><a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/roadmaps/TorFlow">TorFlow</a> (<a

943)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torflow.git">code</a>, <a
944)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=needs_review&status=new&status=reopened&component=Torflow&order=priority">bug
945)     tracker</a>)</h3>

946) 

947)     <p>
948)     Library and collection of services for actively monitoring the Tor network.
949)     These include the Bandwidth Scanners (measuring throughput of relays) and
950)     SoaT (scans for malicious or misconfigured exit nodes). SoaT was last
951)     actively developed in the Summer of 2010, and the Bandwidth Scanners a few
952)     months later. Both have been under active use since then, but development
953)     has stopped.
954)     </p>

955) 

956)     <a id="project-torbel"></a>
957)     <h3><a

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

960)     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
961)     tracker</a>)</h3>

962) 

963)     <p>
964)     The Tor Bulk Exitlist provides a method of identifying if IPs belong to
965)     exit nodes or not. This is a replacement for TorDNSEL which is a stable
966)     (though unmaintained) Haskell application for this purpose. The initial
967)     version of TorBEL was started in GSOC 2010 but since then the project has
968)     been inactive.
969)     </p>

970) 
971)     <a id="project-tor2web"></a>
972)     <h3><a
973)     href="http://wiki.tor2web.org/index.php/Main_Page">Tor2web</a> (<a
974)     href="https://github.com/globaleaks/tor2web-3.0/wiki">code</a>)</h3>
975) 
976)     <p>
977)     Tor2web allows Internet users to browse websites running in <a
978)     href="<page docs/hidden-services>">Tor hidden services</a>. It trades
979)     user anonymity for usability by allowing anonymous content to be
980)     distributed to non-anonymous users.
981)     </p>
982) 

983)     <a id="project-anonbib"></a>
984)     <h3><a
985)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/">Anonymity Bibliography</a> (<a
986)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/anonbib.git">code</a>)</h3>
987) 
988)     <p>

989)     Anonbib is a list of important papers in the field of anonymity. It's
990)     also a set of scripts to generate the website from Latex (bibtex). If
991)     we're missing any important papers, please let us know!

992)     </p>
993) 

994)     <a id="Coding"></a>
995)     <a id="Summer"></a>

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

997) 

998)     <p>

999)     You may find some of these projects to be good ideas for <a href="<page
1000)     about/gsoc>">Google Summer of Code</a> and the <a
1001)     href="https://live.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen">Outreach Program for
1002)     Women</a>. We have labelled each idea with how useful it would be to the
1003)     overall Tor project (priority), how much work we expect it would be (effort
1004)     level), how much clue you should start with (skill level), and which of our
1005)     <a href="<page about/corepeople>">core developers</a> would be good
1006)     mentors. If one or more of these ideas looks promising to you, please <a

1007)     href="<page about/contact>">contact us</a> to discuss your plans rather than
1008)     sending blind applications. You may also want to propose your own project
1009)     idea &mdash; which often results in the best applications.
1010)     </p>

1011) 

1012)     <ol>

1013) 

1014)     <!--

1015)     <a id="auditTBB"></a>

1016)     <li>

1017)     <b>Audit Tor Browser Bundles for data leaks</b>

1018)     <br>

1019)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>

1020)     <br>

1021)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1022)     <br>

1023)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jacob</i>

1024)     <p>The Tor Browser Bundle incorporates Tor, Firefox, Polipo, and the Vidalia

1025)     user interface (and optionally the <a href="http://pidgin.im/">Pidgin</a>
1026)     Instant Messaging client). Components are pre-configured to operate in a
1027)     secure way, and it has very few dependencies on the installed operating
1028)     system. It has therefore become one of the most easy to use, and popular,

1029)     ways to use Tor on Windows.</p>
1030)     <p>This project is to identify all of the traces left behind by
1031)     using a Tor Browser Bundle on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.  Developing
1032)     ways to stop, counter, or remove these traces is a final step.</p>
1033)     <p>Students should be familiar with operating system analysis,

1034)     application development on one or preferably all of Windows, Linux,

1035)     and Mac OS X, and be comfortable with C/C++ and shell scripting.</p>

1036)     <p>Since the core of this project is researching and auditing TBB this is
1037)     not likely to be a good GSoC project.</p>

1038)     </li>

1039)     -->

1040) 

1041)     <!--

1042)     <a id="orbot-userInterface"></a>

1043)     <li>

1044)     <b>Build a better user interface for Orbot</b>

1045)     <br>

1046)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1047)     <br>

1048)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1049)     <br>

1050)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jake</i>
1051)     <p>Improved home screen to show confirmation of connection (via a TorCheck
1052)     API call), better statistics about data transferred (up/down), number of
1053)     circuits connected, quality of connection and so on. The &quot;Tether
1054)     Wifi&quot; Android application is a good model to follow in how it shows a
1055)     realtime count of bytes transferred as well as notifications when wifi
1056)     clients connect. In addition, better handling of Tor system and error
1057)     messages would also be very helpful, include use of standard Android
1058)     operating systems notifications. The addition of a wizard or tutorial
1059)     walkthrough for novice users to explain to them exactly what is and what is
1060)     not anonymized or protected would greatly improve the likelihood they will
1061)     use Orbot correctly. All of this should work on the range of screens and
1062)     device types now offered for Android, from 2&quot; phone to 10&quot;
1063)     Tablet.</p>

1064)     </li>

1065)     -->

1066) 

1067)     <!--

1068)     <a id="armClientMode"></a>

1069)     <li>

1070)     <b>Client Mode Use Cases for Arm</b>

1071)     <br>
1072)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1073)     <br>

1074)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>

1075)     <br>

1076)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>
1077)     <p><a href="<page projects/arm>">Arm</a> is a Tor command line status
1078)     monitor on *nix environments (Linux, Mac, and BSD). It functions much like
1079)     top does, giving a CLI overlay of Tor's bandwidth usage, connections,
1080)     configuration, log, etc. Thus far its design has been geared for Tor relay
1081)     operators. However, this doesn't need to be the case. This project would be
1082)     to expand and simplify arm to make it useful for Tor's client users
1083)     too.</p>

1084) 

1085)     <p>This would include UI design, experimenting, and a lot of python
1086)     hacking. Here's some ideas for client functionality arm could provide:</p>

1087) 

1088)     <ul>
1089)       <li>A panel for client connections, showing each hop of the user's
1090)       circuits with the ISP, country, and jurisdiction where those relays
1091)       reside. Other interesting information would be the circuit's latency, how
1092)       long its been around, and its possible exit ports. Some of this will be
1093)       pretty tricky and require some experimentation to figure out what
1094)       information can be fetched safely (for instance, scraping rdns and whois
1095)       lookups could give hints about a relay's ISP, but we'd need to do it on
1096)       all Tor relays to avoid leaking our connections to the resolver).</li>

1097) 

1098)       <li>Options to let the user request new circuits (the &quot;New
1099)       Identity&quot; feature in Vidalia), select the exit country, etc.</li>

1100) 

1101)       <li>A panel showing Internet application and if their connections are
1102)       being routed through Tor or not (giving a warning if there's leaks).</li>

1103) 

1104)       <li>The status of the bridges we're configured to use (ie, are they up?).
1105)       This would include adding control port functionality to Tor for <a
1106)       href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2068">ticket
1107)       2068</a>.</li>

1108) 

1109)       <li>A one click option to set Tor to be a client, relay, or bridge. The
1110)       goal would be to make it trivial for users to voluntarily contribute to
1111)       the Tor network.</li>

1112) 

1113)       <li>Menus as an alternative to hotkeys to make the interface more
1114)       intuitive and usable for beginners (<a
1115)       href="http://gnosis.cx/publish/programming/charming_python_6.html">example</a>).</li>

1116) 

1117)       <li>Look at Vidalia and TorK for ideas and solicit input from the Tor community.</li>
1118)     </ul>

1119) 

1120)     <p>
1121)     More information is available in the following sections of arm's dev notes: <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/arm#ConnectionListingExpansion">Connection Listing Expansion</a>, <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/arm#CircuitDetails">Circuit Details</a>, and <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/arm#ClientModeUseCases">Client Mode Use Cases</a>
1122)     </p>

1123)     </li>

1124)     -->

1125) 

