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The TDP Projects:
⋔ Tor Browser for OpenBSD ⋔ BSD Relay Guides ⋔ Corporate Relays ⋔ Ports for PETs ⋔ Statistics ⋔
TDP maintains an array of projects which culminate in an effort to diversify the Tor anonymity network with more *BSD Unix engagement. Each item relates to that goal on some level.
Some projects are simple efforts which don’t require much attention, while others are more labor-intensive and are subordinate to upstream development.
Porting Tor Browser (TB) to OpenBSD is our flagship project and demands the most attention. Porting TB requires tracking the upstream Tor Browser, in addition to working the port into a strict OpenBSD ecosystem. The list of dependencies is long plus Firefox add-ons such as TorButton and HTTPS-everywhere. There have been nine releases so far. We are in some initial discussions to get TB ported to other BSDs.
It’s not rocket science to run a Tor relay on any of the BSDs, but there is some utility in providing simple, step-by-step instructions on building a relay. Our initial targets are FreeBSD and OpenBSD, and some interest has been expressed from others to do the same for other BSDs.
Predating the birth of TDP by years, advocacy work through events is a central method of engaging the broader *BSD community. Numerous birds-of-a-feather sessions were done, presentations at conferences and more informal meetings with focuses such as “recruiting BSD Tor admins.” In 2016, TDP is looking to continue this effort.
Some of the past events include:
October 2015: BSDCon Brasil presentation
June 2015: BSDCan 2015 Birds-of-a-Feather session
February 2014: NYCBSDCon “Exposes” session on “The BSDs and the LibTech Scene”
Possible upcoming events for TDP in 2016 include:
June 10–11: BSDCan 2016 proposed presentation in Ottawa, Canada
September: EuroBSDCon 2016 in Belgrade, Serbia
Dates TBA: BSDCon Brasil
When Mozilla announced at the end of 2014 that it would begin running official relays, the notion of encouraging BSD-using firms to replicate this effort became obvious. There are many well-known and even more lesser-known firms that relay on the BSDs for their businesses. From Netflix to Juniper, Yahoo to Verisign, the BSDs are a vital element in countless firms. Through the BSD community, TDP believes it can play a role in facilitating these BSD-employing firms to run their own Tor relays, bootstrapping off of their production infrastructures and staffs.
Over the past several years, a proliferation of open source applications seek to replace mainstream, proprietary services, with an eye on privacy and/or anonymity. TDP maintains a list of dozens of PETs (privacy enhancing technologies) and their status on each of the BSD porting systems. Some have already been ported to one or more BSDs, others should be considered, while others might require a complete reworking if not avoided completely.
TDP’s focus is Tor diversity, and this project provides the evidence for our case. These statistics, generated from simple shell scripts, illustrate an array of monocultures: in operating systems and the geographical placement of relays and bandwidth. Generated statically from https://torstatus.blutmagie.de/, the reports give a revealing snapshot of weaknesses in the public Tor network.
Copyright © 2018 by The Tor BSD Diversity Project (TDP). All Rights Reserved.
last updated: Tue Jun 13 19:25:38 2017 UTC