George Kadianakis:
Mike Perry mikeperry@torproject.org writes:
George Kadianakis:
Mike Perry mikeperry@torproject.org writes:
George Kadianakis:
I have mixed feelings about this.
- If client guard discovery is the main reason we are doing this, I think we should first look into these guard discovery vectors individually and figure out how concerning they are and if there is anything else we can do to block them,
<snip> > > > > > > Hsdir post/fetch: > > 1. C - L - M - S - E - H > > 2. C - L - S - E - H > > 3. C - L - S - H > > > > Intro: > > 1. C - L - M - S - E -- I - S - M - L - H > > 2. C - L - S - E -- I - S - L - H > > *3. C - L - S -- I&S - L - H (* IP Intersection attack!) > > > > Rend: > > 1. C - L - M - S - R -- E - S - M - L - H > > 2. C - L - S - R -- E - S - L - H > > 3. C - L - R&S -- S - L - H > > > > What is R&S is here? Clients use static short-lifespan rendezvous points?
Yes. Similarly for I&S (which we should not do - it's bad in every variation of Vanguards).
I don't see any such problems with R&S though, since R is not associated with any publicly viewable information, I don't think it is as big of a problem. At best its a linkability risk for the client. But maybe I missed something.
Hmm, the only problem I can see here is that the R&S can link clients based on the L node. So for example, in the crazy edge case where only one client conncets to hidden services through R&S over L, then R&S could count "Ah this client has done 42 rendezvous through me in the past 5 hours". And if that's a ricochet client with 42 contacts maybe it's a selector. But I think this is a pretty far fetched example...
<snip>
If we only offered two security level options, I currently like HSDir#1+IP#1+Rend#1 for high security and HSDir#2+IP#2+Rend#3 for low security.
For the low security case, can we think of any reasons to decouple R&S in Rend#3, or to use Rend#2?
Another issue with Rend#3 is that the hidden service will be able to link client visits (for a Short while) using the client R&S as a selector.
I am inclined to accept this risk, since really as you said it is not a sure shot. You need a lot of connections before the S set is reused enough to indicate it's the same client, and then even with each subsequent individual visit all you have is probability bias, not a sure sign. I'm inclined to think that this partial linkability leak is is acceptable enough risk to say "Well yeah, lower security for better latency. You're getting what you're paying for."
I'm also really expecting these low security addresses to be most useful in P2P, where linkability is already kinda out the window (but can still be maintained if the addresses are ephemeral/short lived).
We should keep thinking about other issues, because unless there are other, additional problems with R&S, I don't think this one kills it.
One thing worth noting is that you definitely want separate vanguard sets for high security and low security services, of course. Prop#247 was already leaning towards separate vanguard sets for each service service-side address, in Section 4.2. That seems excessive now for the high security services, due to the addition of ephemeral hops, but keeping the low and high sets separate is necessary, as you pointed out with your other attack.
Here's another application-layer issue: if low security services exist, then the application will need some way to differentiate them before being induced to connect to them, especially repeatedly over time. For example, Ricochet should forbid you from accidentally using a low security onion address for a contact addr, and the browser should probably forbid all low security HS addresses from being used as content elements, unless the url bar is also a low security HS address. Both apps should probably specifically generate low security addrs for WebRTC/voice calls, though.
I think a similar argument could be made for also differentiating RSOS/SOS addresses, post-224.
For these reasons, I'm still really liking the idea of using those spare 224 address bits to indicate HS security level (and to additionally differentiate between RSOS/SOS). That would make it much easier for the application to avoid being tricked into using weaker addresses in bad situations. In fact, the Tor client could even default to forbidding the use of them unless the application specifically turns on support.