1126)     <a id="compassRefactoring"></a>

1127)     <li>

1128)     <b>Compass Refactoring</b>

1129)     <br>

1130)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1131)     <br>

1132)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1133)     <br>
1134)     Likely Mentors: <i>gsathya, karsten</i>
1135)     <p>
1136)     Compass was first designed to be a cli app and then hacked into a web app.
1137)     The codebase needs to be refactored such that the main processing code is
1138)     separated from the display functions(probably into separate files) and made
1139)     modular so that adding more features (<a
1140)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/6612">#6612</a>) is easy. For example, the
1141)     main processing logic could be in compass.py, whereas print_groups() and other
1142)     display related functions could be part of a separate cli.py; web.py would also
1143)     have to modified to make use of this new modular code. Bonus points for adding
1144)     features to compass(<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/6619">#6619</a>, <a
1145)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/6612">#6612</a>, <a
1146)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/6728">#6728</a>).
1147)     </p>
1148)     </li>

1149) 

1150)     <!--
1151)     <a id="orbot-optimisation"></a>
1152)     <li>
1153)     <b>Core Tor mobile optimisation</b>
1154)     <br>
1155)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

1156)     <br>
1157)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1158)     <br>

1159)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jake</i>
1160)     <p>
1161)     The existing port of Tor to Android is basically a straight
1162)     cross-compile to Linux ARM. There has been no work done in looking at
1163)     possible optimizations of Tor within a mobile hardware environment or on
1164)     mobile networks. In addition, a number of additional Android OS APIs are
1165)     available (such as wireless network status) that could be taken
1166)     advantage of.
1167)     </p>

1168) 

1169)     <p>
1170)     It should be noted, that even without optimisation, Tor is handling the
1171)     mobile network environment very well, automatically detecting change in
1172)     IP addresses, opening circuits, etc, as the device switches from no
1173)     coverage to 2G, 3G or Wifi constantly as it changes position. However,
1174)     this observation of &quot;very well&quot;, is just based on user
1175)     experience, and not any detailed study of what exactly is happening, and
1176)     what threats might exist because of this constantly changing network state.
1177)     </p>

1178) 

1179)     <p>
1180)     Finally, the build process needs to be moved to the Android NDK from the
1181)     custom GCC toolchain we are now using, and compatibility with Android
1182)     2.3 and 3.x Honeycomb OS need to be verified.
1183)     </p>

1184) 

1185)     <p>
1186)     For more information see the <a
1187)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/android/trunk/Orbot/BUILD">Orbot
1188)     build documentation</a>.
1189)     </p>

1190)     </li>

1191)     -->

1192) 

1193)     <!--

1194)     <a id="obfsproxy-scanning-measures"></a>
1195)     <li>
1196)     <b>Defensive bridge active scanning measures</b>
1197)     <br>
1198)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1199)     <br>
1200)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1201)     <br>
1202)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn</i>
1203)     <p>Involves providing good answers to <a
1204)     href="https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2011-November/003073.html">this
1205)     thread</a> as well as concrete implementation plans for it.</p>

1206) 

1207)     <p>This also involves implementing proposals <a
1208)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/189-authorize-cell.txt">189</a>
1209)     and <a
1210)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/190-shared-secret-bridge-authorization.txt">190</a>.</p>
1211)     </li>

1212)     -->

1213) 

1214)     <!--
1215)     <a id="firewallProbeTool"></a>

1216)     <li>

1217)     <b>Develop a fully automatic firewall-probing system</b>

1218)     <br>
1219)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1220)     <br>
1221)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1222)     <br>

1223)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom, Jacob</i>
1224)     <p>We would like to have a fully automatic firewall-probing system for
1225)     blocking systems with no long-term state (i.e. firewalls that can
1226)     examine each connection, but do not change their behaviour for future
1227)     connections based on the traffic they have seen).</p>
1228)     <p>Ideally, volunteers would only need to set up one or more test servers,
1229)     and run the probe client program on a publicly accessible computer
1230)     behind the firewall.</p>
1231)     <p>The test tool should:</p>
1232)     <ul>
1233)     <li>generate packet captures on both ends (and send them out to the
1234)         extent possible),</li>
1235)     <li>cycle through all the SSL configurations we might want to test
1236)         through a censorship device, and</li>
1237)     <li>also test some other protocols to see whether they are allowed
1238)         through the firewall (IMAP and other mail protocols, BitTorrent,
1239)         DTLS, etc.).</li>
1240)     </ul>
1241)     </li>
1242)     -->

1243) 

1244)     <!--
1245)     <a id="obfsproxy-fuzzer"></a>
1246)     <li>
1247)     <b>Fuzzer for the Tor protocol</b>
1248)     <br>
1249)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1250)     <br>
1251)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1252)     <br>
1253)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn</i>
1254)     <p>Involves researching good and smart ways to fuzz stateful network
1255)     protocols, and also implementing the fuzzer.</p>

1256) 

1257)     <p>We are mostly looking for a fuzzer that fuzzes the Tor protocol
1258)     itself, and not the Tor directory protocol.</p>

1259) 

1260)     <p>Bonus points if it's extremely modular. Relevant research:</p>

1261) 

1262)     <ul>
1263)       <li>PROTOS - Security Testing of Protocol Implementations</li>
1264)       <li>INTERSTATE: A Stateful Protocol Fuzzer for SIP</li>
1265)       <li>Detecting Communication Protocol Security Flaws by Formal Fuzz
1266)       Testing and Machine Learning</li>
1267)       <li>SNOOZE: Toward a Stateful NetwOrk prOtocol fuzZE</li>
1268)       <li>Michal Zalewski's &quot;bugger&quot;</li>
1269)       <li>Also look at the concepts of &quot;model checking&quot; and
1270)       &quot;symbolic execution&quot; to get inspired.</li>
1271)     </ul>
1272)     </li>
1273)     -->

1274) 
1275)     <a id="httpsImpersonation"></a>

1276)     <li>
1277)     <b>HTTPS Server Impersonation</b>
1278)     <br>
1279)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1280)     <br>
1281)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1282)     <br>
1283)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick (nickm)</i>

1284)     <p>

1285)     We have an open proposal for a way to make Tor bridges avoid censorship by
1286)     impersonating an HTTPS server.  Specifically, we need to hack some popular
1287)     SSL "reverse proxy" (your choice) so that it relays regular web connections
1288)     to an HTTP server, but certain connections to a local Tor process.  <a
1289)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/proposals/203-https-frontend.txt">Proposal
1290)     203</a> has a general design sketch.

1291)     </p>
1292)     </li>

1293) 

1294)     <!--
1295)     <a id="geoIPUpgrade"></a>

1296)     <li>

1297)     <b>Improve our GeoIP file format</b>

1298)     <br>

1299)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1300)     <br>
1301)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1302)     <br>
1303)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Ransom</i>
1304)     <p>Currently, Tor bridges and relays read an entire IP-&gt;country database
1305)     into memory from a text file during startup.  We would like to
1306)     distribute this database and store it on disk in a much more compact
1307)     form, and perform IP-&gt;country lookups on it in its on-disk format if
1308)     possible.</p>
1309)     <p>We have <a href='https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2506'>a
1310)     sketch of a design</a> for a moderately optimized format for IPv4 GeoIP
1311)     data; this project will involve both implementing the IPv4 format and
1312)     designing and implementing a format for IPv6 GeoIP data.</p>
1313)     <p>Since the core of this project is researching IPv6 GeoIP data and
1314)     designing the IPv6 format, this is not likely to be a good GSoC
1315)     project.</p>
1316)     </li>
1317)     -->

1318) 

1319)     <!--
1320)     <a id="unitTesting"></a>
1321)     <li>
1322)     <b>Improve our unit testing process</b>

1323)     <br>
1324)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1325)     <br>
1326)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1327)     <br>

