Multiple Tor entry nodes

[paulmillr]

Brume uses TOR (snowflake) incorrectly. From snowflake website:

Did you know that Snowflake proxies are operated entirely by volunteers? In other words, a user gets matched with a random Snowflake volunteer proxy, which is run by a volunteer like you! So, if you want to help people bypass censorship, consider installing and running a Snowflake proxy. The only prerequisite is that the Internet in your country is not heavily censored already.

So, in their implementation, it's always "random snowflake node". In Brume, it's always one single snowflake server. Which makes Brume server an easy target for eavesdropping.

Anonymity set would be reduced to people using this particular server. Which is a big deal. So this is not really a "tor-enabled wallet". This is a proxied-through-one-node-to-tor wallet.

Also: it is trivial to block this particular IP, so "censorship-resistance" claim is gone.

This is a tracking issue for the bug.

[hazae41]

Let's call it Tor Lite if you prefer

[paulmillr]

Why was this moved to discussions? This is a bug. Brume claims to be TOR wallet while it’s not.

[hazae41]

It uses Tor, it uses random Tor exit and random Tor middle nodes, with a Tor entry node maintained by the Tor project itself, it uses the Tor algorithms with the Tor consensus, and it uses the Tor protocols such as Snowflake, now either accept it and use it as is, or move on and build your own since you seem so entitled to push this

[paulmillr]

There is a simple test which can be done.

Block the IP of the entry node in your system / network. The wallet would stop working.

Providers and governments actually do this sort of censorship. Since the ip is very public and well-known, the wallet today wouldn’t work in hostile jurisdictions.

[hazae41]

Yes, and? The value of Brume is not perfect censorship resistance, it's the fact that your wallets don't have the same IP address on exit. And you can still use Brume over a VPN or a socks proxy using a real Tor if censorship is a concern.