Re: [tor-bugs] #22399 [Applications/Tor Launcher]: Tor launcher third-party censorship circumvention tools support

["Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki" <blackhole@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

#22399: Tor launcher third-party censorship circumvention tools support
---------------------------------------+-----------------------
 Reporter:  iry                        |          Owner:  brade
     Type:  project                    |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                     |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Launcher  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                     |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  ux-team                    |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:  #21951                     |         Points:
 Reviewer:                             |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by iry):

 Replying to [comment:3 gk]:
 > I am not a big fan of making it look like we support some third party
 tools we have not audited. If there is an issue with Tor's circumvention
 capabilities we should fix that on the Tor side. Third party applications
 might be easily in the position to betray the very safeguards Tor is
 trying to provide.

 I agree with you that using third party censorship circumvention tools may
 not be the best choice in terms of anonymity/usability/security when Tor
 bridges/pluggable-transports are effective.

 However, sometimes Tor bridges/pluggable-transports may not be
 effective/available because:
 1. an adversary is capable of filtering the connection to the Tor bridges
 and pluggable-transports.
 2. the valid pluggable-transport, let's say meek for example, is not
 available in some downstream projects, like Tails/Whonix.

 This is the case where we may need the 3rd party tools. Additionally, even
 if Tor bridges/pluggable-transports are effective and available for most
 of the time, we may still need 3rd party tools as a backup plan when a new
 censorship event occurs.

 I do understand that we should not "make it look like we support (or
 encourage using) 3rd party tools", so maybe we can make a warning when
 that option is used? or maybe we should only provide a 3rd party tools
 configuration tutorial in assistant page? What do you think, gk?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/22399#comment:7>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online
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