16:00:00 <shelikhoo> #startmeeting tor anti-censorship meeting
16:00:00 <shelikhoo> here is our meeting pad: https://pad.riseup.net/p/r.9574e996bb9c0266213d38b91b56c469
16:00:00 <shelikhoo> editable link available on request
16:00:00 <MeetBot> Meeting started Thu May  9 16:00:00 2024 UTC.  The chair is shelikhoo. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot.
16:00:00 <MeetBot> Useful Commands: #action #agreed #help #info #idea #link #topic.
16:00:05 <shelikhoo> hi~
16:00:11 <meskio> hello
16:01:38 <dcf1> cohosh: ah, so is there something else pending to get fixed after tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowflake-webext#93 ?
16:01:53 <cohosh> yeah there is a broken link
16:02:01 <cohosh> to the privacy policy
16:02:05 <cohosh> well, a link that never worked
16:02:06 <dcf1> oh privacy policy link, got it, thanks
16:02:55 <shelikhoo> I think the pad have been mostly updated, I think we can start with first topic
16:02:56 <shelikhoo> should we start assigning/distributing webtunnel bridges in the settings pool?
16:02:56 <shelikhoo> https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/community/-/issues/348#note_3026653
16:03:02 <meskio> this is me
16:03:05 <shelikhoo> I think this one is from meskio
16:03:06 <shelikhoo> yes
16:03:25 <meskio> we've being distributing webtunnel bridges over the HTTPS distributor for a while
16:03:33 <meskio> and they seem to have being useful in some cases for people
16:03:53 <meskio> we might want to start collecting bridges in the settings pool also, so we can use them if needed there
16:04:34 <meskio> I'm planning to deploy the rdsys bridge storage next week, so rdsys will keep in disk the assignments of each bridge
16:04:50 <shelikhoo> I think webtunnel is ready, especially once the the one in LBird have proxy and utls support
16:04:58 <meskio> I thought after that I could configure it to start collecting webtunnel bridges into the settings pool also
16:05:08 <meskio> so existing bridges don't shift, but we have newer ones going there too
16:05:41 <meskio> shelikhoo: nice, I agree, let's move it to the next phase then :)
16:05:48 <shelikhoo> yes!
16:06:36 <shelikhoo> anything more we wish to discuss on this topic?
16:06:50 <meskio> not from me, just checking that my proposal makes sense
16:06:58 <shelikhoo> Reports that our CDN 77 front domains are blocked in Russia?
16:06:58 <shelikhoo> https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/blob/tor-browser-115.11.0esr-13.5-1/browser/app/profile/000-tor-browser.js#L110
16:07:14 <shelikhoo> I think this is from cohosh?
16:08:02 <meskio> not sure how active is cohosh, as was busy with another meeting at the same time
16:08:29 <meskio> someone has reported in #tor-anticensorship that .ru is starting to block the SNIs that we use for domain fronting
16:08:29 <shelikhoo> I have see the report as well that right now there is a ISP in russia blocking the SNI we are using for snowflake and moat
16:08:45 <meskio> looks like one ISP only for now
16:08:58 <meskio> but that might be a problem
16:10:01 <shelikhoo> cdn77 is a smaller provider, so it may provide insufficient protection against "screw it" censorship
16:10:09 <meskio> nina13[m]: have you heard any reports of snowflake or moat/circumvention settings not working in .ru recently?
16:10:36 <shelikhoo> where collateral damage is ignored
16:10:51 <shelikhoo> There is a few way we could bypass this
16:11:04 <shelikhoo> like having vastly more fronted domains
16:11:17 <shelikhoo> and if one is no longer working, switch to another one
16:11:39 <shelikhoo> in this way there won't be a few domains to just block
16:12:12 <shelikhoo> with the ability to store the fronting domain last used, this will not create a lot of delay in finding the domain that works
16:12:30 <shelikhoo> we currently support more than one fronting domains
16:12:43 <shelikhoo> but we are yet to support store the last fronting domain worked
16:12:56 <shelikhoo> and this have limited our ability so ship a lots of fronting domain
16:13:12 <meskio> also the size of the bridgeline does limite it
16:14:04 <shelikhoo> yes...
16:14:29 <shelikhoo> it is more or less an artificial limitation
16:14:41 <shelikhoo> but yes
16:15:05 <shelikhoo> so do we wants to take any action here?
16:15:14 <meskio> I guess we can wait to hear more confirmation on the problem, but we might want to start collecting alternative domain names
16:16:07 <shelikhoo> yes, I agree, get more info about this, and start preparing for another switch
16:16:42 <shelikhoo> now is the time for interesting links!
16:16:43 <shelikhoo> https://petsymposium.org/popets/2024/popets-2024-0027.php
16:16:43 <shelikhoo> Communication Breakdown: Modularizing Application Tunneling for Signaling Around Censorship
16:16:43 <shelikhoo> "The Raceboat framework simplifies using signaling channels for low-bandwidth and/or latency-tolerant tasks like bridge distribution and authentication. ... We also have a suite of non-decomposed channels that have been wrapped to support the Raceboat channel APIs. These include wrappers around several higher-bandwidth direct channels (Obfs, Snowflake, and Balboa)..."
16:16:43 <shelikhoo> (NB the demonstration application is using Obfs and Snowflake as a rendezvous channel, not providing a rendezvous channel for them.
16:17:08 <dcf1> this paper will be at the PETS conference in 2 months' time
16:17:50 <dcf1> I only skimmed it, but apropos of rendezvous, it looks like it's about modularizing rendezvous techniques, and it suggests a few new ones
16:18:35 <meskio> yes, I have talked with the authors in the past, but at the time they didn't have much published
16:18:43 <meskio> will be nice to read the paper
16:18:47 <shelikhoo> there is 2 thing we can look for; 1. the design of pluggable signaling channel 2. new design of signaling channel
16:18:54 <meskio> should we schedule a reading group? is being a while
16:18:56 <shelikhoo> will have a read of paper later
16:19:04 <shelikhoo> oh yes...
16:19:37 <shelikhoo> we have a reading group at may 30
16:19:41 <shelikhoo> or alternatively
16:19:50 <shelikhoo> we have the reading group at in person meeting
16:19:57 <meskio> may 30 sounds good
16:20:12 <meskio> I assume we'll be too busy in the in person meeting to do the reading group
16:20:23 <shelikhoo> oh, that's for sure
16:20:55 <shelikhoo> speaking of the in person meeting
16:21:04 <shelikhoo> here is an announcement: No meeting May 23, we are at the tormeeting
16:21:12 <nina13[m]> <meskio> "nina13: have you heard any..." <- I'm sorry for being late - but no. Though still most of the user prefer bridges (obfs4 or webtunnel)
16:21:40 <shelikhoo> repeat: No meeting May 23, we are at the tormeeting
16:21:40 <meskio> nina13[m]: thank you, let us know if you hear anything, as some people say that some ISPs might be blocking our domain fronting
16:22:11 <shelikhoo> thanks nina13[m] !
16:22:26 <shelikhoo> okay anything more we would like to discuss in this meeting?
16:22:32 <meskio> not from me
16:22:44 <nina13[m]> meskio: sure, I'll keep an eye on this issue
16:23:42 <shelikhoo> #endmeeting