import EntryGuards faq entry

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Roger Dingledine 2011-02-05 06:04:03 +00:00
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<p>Anonymity and Security:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#KeyManagement">Tell me about all the keys Tor uses.</a></li>
<li><a href="#EntryGuards">What are Entry Guards?</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Alternate designs that we don't do (yet):</p>
@ -1363,6 +1364,60 @@ the same geographic location.
<hr>
[https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#EntryGuards Answer moved to our new FAQ page]
<a id="EntryGuards"></a>
<h3><a class="anchor" href="#EntryGuards">What are Entry Guards?</a></h3>
<p>
Tor (like all current practical low-latency anonymity designs) fails
when the attacker can see both ends of the communications channel. For
example, suppose the attacker is watching the Tor relay you choose
to enter the network, and is also watching the website you visit. In
this case, the research community knows no practical low-latency design
that can reliably stop the attacker from correlating volume and timing
information on the two sides.
</p>
<p>
So, what should we do? Suppose the attacker controls, or can observe,
C relays. Suppose there are N relays total. If you select new entry and
exit relays each time you use the network, the attacker will be able to
correlate all traffic you send with probability (c/n)^2^. But profiling
is, for most users, as bad as being traced all the time: they want to do
something often without an attacker noticing, and the attacker noticing
once is as bad as the attacker noticing more often. Thus, choosing many
random entries and exits gives the user no chance of escaping profiling
by this kind of attacker.
</p>
<p>
The solution is "entry guards": each user selects a few relays at random
to use as entry points, and uses only those relays for entry. If those
relays are not controlled or observed, the attacker can't win, ever,
and the user is secure. If those relays *are* observed or controlled
by the attacker, the attacker sees a larger _fraction_ of the user's
traffic -- but still the user is no more profiled than before. Thus,
the user has some chance (on the order of (n-c)/n) of avoiding profiling,
whereas she had none before.
</p>
<p>
You can read a bit more at http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#wright02,
http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#wright03, or
http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#hs-attack06.
</p>
<p>
Restricting your entry nodes may also help against attackers who want
to run a few Tor nodes and easily enumerate all of the Tor user IP
addresses. (Even though they can't learn what destinations the users
are talking to, they still might be able to do bad things with just a
list of users.)
</p>
<hr>
<a id="EverybodyARelay"></a>
<h3><a class="anchor" href="#EverybodyARelay">You should make every Tor
user be a relay.</a></h3>