Thank you Patrick, that was very helpful. I was subscribed to the Tor weekly news. I don't know what happened, my emails stopped, I shall investigate and reinstate.
Thanks On August 22, 2014 7:36:06 PM GMT+01:00, Patrick ZAJDA <[email protected]> wrote: >Hi, >Le 22/08/2014 19:23, kingqueen a écrit : >> Does anybody know why my relay "kingqueen" has lost its Named >> attribute? >https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/7B48192A59A903F914ECF73ADBC3711F3E8EAE01 >> >This extract from the last Tor weakly news should answer to your >answer: > >> The Tor network no longer supports designating relays by name >> ------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Since the very first versions of Tor [8], relay operators have been >able >> to specify “nicknames” for their relays. Such nicknames were >initially >> meant to be unique across the network, and operators of directory >> authorities would manually “bind” a relay identity key after >verifying >> the nickname. The process became formalized with the “Named” flag >> introduced in the 0.1.1 series [9], and later automated with the >0.2.0 >> series. If a relay held a unique nickname for long enough, the >authority >> would recognize the binding, and subsequently reserve the name for >half >> a year. >> >> Nicknames are useful because it appears humans are not very good at >> thinking using long strings of random bits. Initially, they made it >> possible to understand what was happening in the network more easily, >> and to designate a specific relay in an abbreviated way. Having two >> relays in the network with the same nickname is not really >problematic >> when one is looking at nodes, or a list in Globe [10], as relays can >> always be differentiated by their IP addresses or identity keys. >> >> But complications arise when nicknames are used to specify one relay >to >> the exclusion of another. If the wrong relay gets selected, it can >> become a security risk. Even though real efforts [11] have been made >to >> improve the situation, properly enforcing uniqueness has always been >> problematic, and a burden for the few directory authorities that >handle >> naming. >> >> Back in April, the “Heartbleed” bug [12] forced many relays to switch >to >> a new identity key, thus losing their “Named” flag. Because this >meant >> that anyone designating relays by their nickname would now have a >hard >> time continuing to do so, Sebastian Hahn decided to use the >opportunity >> to get rid of the idea entirely [13]. >> >> This week, Sebastian wrote [14]: “Code review down to 0.2.3.x has >shown >> that the naming-related code hasn’t changed much at all, and no >issues >> were found which would mean a Named-flag free consensus would cause >any >> problems. gabelmoo and tor26 have stopped acting as Naming Directory >> Authorities, and — pending any issues — will stay that way.” >> >> This means that although you can still give your relay a nickname in >its >> configuration file, designating relays by nickname for any other >purpose >> (such as telling Tor to avoid using certain nodes) has now stopped >> working. “If you — in your Tor configuration file — refer to any >relay >> by name and not by identity hash, please change that immediately. >Future >> versions of Tor will not support using names in the configuration at >> all”, warns Sebastian [15]. >> >> [8]: >> >https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/blob/161d7d1:/src/config/torrc.in#l20 >> [9]: >> >https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/attic/dir-spec-v2.txt#l427 >> [10]: https://globe.torproject.org/#/search/query=Unnamed >> [11]: >> >https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/122-unnamed-flag.txt >> [12]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/openssl-bug-cve-2014-0160 >> [13]: >> >https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/proposals/235-kill-named-flag.txt >> [14]: >> >https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-August/007348.html >> [15]: >> >https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2014-August/034380.html > >Hop this helps. > >Regards, -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. _______________________________________________ tor-relays mailing list [email protected] https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
