path: root/pt-spec.txt

                           Pluggable Transport Specification

                                     Jacob Appelbaum
                                     Nick Mathewson



Overview

  This proposal describes a way to decouple protocol-level obfuscation
  from the core Tor protocol in order to better resist client-bridge
  censorship.  Our approach is to specify a means to add pluggable
  transport implementations to Tor clients and bridges so that they can
  negotiate a superencipherment for the Tor protocol.

Specifications: Client behavior

  We extend the bridge line format to allow you to say which method
  to use to connect to a bridge.

  The new format is:
     Bridge method address:port [[keyid=]id-fingerprint] [k=v] [k=v] [k=v]

  To connect to such a bridge, the Tor program needs to know which
  SOCKS proxy will support the transport called "method".  It
  then connects to this proxy, and asks it to connect to
  address:port.  If [id-fingerprint] is provided, Tor should expect
  the public identity key on the TLS connection to match the digest
  provided in [id-fingerprint].  If any [k=v] items are provided,
  they are configuration parameters for the proxy: Tor should
  separate them with semicolons and put them in the user and
  password fields of the request, splitting them across the fields
  as necessary.  If a key or value value must contain a semicolon or
  a backslash, it is escaped with a backslash.

  Method names must be C identifiers.

  For reference, the old bridge format was
    Bridge address[:port] [id-fingerprint]
  where port defaults to 443 and the id-fingerprint is optional. The
  new format can be distinguished from the old one by checking if the
  first argument has any non-C-identifier characters. (Looking for a
  period should be a simple way.) Also, while the id-fingerprint could
  optionally include whitespace in the old format, whitespace in the
  id-fingerprint is not permitted in the new format.

  Example: if the bridge line is "bridge trebuchet www.example.com:3333
     keyid=09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C009F909F9 rocks=20 height=5.6m"
     AND if the Tor client knows that the 'trebuchet' method is supported,
     the client should connect to the proxy that provides the 'trebuchet'
     method, ask it to connect to www.example.com, and provide the string
     "rocks=20;height=5.6m" as the username, the password, or split
     across the username and password.

  There are two ways to tell Tor clients about protocol proxies:
  external proxies and managed proxies.  An external proxy is configured
  with
     ClientTransportPlugin <method> socks4 <address:port> [auth=X]
  or
     ClientTransportPlugin <method> socks5 <address:port> [username=X] [password=Y]
  as in
     "ClientTransportPlugin trebuchet socks5 127.0.0.1:9999".
  This example tells Tor that another program is already running to handle
  'trubuchet' connections, and Tor doesn't need to worry about it.

  A managed proxy is configured with
     ClientTransportPlugin <methods> exec <path> [options]
  as in
    "ClientTransportPlugin trebuchet exec /usr/libexec/trebuchet --managed".
  This example tells Tor to launch an external program to provide a
  socks proxy for 'trebuchet' connections. The Tor client only
  launches one instance of each external program with a given set of
  options, even if the same executable and options are listed for
  more than one method.

  In managed proxies, <methods> can be a comma-separated list of
  pluggable transport method names, as in:
    "ClientTransportPlugin pawn,bishop,rook exec /bin/ptproxy --managed".

  If instead of a transport method, the torrc lists "*" for a managed
  proxy, Tor uses that proxy for all transport methods that the plugin
  supports. So "ClientTransportPlugin * exec /usr/libexec/tor/foobar"
  tells Tor that Tor should use the foobar plugin for every method that
  the proxy supports. See the "Managed proxy interface" section below
  for details on how Tor learns which methods a plugin supports.

  If two plugins support the same method, Tor should use whichever
  one is listed first.

  The same program can implement a managed or an external proxy: it just
  needs to take an argument saying which one to be.

Server behavior

  Server proxies are configured similarly to client proxies.  When
  launching a proxy, the server must tell it what ORPort it has
  configured, and what address (if any) it can listen on.  The
  server must tell the proxy which (if any) methods it should
  provide if it can; the proxy needs to tell the server which
  methods it is actually providing, and on what ports.

