3 [XXX We need to make nicknames in intro* cells padded to 20
4 bytes, and maybe have a fixed length for nicknames in the
9 0. Overview and preliminaries
11 Rendezvous points provide location-hidden services (server
12 anonymity) for the onion routing network. With rendezvous points,
13 Bob can offer a TCP service (say, a webserver) via the onion
14 routing network, without revealing the IP of that service.
16 Bob does this by anonymously advertising a public key for his
17 service, along with a list of onion routers to act as "Introduction
18 Points" for his service. He creates forward OR circuits to those
19 introduction points, and tells them about his public key. To
20 connect to Bob, Alice first builds an OR circuit to an OR to act as
21 her "Rendezvous Point", then connects to one of Bob's chosen
22 introduction points, and asks it to tell him about her Rendezvous
23 Point (RP). If Bob chooses to answer, he builds an OR circuit to her
24 RP, and tells it to connect him to Alice. The RP joints their
25 circuits together, and begins relaying cells. Alice's 'BEGIN'
26 cells are received directly by Bob's OP, which responds by
27 communication with the local server implementing Bob's service.
29 Below, we describe a network-level specification of this service,
30 along with interfaces to make this process transparent to Alice
31 (so long as she is using an OP).
33 0.1. Notation, conventions and prerequisites
35 In the specifications below, we use the same notation as in
36 "tor-spec.txt". The service specified here also requires the existence of
37 an onion routing network as specified in "tor-spec.txt".
39 H(x) is a SHA1 digest of x.
40 PKSign(SK,x) is a PKCS.1-padded RSA signature of x with SK.
41 PKEncrypt(SK,x) is a PKCS.1-padded RSA encryption of x with SK.
42 Public keys are all RSA, and encoded in ASN.1.
43 All integers are stored in network (big-endian) order.
44 All symmetric encryption uses AES in counter mode, except where
47 In all discussions, "Alice" will refer to a user connecting to a
48 location-hidden service, and "Bob" will refer to a user running a
49 location-hidden service.
53 1. Bob->Bob's OP: "Offer IP:Port as public-key-name:Port". [configuration]
54 (We do not specify this step; it is left to the implementor of
57 2. Bob's OP generates keypair and rendezvous service descriptor:
58 "Meet public-key X at introduction point A, B, or C." (signed)
60 3. Bob's OP->Introduction point via Tor: [introduction setup]
63 4. Bob's OP->directory service via Tor: publishes Bob's service descriptor
66 5. Out of band, Alice receives a y.onion:port address. She opens a
67 SOCKS connection to her OP, and requests y.onion:port.
69 6. Alice's OP retrieves Bob's descriptor via Tor: [descriptor lookup.]
71 7. Alice's OP chooses a rendezvous point, opens a circuit to that
72 rendezvous point, and establishes a rendezvous circuit. [rendezvous
75 8. Alice connects to the Introduction point via Tor, and tells it about
76 her rendezvous point. (Encrypted to Bob.) [Introduction 1]
78 9. The Introduction point passes this on to Bob's OP via Tor, along the
79 introduction circuit. [Introduction 2]
81 10. Bob's OP decides whether to connect to Alice, and if so, creates a
82 circuit to Alice's RP via Tor. Establishes a shared circuit.
85 11. Alice's OP sends begin cells to Bob's OP. [Connection]
87 0.3. Constants and new cell types
90 32 -- RELAY_ESTABLISH_INTRO
91 33 -- RELAY_ESTABLISH_RENDEZVOUS
92 34 -- RELAY_INTRODUCE1
93 35 -- RELAY_INTRODUCE2
94 36 -- RELAY_RENDEZVOUS1
95 37 -- RELAY_RENDEZVOUS2
96 38 -- RELAY_INTRO_ESTABLISHED
97 39 -- RELAY_RENDEZVOUS_ESTABLISHED
98 40 -- RELAY_COMMAND_INTRODUCE_ACK
102 1.1. Bob configures his local OP.
104 We do not specify a format for the OP configuration file. However,
105 OPs SHOULD allow Bob to provide more than one advertised service
106 per OP, and MUST allow Bob to specify one or more virtual ports per
107 service. Bob provides a mapping from each of these virtual ports
108 to a local IP:Port pair.
110 1.2. Bob's OP generates service descriptors.
112 The first time the OP provides an advertised service, it generates
113 a public/private keypair (stored locally). Periodically, the OP
114 generates service descriptor, containing:
116 KL Key length [2 octets]
117 PK Bob's public key [KL octets]
118 TS A timestamp [4 octets]
119 NI Number of introduction points [2 octets]
120 Ipt A list of NUL-terminated ORs [variable]
121 SIG Signature of above fields [variable]
123 KL is the length of PK, in octets. (Currently, KL must be 128.)
124 TS is the number of seconds elapsed since Jan 1, 1970.
126 The members of Ipt may either be EITHER nicknames, or identity key
127 digests, encoded in hex, and prefixed with a '$'. Servers must accept
128 both forms. Before 0.0.7 is obsoleted, servers should only generate the
129 first form. After, servers should only generate the second form.
