Debian Bug report logs - #681123
Please document that different torify instances might use the same circuits

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Linus Lüssing <linus.luessing@web.de>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: torify: Please add a paragraph in the WARNING section about identical identities

Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:37:56 +0200

Package: tor
Version: 0.2.3.19-rc-1
Severity: wishlist

When using multiple instances of torify on the same computer to connect to the
same host, it is possible for the according host to figure out that those two
clients are very likely the same.

While when specifically selecting a certain Tor proxy in an application,
I guess a user will very likely be aware that the same Tor identity is being
used.

However, for torify it is not that obvious that multiple instances are
_not_ necessarily using a new Tor identity. A user might think:

"It's a new torify instance, so it's probably another one of this Tor
thingies, and they say a Tor thingy is pretty anonymous, right?
(Proxies? Ain't heard of that, know idea what that is - but torify works
great. What's torify doing internally? Don't know, I'm not a Tor
developer) I have read 'man torify' and it's not saying anything about
using the same Tor identity, it'd probably have been mentioned there otherwise.
So in conclusion, I guess each torify instance has to have its own,
anonymous identity."

Maybe for now a paragraph about every torify instance sharing the
same Tor identity should be added to the torify manpage in the WARNING
section?

Later, it'd be great if in fact each torify instance were having its own
identity, but don't know how difficult it is to implement that.

Cheers

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages tor depends on:
ii  adduser         3.113+nmu3
ii  libc6           2.13-34
ii  libevent-2.0-5  2.0.19-stable-3
ii  libssl1.0.0     1.0.1c-3
ii  lsb-base        4.1+Debian7
ii  zlib1g          1:1.2.7.dfsg-13

Versions of packages tor recommends:
ii  logrotate    3.8.1-4
ii  tor-geoipdb  0.2.3.19-rc-1
ii  torsocks     1.2-3

Versions of packages tor suggests:
pn  apparmor-utils     <none>
pn  mixmaster          <none>
ii  privoxy            3.0.19-2
ii  socat              1.7.1.3-1.4
pn  tor-arm            <none>
pn  xul-ext-torbutton  <none>

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/tor/torrc changed [not included]

-- debconf-show failed

Message #10 received at 681123@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>

To: Linus Lüssing <linus.luessing@web.de>, 681123@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#681123: torify: Please add a paragraph in the WARNING section about identical identities

Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:18:32 +0200

[I have forwarded your request to https://bugs.torproject.org/6892]

Linus Lüssing schrieb am Dienstag, dem 10. Juli 2012:

> While when specifically selecting a certain Tor proxy in an application,
> I guess a user will very likely be aware that the same Tor identity is being
> used.

> Maybe for now a paragraph about every torify instance sharing the
> same Tor identity should be added to the torify manpage in the WARNING
> section?

Sounds good.  Want to provide a patch?

Cheers,
weasel
-- 
                           |  .''`.       ** Debian **
      Peter Palfrader      | : :' :      The  universal
 http://www.palfrader.org/ | `. `'      Operating System
                           |   `-    http://www.debian.org/

Message #19 received at 681123-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>

To: 681123-done@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#681123: torify: Please add a paragraph in the WARNING section about identical identities

Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2017 07:30:25 +0000

Peter Palfrader schrieb am Wednesday, dem 19. September 2012:

> [I have forwarded your request to https://bugs.torproject.org/6892]

The torify manpage not tells you to use torsocks.  The torsocks manpage
does mention the issue of stream isolation.

Cheers,
-- 
                            |  .''`.       ** Debian **
      Peter Palfrader       | : :' :      The  universal
 https://www.palfrader.org/ | `. `'      Operating System
                            |   `-    https://www.debian.org/

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