On 10/04/14 09:45, Sebastian Hahn wrote:
Filename: xxx-kill-named-flag.txt Title: Stop assigning (and eventually supporting) the Named flag Authors: Sebastian Hahnn Created: 10 April 2014 Target: 0.2.5 Status: Draft
Intro and motivation
Currently, Tor supports the concept of linking a Tor relay's nickname to its identity key. This happens automatically as a new relay joins the network with a unique nickname, and keeps it for a while. To indicate that a nickname is linked to the presented identity, the directory authorities vote on a Named flag for all relays where they have such a link. Not all directory authorities are currently doing this - in fact, there are only two, gabelmoo and tor26.
For a long time, we've been telling everyone to not rely on relay nicknames, even if the Named flag is assigned. This has two reasons: First off, it adds another trust requirement on the directory authorities, and secondly naming may change over time as relays go offline for substantial amounts of time.
Now that a significant portion of the network is required to rotate their identity keys, few relays will keep their Named flag. We should use this chance to stop assigning Named flags.
If I understand the proposal correctly, operators will still be able to name their relay or bridge, and people can still find it in Atlas or Globe by this nickname. If so, great!
Design
None. Tor clients already support consensuses without Named flags, and testing in private Tor networks has never revealed any issues in this regard.
Implementation
The gabelmoo and tor26 directory authorities can simply remove the NamingAuthoritativeDirectory configuration option to stop giving out Named flags. This will mean the consensus won't include Named and Unnamed flags any longer. The code collecting naming statistics is independent of Tor, so it can run a while longer to ensure Naming can be switched on if unforeseen issues arise.
What's the process here?
"Ask on tor-dev@ if anybody sees a problem if the Named and Unnamed flags go away, wait for a week, and then just do it?"
All the best, Karsten
Once this has been shown to not cause any issues, support for the Named flag can be removed from the Tor client implementation, and support for the NamingAuthoritativeDirectory can be removed from the Tor directory authority implementation.
Open questions
None.
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