7 ms·

Genuine question, what sort of risks are associated with running this on a typical residential connection?

by gmemstr 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
3np 5y ago
Not much at all (unless you’re in the DPRK, I guess). Running an exit node is likely to give you issues, though.
News-Dog 5y ago
Best Answered at: <https://forum.torproject.net https://forum.torproject.net>
- mkl 5y ago
  Where there? There seem to be hundreds of posts, and searching for "risks" and "bridge risks" didn't seem to bring anything up.
  - 3np 5y ago
    I think they meant that it's a good place to ask.
  - News-Dog 5y ago
    Please ask on the Forum, You are more likely to be able to talk directly with a Dev. However they will be most likely preoccupied with the new release at the moment. FYI: Tor Browser User Manual <https://tb-manual.torproject.org https://tb-manual.torproject.org> Tor Support <https://support.torproject.org https://support.torproject.org>
flatiron 5y ago
I ran a bridge once. First thing that happened is I could no longer use my banks website or app. Got a message that I was using tor. I was not an exit node I guess they blocked all exit nodes and bridges. Second thing that happened is I worked at the power company and the union went on strike. While on strike some dummy put in a lot of power outage reports and used tor. So IT wanted to see if anyone else was using tor and my IP when I worked from home came up as Tor so I had to go through a whole thing at work that I just run a bridge and I had nothing to do with the tickets. They requested I stop running the bridge and I did. No more tor bridges for me!
- 3np 5y ago
  > So IT wanted to see if anyone else was using tor and my IP when I worked from home came up as Tor That sounds like it has nothing to do with you running a bridge but about you connecting to work through tor. And/Or you weren’t running a bridge but a public relay. In either case the company’s IT sound like dummys.
  - flatiron 5y ago
    I was not connected to work via tor. My ip was listed on the tor network as a bridge. IT simply got all the tor IPs and cross checked it against IPs connected to their VPN and I came up. On another note a coworker downloaded a bollywood movie on BitTorrent and forgot to stop sharing and connected to the work VPN and IT got a dmca notice. They then went on a huge investigation about BitTorrent. Some people got nasty emails their IP was listed on public trackers. Their kids were using BitTorrent and they were getting nasty emails about it. That was a bit big brother for me even though I didn’t get sucked up into that thankfully.
    - 3np 5y ago
      > My ip was listed on the tor network as a bridge Seems like you're mixing up the terminology (which is understandable, I've done it myself a couple of times in the past). https://support.torproject.org/censorship/censorship-7/ https://support.torproject.org/censorship/censorship-7/ Bridge relays are Tor relays that are not listed in the public Tor directory. There are still ways to get and detect bridge addresses but I'd be surprised if the kind of IT department that would give you trouble for running one would also go through the effort of doing so? > On another note a coworker downloaded a bollywood movie on BitTorrent and forgot to stop sharing and connected to the work VPN and IT got a dmca notice. They then went on a huge investigation about BitTorrent. Some people got nasty emails their IP was listed on public trackers. If they were listed as seeds illegally sharing copyright-protected content (and the kids weren't just downloading Debian ISOs), that's par for course.
      - flatiron 5y ago
onphonenow 5y ago
Many automated tools consider tor a fraud signal - so be careful. Users sometimes believe lies online (ie bridge internet extension is OK or not noticeable) and create a lot of trouble for themselves. Profile sync can bring that extension onto your work computer as an example I’m familiar with. If you are bridging tor at work not great
- crtasm 5y ago
  It's unfortunate that some (many?) tools treat the list of Tor nodes equally, despite only exit nodes being of actual concern in most usecases. Running a bridge with the Snowflake extension/webpage does not put your IP on the public list of Tor nodes: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/bridges/ https://tb-manual.torproject.org/bridges/ Being careful not to sync personal settings/extensions to a work machine is certainly good advice.
  - onphonenow 5y ago
    But in a surprising number of situations the fact that you are bridging tor activity is leaky info. You don't just have to be on a public IP list.
    - crtasm 5y ago
      This is a very vague response and to me comes across as FUD.
      - onphonenow 5y ago
        I gave the example of syncing plugins. If you run any game with anti-cheat (which is many) most will have process monitoring. Endpoint tools can also monitor. In the past (I'm not current) you could look at connections using self signed SSL certificates on network, so network monitoring tools could be used to pick up folks pushing tor traffic over your network. You could also watch for folks connecting to tor exit nodes (this used to be public info).
goodpoint 5y ago
Besides from risk, often it's not a good idea due to the latency introduced by it. EDIT: this is the official recommendation from Tor. Spare the downvotes for one minute.
- hatware 5y ago
  Can you elaborate? How would running a bridge impact latency?
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    The advice (from years ago) was that the Tor network is bandwidth-aware but not very latency aware. It requires bridges, relays and exit nodes to build a circuit and communicate. The client does not know what latency exists between the chosen nodes when builds a circuit. If the nodes are located in large datacenters in good locations you'll have acceptable latency relatively often. If they are on residential ISPs it might not be the case. Perhaps things have improved in the meantime. https://community.torproject.org/relay/relays-requirements/ https://community.torproject.org/relay/relays-requirements/ does not mention latency.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Genuine question, what sort of risks are associated with running this on a typical residential connection?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

3np 5y ago

Not much at all (unless you’re in the DPRK, I guess). Running an exit node is likely to give you issues, though.

