[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index]
Re: [tor-talk] Many more Tor users in the past week?
03.09.2013 17:35, adrelanos:
> New hypothesis:
> This is an attempt to shut down the Tor network once and forever.
>
> [...]
Beside an existing botnet that now makes use of Tor (rising clients due
to updates) or a new botnet (new infections increase the number of the
clients) that includes Tor thoughtlessly, this is a valid concern.
What if that is an attempt to use (or create) a botnet to stress the
network to a level that makes it useless?
It may start slowly to see what the network can handle. I guessed that
an adversary would have an interest in making bridges unusable, which
could be accomplished by the new clients.
Due to the fact the Tor Project itself showed how well or not so well
the bridge distribution scales [1] it surprised me that adversaries that
are just bothered by bridges did not ran an attack, yet.
If it's really someone trying to shut it down they'll might test how
many bootstrapping users the network can handle, before turning them
into bridges (thus making BridgeDB very upset [1]) and make them push
some traffic, which results in totally overused relays.
Let's hope that it's just another botnet that happens to use Tor.
> Even more users. And counting. I think now it's very unlikely that this
> is a natural growth of real users. If that was the case, you could see
> lots of discussion/support questions from those new Tor users or users
> of software which uses Tor.
It looks unnatural to me, too. The clients came overnight and are still
increasing. Apparently all around the world, with the exception of one
country.
I would expect new users, because of events that either force them to
use Tor or makes them willing to use Tor. The NSA spying would have been
an explanation if it would increase the userbase every time something
leaked out. It looks like all around the world people decided to use Tor
and can use it without needing any help.
Best,
Sebastian G.
[1]
https://research.torproject.org/techreports/bridge-scaling-2012-03-09.pdf
--
tor-talk mailing list - tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsusbscribe or change other settings go to
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk