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authorRoger Dingledine <arma@torproject.org>2008-06-11 05:31:29 +0000
committerRoger Dingledine <arma@torproject.org>2008-06-11 05:31:29 +0000
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parent696a5efa4ac2412ed27511fb4ea227127a4d68e3 (diff)
downloadtorspec-ff637941c2df9cffccc0bfe059765cbd97a94544.tar.gz
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give the bootstrap-phases proposal a real number
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+Filename: xxx-bootstrap-phases.txt
+Title: Keep controllers informed as Tor bootstraps
+Version: $Revision$
+Last-Modified: $Date$
+Author: Roger Dingledine
+Created: 07-Jun-2008
+Status: Open
+
+1. Overview.
+
+ Tor has many steps to bootstrapping directory information and
+ initial circuits, but from the controller's perspective we just have
+ a coarse-grained "CIRCUIT_ESTABLISHED" status event. Tor users with
+ slow connections or with connectivity problems can wait a long time
+ staring at the yellow onion, wondering if it will ever change color.
+
+ This proposal describes a new client status event so Tor can give
+ more details to the controller. Section 2 describes the changes to the
+ controller protocol; Section 3 describes Tor's internal bootstrapping
+ phases when everything is going correctly; Section 4 describes when
+ Tor detects a problem and issues a bootstrap warning; Section 5 covers
+ suggestions for how controllers should display the results.
+
+2. Controller event syntax.
+
+ The generic status event is:
+
+ "650" SP StatusType SP StatusSeverity SP StatusAction
+ [SP StatusArguments] CRLF
+
+ So in this case we send
+ 650 STATUS_CLIENT NOTICE/WARN BOOTSTRAP \
+ PROGRESS=num TAG=string SUMMARY=string WARNING=string REASON=string
+
+ "Progress" gives a number between 0 and 100 for how far through
+ the bootstrapping process we are. "Summary" is a string that can be
+ displayed to the user to describe the *next* task that Tor will tackle,
+ i.e., the task it is working on after sending the status event. "Tag"
+ is an optional string that controllers can use to recognize bootstrap
+ phases from Section 3, if they want to do something smarter than just
+ blindly displaying the summary string.
+
+ The severity describes whether this is a normal bootstrap phase
+ (severity notice) or an indication of a bootstrapping problem
+ (severity warn). If severity warn, it should also include a "warning"
+ argument string with any hints Tor has to offer about why it's having
+ troubles bootstrapping, and a "reason" string that lists of the reasons
+ allowed in the ORConn event.
+
+3. The bootstrap phases.
+
+ This section describes the various phases currently reported by
+ Tor. Controllers should not assume that the percentages and tags listed
+ here will continue to match up, or even that the tags will stay in
+ the same order. Some phases might also be skipped (not reported) if the
+ associated bootstrap step is already complete.
+
+ Phase 0:
+ tag=starting summary="starting"
+
+ Tor starts out in this phase. It doesn't actually send a status event
+ to say so.
+
+ Phase 5:
+ tag=conn_dir summary="Connecting to directory mirror"
+
+ Tor sends this event as soon as Tor has chosen a directory mirror ---
+ one of the authorities if bootstrapping for the first time or after
+ a long downtime, or one of the relays listed in its cached directory
+ information otherwise.
+
+ Tor will stay at this phase until it has successfully established
+ a TCP connection with some directory mirror. Problems in this phase
+ generally happen because Tor doesn't have a network connection, or
+ because the local firewall is dropping SYN packets.
+
+ Phase 10
+ tag=handshake_dir summary="Finishing handshake with directory mirror"
+
+ This event occurs when Tor establishes a TCP connection with a relay
+ (or its https proxy if it's using one). Tor remains in this phase until
+ the TLS handshake with the relay is finished.
+
+ Problems in this phase generally happen because Tor's firewall is
+ doing more sophisticated MITM attacks on it, or doing packet-level
+ keyword recognition of Tor's handshake.
+
+ Phase 15:
+ tag=onehop_create summary="Establishing one-hop circuit for dir info"
+
+ Once TLS is finished with a relay, Tor will send a CREATE_FAST cell
+ to establish a one-hop circuit for retrieving directory information.
+ It will remain in this phase until it receives the CREATED_FAST cell
+ back, indicating that the circuit is ready.
+
+ Phase 20:
+ tag=requesting_status summary="Asking for networkstatus consensus"
+
+ Once we've finished our one-hop circuit, we will start a new stream
+ for fetching the networkstatus consensus. We'll stay in this phase
+ until we get the 'connected' relay cell back, indicating that we've
+ established a directory connection.