131 [It's ok for Bob to advertise 0 introduction points. He might want
132 to do that if he previously advertised some introduction points,
133 and now he doesn't have any. -RD]
135 1.3. Bob's OP establishes his introduction points.
137 The OP establishes a new introduction circuit to each introduction
138 point. These circuits MUST NOT be used for anything but rendezvous
139 introduction. To establish the introduction, Bob sends a
140 RELAY_ESTABLISH_INTRO cell, containing:
142 KL Key length [2 octets]
143 PK Bob's public key [KL octets]
144 HS Hash of session info [20 octets]
145 SIG Signature of above information [variable]
147 To prevent replay attacks, the HS field contains a SHA-1 hash based on the
148 shared secret KH between Bob's OP and the introduction point, as
150 HS = H(KH | "INTRODUCE")
152 HS = H(KH | [49 4E 54 52 4F 44 55 43 45])
153 (KH, as specified in tor-spec.txt, is H(g^xy | [00]) .)
155 Upon receiving such a cell, the OR first checks that the signature is
156 correct with the included public key. If so, it checks whether HS is
157 correct given the shared state between Bob's OP and the OR. If either
158 check fails, the OP discards the cell; otherwise, it associates the
159 circuit with Bob's public key, and dissociates any other circuits
160 currently associated with PK. On success, the OR sends Bob a
161 RELAY_INTRO_ESTABLISHED cell with an empty payload.
163 1.4. Bob's OP advertises his service descriptor
165 Bob's OP opens a stream to each directory server's directory port via Tor.
166 (He may re-use old circuits for this.)
167 Over this stream, Bob's OP makes an HTTP 'POST' request, to the URL
168 '/rendezvous/publish' (relative to the directory server's root),
169 containing as its body Bob's service descriptor. Upon receiving a
170 descriptor, the directory server checks the signature, and discards the
171 descriptor if the signature does not match the enclosed public key. Next,
172 the directory server checks the timestamp. If the timestamp is more than
173 24 hours in the past or more than 1 hour in the future, or the directory
174 server already has a newer descriptor with the same public key, the server
175 discards the descriptor. Otherwise, the server discards any older
176 descriptors with the same public key, and associates the new descriptor
177 with the public key. The directory server remembers this descriptor for
178 at least 24 hours after its timestamp. At least every 24 hours, Bob's OP
179 uploads a fresh descriptor.
181 1.5. Alice receives a y.onion address
183 When Alice receives a pointer to a location-hidden service, it is as a
184 hostname of the form "y.onion", where y is a base-32 encoding of a
185 10-octet hash of Bob's service's public key, computed as follows:
188 2. Let H' = the first 80 bits of H, considering each octet from
189 most significant bit to least significant bit.
190 2. Generate a 16-character encoding of H', using base32 as defined
193 (We only use 80 bits instead of the 160 bits from SHA1 because we don't
194 need to worry about man-in-the-middle attacks, and because it will make
195 handling the url's more convenient.)
197 [Yes, numbers are allowed at the beginning. See RFC1123. -NM]
199 1.6. Alice's OP retrieves a service descriptor
201 Alice opens a stream to a directory server via Tor, and makes an HTTP GET
202 request for the document '/rendezvous/<y>', where '<y> is replaced with the
203 encoding of Bob's public key as described above. (She may re-use old
204 circuits for this.) The directory replies with a 404 HTTP response if
205 it does not recognize <y>, and otherwise returns Bob's most recently
206 uploaded service descriptor.
208 If Alice's OP receives a 404 response, it tries the other directory
209 servers, and only fails the lookup if none recognizes the public key hash.
211 Upon receiving a service descriptor, Alice verifies with the same process
212 as the directory server uses, described above in section 1.4.
214 The directory server gives a 400 response if it cannot understand Alice's
217 Alice should cache the descriptor locally, but should not use
218 descriptors that are more than 24 hours older than their timestamp.
219 [Caching may make her partitionable, but she fetched it anonymously,
220 and we can't very well *not* cache it. -RD]
222 1.7. Alice's OP establishes a rendezvous point.
224 When Alice requests a connection to a given location-hidden service,
225 and Alice's OP does not have an established circuit to that service,
226 the OP builds a rendezvous circuit. It does this by establishing
227 a circuit to a randomly chosen OR, and sending a
228 RELAY_ESTABLISH_RENDEZVOUS cell to that OR. The body of that cell
231 RC Rendezvous cookie [20 octets]
233 The rendezvous cookie is an arbitrary 20-byte value, chosen randomly by
236 Upon receiving a RELAY_ESTABLISH_RENDEZVOUS cell, the OR associates the
237 RC with the circuit that sent it. It replies to Alice with an empty
238 RELAY_RENDEZVOUS_ESTABLISHED cell to indicate success.
240 Alice's OP MUST NOT use the circuit which sent the cell for any purpose
241 other than rendezvous with the given location-hidden service.
