[Whonix-devel] #19959 [Core Tor/Tor]: have a flag for Tor relay location, if a relay is hosted in a data center, cloud or physically secured

Mon Aug 22 23:36:46 CEST 2016

#19959: have a flag for Tor relay location, if a relay is hosted in a data center,
cloud or physically secured
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     Reporter:  adrelanos     |      Owner:
         Type:  enhancement   |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium        |  Milestone:
    Component:  Core Tor/Tor  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal        |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                |  Parent ID:
       Points:                |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                |
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 Tor relays should have a chance to express where they are hosted. Perhaps
 with some setting that can be set in Tor config. Similar to the NodeFamily
 setting. A request that depends on the good will of the relay host. (Yes,
 could be faked, vulnerable to sybil attacks and whatnot. Yet, useful.
 Similar to NodeFamily setting.)

 Basically hosted,

 - in a data center or,
 - in private hosted area.

 One one hand Tor relays hosted in data centers have great advantages. Some
 legal advantages, good uplink, good uptime and whatnot.

 However, we know from the leaks, that may data centers have a backdoor and
 front door. So the security of these relays is under attack, since the
 host cannot control the security and NSL status of the data center / cloud
 provider.

 Once such as {{{Location}}} flag exists, researchers that work on improved
 Tor routing algorithms could make use of that information.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/19959>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
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