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author | Nick Mathewson <nickm@torproject.org> | 2007-01-26 01:59:50 +0000 |
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committer | Nick Mathewson <nickm@torproject.org> | 2007-01-26 01:59:50 +0000 |
commit | 489f6185bff08278e648d944ec1a9b2d03443d21 (patch) | |
tree | ded178e269afc641461a820cb3a387feb3a4069e /doc/spec/tor-spec.txt | |
parent | d996db90b38dac225f6cda6dffdc3807a4c3d822 (diff) | |
download | tor-489f6185bff08278e648d944ec1a9b2d03443d21.tar.gz tor-489f6185bff08278e648d944ec1a9b2d03443d21.zip |
Move specification documents into new doc/spec subdirectory. (Proposals, drafts, and bad ideas still remain in doc.)
svn:r9411
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/spec/tor-spec.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/spec/tor-spec.txt | 816 |
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diff --git a/doc/spec/tor-spec.txt b/doc/spec/tor-spec.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..f27901ec82 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/spec/tor-spec.txt @@ -0,0 +1,816 @@ +$Id$ + + Tor Protocol Specification + + Roger Dingledine + Nick Mathewson + +Note: This document aims to specify Tor as implemented in 0.1.2.x +and earlier. Future versions of Tor may implement improved protocols, and +compatibility is not guaranteed. + +This specification is not a design document; most design criteria +are not examined. For more information on why Tor acts as it does, +see tor-design.pdf. + +0. Preliminaries + +0.1. Notation and encoding + + PK -- a public key. + SK -- a private key. + K -- a key for a symmetric cypher. + + a|b -- concatenation of 'a' and 'b'. + + [A0 B1 C2] -- a three-byte sequence, containing the bytes with + hexadecimal values A0, B1, and C2, in that order. + + All numeric values are encoded in network (big-endian) order. + + H(m) -- a cryptographic hash of m. + +0.2. Security parameters + + Tor uses a stream cipher, a public-key cipher, the Diffie-Hellman + protocol, and a hash function. + + KEY_LEN -- the length of the stream cipher's key, in bytes. + + PK_ENC_LEN -- the length of a public-key encrypted message, in bytes. + PK_PAD_LEN -- the number of bytes added in padding for public-key + encryption, in bytes. (The largest number of bytes that can be encrypted + in a single public-key operation is therefore PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN.) + + DH_LEN -- the number of bytes used to represent a member of the + Diffie-Hellman group. + DH_SEC_LEN -- the number of bytes used in a Diffie-Hellman private key (x). + + HASH_LEN -- the length of the hash function's output, in bytes. + + PAYLOAD_LEN -- The longest allowable cell payload, in bytes. (509) + + CELL_LEN -- The length of a Tor cell, in bytes. + +0.3. Ciphers + + For a stream cipher, we use 128-bit AES in counter mode, with an IV of all + 0 bytes. + + For a public-key cipher, we use RSA with 1024-bit keys and a fixed + exponent of 65537. We use OAEP-MGF1 padding, with SHA-1 as its digest + function. We leave optional the "Label" parameter unset. (For OAEP + padding, see ftp://ftp.rsasecurity.com/pub/pkcs/pkcs-1/pkcs-1v2-1.pdf) + + For Diffie-Hellman, we use a generator (g) of 2. For the modulus (p), we + use the 1024-bit safe prime from rfc2409 section 6.2 whose hex + representation is: + + "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFC90FDAA22168C234C4C6628B80DC1CD129024E08" + "8A67CC74020BBEA63B139B22514A08798E3404DDEF9519B3CD3A431B" + "302B0A6DF25F14374FE1356D6D51C245E485B576625E7EC6F44C42E9" + "A637ED6B0BFF5CB6F406B7EDEE386BFB5A899FA5AE9F24117C4B1FE6" + "49286651ECE65381FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF" + + As an optimization, implementations SHOULD choose DH private keys (x) of + 320 bits. Implementations that do this MUST never use any DH key more + than once. + [May other implementations reuse their DH keys?? -RD] + [Probably not. Conceivably, you could get away with changing DH keys once + per second, but there are too many oddball attacks for me to be + comfortable that this is safe. -NM] + + For a hash function, we use SHA-1. + + KEY_LEN=16. + DH_LEN=128; DH_SEC_LEN=40. + PK_ENC_LEN=128; PK_PAD_LEN=42. + HASH_LEN=20. + + When we refer to "the hash of a public key", we mean the SHA-1 hash of the + DER encoding of an ASN.1 RSA public key (as specified in PKCS.1). + + All "random" values should be generated with a cryptographically strong + random number generator, unless otherwise noted. + + The "hybrid encryption" of a byte