1328)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick, Erinn</i>
1329)     <p>Tor needs to be tested far more thoroughly. This is a
1330)     multi-part effort. To start with, our unit test coverage should
1331)     rise substantially, especially in the areas outside the utility
1332)     functions. This will require significant refactoring of some parts
1333)     of Tor, in order to dissociate as much logic as possible from
1334)     globals.</p>
1335)     <p>Additionally, we need to automate our performance testing. We've got
1336)     buildbot to automate our regular integration and compile testing already
1337)     (though we need somebody to set it up on Windows),
1338)     but we need to get our network simulation tests (as built in <a
1339)     href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/torflow/trunk/README">TorFlow</a>)
1340)     updated for more recent versions of Tor, and designed to launch a test
1341)     network either on a single machine, or across several, so we can test
1342)     changes in performance on machines in different roles automatically.</p>
1343)     </li>
1344)     -->

1345) 

1346)     <!--
1347)     <a id="vidaliaNetworkMap"></a>
1348)     <li>
1349)     <b>Improved and More Usable Network Map in Vidalia</b>
1350)     <br>
1351)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1352)     <br>
1353)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1354)     <br>
1355)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

1356)     <p>

1357)     One of Vidalia's existing features is a network map that shows the user
1358)     the approximate geographic location of relays in the Tor network and
1359)     plots the paths the user's traffic takes as it is tunneled through the
1360)     Tor network. The map is currently not very interactive and has rather
1361)     poor graphics. Instead, we implemented KDE's Marble widget such
1362)     that it gives us a better quality map and enables improved interactivity,
1363)     such as allowing the user to click on individual relays or circuits to
1364)     display additional information. We want to add the ability
1365)     for users to click on a particular relay or a country containing one or
1366)     more Tor exit relays and say, "I want my connections to exit
1367)     from here."
1368)     </p>

1369) 

1370)     <p>
1371)     This project will first involve getting familiar with Vidalia
1372)     and the Marble widget's API. One will then integrate the widget
1373)     into Vidalia and customize Marble to be better suited for our application,
1374)     such as making circuits clickable, storing cached map data in Vidalia's
1375)     own data directory, and customizing some of the widget's dialogs.
1376)     </p>

1377) 

1378)     <p>
1379)     A person undertaking this project should have good C++ development
1380)     experience. Previous experience with Qt and CMake is helpful, but not
1381)     required.

1382)     </p>
1383)     </li>

1384)     -->

1385) 

1386)     <!--
1387)     <a id="resistCensorship"></a>

1388)     <li>

1389)     <b>Improving Tor's ability to resist censorship</b>

1390)     <br>

1391)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>

1392)     <br>

1393)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1394)     <br>
1395)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jake, Thomas</i>
1396)     <p>The Tor 0.2.1.x series makes <a
1397)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html">significant
1398)     improvements</a> in resisting national and organizational censorship.
1399)     But Tor still needs better mechanisms for some parts of its
1400)     anti-censorship design.</p>
1401)     <p>One huge category of work is adding features to our <a
1402)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/bridgedb.git?a=tree">BridgeDB</a>
1403)     service (Python). Tor aims to give out <a href="<page docs/bridges>">bridge
1404)     relay addresses</a> to users that can't reach the Tor network
1405)     directly, but there's an arms race between algorithms for distributing
1406)     addresses and algorithms for gathering and blocking them. See <a
1407)     href="<blog>bridge-distribution-strategies">our
1408)     blog post on the topic</a> as an overview, and then look at <a
1409)     href="https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2009-December/000666.html">Roger's
1410)     or-dev post</a> from December 2009 for more recent thoughts &mdash; lots of
1411)     design work remains.</p>
1412)     <p>If you want to get more into the guts of Tor itself (C), a more minor problem
1413)     we should address is that current Tors can only listen on a single
1414)     address/port combination at a time. There's
1415)     <a href="<specblob>proposals/118-multiple-orports.txt">a
1416)     proposal to address this limitation</a> and allow clients to connect
1417)     to any given Tor on multiple addresses and ports, but it needs more
1418)     work.</p>
1419)     <p>This project could involve a lot of research and design. One of the big
1420)     challenges will be identifying and crafting approaches that can still
1421)     resist an adversary even after the adversary knows the design, and
1422)     then trading off censorship resistance with usability and
1423)     robustness.</p>
1424)     </li>
1425)     -->

1426) 

1427)     <a id="improveTorbirdy"></a>
1428)     <li>
1429)     <b>Improving TorBirdy</b>
1430)     <br>
1431)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>

1432)     <br>
1433)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1434)     <br>

1435)     Likely Mentors: <i>Sukhbir, Jacob</i>
1436)     <p>
1437)     TorBirdy is Torbutton for Thunderbird, Icedove and related Mozilla mail
1438)     clients.
1439)     </p>
1440)     <p>
1441)     TorBirdy is under active development and is available from <a
1442)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/torbirdy">our wiki</a>
1443)     and <a
1444)     href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/torbirdy/">mozilla's
1445)     addons site</a>.
1446)     </p>

1447) 

1448)     <p>
1449)     The goal of this project is to improve TorBirdy by:
1450)     </p>

1451) 

1452)     <ul>
1453)       <li>
1454)         Writing a Thunderbird patch to plug known leaks. We have already <a
1455)         href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=776397">submitted a
1456)         patch to Thunderbird</a> but we anticipate there will be much more work
1457)         required before it is accepted, possibly involving rewriting the entire
1458)         patch; this appears trivial, but it is not, as we are proposing a
1459)         completely new privacy-safe message-ID header generation algorithm for
1460)         Thunderbird.
1461)       </li>
1462)       <li>
1463)         Implementing a JavaScript HTTP proxy (see the <a
1464)         href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6958">ticket</a>)
1465)       </li>
1466)       <li>
1467)         Auditing TorBirdy for leaks and for use with other add-ons (as an
1468)         example see its <a
1469)         href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6319">ticket</a>)
1470)       </li>
1471)     </ul>

1472) 

1473)     <p>
1474)     A student undertaking this project should have some C++ and JavaScript
1475)     development experience. Previous experience with Firefox/Thunderbird
1476)     extension development is a plus, but not required.
1477)     </p>
1478)     </li>

1479) 

1480)     <!--
1481)     <a id="user-space-transport"></a>
1482)     <li>
1483)     <b>Integrating Tor with user-space transport protocol libraries</b>
1484)     <br>
1485)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1486)     <br>
1487)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1488)     <br>
1489)     Likely Mentors: <i>Steven</i>
1490)     <p>Tor currently sends data over TCP links between nodes. <a
1491)     href="http://static.usenix.org/events/sec09/tech/full_papers/reardon.pdf">Prior
1492)     research</a> has indicated that this may not be optimal, and instead the
1493)     role that TCP plays (congestion control and reliability) should be moved
1494)     into Tor itself. This would allow a number of desirable changes, such as
1495)     preventing errors on one circuit delaying another, and giving Tor control
1496)     and visibility of congestion control.</p>
1497)     <p>There are <a
1498)     href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/papers/tor11datagramcomparison.pdf">many
1499)     ways to do this</a>, each with their own tradeoffs and difficulty of
1500)     implementation. This project will be to select one (or more) option and
1501)     implement it in Tor. The primary goal will be to test this modified version
1502)     of Tor in simulation, but if it turns out to work well, it could be
1503)     deployed in the live Tor network.</p>
1504)     <p>Excellent C programming skills are needed, and knowledge of Tor
1505)     internals are highly desirable.</p>
1506)     </li>
1507)     -->

1508) 

1509)     <a id="chutneyExpansion"></a>
1510)     <li>
1511)     <b>Make Chutney Do More, More Reliably</b>
1512)     <br>
1513)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High, depending on scope of project</i>
1514)     <br>
1515)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1516)     <br>

1517)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick (nickm)</i>
1518)     <p>

1519)     We have a little Python tool called <a
1520)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/nickm/chutney.git">Chutney</a> for
1521)     making small local test networks.  It's small, not widely used, and not as
1522)     automated as it could be.

1523)     </p>

1524) 

1525)     <p>

1526)     It would be great to see chutney extended and a set of supporting tests
1527)     built to the point where we could use Chutney to exercise various Tor
1528)     features as an automated integration test.

