On Thursday 31 Oct 2013 15:34:20 Andreas Krey wrote:
On Thu, 31 Oct 2013 10:43:41 +0000, Paritesh Boyeyoko wrote: ...
This is something which has always confused/annoyed me. How can a Tor node (unless it's exposing its SOCKS interface to the whole world) be classed as an "open proxy"?
The 'open proxy' is simply a tag on the IP address; it does not say that the openness actually exists at that address.
Yes, Exit Relays exit to the clear Internet but they're not exactly open to clients for connection (unless specifically configured that way).
Oh, but they are. Anybody with a tor client can use them, and if only a single tor client is run with its socks port exposed then all of the exit relays become 'open proxies' more along your definition.
Andreas
Hi Andreas --
Thanks for the clarification, and yes in that regard Exit Nodes are open; I suppose I considered "open" to refer to the clear Internet.
On a related note, just out of interest why was the decision taken that the default exit policy for an out-of-the-box relay allows any exits at all?
Considering that
a) the majority of people running Tor would be TBB users (and therefore clients) and
b) running exits can lead to unwanted grief
I would have thought that the default exit policy would be reject *:* for (can't think of a better word) "safety" reasons. If someone wants to run an exit, it is then a deliberate action on their part, as opposed to a default setting.
Thoughts?