+
+ Phase 25:
+ tag=loading_status summary="Loading networkstatus consensus"
+
+ Once we've established a directory connection, we will start fetching
+ the networkstatus consensus document. This could take a while; this
+ phase is a good opportunity for using the "progress" keyword to indicate
+ partial progress.
+
+ This phase could stall if the directory mirror we picked doesn't
+ have a copy of the networkstatus consensus so we have to ask another,
+ or it does give us a copy but we don't find it valid.
+
+ Phase 40:
+ tag=loading_keys summary="Loading authority key certs"
+
+ Sometimes when we've finished loading the networkstatus consensus,
+ we find that we don't have all the authority key certificates for the
+ keys that signed the consensus. At that point we put the consensus we
+ fetched on hold and fetch the keys so we can verify the signatures.
+
+ Phase 45
+ tag=requesting_descriptors summary="Asking for relay descriptors"
+
+ Once we have a valid networkstatus consensus and we've checked all
+ its signatures, we start asking for relay descriptors. We stay in this
+ phase until we have received a 'connected' relay cell in response to
+ a request for descriptors.
+
+ Phase 50:
+ tag=loading_descriptors summary="Loading relay descriptors"
+
+ We will ask for relay descriptors from several different locations,
+ so this step will probably make up the bulk of the bootstrapping,
+ especially for users with slow connections. We stay in this phase until
+ we have descriptors for at least 1/4 of the usable relays listed in
+ the networkstatus consensus. This phase is also a good opportunity to
+ use the "progress" keyword to indicate partial steps.
+
+ Phase 80:
+ tag=conn_or summary="Connecting to entry guard"
+
+ Once we have a valid consensus and enough relay descriptors, we choose
+ some entry guards and start trying to build some circuits. This step
+ is similar to the "conn_dir" phase above; the only difference is
+ the context.
+
+ If a Tor starts with enough recent cached directory information,
+ its first bootstrap status event will be for the conn_or phase.
+
+ Phase 85:
+ tag=handshake_or summary="Finishing handshake with entry guard"
+
+ This phase is similar to the "handshake_dir" phase, but it gets reached
+ if we finish a TCP connection to a Tor relay and we have already reached
+ the "conn_or" phase. We'll stay in this phase until we complete a TLS
+ handshake with a Tor relay.
+
+ Phase 90:
+ tag=circuit_create "Establishing circuits"
+
+ Once we've finished our TLS handshake with an entry guard, we will
+ set about trying to make some 3-hop circuits in case we need them soon.
+
+ Phase 100:
+ tag=done summary="Done"
+
+ A full 3-hop circuit has been established. Tor is ready to handle
+ application connections now.
+
+4. Bootstrap problem events.
+
+ When an OR Conn fails, we send a "bootstrap problem" status event, which
+ is like the standard bootstrap status event except with severity warn.
+ We include the same progress, tag, and summary values as we would for
+ a normal bootstrap event, but we also include 'warning' and 'reason'
+ strings.
+
+ The reason string is the same argument as the reason string for ORCONN
+ failure events; the controller can recognize the various reasons
+ and help the user accordingly. The warning string currently tries to
+ provide the equivalent of strerror() -- this isn't very useful if the
+ controller can recognize reason tags and be smarter, but for a very
+ simple controller it should be better than nothing.
+
+ Currently Tor ignores the first nine bootstrap problem reports for
+ a given phase, reports the tenth to the controller, and then ignores
+ further problems at that phase. Hopefully this is a good balance between
+ tolerating occasional errors and reporting serious problems quickly. (We
+ will want to revisit this approach if there are many different 'reason'
+ values being reported among the first ten problem reports, since in
+ this case the controller will only hear one of them.)
+
+5. Suggested controller behavior.
+
+ Controllers should start out with a yellow onion or the equivalent
+ ("starting"), and then watch for either a bootstrap status event
+ (meaning the Tor they're using is sufficiently new to produce them,
+ and they should load up the progress bar or whatever they plan to use
+ to indicate progress) or a circuit_established status event (meaning
+ bootstrapping is finished).
+
+ In addition to a progress bar in the display, controllers should also
+ have some way to indicate progress even when no controller window is
+ open. For example, folks using Tor Browser Bundle in hostile Internet
+ cafes don't want a big splashy screen up. One way to let the user keep
+ informed of progress in a more subtle way is to change the task tray
+ icon and/or tooltip string as more bootstrap events come in.
+
+ Controllers should also have some mechanism to alert their user when
+ bootstrapping problems are reported. Perhaps we should gather a set of
+ help texts and the controller can send the user to the right anchor in a
+ "bootstrapping problems" help page?
+