1529)     </p>

1530)     </li>

1531) 

1532)     <!--
1533)     <a id="torsocksForOSX"></a>
1534)     <li>
1535)     <b>Make torsocks/dsocks work on OS X</b>
1536)     <br>
1537)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1538)     <br>
1539)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1540)     <br>
1541)     Likely Mentors: <i>Robert Hogan</i>

1542)     <p>

1543)     <a href="https://code.google.com/p/torsocks/">Torsocks</a> and <a
1544)     href="https://code.google.com/p/dsocks/">dsocks</a> are wrappers that will
1545)     run applications, intercept their outgoing network connections, and push
1546)     those connections through Tor. The goal is to handle applications that
1547)     don't support proxies (or don't supporting them well). To get it right,
1548)     they need to intercept many system calls. The syscalls you need to
1549)     intercept on Linux differ dramatically from those on BSD. So Torsocks
1550)     works fine on Linux, dsocks works ok on BSD (though it may be less
1551)     maintained and thus might miss more syscalls), and nothing works well
1552)     on both. First, we should patch dsocks to use Tor's <i>mapaddress</i>
1553)     commands from the controller interface, so we don't waste a whole
1554)     round-trip inside Tor doing the resolve before connecting. Second,
1555)     we should make our <i>torify</i> script detect which of torsocks or
1556)     dsocks is installed, and call them appropriately. This probably means
1557)     unifying their interfaces, and might involve sharing code between them
1558)     or discarding one entirely.
1559)     </p>
1560)     </li>
1561)     -->

1562) 

1563)     <!--
1564)     <a id="obfsproxy-new-transports"></a>
1565)     <li>
1566)     <b>New and innovative pluggable transports</b>
1567)     <br>
1568)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1569)     <br>
1570)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1571)     <br>
1572)     Likely Mentors: <i>asn, Steven</i>
1573)     <p>Not-very-smart transports like ROT13 and base64 are nice but not super
1574)     interesting. Other ideas like bittorrent transports might be relevant,
1575)     but you will have to provide security proofs on why they are harder to
1576)     detect and block than other less-sophisticated transports.</p>

1577) 

1578)     <p>The whole point of this project, though, is to come up with new
1579)     transports that we haven't already thought of. Be creative.</p>

1580) 

1581)     <p>Bonus points if your idea is interesting and still implementable
1582)     through the summer period.</p>

1583) 

1584)     <p>More bonus points if it's implemented on top of obfsproxy, or if your
1585)     implementation has a pluggable transport interface on top of it (as
1586)     specified <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/180-pluggable-transport.txt">here</a>).</p>
1587)     </li>
1588)     -->

1589) 

1590)     <!--
1591)     <a id="orbot-orlibAndOutreach"></a>
1592)     <li>
1593)     <b>Orbot integration library and community outreach</b>
1594)     <br>
1595)     Effort Level: <i>Low</i>
1596)     <br>
1597)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1598)     <br>
1599)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8)</i>
1600)     <p>
1601)     We need additional work on <a
1602)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/orlib">ORLib</a>, our library for
1603)     use with third-party application to easily enable them to support
1604)     &quot;Torification&quot; on non-rooted devices (i.e. w/o transparent
1605)     proxying). This library includes a SOCKS client, a wrapper for the Apache
1606)     HTTPClient library, a utility class for detecting the state of Orbot
1607)     connectivity, and other relevant/useful things an Android app might need to
1608)     anonymize itself. This work would includes direct development of the
1609)     library, documentation, and sample code. Outreach or effort to implement
1610)     the library within other open-source apps is also needed.

1611)     </p>
1612)     </li>

1613)     -->

1614) 

1615)     <!--
1616)     <a id="tailsHiddenServicePetnames"></a>
1617)     <li>
1618)     <b>Petname system for Tor hidden services</b>
1619)     <br>
1620)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1621)     <br>
1622)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
1623)     <br>
1624)     Likely Mentors: <i>ague</i>
1625)     <p>Tor provides hidden services. These services are only reachable through
1626)     Tor itself, and provide greater anonymity both for the providers of the
1627)     service and for its users.</p>
1628)     <p>One current downside of Tor hidden services is that they are addressed
1629)     using 80-bit base32-encoded addresses such as "v2cbb2l4lsnpio4q.onion".
1630)     These addresses are hard to remember; this makes them hard to use
1631)     within amnesic environment like Tails.</p>
1632)     <p>The project is to implement a petname system for Tor hidden services:
1633)     a way for users or providers of Tor hidden services to add a simple
1634)     'nickname' to a central database. Users could then query this central
1635)     database to retrieve a full hidden service address by giving
1636)     a nickname.</p>
1637)     <p>Adding petnames to the database could be done using a web interface or
1638)     automated fetch like those described in the <a
1639)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/ideas/xxx-onion-nyms.txt">&quot;.onion
1640)     nym system&quot; proposal</a>.</p>
1641)     <p>Querying the database could be done using a web interface, a REST API and
1642)     a DNS interface.</p>
1643)     <p>In order not to grow indefinitely, the software should make regular tests to
1644)     see if hidden services are still reachable and, depending on the last time
1645)     a nickname was accessed, cleanup the database as necessary.</p>
1646)     <p>The software should allow a distributed, fault-tolerant setup.
1647)     All nodes should have a synchronized copy of the database, should be
1648)     ready to answer queries and should coordinate the tests for hidden
1649)     service availability.</p>
1650)     <p>The resulting codebase must be easy to deploy: it should not be hard to
1651)     setup new databases.</p>
1652)     <p>It is expected that the volunteer will be using Behaviour Driven
1653)     Development methods. Either in Ruby using Cucumber and RSpec, or in
1654)     Python using similar tools.</p>
1655)     </li>
1656)     -->

1657) 

1658)     <a id="limitCapabilities"></a>

1659)     <li>

1660)     <b>Run With Limited Capabilities</b>

1661)     <br>
1662)     Effort Level: <i>Medium to High</i>
1663)     <br>

1664)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>

1665)     <br>
1666)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick (nickm)</i>
1667)     <p>

1668)     Many modern operating systems give a running program the ability to drop
1669)     capabilities that it no longer needs, and other ways for a program to run
1670)     pieces of itself in a sandbox with diminished privileges.

1671)     </p>

1672) 

1673)     <p>

1674)     We'd like to do this with Tor, to improve its resistance to attacks.  The
1675)     easiest areas to address would be on systems like <a
1676)     href="https://lwn.net/Articles/475361/">recent Linux kernels</a> that make
1677)     it easy to drop or restrict the set of syscalls that a program can invoke.
1678)     That's a great project, but probably not big enough for an internship just
1679)     on its own.  For that, we'd want to make progress on at least multiple
1680)     platforms, or look into refactoring Tor into pieces that need more
1681)     privileges and pieces that don't with an eye towards sandboxing them
1682)     differently.

1683)     </p>

1684) 

1685)     <p>

1686)     See tickets <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/7005">#7005</a> and <a
1687)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/5219">#5219</a>, and their descendants,
1688)     for more information.

1689)     </p>
1690)     </li>

1691) 

1692)     <a id="metricsSearch"></a>

1693)     <li>

1694)     <b>Searchable Tor descriptor and Metrics data archive</b>

1695)     <br>
1696)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1697)     <br>
1698)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1699)     <br>

1700)     Likely Mentors: <i>Karsten</i>
1701)     <p>The <a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/data.html">Metrics data
1702)     archive</a> of Tor relay descriptors and other Tor-related network data has
1703)     grown to over 100G in size, bz2-compressed.  We have developed two search
1704)     interfaces: the <a
1705)     href="https://metrics.torproject.org/relay-search.html">relay search</a>
1706)     finds relays by nickname, fingerprint, or IP address in a given month; <a
1707)     href="https://metrics.torproject.org/exonerator.html">ExoneraTor</a> finds
1708)     whether a given IP address was a relay on a given day.</p>

1709) 

1710)     <p>We'd like to have a more general search application for Tor descriptors
1711)     and metrics data.  There are more <a
1712)     href="https://metrics.torproject.org/formats.html">descriptor types</a>
1713)     that we'd like to include in the search.  The search application should
1714)     handle most of them and understand some semantics like what's a timestamp,
1715)     what's an IP address, and what's a link to another descriptor.  Users
1716)     should then be able to search for arbitrary strings or limit their search
1717)     to given time periods or IP address ranges.  Descriptors that reference
1718)     other descriptors should contain links, and descriptors should be able to
1719)     say from where they are linked.  The goal is to make the archive easily
1720)     browsable.</p>

1721) 