sequence M with a public key PK is + computed as follows: + 1. If M is less than PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN, pad and encrypt M with PK. + 2. Otherwise, generate a KEY_LEN byte random key K. + Let M1 = the first PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN-KEY_LEN bytes of M, + and let M2 = the rest of M. + Pad and encrypt K|M1 with PK. Encrypt M2 with our stream cipher, + using the key K. Concatenate these encrypted values. + [XXX Note that this "hybrid encryption" approach does not prevent + an attacker from adding or removing bytes to the end of M. It also + allows attackers to modify the bytes not covered by the OAEP -- + see Goldberg's PET2006 paper for details. We will add a MAC to this + scheme one day. -RD] + +0.4. Other parameter values + + CELL_LEN=512 + +1. System overview + + Tor is a distributed overlay network designed to anonymize + low-latency TCP-based applications such as web browsing, secure shell, + and instant messaging. Clients choose a path through the network and + build a ``circuit'', in which each node (or ``onion router'' or ``OR'') + in the path knows its predecessor and successor, but no other nodes in + the circuit. Traffic flowing down the circuit is sent in fixed-size + ``cells'', which are unwrapped by a symmetric key at each node (like + the layers of an onion) and relayed downstream. + +1.1. Keys and names + + Every Tor server has multiple public/private keypairs: + + - A long-term signing-only "Identity key" used to sign documents and + certificates, and used to establish server identity. + - A medium-term "Onion key" used to decrypt onion skins when accepting + circuit extend attempts. (See 5.1.) Old keys MUST be accepted for at + least one week after they are no longer advertised. Because of this, + servers MUST retain old keys for a while after they're rotated. + - A short-term "Connection key" used to negotiate TLS connections. + Tor implementations MAY rotate this key as often as they like, and + SHOULD rotate this key at least once a day. + + Tor servers are also identified by "nicknames"; these are specified in + dir-spec.txt. + +2. Connections + + Tor uses TLS for link authentication and encryption. All implementations + MUST support + the TLS ciphersuite "TLS_EDH_RSA_WITH_DES_192_CBC3_SHA", and SHOULD + support "TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA" if it is available. + Implementations MAY support other ciphersuites, but MUST NOT + support any suite without ephemeral keys, symmetric keys of at + least KEY_LEN bits, and digests of at least HASH_LEN bits. + + Even though the connection protocol is identical, we think of the + initiator as either an onion router (OR) if it is willing to relay + traffic for other Tor users, or an onion proxy (OP) if it only handles + local requests. Onion proxies SHOULD NOT provide long-term-trackable + identifiers in their handshakes. + + During the TLS handshake, the connection initiator always sends a + two-certificate chain, consisting of an X.509 certificate using a + short-term connection public key and a second, self- signed X.509 + certificate containing its identity key. The commonName of the first + certificate is the OR's nickname, and the commonName of the second + certificate is the OR's nickname, followed by a space and the string + "<identity>". The other party sends a similar certificate chain. + + Implementations running Protocol 1 and earlier use an + organizationName of "Tor" or "TOR". Future implementations (which + support the version negotiation protocol in section 4.1) MUST NOT + have either of these values for their organizationName. + + All parties receiving certificates must confirm that the identity key is + as expected. (When initiating a connection, the expected identity key is + the one given in the directory; when creating a connection because of an + EXTEND cell, the expected identity key is the one given in the cell.) If + the key is not as expected, the party must close the connection. + + All parties SHOULD reject connections to or from ORs that have malformed + or missing certificates. ORs MAY accept or reject connections from OPs + with malformed or missing certificates. + + Once a TLS connection is established, the two sides send cells + (specified below) to one another. Cells are sent serially. All + cells are CELL_LEN bytes long. Cells may be sent embedded in TLS + records of any size or divided across TLS records, but the framing + of TLS records MUST NOT leak information about the type or contents + of the