tor-dht-poc

Tor DHT PoC

This is a proof of concept to show that we can advertise onion services in Go and discover them in Go or JS.

Goals

• In Go, all network interaction over Tor
  • Use existing tested DHT code (e.g. BT mainline or IPFS)
  • Broadcast different onion addresses for a key
  • Discover different onion addresses for a key
• In browser (all network interaction doesn't have to be in Tor since it will run in Tor Browser, so no WebRTC)
  • Use existing tested DHT code (e.g. BT mainline or IPFS)
  • Discover different onion addresses for a key

Probably choosing IPFS here due to WebTorrent's requirement on WebRTC which Tor Browser doesn't implement.

Results

• Go - SUCCESS!! See the go-tor-dht-poc/'s README.md for details
• JS - SUCCESS!! See the js-tor-dht-poc/'s README.md for details

Usage Quick Overview

Ok, so now that we have success in both places, we can show a quick overview of how to use it. This assumes that GOPATH is set with this repo properly checked out in it and that latest stable versions of Go, Tor, and nodejs/npm are installed and on the PATH.

In this test, we create 5 nodes, say that 2 of them provide a certain type of service, and in both the Tor browser and Go command line, we determine those 2 from the DHT starting with any of the 5 addresses. All over Tor and anonymous.

First, provide the 5 nodes. Build and run the executable to create the DHT and "provide" the services:

go build && go-tor-dht-poc provide

This will take a sec to build the DHT. The output (sans some Tor warnings):

2018/07/10 16:54:32 Created peer #1: gvumv3dlefinroaeibjlrsknedmpd73stlqey4552boeqqfrcktkdvqd:52516/QmRdDcR647RjC7UkdZXiodAQoXQuqjiiR9wXas4RBhw71x
2018/07/10 16:54:49 Created peer #2: vn5sgarqtdmzl27cnbrsfchkmrwm5erjb6jtmcwqras6qmhpmf6mahqd:52519/QmY9tHQMGUVg7xBnLiKGN81J9DCrns5KS4jK8wn8CwqHym
2018/07/10 16:55:11 Created peer #3: my4f2m3yggnnpoeacjgwie5gc5yxeshzgvu5eukx7lodwgmwf2ek52yd:52523/QmRLFFGsVv6uq1WbHhZjA2gknRUwQTyLGdiTAs344egWp8
2018/07/10 16:55:25 Created peer #4: q2fdsiu7eyoj42iii5o44rnrhxncnljexu6zncw44bpdk3udoveyi6ad:52528/QmNQanzjr862heY5ndTuMQPhbEa8GfyniVk6dhkoGXb5MS
2018/07/10 16:55:35 Created peer #5: lhcaimk5pvkj2p3ewcdrunryout2wgpjasfum45rochkxwi2y4raauyd:52535/QmSMd8DytSqkAJunHfbG4phedaDs3ugmGFMZY3e3UyePJG
2018/07/10 16:55:35 Providing key on the first one (gvumv3dlefinroaeibjlrsknedmpd73stlqey4552boeqqfrcktkdvqd:52516/QmRdDcR647RjC7UkdZXiodAQoXQuqjiiR9wXas4RBhw71x)
2018/07/10 16:55:37 Providing key on the last one (lhcaimk5pvkj2p3ewcdrunryout2wgpjasfum45rochkxwi2y4raauyd:52535/QmSMd8DytSqkAJunHfbG4phedaDs3ugmGFMZY3e3UyePJG)
2018/07/10 16:55:42 Press enter to quit...

So the 5 nodes were created and we are marking #1 and #5 as "providers". Now, we can connect to this DHT through any of the nodes and find that #1 and #5 are the providers. With this running, in a new console issue a "find" and provide, say, peer #2's address (don't need to build, already did above):

go-tor-dht-poc find vn5sgarqtdmzl27cnbrsfchkmrwm5erjb6jtmcwqras6qmhpmf6mahqd:52519/QmY9tHQMGUVg7xBnLiKGN81J9DCrns5KS4jK8wn8CwqHym

After a sec, here's the output:

2018/07/10 16:58:17 Found data ID on gvumv3dlefinroaeibjlrsknedmpd73stlqey4552boeqqfrcktkdvqd:52516/QmRdDcR647RjC7UkdZXiodAQoXQuqjiiR9wXas4RBhw71x
2018/07/10 16:58:17 Found data ID on lhcaimk5pvkj2p3ewcdrunryout2wgpjasfum45rochkxwi2y4raauyd:52535/QmSMd8DytSqkAJunHfbG4phedaDs3ugmGFMZY3e3UyePJG

Now let's connect to this DHT from the Tor browser and find them that way. With the DHT "provide" still running, navigate to js-tor-dht-poc. Run npm install to install dependencies and to prepare index.js for use at public/index.js, run npm run browserify. This makes a fairly large JS file that our page uses. Now, to start the web server, build and run the executable via:

go build && js-tor-dht-poc

The output will be something like:

Open Tor browser and navigate to http://n6ls3ltbmoyv2ucblvwz7skjg6mmajt6zfi33skwbhanomgexye6r5ad.onion
Press enter to exit

Now take that address and open it in the Tor browser (it may take a bit for the large JS file to load). Now take any peer address, say, peer #4 this time and put it in the text box and click `Find Providers. The result after a some time should be similar to:

Found 2 peers
gvumv3dlefinroaeibjlrsknedmpd73stlqey4552boeqqfrcktkdvqd.onion:52516/QmRdDcR647RjC7UkdZXiodAQoXQuqjiiR9wXas4RBhw71x
lhcaimk5pvkj2p3ewcdrunryout2wgpjasfum45rochkxwi2y4raauyd.onion:52535/QmSMd8DytSqkAJunHfbG4phedaDs3ugmGFMZY3e3UyePJG

Yay, you have an anonymous DHT that can be joined by other programs and have pieces discovered via other programs or via a Tor-enabled browser.