1722)     <p>The search application shall be separate from the metrics website and
1723)     shouldn't rely on the metrics website codebase.  The search application
1724)     will contain hourly updated descriptor data from the metrics website via
1725)     rsync.  Programming language and database system are not specified yet,
1726)     though there's a slight preference for Python/Django and Postgres for
1727)     maintenance reasons.  If there are good reasons to pick something else,
1728)     e.g, some NoSQL variant or some search application framework, that's fine,
1729)     too.  Further requirements are that lookups should be really fast and that
1730)     changes to the search application can be implemented in reasonable
1731)     time.</p>

1732) 

1733)     <p>Applications for this project should come with a design of the proposed
1734)     search application, ideally with a proof-of-concept based on a subset of
1735)     the available data to show that it will be able to handle the 100G+ of
1736)     data.</p>

1737)     </li>

1738) 

1739)     <!--
1740)     <a id="simulateSlowConnections"></a>

1741)     <li>

1742)     <b>Simulator for slow Internet connections</b>

1743)     <br>
1744)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1745)     <br>
1746)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1747)     <br>

1748)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick</i>

1749)     <p>

1750)     Many users of Tor have poor-quality Internet connections, giving low
1751)     bandwidth, high latency, and high packet loss/re-ordering. User
1752)     experience is that Tor reacts badly to these conditions, but it is
1753)     difficult to improve the situation without being able to repeat the
1754)     problems in the lab.
1755)     </p>

1756) 

1757)     <p>
1758)     This project would be to build a simulation environment which
1759)     replicates the poor connectivity so that the effect on Tor performance
1760)     can be measured. Other components would be a testing utility to
1761)     establish what are the properties of connections available, and to
1762)     measure the effect of performance-improving modifications to Tor.
1763)     </p>

1764) 

1765)     <p>
1766)     The tools used would be up to the student, but dummynet (for FreeBSD)
1767)     and nistnet (for Linux) are two potential components on which this
1768)     project could be built. Students should be experienced with network
1769)     programming/debugging and TCP/IP, and preferably familiar with C and a
1770)     scripting language.

1771)     </p>
1772)     </li>

1773)     -->

1774) 

1775)     <!--

1776)     <a id="stemPathsupport"></a>
1777)     <li>
1778)     <b>Stem PathSupport Capabilities</b>
1779)     <br>
1780)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1781)     <br>
1782)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1783)     <br>
1784)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>
1785)     <p><a
1786)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem">Stem</a> is a
1787)     python controller library for tor. Like it's predecessor, <a
1788)     href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a>, it uses tor's <a
1789)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/control-spec.txt">control
1790)     protocol</a> to help developers program against the tor process, enabling
1791)     them to build things similar to <a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a> and
1792)     <a href="#project-arm">arm</a>.</p>

1793) 

1794)     <p>While TorCtl provided a fine first draft for this sort of functionality,
1795)     it has not proved to be extensible nor maintainable. Stem is a rewrite of
1796)     TorCtl with a heavy focus on testing, documentation, and providing a
1797)     developer friendly API.</p>

1798) 

1799)     <p>At the moment stem is still very much incomplete, missing several pieces
1800)     of functionality that TorCtl provides. This is a project to fix that by
1801)     porting TorCtl's <a
1802)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/pytorctl.git/blob/HEAD:/PathSupport.py">PathSupport
1803)     module</a> to stem, writing tests for it, and migrate a couple clients to
1804)     use it.</p>

1805) 

1806)     <p>PathSupport provides applications with programmatic control over how
1807)     tor's circuits are built, for instance letting you exit from particular
1808)     relays. This is used by projects like <a href="#project-torbel">TorBEL</a>,
1809)     <a href="#project-torflow">the Bandwidth Scanners, and SoaT</a>.</p>

1810) 

1811)     <p>This project can be broken into three parts...</p>

1812) 

1813)     <ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
1814)       <li><p>Look at PathSupport's clients to figure out how it is used and
1815)       come up with the API that we will use for stem. Note that the goal if
1816)       this project is <b>not</b> to simply copy PathSupport, but to make it
1817)       better. This task would ideally be done as part of writing the GSoC
1818)       application.</p></li>
1819)       <li><p>Implement the PathSupport counterpart for stem. This should be
1820)       done in an incremental fashion, writing the feature, tests, and going
1821)       through a code review before moving on. I'll be pretty anal about making
1822)       it as good as we can during these code reviews so plan for this to take a
1823)       while. ;)</p></li>
1824)       <li><p>The real test of the API that you've developed will come when we
1825)       use it in some real applications. Try to migrate a TorCtl client or two
1826)       to stem, filling in functionality that we're missing and improving our
1827)       API as we discover issues. A particularly good client to start with would
1828)       be TorBEL.</p></li>
1829)     </ol>

1830) 

1831)     <p><b>
1832)     Upon reflection this is not an especially good project for this year's GSoC. You are still perfectly wecome to apply for this project, but <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/stem">other stem related tasks</a> such as implementing a general controller, descriptor fetching, and client migrations would be better. For the discussion that lead to this see <a href="http://archives.seul.org/or/dev/Apr-2012/msg00006.html">this thread</a>.
1833)     </b></p>
1834)     </li>

1835)     -->

1836) 

1837)     <a id="stemUsability"></a>

1838)     <li>

1839)     <b>Stem Usability Improvements</b>

1840)     <br>
1841)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
1842)     <br>
1843)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
1844)     <br>

1845)     Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i>
1846)     <p>

1847)     <a href="https://stem.torproject.org/">Stem</a> is a

1848)     python controller library for tor. Like it's predecessor, <a
1849)     href="#project-torctl">TorCtl</a>, it uses tor's <a
1850)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/control-spec.txt">control
1851)     protocol</a> to help developers program against the tor process, enabling
1852)     them to build things similar to <a href="#project-vidalia">Vidalia</a> and
1853)     <a href="#project-arm">arm</a>.
1854)     </p>

1855) 

1856)     <p>
1857)     While TorCtl provided a fine first draft for this sort of functionality,
1858)     it has not proved to be extensible nor maintainable. Stem is a rewrite of
1859)     TorCtl with a heavy focus on testing, documentation, and providing a
1860)     developer friendly API.
1861)     </p>

1862) 

1863)     <p>
1864)     Stem is very nearly feature complete but presently has no users. We
1865)     want to change that prior to making our first release for a couple
1866)     reasons...
1867)     </p>

1868) 

1869)     <ul>
1870)       <li>Make sure that we have a reasonably good API, and improve the rough
1871)       edges that hurt its usability.</li>
1872)       <li>Provide examples for how stem can be used.</li>
1873)     </ul>

1874) 

1875)     <p>
1876)     This project involves several tasks...
1877)     </p>

1878) 

1879)     <ol>
1880)       <li>Move stem's site to Tor's website (<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/7324">ticket</a>)</li>
1881)       <li>Set up Piwik for our site (<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/7424">ticket</a>)</li>

1882)       <li>Come up with a better, more developer friendly "Module Overview" for our documentation (<a href="https://stem.torproject.org/api/control.html">example page</a>). For instance, it would be nice to provide interlinking between the overview and the classes/methods that it lists. This will probably involve asking for help from the <a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx user list</a>.</li>
1883)       <li>Finally get your hands dirty using stem. We want to expand stem's <a href="https://stem.torproject.org/tutorial.html">tutorial page</a> with more examples. To do this you'll want to both brainstorm some of your own and contact the <a href="https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev/">tor-dev@ email list</a> to solicit ideas. This last step is pretty open ended, so go nuts with whatever you think will improve stem's usability!</li>

1884)     </ol>

1885)     </li>

1886) 

