Open Source Tortilla For Tor To Be Released At Black Hat 68
msm1267 writes "A researcher is expected to release Tortilla, an open source tool that anonymously routes TCP and DNS traffic through Tor, at the upcoming Black Hat conference. Tortilla provides a secure, anonymous means of routing traffic through Tor regardless of client software and without the need for a VPN or secure tunnel."
Re: The real problem with Tor (Score:4, Interesting)
If I were to run a Tor server, I'd filter it. (Actually, I'd first have to write my own so I could filter).I'd block all bittorrent usage,
It's already blocked in the default configuration.
and I'd throttle the traffic so people surfing porn (legal or illegal) would get frustrated.
You going to crack AES to filter out all the hidden services, where all that nasty stuff is at, too?
I was last time I ran a Tor exit node.
Good thing you stopped, you don't seem to quite grasp how it works.
Re:The real problem with Tor (Score:5, Interesting)
Nefarious government hunt down Tor users.
Smart governments, like the U.S., run Tor nodes. In fact, it's been conjectured by cryptographers and analysts--not just Bruce Schneiner, but other academics--that the U.S. government runs a plurality of all Tor nodes. We know for a fact that they use Tor to hide some of their own surveillance and exfiltration traffic, but undoubtedly they also log all traffic on their nodes for analysis so they can figure out who else is using it.
Because Tor doesn't use constant-rate traffic padding, it's actually easy to trace Tor traffic if you can analyze a substantial number of Tor messages. Thus, the easiest way to defeat Tor if you have a decent budget is to just run as many Tor nodes as you can. (Because the NSA's taps into major exchanges, they're probably capable of doing it the hard way, too; specifically, by simply recording IPs and timing of traffic to and from all known Tor nodes.)
When I ran a Tor exit node on a gigabit Cogent link, I was constantly inundated with DMCA takedown letters and other legal harassment, primarily because of bit torrent users*. The EFF actually provides legal support, but I can't believe that there are enough people willing to put up with the hassle of running long-term, high volume Tor exit nodes. Rather, it seems far more plausible that the government runs many or most of them because they're effectively immune to legal harassment, not just because they're the government and actually immune, but because they have a limitless number of lawyers to fight the challenges without necessarily revealing their identity.
* You guys suck, BTW. Stop downloading all that crap. I hate you not because I believe in the legitimacy of copyright, but because you guys are being lazy about it and causing all kinds of other headaches, e.g. making it impossible to run a Tor exit node. Here's an idea--for every piece of media you download in contravention of copyright laws, why not at least send the money equivalent to the EFF, ACLU, and other organizations who will lobby to change the laws for the better, even if not perfectly.
Not New (Score:5, Interesting)
I wrote a tool like this ages ago called Torcap; http://freehaven.net/~aphex/torcap/ [freehaven.net] and it does all of that plus works on Windows and is open source.