cells. + + TLS connections are not permanent. Either side may close a connection + if there are no circuits running over it and an amount of time + (KeepalivePeriod, defaults to 5 minutes) has passed. + + (As an exception, directory servers may try to stay connected to all of + the ORs -- though this will be phased out for the Tor 0.1.2.x release.) + +3. Cell Packet format + + The basic unit of communication for onion routers and onion + proxies is a fixed-width "cell". + + On a version 1 connection, each cell contains the following + fields: + + CircID [2 bytes] + Command [1 byte] + Payload (padded with 0 bytes) [PAYLOAD_LEN bytes] + + The CircID field determines which circuit, if any, the cell is + associated with. + + The 'Command' field holds one of the following values: + 0 -- PADDING (Padding) (See Sec 7.2) + 1 -- CREATE (Create a circuit) (See Sec 5.1) + 2 -- CREATED (Acknowledge create) (See Sec 5.1) + 3 -- RELAY (End-to-end data) (See Sec 5.5 and 6) + 4 -- DESTROY (Stop using a circuit) (See Sec 5.4) + 5 -- CREATE_FAST (Create a circuit, no PK) (See Sec 5.1) + 6 -- CREATED_FAST (Circuit created, no PK) (See Sec 5.1) + + The interpretation of 'Payload' depends on the type of the cell. + PADDING: Payload is unused. + CREATE: Payload contains the handshake challenge. + CREATED: Payload contains the handshake response. + RELAY: Payload contains the relay header and relay body. + DESTROY: Payload contains a reason for closing the circuit. + (see 5.4) + Upon receiving any other value for the command field, an OR must + drop the cell. [XXXX Versions prior to 0.1.0.?? logged a warning + when dropping the cell; this is bad behavior. -NM] + + The payload is padded with 0 bytes. + + PADDING cells are currently used to implement connection keepalive. + If there is no other traffic, ORs and OPs send one another a PADDING + cell every few minutes. + + CREATE, CREATED, and DESTROY cells are used to manage circuits; + see section 4 below. + + RELAY cells are used to send commands and data along a circuit; see + section 5 below. + +4. [This section deliberately left blank.] + +5. Circuit management + +5.1. CREATE and CREATED cells + + Users set up circuits incrementally, one hop at a time. To create a + new circuit, OPs send a CREATE cell to the first node, with the + first half of the DH handshake; that node responds with a CREATED + cell with the second half of the DH handshake plus the first 20 bytes + of derivative key data (see section 5.2). To extend a circuit past + the first hop, the OP sends an EXTEND relay cell (see section 5) + which instructs the last node in the circuit to send a CREATE cell + to extend the circuit. + + The payload for a CREATE cell is an 'onion skin', which consists + of the first step of the DH handshake data (also known as g^x). + This value is hybrid-encrypted (see 0.3) to Bob's onion key, giving + an onion-skin of: + PK-encrypted: + Padding padding [PK_PAD_LEN bytes] + Symmetric key [KEY_LEN bytes] + First part of g^x [PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN-KEY_LEN bytes] + Symmetrically encrypted: + Second part of g^x [DH_LEN-(PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN-KEY_LEN) + bytes] + + The relay payload for an EXTEND relay cell consists of: + Address [4 bytes] + Port [2 bytes] + Onion skin [DH_LEN+KEY_LEN+PK_PAD_LEN bytes] + Identity fingerprint [HASH_LEN bytes] + + The port and address field denote the IPV4 address and port of the next + onion router in the circuit; the public key hash is the hash of the PKCS#1 + ASN1 encoding of the next onion router's identity (signing) key. (See 0.3 + above.) (Including this hash allows the extending OR verify that it is + indeed connected to the correct target OR, and prevents certain + man-in-the-middle attacks.) + + The payload for a CREATED cell, or the relay payload for an + EXTENDED cell, contains: + DH data (g^y) [DH_LEN bytes] + Derivative key data (KH) [HASH_LEN bytes] <see 5.2 below> + + The CircID for a CREATE cell is an arbitrarily chosen 2-byte integer, + selected by the node (OP or OR) that sends the CREATE cell. To prevent + CircID collisions, when one OR sends a CREATE cell to another, it chooses + from only one half of the possible values based on the ORs' public + identity keys: if the sending OR has a lower key, it chooses a CircID with + an MSB of 0; otherwise, it chooses a CircID with an MSB of 1. + + Public keys are compared numerically by modulus. + + As usual with DH, x and y MUST be generated randomly. + +[ + To implement backward-compatible version