1887)     <!--

1888)     <a id="tailsServer"></a>
1889)     <li>
1890)     <b>Tails server: Self-hosted services behind Tails-powered Tor hidden services</b>
1891)     <br>
1892)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>
1893)     <br>
1894)     Skill Level: <i>Medium, but wide-scoped</i>
1895)     <br>
1896)     Likely Mentors: <i>intrigeri, anonym</i>
1897)     <p>Let's talk about group collaboration, communication and data sharing
1898)     infrastructure, such as chat servers, wikis, or file repositories.</p>
1899)     <p>Hosting such data and infrastructure <b>in the cloud</b> generally
1900)     implies to trust the service providers not to disclose content, usage or
1901)     users location information to third-parties. Hence, there are many threat
1902)     models in which cloud hosting is not suitable.</p>
1903)     <p>Tor partly answers the <b>users location</b> part; this is great, but
1904)     <b>content</b> is left unprotected.</p>
1905)     <p>There are two main ways to protect such content: either to encrypt it
1906)     client-side (<b>security by design</b>), or to avoid putting it into
1907)     untrusted hands in the first place.</p>
1908)     <p>Cloud solutions that offer security by design are rare and generally
1909)     not mature yet. The <b>Tails server</b> project is about exploring the
1910)     other side of the alternative: avoiding to put private data into
1911)     untrusted hands in the first place.</p>
1912)     <p>This is made possible thanks to Tor hidden services, that allow users
1913)     to offer location-hidden services, and make self-hosting possible in
1914)     many threat models. Self-hosting has its own lot of problems, however,
1915)     particularly in contexts where the physical security of the hosting
1916)     place is not assured. Combining Tor hidden services with Tails'
1917)     amnesia property and limited support for persistent encrypted data
1918)     allows to protect content, to a great degree, even in such contexts.</p>
1919)     <p>In short, setting up a new Tails server would be done by:</p>

1920) 

1921)     <ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
1922)       <li>Alice plugs a USB stick into a running desktop Tails system.</li>
1923)       <li>Alice uses a GUI to easily configure the needed services.</li>
1924)       <li>Alice unplugs the USB stick, that now contains encrypted services
1925)       configuration and data storage space.</li>
1926)       <li>Alice plugs that USB stick (and possibly a Tails Live CD) into the
1927)       old laptop that was dedicated to run Tails server.</li>
1928)       <li>Once booted, Alice enters the encryption passphrase either
1929)       directly using the keyboard or through a web interface listening on the
1930)       local network.</li>
1931)       <li>Then, Bob can use the configured services once he gets a hold on
1932)       the hidden service address. (The <b>petname system for Tor hidden
1933)       services</b> project would be very complementary to this one, by the
1934)       way.)</li>
1935)     </ol>

1936) 

1937)     <p>Tails server should content itself with hardware that is a bit old
1938)     (such as a PIII-450 laptop with 256MB of RAM) and/or half broken (e.g.
1939)     non-functional hard-disk, screen or keyboard).</p>
1940)     <p>The challenges behind this project are:</p>

1941) 

1942)     <ul>
1943)       <li>Design and write the services configuration GUI [keywords: edit
1944)       configuration files, upgrade between major Debian versions,
1945)       debconf].</li>
1946)       <li>How to create the hidden service key? [keywords: Vidalia, control
1947)       protocol].</li>
1948)       <li>Adapt the Tails boot process to allow switching to &quot;server
1949)       mode&quot; when appropriate.</li>
1950)       <li>Add support, to the Tails persistence setup process, for asking an
1951)       encryption passphrase without X, and possibly with a broken keyboard
1952)       and/or screen [keywords: local network, SSL/TLS?, certificate?].</li>
1953)     </ul>

1954) 

1955)     <p>This project can easily grow quite large, so the first task would
1956)     probably be to clarify what it would need to get an initial (minimal
1957)     but working) implementation ready to be shipped to users.</p>

1958)     <p>This project does not require to be an expert in one specific field,
1959)     but it requires to be experienced and at ease with a large scope of
1960)     software development tools, processes, and operating system knowledge.</p>
1961)     <p>Undertaking this project requires in-depth knowledge of Debian-like
1962)     systems (self-test: do the "dpkg conffile" and "debconf preseeding"
1963)     words sound new to your ear?); the Debian Live persistence system
1964)     being written in shell, being at ease with robust shell scripting is
1965)     a must; to end with, at least two pieces of software need to be
1966)     written from scratch (a GUI and a webapp): the preferred languages for
1967)     these tasks would be Python and Perl. Using Behaviour Driven
1968)     Development methods to convey expectations and acceptance criteria
1969)     would be most welcome.</p>
1970)     <p>For more information see https://tails.boum.org/todo/server_edition/</p>

1971)     </li>

1972)     -->

1973) 

1974)     <a id="torCleanup"></a>

1975)     <li>

1976)     <b>Tor Codebase Cleanup</b>

1977)     <br>

1978)     Effort Level: <i>Low to High, depending on subproject chosen</i>

1979)     <br>

1980)     Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i>

1981)     <br>

1982)     Likely Mentors: <i>Nick (nickm)</i>

1983)     <p>

1984)     The Tor code is almost 10 years old in places, and we haven't always had
1985)     enough time or wisdom to write things as well as we could have.  Our unit
1986)     test coverage is shamefully low, and the dependency graph of our modules is
1987)     shamefully convoluted . We could use refactoring and unit tests!  Please
1988)     look through the Tor source code and look for ugly or tricky code or
1989)     dependencies -- the uglier and trickier the better -- and think about how
1990)     you could make the code look better, read better, and (subject to testing)
1991)     work better.

1992)     </p>

1993) 

1994)     <p>

1995)     If this is for a fun side-project, it would be great for you to work on
1996)     anything that can be made better and more tested.  For an internship-level
1997)     position, we'd hope that you could find a number of particularly tricky or
1998)     knotty piece of the code to clean up, and aim for resolving the ugliest
1999)     problems, not necessarily the easiest.

2000)     </p>

2001) 

2002)     <p>

2003)     For a big project here, it would be great to pick one of the major
2004)     "submodules" of Tor -- path selection, node discovery, directory authority
2005)     operations, directory service -- and refactor its interface completely, to
2006)     minify and codify its points of contact with the rest of Tor.

2007)     </p>
2008)     </li>

2009) 

2010)     <!--

2011)     <a id="vidaliaStatusEventInterface"></a>

2012)     <li>
2013)     <b>Tor Controller Status Event Interface for Vidalia</b>
2014)     <br>
2015)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
2016)     <br>
2017)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>
2018)     <br>

2019)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

2020)     <p>There are a number of status changes inside Tor of which the user may need
2021)     to be informed. For example, if the user is trying to set up his Tor as a
2022)     relay and Tor decides that its ports are not reachable from outside
2023)     the user's network, we should alert the user. Currently, all the user
2024)     gets is a couple of log messages in Vidalia's 'message log' window, which they
2025)     likely never see since they don't receive a notification that something
2026)     has gone wrong. Even if the user does actually look at the message log,
2027)     most of the messages make little sense to the novice user.</p>
2028)     <p>Tor has the ability to inform Vidalia of many such status
2029)     changes, and we recently implemented support for a couple of these
2030)     events. Still, there are many more status events which the user should
2031)     be informed of, and we need a better UI for actually displaying them
2032)     to the user.</p>
2033)     <p>The goal of this project then is to design and implement a UI for
2034)     displaying Tor status events to the user. For example, we might put a
2035)     little badge on Vidalia's tray icon that alerts the user to new status
2036)     events they should look at. Double-clicking the icon could bring up a
2037)     dialog that summarizes recent status events in simple terms and maybe
2038)     suggests a remedy for any negative events if they can be corrected by
2039)     the user. Of course, this is just an example and one is free to
2040)     suggest another approach.</p>
2041)     <p>A person undertaking this project should have good UI design and layout
2042)     skills and some C++ development experience. Previous experience with Qt and
2043)     Qt's Designer will be very helpful, but are not required. Some
2044)     English writing ability will also be useful, since this project will
2045)     likely involve writing small amounts of help documentation that should
2046)     be understandable by non-technical users. Bonus points for some graphic
2047)     design/Photoshop fu, since we might want/need some shiny new icons too.</p>
2048)     </li>

2049)     -->

2050) 

2051)     <!--

2052)     <a id="orbot-torbutton"></a>

2053)     <li>

2054)     <b>TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</b>

2055)     <br>

2056)     Effort Level: <i>High</i>

2057)     <br>
2058)     Skill Level: <i>High</i>
2059)     <br>

2060)     Likely Mentors: <i>Jake</i>

2061)     <p>Initial work has been done on implementing a proxy-setting add-on for
2062)     Firefox on Android (see <a
2063)     href="https://github.com/guardianproject/ProxyMob">ProxyMob</a>), but a
2064)     full port of TorButton needs to be done (dependent upon Firefox 4 port of
2065)     TorButton). The other approach is to implement a custom &quot;Tor
2066)     Browser&quot; based on Firefox or Webkit browser. See <a
2067)     href="http://code.google.com/p/torora/wiki/Android">Torora</a> for progress
2068)     on this so far.</p>