  When a client connects to the proxy, the proxy may need a way to
  tell the server some identifier for the client address.  It does
  this in-band.

  As before, the server lists proxies in its torrc.  These can be
  external proxies that run on their own, or managed proxies that Tor
  launches.

  An external server proxy is configured as
     ServerTransportPlugin <method> proxy <address:port> <param=val> ...
  as in
     "ServerTransportPlugin trebuchet proxy 127.0.0.1:999 rocks=heavy".
  The param=val pairs and the address are used to make the bridge
  configuration information that we'll tell users.

  A managed proxy is configured as
     ServerTransportPlugin <methods> exec </path/to/binary> [options]
  or
     ServerTransportPlugin * exec </path/to/binary> [options]

  When possible, Tor should launch only one binary of each binary/option
  pair configured.  So if the torrc contains

     ClientTransportPlugin foo exec /usr/bin/megaproxy --foo
     ClientTransportPlugin bar exec /usr/bin/megaproxy --bar
     ServerTransportPlugin * exec /usr/bin/megaproxy --foo

  then Tor will launch the megaproxy binary twice: once with the option
  --foo and once with the option --bar.

Managed proxy interface

   When the Tor client or relay launches a managed proxy, it communicates
   via environment variables.  At a minimum, it sets (in addition to the
   normal environment variables inherited from Tor):

      {Client and server}

      "TOR_PT_STATE_LOCATION" -- A filesystem directory path where the
       proxy should store state if it wants to.  This directory is not
       required to exist, but the proxy SHOULD be able to create it if
       it doesn't.  The proxy MUST NOT store state elsewhere.
      Example: TOR_PT_STATE_LOCATION=/var/lib/tor/pt_state/

      "TOR_PT_MANAGED_TRANSPORT_VER" -- To tell the proxy which
       versions of this configuration protocol Tor supports.  Future
       versions will give a comma-separated list.  Clients MUST accept
       comma-separated lists containing any version that they
       recognize, and MUST work correctly even if some of the versions
       they don't recognize are non-numeric.  Valid version characters
       are non-space, non-comma printing ASCII characters.
      Example: TOR_PT_MANAGED_TRANSPORT_VER=1,1a,2,4B

      {Client only}

      "TOR_PT_CLIENT_TRANSPORTS" -- A comma-separated list of which
       methods this client should enable, or * if all methods should
       be enabled.  The proxy SHOULD ignore methods that it doesn't
       recognize.
      Example: TOR_PT_CLIENT_TRANSPORTS=trebuchet,battering_ram,ballista

      {Server only}

      "TOR_PT_EXTENDED_SERVER_PORT" -- An <address>:<port> where tor
       should be listening for connections speaking the extended
       ORPort protocol (See the "The extended ORPort protocol" section
       below). If tor does not support the extended ORPort protocol,
       it MUST use the empty string as the value of this environment
       variable.
      Example: TOR_PT_EXTENDED_SERVER_PORT=127.0.0.1:4200

      "TOR_PT_ORPORT" -- Our regular ORPort in a form suitable
       for local connections, i.e. connections from the proxy to
       the ORPort.
      Example: TOR_PT_ORPORT=127.0.0.1:9001

      "TOR_PT_SERVER_BINDADDR" -- A comma seperated list of
       <key>-<value> pairs, where <key> is a transport name and
       <value> is the adress:port on which it should listen for client
       proxy connections.
       The keys holding transport names must appear on the same order
       as they appear on TOR_PT_SERVER_TRANSPORTS.
       This might be the advertised address, or might be a local
       address that Tor will forward ports to.  It MUST be an address
       that will work with bind().
      Example:
        TOR_PT_SERVER_BINDADDR=trebuchet-127.0.0.1:1984,ballista-127.0.0.1:4891

      "TOR_PT_SERVER_TRANSPORTS" -- A comma-separated list of server
       methods that the proxy should support, or * if all methods
       should be enabled.  The proxy SHOULD ignore methods that it
       doesn't recognize.
      Example: TOR_PT_SERVER_TRANSPORTS=trebuchet,ballista