negotiation, parties MUST + drop CREATE cells with all-[00] onion-skins. +] + +5.1.1. CREATE_FAST/CREATED_FAST cells + + When initializing the first hop of a circuit, the OP has already + established the OR's identity and negotiated a secret key using TLS. + Because of this, it is not always necessary for the OP to perform the + public key operations to create a circuit. In this case, the + OP MAY send a CREATE_FAST cell instead of a CREATE cell for the first + hop only. The OR responds with a CREATED_FAST cell, and the circuit is + created. + + A CREATE_FAST cell contains: + + Key material (X) [HASH_LEN bytes] + + A CREATED_FAST cell contains: + + Key material (Y) [HASH_LEN bytes] + Derivative key data [HASH_LEN bytes] (See 5.2 below) + + The values of X and Y must be generated randomly. + + [Versions of Tor before 0.1.0.6-rc did not support these cell types; + clients should not send CREATE_FAST cells to older Tor servers.] + + If an OR sees a circuit created with CREATE_FAST, the OR is sure to be the + first hop of a circuit. ORs SHOULD reject attempts to create streams with + RELAY_BEGIN exiting the circuit at the first hop: letting Tor be used as a + single hop proxy makes exit nodes a more attractive target for compromise. + +5.2. Setting circuit keys + + Once the handshake between the OP and an OR is completed, both can + now calculate g^xy with ordinary DH. Before computing g^xy, both client + and server MUST verify that the received g^x or g^y value is not degenerate; + that is, it must be strictly greater than 1 and strictly less than p-1 + where p is the DH modulus. Implementations MUST NOT complete a handshake + with degenerate keys. Implementations MUST NOT discard other "weak" + g^x values. + + (Discarding degenerate keys is critical for security; if bad keys + are not discarded, an attacker can substitute the server's CREATED + cell's g^y with 0 or 1, thus creating a known g^xy and impersonating + the server. Discarding other keys may allow attacks to learn bits of + the private key.) + + (The mainline Tor implementation, in the 0.1.1.x-alpha series, discarded + all g^x values less than 2^24, greater than p-2^24, or having more than + 1024-16 identical bits. This served no useful purpose, and we stopped.) + + If CREATE or EXTEND is used to extend a circuit, the client and server + base their key material on K0=g^xy, represented as a big-endian unsigned + integer. + + If CREATE_FAST is used, the client and server base their key material on + K0=X|Y. + + From the base key material K0, they compute KEY_LEN*2+HASH_LEN*3 bytes of + derivative key data as + K = H(K0 | [00]) | H(K0 | [01]) | H(K0 | [02]) | ... + + The first HASH_LEN bytes of K form KH; the next HASH_LEN form the forward + digest Df; the next HASH_LEN 41-60 form the backward digest Db; the next + KEY_LEN 61-76 form Kf, and the final KEY_LEN form Kb. Excess bytes from K + are discarded. + + KH is used in the handshake response to demonstrate knowledge of the + computed shared key. Df is used to seed the integrity-checking hash + for the stream of data going from the OP to the OR, and Db seeds the + integrity-checking hash for the data stream from the OR to the OP. Kf + is used to encrypt the stream of data going from the OP to the OR, and + Kb is used to encrypt the stream of data going from the OR to the OP. + +5.3. Creating circuits + + When creating a circuit through the network, the circuit creator + (OP) performs the following steps: + + 1. Choose an onion router as an exit node (R_N), such that the onion + router's exit policy includes at least one pending stream that + needs a circuit (if there are any). + + 2. Choose a chain of (N-1) onion routers + (R_1...R_N-1) to constitute the path, such that no router + appears in the path twice. + + 3. If not already connected to the first router in the chain, + open a new connection to that router. + + 4. Choose a circID not already in use on the connection with the + first router in the chain; send a CREATE cell along the + connection, to be received by the first onion router. + + 5. Wait until a CREATED cell is received; finish the handshake + and extract the forward key Kf_1 and the backward key Kb_1. + + 6. For each subsequent onion router R (R_2 through R_N), extend + the circuit to R. + + To extend the circuit by a single onion router R_M, the OP performs + these steps: + + 1. Create an onion skin, encrypted to R_M's public onion key. + + 2. Send the onion skin in a relay EXTEND cell along + the circuit (see section 5). + + 3. When a relay EXTENDED cell