News-Dog 5y ago

Best Answered at: <https://forum.torproject.net https://forum.torproject.net>

mkl 5y ago
Where there? There seem to be hundreds of posts, and searching for "risks" and "bridge risks" didn't seem to bring anything up.
- 3np 5y ago
  I think they meant that it's a good place to ask.
- News-Dog 5y ago
  Please ask on the Forum, You are more likely to be able to talk directly with a Dev. However they will be most likely preoccupied with the new release at the moment. FYI: Tor Browser User Manual <https://tb-manual.torproject.org https://tb-manual.torproject.org> Tor Support <https://support.torproject.org https://support.torproject.org>

flatiron 5y ago

I ran a bridge once. First thing that happened is I could no longer use my banks website or app. Got a message that I was using tor. I was not an exit node I guess they blocked all exit nodes and bridges. Second thing that happened is I worked at the power company and the union went on strike. While on strike some dummy put in a lot of power outage reports and used tor. So IT wanted to see if anyone else was using tor and my IP when I worked from home came up as Tor so I had to go through a whole thing at work that I just run a bridge and I had nothing to do with the tickets. They requested I stop running the bridge and I did. No more tor bridges for me!

3np 5y ago
> So IT wanted to see if anyone else was using tor and my IP when I worked from home came up as Tor That sounds like it has nothing to do with you running a bridge but about you connecting to work through tor. And/Or you weren’t running a bridge but a public relay. In either case the company’s IT sound like dummys.
- flatiron 5y ago
  I was not connected to work via tor. My ip was listed on the tor network as a bridge. IT simply got all the tor IPs and cross checked it against IPs connected to their VPN and I came up. On another note a coworker downloaded a bollywood movie on BitTorrent and forgot to stop sharing and connected to the work VPN and IT got a dmca notice. They then went on a huge investigation about BitTorrent. Some people got nasty emails their IP was listed on public trackers. Their kids were using BitTorrent and they were getting nasty emails about it. That was a bit big brother for me even though I didn’t get sucked up into that thankfully.
  - 3np 5y ago
    > My ip was listed on the tor network as a bridge Seems like you're mixing up the terminology (which is understandable, I've done it myself a couple of times in the past). https://support.torproject.org/censorship/censorship-7/ https://support.torproject.org/censorship/censorship-7/ Bridge relays are Tor relays that are not listed in the public Tor directory. There are still ways to get and detect bridge addresses but I'd be surprised if the kind of IT department that would give you trouble for running one would also go through the effort of doing so? > On another note a coworker downloaded a bollywood movie on BitTorrent and forgot to stop sharing and connected to the work VPN and IT got a dmca notice. They then went on a huge investigation about BitTorrent. Some people got nasty emails their IP was listed on public trackers. If they were listed as seeds illegally sharing copyright-protected content (and the kids weren't just downloading Debian ISOs), that's par for course.
    - flatiron 5y ago

onphonenow 5y ago

Many automated tools consider tor a fraud signal - so be careful. Users sometimes believe lies online (ie bridge internet extension is OK or not noticeable) and create a lot of trouble for themselves. Profile sync can bring that extension onto your work computer as an example I’m familiar with. If you are bridging tor at work not great

crtasm 5y ago
It's unfortunate that some (many?) tools treat the list of Tor nodes equally, despite only exit nodes being of actual concern in most usecases. Running a bridge with the Snowflake extension/webpage does not put your IP on the public list of Tor nodes: https://tb-manual.torproject.org/bridges/ https://tb-manual.torproject.org/bridges/ Being careful not to sync personal settings/extensions to a work machine is certainly good advice.
- onphonenow 5y ago
  But in a surprising number of situations the fact that you are bridging tor activity is leaky info. You don't just have to be on a public IP list.
  - crtasm 5y ago
    This is a very vague response and to me comes across as FUD.
    - onphonenow 5y ago
      I gave the example of syncing plugins. If you run any game with anti-cheat (which is many) most will have process monitoring. Endpoint tools can also monitor. In the past (I'm not current) you could look at connections using self signed SSL certificates on network, so network monitoring tools could be used to pick up folks pushing tor traffic over your network. You could also watch for folks connecting to tor exit nodes (this used to be public info).

goodpoint 5y ago

Besides from risk, often it's not a good idea due to the latency introduced by it. EDIT: this is the official recommendation from Tor. Spare the downvotes for one minute.

hatware 5y ago
Can you elaborate? How would running a bridge impact latency?
- goodpoint 5y ago
  The advice (from years ago) was that the Tor network is bandwidth-aware but not very latency aware. It requires bridges, relays and exit nodes to build a circuit and communicate. The client does not know what latency exists between the chosen nodes when builds a circuit. If the nodes are located in large datacenters in good locations you'll have acceptable latency relatively often. If they are on residential ISPs it might not be the case. Perhaps things have improved in the meantime. https://community.torproject.org/relay/relays-requirements/ https://community.torproject.org/relay/relays-requirements/ does not mention latency.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

deleted 5y ago

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