  The transport proxy replies by writing NL-terminated lines to
  stdout.  The line metaformat is

      <Line> ::= <Keyword> <OptArgs> <NL>
      <Keyword> ::= <KeywordChar> | <Keyword> <KeywordChar>
      <KeyWordChar> ::= <any US-ASCII alphanumeric, dash, and underscore>
      <OptArgs> ::= <Args>*
      <Args> ::= <SP> <ArgChar> | <Args> <ArgChar>
      <ArgChar> ::= <any US-ASCII character but NUL or NL>
      <SP> ::= <US-ASCII whitespace symbol (32)>
      <NL> ::= <US-ASCII newline (line feed) character (10)>

  Tor MUST ignore lines with keywords that it doesn't recognize.

  First, if there's an error parsing the environment variables, the
  proxy should write:
    ENV-ERROR <errormessage>
  and exit.

  If the environment variables were correctly formatted, the proxy
  should write:
    VERSION <configuration protocol version>
  to say that it supports this configuration protocol version (example
  "VERSION 1"). It must either pick a version that Tor told it about
  in TOR_PT_MANAGED_TRANSPORT_VER, or pick no version at all, say:
     VERSION-ERROR no-version
  and exit.

  The proxy should then open its ports.  If running as a client
  proxy, it should not use fixed ports; instead it should autoselect
  ports to avoid conflicts.  A client proxy should by default only
  listen on localhost for connections.

  A server proxy SHOULD try to listen at a consistent port, though it
  SHOULD pick a different one if the port it last used is now allocated.

  A client or server proxy then should tell which methods it has
  made available and how.  It does this by printing zero or more
  CMETHOD and SMETHOD lines to its stdout.  These lines look like:

   CMETHOD <methodname> socks4/socks5 <address:port> [ARGS=arglist] \
        [OPT-ARGS=arglist]

  as in

   CMETHOD trebuchet socks5 127.0.0.1:19999 ARGS=rocks,height \
              OPT-ARGS=tensile-strength

  The ARGS field lists mandatory parameters that must appear in
  every bridge line for this method. The OPT-ARGS field lists
  optional parameters.  If no ARGS or OPT-ARGS field is provided,
  Tor should not check the parameters in bridge lines for this
  method.

  The proxy should print a single "CMETHODS DONE" line after it is
  finished telling Tor about the client methods it provides.  If it
  tries to supply a client method but can't for some reason, it
  should say:
    CMETHOD-ERROR <methodname> <errormessage>

  A proxy should also tell Tor about the server methods it is providing
  by printing zero or more SMETHOD lines.  These lines look like:

    SMETHOD <methodname> <address:port> [options]

  If there's an error setting up a configured server method, the
  proxy should say:
    SMETHOD-ERROR <methodname> <errormessage>
  as in
    SMETHOD-ERROR trebuchet could not setup 'trebuchet' method

  The 'address:port' part of an SMETHOD line is the address to put
  in the bridge line.  The Options part is a list of space-separated
  K:V flags that Tor should know about.  Recognized options are:

  SMETHOD and CMETHOD lines may be interspersed, to allow the proxies to
  report methods as they become available, even when some methods may
  require probing your network, connecting to some kind of peers, etc
  before they are set up. After the final SMETHOD line, the proxy says
  "SMETHODS DONE".

  The proxy SHOULD NOT tell Tor about a server or client method
  unless it is actually open and ready to use.

  Tor clients SHOULD NOT use any method from a client proxy or
  advertise any method from a server proxy UNLESS it is listed as a
  possible method for that proxy in torrc, and it is listed by the
  proxy as a method it supports.

  Proxies should respond to a single INT signal by closing their
  listener ports and not accepting any new connections, but keeping
  all connections open, then terminating when connections are all
  closed.  Proxies should respond to a second INT signal by shutting
  down cleanly.

  The managed proxy configuration protocol version defined in this
  section is "1".
  So, for example, if tor supports this configuration protocol it
  should set the environment variable:
    TOR_PT_MANAGED_TRANSPORT_VER=1