243 1.8. Introduction: from Alice's OP to Introduction Point
245 Alice builds a separate circuit to one of Bob's chosen introduction
246 points, and sends it a RELAY_INTRODUCE1 cell containing:
249 PK_ID Identifier for Bob's PK [20 octets]
251 Encrypted to Bob's PK:
252 RP Rendezvous point's nickname [20 octets]
253 RC Rendezvous cookie [20 octets]
254 g^x Diffie-Hellman data, part 1 [128 octets]
256 VER Version byte: set to 1. [1 octet]
258 RC Rendezvous cookie [20 octets]
259 g^x Diffie-Hellman data, part 1 [128 octets]
261 PK_ID is the hash of Bob's public key. RP is NUL-padded and terminated,
262 and must contain EITHER a nickname, or an identity key digest, encoded in
263 hex, and prefixed with a '$'.
265 Implementations must accept both variants, but should only generate the
266 first so long as Tor 0.0.7 is in use.
268 The hybrid encryption to Bob's PK works just like the hybrid
269 encryption in CREATE cells (see main spec). Thus the payload of the
270 RELAY_INTRODUCE1 cell on the wire will contain 20+42+16+20+20+128=246
273 1.9. Introduction: From the Introduction Point to Bob's OP
275 If the Introduction Point recognizes PK_ID as a public key which has
276 established a circuit for introductions as in 1.3 above, it sends the body
277 of the cell in a new RELAY_INTRODUCE2 cell down the corresponding circuit.
278 (If the PK_ID is unrecognized, the RELAY_INTRODUCE1 cell is discarded.)
280 After sending the RELAY_INTRODUCE2 cell, the OR replies to Alice with an
281 empty RELAY_COMMAND_INTRODUCE_ACK cell. If no RELAY_INTRODUCE2 cell can
282 be sent, the OR replies to Alice with a non-empty cell to indicate an
283 error. (The semantics of the cell body may be determined later; the
284 current implementation sends a single '1' byte on failure.)
286 When Bob's OP receives the RELAY_INTRODUCE2 cell, it decrypts it with
287 the private key for the corresponding hidden service, and extracts the
288 rendezvous point's nickname, the rendezvous cookie, and the value of g^x
293 Bob's OP build a new Tor circuit ending at Alice's chosen rendezvous
294 point, and sends a RELAY_RENDEZVOUS1 cell along this circuit, containing:
295 RC Rendezvous cookie [20 octets]
296 g^y Diffie-Hellman [128 octets]
297 KH Handshake digest [20 octets]
299 (Bob's OP MUST NOT use this circuit for any other purpose.)
301 If the RP recognizes RC, it relays the rest of the cell down the
302 corresponding circuit in a RELAY_RENDEZVOUS2 cell, containing:
304 g^y Diffie-Hellman [128 octets]
305 KH Handshake digest [20 octets]
307 (If the RP does not recognize the RC, it discards the cell and
308 tears down the circuit.)
310 When Alice's OP receives a RELAY_RENDEZVOUS2 cell on a circuit which
311 has sent a RELAY_ESTABLISH_RENDEZVOUS cell but which has not yet received
312 a reply, it uses g^y and H(g^xy) to complete the handshake as in the Tor
313 circuit extend process: they establish a 60-octet string as
314 K = SHA1(g^xy | [00]) | SHA1(g^xy | [01]) | SHA1(g^xy | [02])
320 Subsequently, the rendezvous point passes relay cells, unchanged, from
321 each of the two circuits to the other. When Alice's OP sends
322 RELAY cells along the circuit, it first encrypts them with the
323 Kf, then with all of the keys for the ORs in Alice's side of the circuit;
324 and when Alice's OP receives RELAY cells from the circuit, it decrypts
325 them with the keys for the ORs in Alice's side of the circuit, then
326 decrypts them with Kb. Bob's OP does the same, with Kf and Kb
329 1.11. Creating streams
331 To open TCP connections to Bob's location-hidden service, Alice's OP sends
332 a RELAY_BEGIN cell along the established circuit, using the special
333 address "", and a chosen port. Bob's OP chooses a destination IP and
334 port, based on the configuration of the service connected to the circuit,
335 and opens a TCP stream. From then on, Bob's OP treats the stream as an
336 ordinary exit connection.
337 [ Except he doesn't include addr in the connected cell or the end
340 Alice MAY send multiple RELAY_BEGIN cells along the circuit, to open
341 multiple streams to Bob. Alice SHOULD NOT send RELAY_BEGIN cells for any
342 other address along her circuit to Bob; if she does, Bob MUST reject them.