Re: [tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening document?

2015-02-07 Thread Alexander Dietrich

On 2015-02-06 18:08, Andreas Krey wrote:


Hmm, perhaps I should get my credit card and see how the
amazon cloud tor nodes are preconfigured. ;-)


You can check it out here (if that's the correct repository):
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-cloud.git/tree/ec2-prep.sh

On the other hand, if you're eligible for the AWS free tier, why not run 
a bridge for a year?


Best regards,
Alexander
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Re: [tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening document?

2015-02-06 Thread I
Thanks for being the one to start on it.

I think there ought to be some specific help for people like me who want to do 
the best to contribute.

I did search in many ways for hardening tips but it takes a lot of nous to make 
some of the leaps expected by uber-cool-already-knowing authors.

Wouldn't it make sense for aspiring relay volunteers to be helped with what is 
best for Tor?

I'll be reading Nick's effort and contributing what I can. Why doesn't everyone?

Robert

> -Original Message-
> From: ni...@freehaven.net
> Sent: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 23:15:42 -0500
> To: tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
> Subject: [tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening
> document?
> 
> Hi, all!
> 
> There's a project going on to try to add instructions for hardening a
> Tor relay for security:
>https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/13703
> 
> The idea is that Tor could ship with some basic recommendations, and
> links to places to find more advice?
> 
> Recently, "mmcc" has uploaded a new draft.  Do we think this is better
> than nothing and worth shipping with Tor, or does it need big changes?
> 
> If possible, please write comments on the trac ticket above: it will help
> keep all the discussion in one place.
> 
> best wishes,
> --
> Nick
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Re: [tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening document?

2015-02-06 Thread Andreas Krey
On Fri, 06 Feb 2015 11:08:47 +, when2plus2...@riseup.net wrote:
...
> Iptables is an advanced firewall. Iptables is a pain in the ass for new 
> users to expertly configure. Basic settings aren't difficult, but I 
> don't want basic.

I'm (apparently) in the minority on this, but my tor nodes don't have
any iptables - there is nothing than iptables could cover. To even
get anything running on the machine that could be shielded from
the outside (or to talk to the outside), you'd need a vuln in
either tor or ssh (or, for exit nodes, the DNS resolver).

...
> My personal opinion is the Tor community should be a champion of OPSEC 
> period, for everyone. But that is me. Anonymity, privacy, and security 
> go hand in hand.

I'd actually like to second that. It is one thing to write down
tornode-related opsec, and an entirely different thing to learn general
opsec and then condense that down to what a tor node requires of that
(and I'm not even sure if there is a general opsec primer we could point
people (i.e. me) to).

Hmm, perhaps I should get my credit card and see how the
amazon cloud tor nodes are preconfigured. ;-)

Andreas

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From: Linus Torvalds 
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:29:21 -0800
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Re: [tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening document?

2015-02-06 Thread when2plus2is5

Hi,

Many of you are advanced *nix users. Some of us aren't. So first I'd 
like to thank mmcc for writing the document.


I've spent weeks bungling around trying to figure out how to manage my 
several exit relays in the most responsible manner..


I've managed to create a reasonably interesting install and setup script 
to deal with the initial configuration, locking down certain things - 
the most basic of OPSEC.


I'm not an expert. I've been biding my time, learning as much as I can 
when I can. But I have a full time job, and a pregnant wife!


Iptables is an advanced firewall. Iptables is a pain in the ass for new 
users to expertly configure. Basic settings aren't difficult, but I 
don't want basic. I've given up trying to manually write Iptables 
settings because I never left secure enough (due to my ignorance). For 
now I use ufw; open specific ports to tcp traffic, and default deny - 
and I'm not happy about it.
I would love a detailed example of iptables rules for reduced exit 
relays, and middle relays - because no I don't fully understand the ins 
and outs of every possible scenario. A half ass firewall is barely any 
better than no firewall, in my opinion.
I want to *know* what I tell iptables to do, and not rely on ufw to take 
care of me. I don't want to believe I've setup a good firewall, I want 
to KNOW I've setup the strongest I can!


I want to know Tor Best OPSEC Practices, because generic *nix Best 
Practices don't always match, and the considerations *are* different. I 
want to know what services I can disable in Debian, specific to Tor, 
because I don't know the linux subsystem well enough.


