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Re: [tor-dev] introduce some customization on the tbb



> and about windows,
> it is a requirement for my situation , but i just saw some build scripts
> regarding windows in the tbb repo you mentioned; i would be happy to
> hear from you about tips and tricks regarding windows!

So tor-browser-build lets us make all our build targets (windows, mac,
android, etc) on a Linux host (I'm 99% sure those of us using it are all
using Debian or Debian derivatives).

If you are stuck using windows for whatever reason there may be a few
options (though none of them are particularly good):

It *may* be possible to get tor-browser-build working in the new Windows
Subsystem for Linux in Windows 10, but to my knowledge no has tried it.
Maybe you can just clone the repo, apt-get the dependencies and go.

Another option for you would be running a Debian VM in
HyperV/VirtualBox/etc and running tor-browser-build there, but that
first build will definitely take awhile.

Yet another option would be to acquire the tor-browser-build build
artifacts necessary to build Windows firefox, and setup a Debian build
environment (via your preferred virtualization method) and replicate the
firefox project's build process.

> 1) padding is the time period which i send random packets to random
> destinations for generating fake browsing pattern.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to accomplish, and my first instinct
is that this is a very bad idea. See
https://2019.www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/#idm660 for
discussion around why we don't use randomization as a strategy to avoid
fingerprinting. I highly doubt we would want anything like this in Tor
Browser

> 2) rotation is a fancy name for MaxCircuitDirtiness

I feel like this is a sort of knob that only 'advanced' users
should/would use, an as such keeping it in the torrc and not exposing it
in the user-facing preferences page is probably best. We generally want
to avoid leaving foot-guns laying around.

> 3) idle timeout is a custom clock which will close the tbb automatically
> in case of no interaction from the user

Could be a neat off-by-default option to have in the 'Privacy &
Security' page (as it is not tor-specific). I'm not sure if we'd accept
this feature but I think a case could be made.

> 4) use proxy & use bridge is already available inside tbb

Indeed

> 5) entry, middle and exit countries will fill the torrc with user
> selected options

This one actually intrigues me a little bit. There are certainly
situations where on a per-site basis controlling which country your exit
is can be useful (for avoiding IP-based censorship, 'this video not
available in your country' nonsense). As it is the current 'hit new
circuit until it works' workflow is not the best.

I don't see any particular benefit exposing this level of control over
guard and middle relays, nor do I think the exits should be a global
setting. The level of control exposed as you have in these screenshots
seems like another foot-gun.

best,
-Richard

On 11/14/19 1:55 AM, sarpedon montecarlo wrote:
> Hi Richard, this is great!
> I appreciate all the insights you gave me.
> about the build setup i would definitely go with your suggestion. maybe
> it would be possible to also use these build scripts inside a docker
> composer for a reload on demand during development. and about windows, 
> it is a requirement for my situation , but i just saw some build scripts
> regarding windows in the tbb repo you mentioned; i would be happy to
> hear from you about tips and tricks regarding windows!
> 
> basically what i am about to implement are as below:
> 
> image.png
> 
> image.png
> 
> image.png
> 
> above screen shots are from the browser extension that i have already
> implemented and want to integrate with the tbb.
> 
> 1) padding is the time period which i send random packets to random
> destinations for generating fake browsing pattern.
> 
> 2) rotation is a fancy name for MaxCircuitDirtiness
> 
> 3) idle timeout is a custom clock which will close the tbb automatically
> in case of no interaction from the user
> 
> 4) use proxy & use bridge is already available inside tbb
> 
> 5) entry, middle and exit countries will fill the torrc with user
> selected options
> 
> based on the commit you mentioned for  "about:preferences#tor pane", i
> believe that commit is the right place i should start coding.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Sarpedon
> 
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 9:33 PM Richard Pospesel <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
>     Hey Sarpedon,
> 
>     The tor-browser-build project (
>     https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-build.git/ ) can be
>     used to build tor-browser for all the various environments, and you can
>     updated the /projects/firefox/config file to point to your own git repo
>     and commit for development. Unfortunately this is not particularly fast,
>     but it's really the only way to go if you need builds for platforms
>     other than Linux.
> 
>     Alternatively, you can just build tor-browser (
>     https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/ ), and copy the relevant
>     bits over an existing tor-browser install. This is the workflow I use
>     during development on Linux and is generally pretty straight forward to
>     use once you have scripts setup to do the deploying.
> 
>     It's theoretically possible to get this sort of incremental build setup
>     working for other platforms (ie building windows bins in a linux dev
>     environment), but it's a pain and would require delving into the
>     tor-browser-build firefox build and config scripts. I've done it before
>     for our older windows build target (before we switched to clang and
>     friends) and can give you some tips on how to do that if necessary.
> 
>     The Tor Browser Hacking Guide should be a good resource as well, though
>     it is a living document so might be out of date:
> 
>     https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorBrowser/Hacking
> 
>     If you're interested in updating/improving/adding to the
>     about:preferences#tor pane, than you can start by looking at this commit
>     which added the page:
> 
>     https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/commit/?h=tor-browser-68.2.0esr-9.5-1&id=bea7e61c120f207e7e1a65041b44dc1998e3656a
> 
>     In general, the relevant things there are in:
> 
>     /browser/components/torpreferences/*
>     /browser/modules/TorProtocolService.jsm
>     /browser/modules/TorStrings.jsm
> 
>     What sort of improvements are you looking to add? If you're interested
>     in submitting a patch, you should open a ticket that tracks whatever
>     feature you're looking to add. There we can give you early code and
>     design/UX feedback to improve the odds of us accepting your patch :)
> 
>     best,
>     -Richard
> 
> 
>     On 11/9/19 4:04 PM, sarpedon montecarlo wrote:
>     > Hello to the community!
>     > my first question is that is there a solution for rapid development of
>     > tbb? i was wondering that each time a contributor wants to change
>     > something in the tbb or add extra functionality, they have to go
>     through
>     > the build process which i just guess would be very time consuming.
>     i was
>     > wondering that is there any containerized environment for this? any
>     > docker ecosystem available or other solutions that might help?
>     > my second question is about the changes that i want to implement. i am
>     > interested into the graphical settings page about bridges and tor
>     > process that currently tbb is exposing to the end users. if we want to
>     > add more functionality into this settings page, where should we
>     start to
>     > change? and is there any possibility that we may have some control
>     over
>     > the underlying tor process as well, for instance controlling it's
>     > launching or it's torrc configuration; because as i see, there
>     must be a
>     > link between the graphical interface of tbb and the underlying tor
>     > process so that is the way we can control bridges for instance.
>     similar
>     > to this i was planning to add more graphical options to the interface
>     > for controlling other configuration aspects of the tor process through
>     > it's torrc or other workarounds.
>     > in the past i have achieved this by writing a browser extension that
>     > benefits from native messaging for communication to the tor
>     process; but
>     > this is not really performance friendly and an intuitive
>     experience for
>     > the end users.i am not satisfied with the result. so i was
>     interested on
>     > mirroring these functionalities inside tbb.
>     > i really appreciate your insights and thoughts on the matter,
>     > have a great day,
>     > Sarpedon.
>     >
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