is received, verify KH, and + calculate the shared keys. The circuit is now extended. + + When an onion router receives an EXTEND relay cell, it sends a CREATE + cell to the next onion router, with the enclosed onion skin as its + payload. The initiating onion router chooses some circID not yet + used on the connection between the two onion routers. (But see + section 5.1. above, concerning choosing circIDs based on + lexicographic order of nicknames.) + + When an onion router receives a CREATE cell, if it already has a + circuit on the given connection with the given circID, it drops the + cell. Otherwise, after receiving the CREATE cell, it completes the + DH handshake, and replies with a CREATED cell. Upon receiving a + CREATED cell, an onion router packs it payload into an EXTENDED relay + cell (see section 5), and sends that cell up the circuit. Upon + receiving the EXTENDED relay cell, the OP can retrieve g^y. + + (As an optimization, OR implementations may delay processing onions + until a break in traffic allows time to do so without harming + network latency too greatly.) + +5.4. Tearing down circuits + + Circuits are torn down when an unrecoverable error occurs along + the circuit, or when all streams on a circuit are closed and the + circuit's intended lifetime is over. Circuits may be torn down + either completely or hop-by-hop. + + To tear down a circuit completely, an OR or OP sends a DESTROY + cell to the adjacent nodes on that circuit, using the appropriate + direction's circID. + + Upon receiving an outgoing DESTROY cell, an OR frees resources + associated with the corresponding circuit. If it's not the end of + the circuit, it sends a DESTROY cell for that circuit to the next OR + in the circuit. If the node is the end of the circuit, then it tears + down any associated edge connections (see section 6.1). + + After a DESTROY cell has been processed, an OR ignores all data or + destroy cells for the corresponding circuit. + + To tear down part of a circuit, the OP may send a RELAY_TRUNCATE cell + signaling a given OR (Stream ID zero). That OR sends a DESTROY + cell to the next node in the circuit, and replies to the OP with a + RELAY_TRUNCATED cell. + + When an unrecoverable error occurs along one connection in a + circuit, the nodes on either side of the connection should, if they + are able, act as follows: the node closer to the OP should send a + RELAY_TRUNCATED cell towards the OP; the node farther from the OP + should send a DESTROY cell down the circuit. + + The payload of a RELAY_TRUNCATED or DESTROY cell contains a single octet, + describing why the circuit is being closed or truncated. When sending a + TRUNCATED or DESTROY cell because of another TRUNCATED or DESTROY cell, + the error code should be propagated. The origin of a circuit always sets + this error code to 0, to avoid leaking its version. + + The error codes are: + 0 -- NONE (No reason given.) + 1 -- PROTOCOL (Tor protocol violation.) + 2 -- INTERNAL (Internal error.) + 3 -- REQUESTED (A client sent a TRUNCATE command.) + 4 -- HIBERNATING (Not currently operating; trying to save bandwidth.) + 5 -- RESOURCELIMIT (Out of memory, sockets, or circuit IDs.) + 6 -- CONNECTFAILED (Unable to reach server.) + 7 -- OR_IDENTITY (Connected to server, but its OR identity was not + as expected.) + 8 -- OR_CONN_CLOSED (The OR connection that was carrying this circuit + died.) + 9 -- FINISHED (The circuit has expired for being dirty or old.) + 10 -- TIMEOUT (Circuit construction took too long) + 11 -- DESTROYED (The circuit was destroyed w/o client TRUNCATE) + 12 -- NOSUCHSERVICE (Request for unknown hidden service) + + [Versions of Tor prior to 0.1.0.11 didn't send reasons; implementations + MUST accept empty TRUNCATED and DESTROY cells.] + +5.5. Routing relay cells + + When an OR receives a RELAY cell, it checks the cell's circID and + determines whether it has a corresponding circuit along that + connection. If not, the OR drops the RELAY cell. + + Otherwise, if the OR is not at the OP edge of the circuit (that is, + either an 'exit node' or a non-edge node), it de/encrypts the payload + with the stream cipher, as follows: + 'Forward' relay cell (same direction as CREATE): + Use Kf as key; decrypt. + 'Back' relay cell (opposite direction from CREATE): + Use Kb as key; encrypt. + Note that in counter mode, decrypt and encrypt are the same operation. + + The OR then decides whether it recognizes the relay cell, by + inspecting the payload as described in section 6.1 below. If the OR + recognizes the