5 ms·

Tor's new WebTunnel bridges mimic HTTPS traffic to evade censorship

69 points by keepamovin 3y ago

8organicbits 3y ago
https://archive.is/iF8hb https://archive.is/iF8hb
- keepamovin 3y ago
  Aye, a better view indeed 'tis the archive capture. If only the HN had a wee link atop the threads, just next to the comment count, that listed the archived/paywall-be-goned link if one was provided. Methinks that might be a ripe task for the young dang to swagger up to, if he found the time for it, like.
  - zote 3y ago
    the extension Refined Hacker News[1] offers such a feature already https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news [1]
    - keepamovin 3y ago
      Hm, interesting. thank you!
  - drsopp 3y ago
    Are you trying to evade stylometry?
    - keepamovin 3y ago
      Stylometry? Nay. That ship's sailed unfortunately. Ever since that youngin made the authorship attribution HN main-account-alt-account similarity tool ages ago (I think it's scuttled now but hey). Just havin' fun, laddy. Shore leave, youknow? But I'm dead serious about the archive link idea. 'Twould be a funin, no? If I really wanted to avoid stylometry, I wouldn't be posting from my attributable account, and I guess I'd be passing things through ChatGPT. But there's probably enough of my writing already online to cluster any alt idents I have together, if I have any...unless those alts just happen to be actual others forging my style. You may think that, but I couldn't possibly comment -- stylometric identity theft haha! :)
      - 123yawaworht456 3y ago
        I remember the thing you're referring to, and iirc it didn't find any of my half dozen accounts (I throw them away every few month or a year), even though my writing style is very stable.
        keepamovin 3y ago
        VERY stable genius. Well, YMMV —- I mean YYYY* Yer Yardage Yay Yaws
  - 654wak654 3y ago
    I like your funny words magic man.
    - keepamovin 3y ago
      Thank you, sir! :)
bruce343434 3y ago
Kind of funny how everything is slowly converging to using HTTPS because it just works, even though it may not be the best transport method.
- afishisafish 3y ago
  It's foremost a network solution because http(s) is natted and allowed through most firewalls.
bluish29 3y ago
Related discussion on the tor blog https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017
olabyne 3y ago
chisel offers the same thing, although I'm not sure if they use websocket : https://github.com/jpillora/chisel https://github.com/jpillora/chisel
darkoob12 3y ago
I tested it a few weeks ago. Didn't work for me in Iran. But obfs4 bridges work with some ISPs. The tor network speed is generally ok you can watch YouTube videos easily. Unfortunately not many people know about bridges in Iran they try tor without bridge and tell others it wouldn't work
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
bauruine 3y ago
If you want to help censored users there is a guide on how to setup your own webtunnel bridge. [0] All you have to do is to forward some random path like https://example.com/Phahsaeghie1eiV/ https://example.com/Phahsaeghie1eiV/ on your reverse proxy (there is an example for nginx but it should work with others too) to Tor. There is a docker container to make the Tor part as easy as possible. [0]: https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/webtunnel/ https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/webtunnel/
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] Some more discussion on official post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017
- keepamovin 3y ago
  Actually it's your comment that's a [dupe]! check it out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39689642 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39689642
  - ChrisArchitect 3y ago
    Yep. Marked properly.
    - keepamovin 3y ago
      Haha! :) Glad we got that sorted
tivert 3y ago
> "It works by wrapping the payload connection into a WebSocket-like HTTPS connection, appearing to network observers as an ordinary HTTPS (WebSocket) connection," said the Tor Project. Is that enough? IIRC China's great firewall fingerprints the based on packet sizes to block VPNs. Apparently (years ago, at least) the handshakes are/where distinctive enough (a particular sequence of particular packet sizes) that they could recognize them easily.

69 points by keepamovin 3y ago

8organicbits 3y ago

https://archive.is/iF8hb https://archive.is/iF8hb

keepamovin 3y ago
Aye, a better view indeed 'tis the archive capture. If only the HN had a wee link atop the threads, just next to the comment count, that listed the archived/paywall-be-goned link if one was provided. Methinks that might be a ripe task for the young dang to swagger up to, if he found the time for it, like.
- zote 3y ago
  the extension Refined Hacker News[1] offers such a feature already https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news [1]
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    Hm, interesting. thank you!
- drsopp 3y ago
  Are you trying to evade stylometry?
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    Stylometry? Nay. That ship's sailed unfortunately. Ever since that youngin made the authorship attribution HN main-account-alt-account similarity tool ages ago (I think it's scuttled now but hey). Just havin' fun, laddy. Shore leave, youknow? But I'm dead serious about the archive link idea. 'Twould be a funin, no? If I really wanted to avoid stylometry, I wouldn't be posting from my attributable account, and I guess I'd be passing things through ChatGPT. But there's probably enough of my writing already online to cluster any alt idents I have together, if I have any...unless those alts just happen to be actual others forging my style. You may think that, but I couldn't possibly comment -- stylometric identity theft haha! :)
    - 123yawaworht456 3y ago
      I remember the thing you're referring to, and iirc it didn't find any of my half dozen accounts (I throw them away every few month or a year), even though my writing style is very stable.
      - keepamovin 3y ago
        VERY stable genius. Well, YMMV —- I mean YYYY* Yer Yardage Yay Yaws
- 654wak654 3y ago
  I like your funny words magic man.
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    Thank you, sir! :)

bruce343434 3y ago

Kind of funny how everything is slowly converging to using HTTPS because it just works, even though it may not be the best transport method.

afishisafish 3y ago
It's foremost a network solution because http(s) is natted and allowed through most firewalls.

bluish29 3y ago

Related discussion on the tor blog https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017

olabyne 3y ago

chisel offers the same thing, although I'm not sure if they use websocket : https://github.com/jpillora/chisel https://github.com/jpillora/chisel

darkoob12 3y ago

I tested it a few weeks ago. Didn't work for me in Iran. But obfs4 bridges work with some ISPs. The tor network speed is generally ok you can watch YouTube videos easily. Unfortunately not many people know about bridges in Iran they try tor without bridge and tell others it wouldn't work

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

bauruine 3y ago

If you want to help censored users there is a guide on how to setup your own webtunnel bridge. [0] All you have to do is to forward some random path like https://example.com/Phahsaeghie1eiV/ https://example.com/Phahsaeghie1eiV/ on your reverse proxy (there is an example for nginx but it should work with others too) to Tor. There is a docker container to make the Tor part as easy as possible. [0]: https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/webtunnel/ https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/webtunnel/

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] Some more discussion on official post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39681017

keepamovin 3y ago
Actually it's your comment that's a [dupe]! check it out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39689642 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39689642
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago
  Yep. Marked properly.
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    Haha! :) Glad we got that sorted

tivert 3y ago

> "It works by wrapping the payload connection into a WebSocket-like HTTPS connection, appearing to network observers as an ordinary HTTPS (WebSocket) connection," said the Tor Project. Is that enough? IIRC China's great firewall fingerprints the based on packet sizes to block VPNs. Apparently (years ago, at least) the handshakes are/where distinctive enough (a particular sequence of particular packet sizes) that they could recognize them easily.