2069)     </li>

2070)     -->

2071) 

2072)     <!--

2073)     <a id="vidalia-hidden-service-panel"></a>

2074)     <li>

2075)     <b>Torrc plugin and improved hidden service configuration panel</b>

2076)     <br>
2077)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
2078)     <br>
2079)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
2080)     <br>

2081)     Likely Mentors: <i>Tomás</i>

2082)     <p>Vidalia's configuration handling has changed in the alpha branch. Now
2083)     every Tor option is saved in the torrc file. With that change, the
2084)     Hidden Service configuration panel was removed due to its specificity
2085)     and its multiple bugs.</p>

2086) 

2087)     <p>The idea would be to provide the new Torrc class' functionality to the
2088)     Plugin Engine and with that, create a better Hidden Service
2089)     configuration panel as a plugin.</p>

2090) 

2091)     <p>A person undertaking this project should have good UI design, layout
2092)     skills and some C++ development experience. Previous experience with Qt
2093)     and Qt's Designer will be very helpful, but are not required. Javascript
2094)     knowledge is a plus, but it shouldn't be a problem if the person
2095)     complies with the previous requirements.</p>

2096)     </li>

2097)     -->

2098) 

2099)     <!--

2100)     <a id="usabilityTesting"></a>

2101)     <li>

2102)     <b>Usability testing of Tor</b>

2103)     <br>

2104)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>

2105)     <br>

2106)     Skill Level: <i>Low to Medium</i>

2107)     <br>

2108)     Likely Mentors: <i>Andrew</i>

2109)     <p>

2110)     Especially the browser bundle, ideally amongst our target demographic.
2111)     That would help a lot in knowing what needs to be done in terms of bug
2112)     fixes or new features. We get this informally at the moment, but a more
2113)     structured process would be better.

2114)     </p>

2115) 

2116)     <p>

2117)     Please note that since this isn't a coding project, it isn't suitable for
2118)     Google Summer of Code.

2119)     </p>
2120)     </li>

2121)     -->

2122) 

2123)     <a id="docUpdate"></a>

2124)     <li>

2125)     <b>Website and video documentation update</b>

2126)     <br>
2127)     Effort Level: <i>Medium</i>
2128)     <br>
2129)     Skill Level: <i>Medium</i>
2130)     <br>

2131)     Likely Mentors: <i>Runa, Karen</i>

2132)     <p>

2133)     Identify outdated and/or weak pages on torproject.org and re-write the
2134)     documentation to appeal to a less technical, more goal-oriented
2135)     audience. Create a number of 3-5 minute videos with graphically
2136)     portray the written documentation. See
2137)     <a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?component=Website&status=new">the
2138)     website tickets</a> for more information and a starting point.

2139)     </p>
2140)     </li>

2141) 

2142)     <li>
2143)     <b>Bring up new ideas!</b>

2144)     <br>

2145)     Don't like any of these? Look at the <a

2146)     href="/press/presskit/2008-12-19-roadmap-full.pdf">Tor development

2147)     roadmap</a> for more ideas, or just try out Tor, Vidalia, and Torbutton,
2148)     and find out what you think needs fixing.

2149)     Some of the <a href="<spectree>proposals">current proposals</a>

2150)     might also be short on developers.
2151)     </li>

2152) 

2153)     </ol>

2154) 

2155)     <a id="OtherCoding"></a>
2156)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#OtherCoding">Other Coding and Design related ideas</a></h2>
2157)     <ol>
2158)     <li>Tor relays don't work well on Windows XP. On
2159)     Windows, Tor uses the standard <tt>select()</tt> system
2160)     call, which uses space in the non-page pool. This means
2161)     that a medium sized Tor relay will empty the non-page pool, <a

2162)     href="<wiki>doc/WindowsBufferProblems">causing

2163)     havoc and system crashes</a>. We should probably be using overlapped IO
2164)     instead. One solution would be to teach <a
2165)     href="http://www.monkey.org/~provos/libevent/">libevent</a> how to use
2166)     overlapped IO rather than select() on Windows, and then adapt Tor to
2167)     the new libevent interface. Christian King made a
2168)     <a href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/libevent-urz/trunk/">good
2169)     start</a> on this in the summer of 2007.</li>

2170) 

2171)     <li>We need to actually start building our <a href="<page
2172)     docs/documentation>#DesignDoc">blocking-resistance design</a>. This involves
2173)     fleshing out the design, modifying many different pieces of Tor, adapting
2174)     <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a> so it supports the
2175)     new features, and planning for deployment.</li>

2176) 

2177)     <li>We need a flexible simulator framework for studying end-to-end
2178)     traffic confirmation attacks. Many researchers have whipped up ad hoc
2179)     simulators to support their intuition either that the attacks work
2180)     really well or that some defense works great. Can we build a simulator
2181)     that's clearly documented and open enough that everybody knows it's
2182)     giving a reasonable answer? This will spur a lot of new research.
2183)     See the entry <a href="#Research">below</a> on confirmation attacks for
2184)     details on the research side of this task &mdash; who knows, when it's
2185)     done maybe you can help write a paper or three also.</li>

2186) 

2187)     <li>Tor 0.1.1.x and later include support for hardware crypto
2188)     accelerators via OpenSSL. It has been lightly tested and is
2189)     possibly very buggy.  We're looking for more rigorous testing,

2190)     performance analysis, and optimally, code fixes to OpenSSL and

2191)     Tor if needed.</li>

2192) 

2193)     <li>Perform a security analysis of Tor with <a

2194)     href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fuzz_testing">"fuzz"</a>. Determine

2195)     if there are good fuzzing libraries out there for what we want. Win fame by
2196)     getting credit when we put out a new release because of you!</li>

2197) 

2198)     <li>Tor uses TCP for transport and TLS for link
2199)     encryption. This is nice and simple, but it means all cells
2200)     on a link are delayed when a single packet gets dropped, and
2201)     it means we can only reasonably support TCP streams. We have a <a

2202)     href="<page docs/faq>#TransportIPnotTCP">list

2203)     of reasons why we haven't shifted to UDP transport</a>, but it would
2204)     be great to see that list get shorter. We also have a proposed <a

2205)     href="<specblob>proposals/100-tor-spec-udp.txt">specification

2206)     for Tor and
2207)     UDP</a> &mdash; please let us know what's wrong with it.</li>

2208) 

2209)     <li>We're not that far from having IPv6 support for destination addresses
2210)     (at exit nodes). If you care strongly about IPv6, that's probably the
2211)     first place to start.</li>

2212) 

2213)     <li>We need a way to generate the website diagrams (for example, the "How
2214)     Tor Works" pictures on the <a href="<page about/overview>">overview page</a>
2215)     from source, so we can translate them as UTF-8 text rather than edit
2216)     them by hand with Gimp. We might want to
2217)     integrate this as an wml file so translations are easy and images are
2218)     generated in multiple languages whenever we build the website.</li>

2219) 

2220)     <li>How can we make the various LiveCD/USB systems easier
2221)     to maintain, improve, and document?  One example is <a

2222)     href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live

2223)     System</a>.
2224)     </li>

2225) 

2226)     <li>
2227)     Another anti-censorship project is to try to make Tor
2228)     more scanning-resistant.  Right now, an adversary can identify <a

2229)     href="<specblob>proposals/125-bridges.txt">Tor bridges</a>

2230)     just by trying to connect to them, following the Tor protocol,
2231)     and seeing if they respond.  To solve this, bridges could <a
2232)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#tth_sEc9.3">act like
2233)     webservers</a> (HTTP or HTTPS) when contacted by port-scanning tools,
2234)     and not act like bridges until the user provides a bridge-specific key.
2235)     To start, check out Shane Pope's <a
2236)     href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37735/index.html">thesis and prototype</a>.
2237)     </li>

2238) 

2239)     </ol>

2240) 