cell, it processes the contents of the relay cell. + Otherwise, it passes the decrypted relay cell along the circuit if + the circuit continues. If the OR at the end of the circuit + encounters an unrecognized relay cell, an error has occurred: the OR + sends a DESTROY cell to tear down the circuit. + + When a relay cell arrives at an OP, the OP decrypts the payload + with the stream cipher as follows: + OP receives data cell: + For I=N...1, + Decrypt with Kb_I. If the payload is recognized (see + section 6..1), then stop and process the payload. + + For more information, see section 6 below. + +6. Application connections and stream management + +6.1. Relay cells + + Within a circuit, the OP and the exit node use the contents of + RELAY packets to tunnel end-to-end commands and TCP connections + ("Streams") across circuits. End-to-end commands can be initiated + by either edge; streams are initiated by the OP. + + The payload of each unencrypted RELAY cell consists of: + Relay command [1 byte] + 'Recognized' [2 bytes] + StreamID [2 bytes] + Digest [4 bytes] + Length [2 bytes] + Data [CELL_LEN-14 bytes] + + The relay commands are: + 1 -- RELAY_BEGIN [forward] + 2 -- RELAY_DATA [forward or backward] + 3 -- RELAY_END [forward or backward] + 4 -- RELAY_CONNECTED [backward] + 5 -- RELAY_SENDME [forward or backward] [sometimes control] + 6 -- RELAY_EXTEND [forward] [control] + 7 -- RELAY_EXTENDED [backward] [control] + 8 -- RELAY_TRUNCATE [forward] [control] + 9 -- RELAY_TRUNCATED [backward] [control] + 10 -- RELAY_DROP [forward or backward] [control] + 11 -- RELAY_RESOLVE [forward] + 12 -- RELAY_RESOLVED [backward] + 13 -- RELAY_BEGIN_DIR [forward] + + Commands labelled as "forward" must only be sent by the originator + of the circuit. Commands labelled as "backward" must only be sent by + other nodes in the circuit back to the originator. Commands marked + as either can be sent either by the originator or other nodes. + + The 'recognized' field in any unencrypted relay payload is always set + to zero; the 'digest' field is computed as the first four bytes of + the running digest of all the bytes that have been destined for + this hop of the circuit or originated from this hop of the circuit, + seeded from Df or Db respectively (obtained in section 5.2 above), + and including this RELAY cell's entire payload (taken with the digest + field set to zero). + + When the 'recognized' field of a RELAY cell is zero, and the digest + is correct, the cell is considered "recognized" for the purposes of + decryption (see section 5.5 above). + + (The digest does not include any bytes from relay cells that do + not start or end at this hop of the circuit. That is, it does not + include forwarded data. Therefore if 'recognized' is zero but the + digest does not match, the running digest at that node should + not be updated, and the cell should be forwarded on.) + + All RELAY cells pertaining to the same tunneled stream have the + same stream ID. StreamIDs are chosen arbitrarily by the OP. RELAY + cells that affect the entire circuit rather than a particular + stream use a StreamID of zero -- they are marked in the table above + as "[control]" style cells. (Sendme cells are marked as "sometimes + control" because they can take include a StreamID or not depending + on their purpose -- see Section 7.) + + The 'Length' field of a relay cell contains the number of bytes in + the relay payload which contain real payload data. The remainder of + the payload is padded with NUL bytes. + + If the RELAY cell is recognized but the relay command is not + understood, the cell must be dropped and ignored. Its contents + still count with respect to the digests, though. [Before + 0.1.1.10, Tor closed circuits when it received an unknown relay + command. Perhaps this will be more forward-compatible. -RD] + +6.2. Opening streams and transferring data + + To open a new anonymized TCP connection, the OP chooses an open + circuit to an exit that may be able to connect to the destination + address, selects an arbitrary StreamID not yet used on that circuit, + and constructs a RELAY_BEGIN cell with a payload encoding the address + and port of the destination host. The payload format is: + + ADDRESS | ':' | PORT | [00] + + where ADDRESS can be a DNS hostname, or an IPv4 address in + dotted-quad format, or an IPv6 address surrounded by square brackets; + and where PORT is encoded in decimal. + + [What is the [00] for? -NM] + [It's so the payload is easy to parse out with string funcs -RD] + + Upon receiving this cell, the exit