Setting up an Obfsproxy Bridge on Debian/Ubuntu
Hey! If you are not using Debian or Ubuntu, you better look at this other guide which sets up Obfsproxy from source.
This is a Debian/Ubuntu guide for installing the Python version of obfsproxy. If you are still using the C version, we recommend you to upgrade to the Python version!
Step 0: Install a recent version of Tor (>= 0.2.4.1)
Add the official Tor
APT repository and run the specified commands to install tor
and deb.torproject.org-keyring
. You need Tor 0.2.4.x because
it knows how to automatically report your obfsproxy address to BridgeDB.
Step 1: Install obfsproxy
Since you installed the Tor APT repository, installing obfsproxy is now a matter of running a command:
\# apt-get install obfsproxy
Step 2: Configure Tor
Edit your /etc/tor/torrc to add:
SocksPort 0 ORPort 443 # or some other port if you already run a webserver/skype BridgeRelay 1 Exitpolicy reject *:* \## CHANGEME_1 -> provide a nickname for your bridge, can be anything you like \#Nickname CHANGEME_1 \## CHANGEME_2 -> provide some email address so we can contact you if there's a problem \#ContactInfo CHANGEME_2 ServerTransportPlugin obfs3 exec /usr/bin/obfsproxy managed
Don't forget to uncomment and edit the CHANGEME fields!
Step 3: Launch Tor and verify that it bootstraps
Restart Tor to use the new configuration file. (Preface with sudo if needed.)
\# service tor restart
Now check /var/log/tor/log and you should see something like this:
Nov 05 16:40:45.000 [notice] We now have enough directory information to build circuits. Nov 05 16:40:45.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 80%: Connecting to the Tor network. Nov 05 16:40:46.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 85%: Finishing handshake with first hop. Nov 05 16:40:46.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 90%: Establishing a Tor circuit. Nov 05 16:40:48.000 [notice] Tor has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like client functionality is working. Nov 05 16:40:48.000 [notice] Bootstrapped 100%: Done.
If Tor is earlier in the bootstrapping phase, wait until it gets to 100%.
Step 4: Set up port forwarding if needed
If you're behind a NAT/firewall, you'll need to make your bridge reachable from the outside world — both on the ORPort and the obfsproxy ports. The ORPort is whatever you defined in step two above. To find your obfsproxy ports, check your Tor logs for a line similar to this one:
Oct 05 20:00:41.000 [notice] Registered server transport 'obfs3' at '0.0.0.0:42000
The last number in each line, in this case 26821 and 42000, is the TCP port number that you need to forward through your firewall. (The ports are randomly chosen the first time Tor starts, but Tor will cache and reuse the same number in future runs.) If you want to change the number, use Tor 0.2.4.7-alpha or later, and set something similar to "ServerTransportListenAddr obfs3 0.0.0.0:26821" in your torrc.