2241)     <a id="Research"></a>
2242)     <h2><a class="anchor" href="#Research">Research</a></h2>
2243)     <ol>
2244)     <li>The "end-to-end traffic confirmation attack":
2245)     by watching traffic at Alice and at Bob, we can <a
2246)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#danezis:pet2004">compare
2247)     traffic signatures and become convinced that we're watching the same
2248)     stream</a>. So far Tor accepts this as a fact of life and assumes this
2249)     attack is trivial in all cases. First of all, is that actually true? How
2250)     much traffic of what sort of distribution is needed before the adversary
2251)     is confident he has won? Are there scenarios (e.g. not transmitting much)
2252)     that slow down the attack? Do some traffic padding or traffic shaping
2253)     schemes work better than others?</li>
2254)     <li>A related question is: Does running a relay/bridge provide additional
2255)     protection against these timing attacks? Can an external adversary that can't
2256)     see inside TLS links still recognize individual streams reliably?
2257)     Does the amount of traffic carried degrade this ability any? What if the
2258)     client-relay deliberately delayed upstream relayed traffic to create a queue
2259)     that could be used to mimic timings of client downstream traffic to make it
2260)     look like it was also relayed? This same queue could also be used for masking
2261)     timings in client upstream traffic with the techniques from <a
2262)     href="http://www.freehaven.net/anonbib/#ShWa-Timing06">adaptive padding</a>,
2263)     but without the need for additional traffic. Would such an interleaving of
2264)     client upstream traffic obscure timings for external adversaries? Would the
2265)     strategies need to be adjusted for asymmetric links? For example, on
2266)     asymmetric links, is it actually possible to differentiate client traffic from
2267)     natural bursts due to their asymmetric capacity? Or is it easier than
2268)     symmetric links for some other reason?</li>
2269)     <li>Repeat Murdoch and Danezis's <a
2270)     href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/projects/anon/#torta">attack from
2271)     Oakland 05</a> on the current Tor network. See if you can learn why it
2272)     works well on some nodes and not well on others. (My theory is that the
2273)     fast nodes with spare capacity resist the attack better.) If that's true,
2274)     then experiment with the RelayBandwidthRate and RelayBandwidthBurst
2275)     options to run a relay that is used as a client while relaying the
2276)     attacker's traffic: as we crank down the RelayBandwidthRate, does the
2277)     attack get harder? What's the right ratio of RelayBandwidthRate to
2278)     actually capacity? Or is it a ratio at all? While we're at it, does a
2279)     much larger set of candidate relays increase the false positive rate
2280)     or other complexity for the attack? (The Tor network is now almost two
2281)     orders of magnitude larger than it was when they wrote their paper.) Be
2282)     sure to read <a href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#clog-the-queue">Don't
2283)     Clog the Queue</a> too.</li>
2284)     <li>The "routing zones attack": most of the literature thinks of
2285)     the network path between Alice and her entry node (and between the
2286)     exit node and Bob) as a single link on some graph. In practice,
2287)     though, the path traverses many autonomous systems (ASes), and <a
2288)     href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#feamster:wpes2004">it's not uncommon
2289)     that the same AS appears on both the entry path and the exit path</a>.
2290)     Unfortunately, to accurately predict whether a given Alice, entry,
2291)     exit, Bob quad will be dangerous, we need to download an entire Internet
2292)     routing zone and perform expensive operations on it. Are there practical
2293)     approximations, such as avoiding IP addresses in the same /8 network?</li>
2294)     <li>Other research questions regarding geographic diversity consider
2295)     the tradeoff between choosing an efficient circuit and choosing a random
2296)     circuit. Look at Stephen Rollyson's <a
2297)     href="http://swiki.cc.gatech.edu:8080/ugResearch/uploads/7/ImprovingTor.pdf">position
2298)     paper</a> on how to discard particularly slow choices without hurting
2299)     anonymity "too much". This line of reasoning needs more work and more
2300)     thinking, but it looks very promising.</li>
2301)     <li>Tor doesn't work very well when relays have asymmetric bandwidth
2302)     (e.g. cable or DSL). Because Tor has separate TCP connections between
2303)     each hop, if the incoming bytes are arriving just fine and the outgoing
2304)     bytes are all getting dropped on the floor, the TCP push-back mechanisms
2305)     don't really transmit this information back to the incoming streams.
2306)     Perhaps Tor should detect when it's dropping a lot of outgoing packets,
2307)     and rate-limit incoming streams to regulate this itself? I can imagine
2308)     a build-up and drop-off scheme where we pick a conservative rate-limit,
2309)     slowly increase it until we get lost packets, back off, repeat. We
2310)     need somebody who's good with networks to simulate this and help design
2311)     solutions; and/or we need to understand the extent of the performance
2312)     degradation, and use this as motivation to reconsider UDP transport.</li>
2313)     <li>A related topic is congestion control. Is our
2314)     current design sufficient once we have heavy use? Maybe
2315)     we should experiment with variable-sized windows rather
2316)     than fixed-size windows? That seemed to go well in an <a

2317)     href="http://www.psc.edu/index.php/hpn-ssh/638">ssh

2318)     throughput experiment</a>. We'll need to measure and tweak, and maybe
2319)     overhaul if the results are good.</li>
2320)     <li>Our censorship-resistance goals include preventing
2321)     an attacker who's looking at Tor traffic on the wire from <a
2322)     href="<svnprojects>design-paper/blocking.html#sec:network-fingerprint">distinguishing
2323)     it from normal SSL traffic</a>. Obviously we can't achieve perfect
2324)     steganography and still remain usable, but for a first step we'd like to
2325)     block any attacks that can win by observing only a few packets. One of
2326)     the remaining attacks we haven't examined much is that Tor cells are 512
2327)     bytes, so the traffic on the wire may well be a multiple of 512 bytes.
2328)     How much does the batching and overhead in TLS records blur this on the
2329)     wire? Do different buffer flushing strategies in Tor affect this? Could
2330)     a bit of padding help a lot, or is this an attack we must accept?</li>
2331)     <li>Tor circuits are built one hop at a time, so in theory we have the
2332)     ability to make some streams exit from the second hop, some from the
2333)     third, and so on. This seems nice because it breaks up the set of exiting
2334)     streams that a given relay can see. But if we want each stream to be safe,
2335)     the "shortest" path should be at least 3 hops long by our current logic, so
2336)     the rest will be even longer. We need to examine this performance / security
2337)     tradeoff.</li>
2338)     <li>It's not that hard to DoS Tor relays or directory authorities. Are client
2339)     puzzles the right answer? What other practical approaches are there? Bonus
2340)     if they're backward-compatible with the current Tor protocol.</li>
2341)     <li>Programs like <a

2342)     href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton</a> aim to hide

2343)     your browser's UserAgent string by replacing it with a uniform answer for
2344)     every Tor user. That way the attacker can't splinter Tor's anonymity set
2345)     by looking at that header. It tries to pick a string that is commonly used
2346)     by non-Tor users too, so it doesn't stand out. Question one: how badly
2347)     do we hurt ourselves by periodically updating the version of Firefox
2348)     that Torbutton claims to be? If we update it too often, we splinter the
2349)     anonymity sets ourselves. If we don't update it often enough, then all the
2350)     Tor users stand out because they claim to be running a quite old version
2351)     of Firefox. The answer here probably depends on the Firefox versions seen
2352)     in the wild. Question two: periodically people ask us to cycle through N
2353)     UserAgent strings rather than stick with one. Does this approach help,
2354)     hurt, or not matter? Consider: cookies and recognizing Torbutton users
2355)     by their rotating UserAgents; malicious websites who only attack certain
2356)     browsers; and whether the answers to question one impact this answer.
2357)     </li>
2358)     <li>How many bridge relays do you need to know to maintain
2359)     reachability? We should measure the churn in our bridges. If there is
2360)     lots of churn, are there ways to keep bridge users more likely to stay
2361)     connected?
2362)     </li>
2363)     </ol>

2364) 

2365)     <p>
2366)     <a href="<page about/contact>">Let us know</a> if you've made progress on any
2367)     of these!
2368)     </p>
2369)   </div>
2370)   <!-- END MAINCOL -->
2371)   <div id = "sidecol">
2372) #include "side.wmi"
2373) #include "info.wmi"
2374)   </div>
2375)   <!-- END SIDECOL -->
2376) </div>
2377) <!-- END CONTENT -->