I want to make sure my relays are the best I can make them, the most 
secure I can make them, to ensure I provide the community the best I 
can. But I'm not an expert - barely a novice. I'm a guy with a heart 
that believes in free speech and privacy. I'm not a security guru 
(yet...).


My personal opinion is the Tor community should be a champion of OPSEC 
period, for everyone. But that is me. Anonymity, privacy, and security 
go hand in hand. The Tor community has some real experts in this field, 
and a little contribution would do a world of help. Yes, links to well 
written articles is perfectly adequate - you don't need to re-invent the 
wheel, but a central source of awesome material would be fantastic! Both 
for end-users, and relay operators!


And besides, who doesn't like a good community derived checklist to 
ensure relative consistency between relay configurations? :)


None of this constitutes "general computer training." The issues, though 
many, are quite specific.


Please remember, we're all trying to do the best we can - but we're not 
all at your level. Some of us are quite busy in real life, and don't 
have the time to learn EVERYTHING, though I admit that begrudgingly. 
Being an autodidact it is incredibly frustrating that I don't know 
everything about a topic that interests me.


My 2 cents. This email was intended to be short, but it blew up. So, I 
apologize.




Kind regards,

Matt
Speak Freely

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Re: [tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening document?

2015-02-05 Thread Libertas
On 02/06/2015 12:03 AM, grarpamp wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 11:15 PM, Nick Mathewson  wrote:
>> The idea is that Tor could ship with some basic recommendations, and
>> links to places to find more advice?
> 
> If it's a question that can be answered by searching "how do i
> secure and run my unix server", including anything other than
> links to such answers would seem redundant. Sure, noobs
> are out there, but it isn't efficient for application projects to
> formally provide general computer training.
> 
> If it's a question of "how do i make tor/unix run happy together
> on my server", ie: file descriptor shortages, that's a specific
> known interaction with tor itself, and thus a different situation.
> 
> The only thing I'd ship with tor are links... to two community
> maintained wiki pages, one for each class of question above.
> From there the community can write whatever faq help desired
> independant of the release process and considering external
> developments.
> 
> If there wasn't a community or wiki, then shipping any critical
> runtime dependency notes on the second class of question
> would be reasonable.
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For what it's worth, I'm mmcc - I wrote the doc/HARDENING draft.

It did end up containing more text than we had hoped. However, I think
some of it is worthwhile. For example, the firewall rules are unique to
Tor and not entirely obvious. People also wouldn't encounter the DNS
suggestion elsewhere.

I added that version to the ticket because it was being considered for
the 0.2.6 release. I sent a similar version to the mailing lists a
couple months ago and haven't reviewed and incorporated some of the
suggestions I received, partially because I suspected that it was
already too verbose.

I'm not attached to this document, and I'm fine with it not being added.
I also like the idea of linking to a wiki page. Generally, I think we
need to make more of an effort to get security information to relay
operators. Many volunteer a VPS or home server out of curiosity, and
there isn't much of a culture of operational security among those
contributors. This could become a problem as the network matures.



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Re: [tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening document?

2015-02-05 Thread grarpamp
On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 11:15 PM, Nick Mathewson  wrote:
> The idea is that Tor could ship with some basic recommendations, and
> links to places to find more advice?

If it's a question that can be answered by searching "how do i
secure and run my unix server", including anything other than
links to such answers would seem redundant. Sure, noobs
are out there, but it isn't efficient for application projects to
formally provide general computer training.

If it's a question of "how do i make tor/unix run happy together
on my server", ie: file descriptor shortages, that's a specific
known interaction with tor itself, and thus a different situation.

The only thing I'd ship with tor are links... to two community
maintained wiki pages, one for each class of question above.
>From there the community can write whatever faq help desired
independant of the release process and considering external
developments.

If there wasn't a community or wiki, then shipping any critical
runtime dependency notes on the second class of question
would be reasonable.
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[tor-relays] Relay operators: help improve this hardening document?

2015-02-05 Thread Nick Mathewson
Hi, all!

There's a project going on to try to add instructions for hardening a
Tor relay for security:
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/13703

The idea is that Tor could ship with some basic recommendations, and
links to places to find more advice?

Recently, "mmcc" has uploaded a new draft.  Do we think this is better
than nothing and worth shipping with Tor, or does it need big changes?

If possible, please write comments on the trac ticket above: it will help
keep all the discussion in one place.

best wishes,
--
Nick
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