node resolves the address as + necessary, and opens a new TCP connection to the target port. If the + address cannot be resolved, or a connection can't be established, the + exit node replies with a RELAY_END cell. (See 6.4 below.) + Otherwise, the exit node replies with a RELAY_CONNECTED cell, whose + payload is in one of the following formats: + The IPv4 address to which the connection was made [4 octets] + A number of seconds (TTL) for which the address may be cached [4 octets] + or + Four zero-valued octets [4 octets] + An address type (6) [1 octet] + The IPv6 address to which the connection was made [16 octets] + A number of seconds (TTL) for which the address may be cached [4 octets] + [XXXX Versions of Tor before 0.1.1.6 ignore and do not generate the TTL + field. No version of Tor currently generates the IPv6 format. + + Tor servers before 0.1.2.0 set the TTL field to a fixed value. Later + versions set the TTL to the last value seen from a DNS server, and expire + their own cached entries after a fixed interval. This prevents certain + attacks.] + + The OP waits for a RELAY_CONNECTED cell before sending any data. + Once a connection has been established, the OP and exit node + package stream data in RELAY_DATA cells, and upon receiving such + cells, echo their contents to the corresponding TCP stream. + RELAY_DATA cells sent to unrecognized streams are dropped. + + Relay RELAY_DROP cells are long-range dummies; upon receiving such + a cell, the OR or OP must drop it. + +6.2.1. Opening a directory stream + + If a Tor server is a directory server, it should respond to a + RELAY_BEGIN_DIR cell as if it had received a BEGIN cell requesting a + connection to its directory port. RELAY_BEGIN_DIR cells ignore exit + policy, since the stream is local to the Tor process. + + If the Tor server is not running a directory service, it should respond + with a REASON_NOTDIRECTORY RELAY_END cell. + + Clients MUST generate an all-zero payload for RELAY_BEGIN_DIR cells, + and servers MUST ignore the payload. + + [RELAY_BEGIN_DIR was not supported before Tor 0.1.2.2-alpha; clients + SHOULD NOT send it to routers running earlier versions of Tor.] + +6.3. Closing streams + + When an anonymized TCP connection is closed, or an edge node + encounters error on any stream, it sends a 'RELAY_END' cell along the + circuit (if possible) and closes the TCP connection immediately. If + an edge node receives a 'RELAY_END' cell for any stream, it closes + the TCP connection completely, and sends nothing more along the + circuit for that stream. + + The payload of a RELAY_END cell begins with a single 'reason' byte to + describe why the stream is closing, plus optional data (depending on + the reason.) The values are: + + 1 -- REASON_MISC (catch-all for unlisted reasons) + 2 -- REASON_RESOLVEFAILED (couldn't look up hostname) + 3 -- REASON_CONNECTREFUSED (remote host refused connection) [*] + 4 -- REASON_EXITPOLICY (OR refuses to connect to host or port) + 5 -- REASON_DESTROY (Circuit is being destroyed) + 6 -- REASON_DONE (Anonymized TCP connection was closed) + 7 -- REASON_TIMEOUT (Connection timed out, or OR timed out + while connecting) + 8 -- (unallocated) [**] + 9 -- REASON_HIBERNATING (OR is temporarily hibernating) + 10 -- REASON_INTERNAL (Internal error at the OR) + 11 -- REASON_RESOURCELIMIT (OR has no resources to fulfill request) + 12 -- REASON_CONNRESET (Connection was unexpectedly reset) + 13 -- REASON_TORPROTOCOL (Sent when closing connection because of + Tor protocol violations.) + 14 -- REASON_NOTDIRECTORY (Client sent RELAY_BEGIN_DIR to a + non-directory server.) + + (With REASON_EXITPOLICY, the 4-byte IPv4 address or 16-byte IPv6 address + forms the optional data; no other reason currently has extra data. + As of 0.1.1.6, the body also contains a 4-byte TTL.) + + OPs and ORs MUST accept reasons not on the above list, since future + versions of Tor may provide more fine-grained reasons. + + [*] Older versions of Tor also send this reason when connections are + reset. + [**] Due to a bug in versions of Tor through 0095, error reason 8 must + remain allocated until that version is obsolete. + + --- [The rest of this section describes unimplemented functionality.] + + Because TCP connections can be half-open, we follow an equivalent + to TCP's FIN/FIN-ACK/ACK protocol to close streams. + + An exit connection can have a TCP stream in one of three states: + 'OPEN', 'DONE_PACKAGING', and 'DONE_DELIVERING'. For the purposes + of modeling transitions, we treat 'CLOSED' as a fourth state, + although connections in this state are not, in fact, tracked by the + onion router. + + A stream begins in the 'OPEN' state. Upon receiving a 'FIN' from + the corresponding TCP connection, the edge node sends a 'RELAY_FIN' + cell along the circuit and changes its state to 'DONE_PACKAGING'. + Upon receiving a 'RELAY_FIN' cell, an edge node sends a 'FIN' to + the corresponding TCP connection (e.g., by calling + shutdown(SHUT_WR)) and changing its state to 'DONE_DELIVERING'. + + When a stream in already in 'DONE_DELIVERING' receives a 'FIN', it + also sends a 'RELAY_FIN' along the circuit, and changes its state + to 'CLOSED'. When a stream already in 'DONE_PACKAGING' receives a + 'RELAY_FIN' cell, it sends a 'FIN' and changes its state to + 'CLOSED'. + + If an edge node encounters an error on any stream, it sends a + 'RELAY_END' cell (if possible) and closes the stream immediately. + +6.4. Remote hostname lookup + + To find the address associated with a hostname, the OP sends a + RELAY_RESOLVE cell containing the hostname to be resolved. (For a reverse + lookup, the OP sends a RELAY_RESOLVE cell containing an in-addr.arpa + address.) The OR replies with a RELAY_RESOLVED cell containing a status + byte, and any number of answers. Each answer is of the form: + Type (1 octet) + Length (1 octet) + Value (variable-width) + TTL (4 octets) + "Length" is the length of the Value field. + "Type" is one of: + 0x00 -- Hostname + 0x04 -- IPv4 address + 0x06 -- IPv6 address + 0xF0 -- Error, transient + 0xF1 -- Error, nontransient + + If any answer has a type of 'Error', then no other answer may be given. + + The RELAY_RESOLVE cell must use a nonzero, distinct streamID; the + corresponding RELAY_RESOLVED cell must use the same streamID. No stream + is actually created by the OR when resolving the name. + +7. Flow control + +7.1. Link throttling + + Each node should do appropriate bandwidth throttling to keep its + user happy. + + Communicants rely on TCP's default flow control to push back when they + stop reading. + +7.2. Link padding + + Link padding can be created by sending PADDING cells along the + connection; relay cells of type "DROP" can be used for long-range + padding. + + Currently nodes are not required to do any sort of link padding or + dummy traffic. Because strong attacks exist even with link padding, + and because link padding greatly increases the bandwidth requirements + for running a node, we plan to leave out link padding until this + tradeoff is better understood. + +7.3. Circuit-level flow control + + To control a circuit's bandwidth usage, each OR keeps track of + two 'windows', consisting of how many RELAY_DATA cells it is + allowed to package for transmission, and how many RELAY_DATA cells + it is willing to deliver to streams outside the network. + Each 'window' value is initially set to 1000 data cells + in each direction (cells that are not data cells do not affect + the window). When an OR is willing to deliver more cells, it sends a + RELAY_SENDME cell towards the OP, with Stream ID zero. When an OR + receives a RELAY_SENDME cell with stream ID zero, it increments its + packaging window. + + Each of these cells increments the corresponding window by 100. + + The OP behaves identically, except that it must track a packaging + window and a delivery window for every OR in the circuit. + + An OR or OP sends cells to increment its delivery window when the + corresponding window value falls under some threshold (900). + + If a packaging window reaches 0, the OR or OP stops reading from + TCP connections for all streams on the corresponding circuit, and + sends no more RELAY_DATA cells until receiving a RELAY_SENDME cell. +[this stuff is badly worded; copy in the tor-design section -RD] + +7.4. Stream-level flow control + + Edge nodes use RELAY_SENDME cells to implement end-to-end flow + control for individual connections across circuits. Similarly to + circuit-level flow control, edge nodes begin with a window of cells + (500) per stream, and increment the window by a fixed value (50) + upon receiving a RELAY_SENDME cell. Edge nodes initiate RELAY_SENDME + cells when both a) the window is <= 450, and b) there are less than + ten cell payloads remaining to be flushed at that edge. + + +A.1. Differences between spec and implementation + +- The current specification requires all ORs to have IPv4 addresses, but + allows servers to exit and resolve to IPv6 addresses, and to declare IPv6 + addresses in their exit policies. The current codebase has no IPv6 + support at all. + |