The long version of the presentation given at the European Parliament in occasion of the EU Hackathon http://www.euhackathon.eu/.
Topic are Censorship, Internet Filtering, Tor and ooni-probe.
1. OONI-probe
Detecting internet filtering for a Free and Transparent
Internet
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
2. Surveillance
• Internet filtering is a
subset of Surveillance
• If they are filtering
something, it means
that they are surveilling
everything
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
3. Censorship
It’s a distortion of what is in reality
the internet.
Follows the subjectiveness of the
authorities
This does not help humanity
• Internet filtering is a form
of non democratic
oppression on people
• It allows those in power
to subvert reality
• FilterNet
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
4. FilterNet
• It’s a distortion of what is in reality the
internet.
• Follows the subjectiveness of the
authorities
• This does not help humanity
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
5. What we are doing?
• Help people circumvent censorship (Tor)
• Help people speak freely and anonymously
(Tor Hidden Services)
• Measure Internet filtering in the world
(OONI-Probe)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
6. Tor
• Tor software downloads are currently
blocked from China, Iran, Lebanon, Qatar,
etc.
• Tor delivers via email, write to
gettor@torproject.org and we will send
you a client to bootstrap a Tor client
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
7. Hidden Services
• They allow a server to give access to
content anonymously
• This means people can publish content
even if filtering is in place
• No fear of retaliation
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8. Tor Hidden Services
• am4wuhz3zifexz5u.onion
• Anonymity for the Server
• DoS protection
• End-To-End encryption
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9. How HS work
Client
Hidden Server
IP
IP
IP
RP
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10. Existing filter detection
tools
OpenNet Initiative
(rTurtle)
Herdict
Academic research
• Various captive portal software
• Windows/iOS/Android/Google Chrome
• ONI has a tool called “rTurtle”
• ...
• Herdict “The verdict of the herd”
• ...
• Some academic research
• GATech and UC Berkeley have the best work
• Methodology, tools and data are (usually) closed
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11. OONI-probe:
Measuring filtering
• Open Observatory of Network
Interference
• Provide a methodology and framework
• Make our data and code publicly available
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12. How filtering is
performed
• Varies by country and agency
• Lebanon uses Free Software (squid)
• Syria uses commercial software
(BlueCoat)
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13. Filtering Techniques
Cost
Keyword Filtering
DNS Filtering
IP Filtering
Accuracy
Source: A Taxonomy of Internet Censorship and AntiCensorship - Princeton University
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14. OONI-Probe Risk
Levels
• The tests that are run by OONI-probe are
divided into three categories:
• Active/High (High Risk)
• Active/Medium (Medium Risk)
• Active/Low (Low Risk)
• Passive (No Risk)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
15. TTL walking
Active/High
Active/Low
• UDP, TCP, ICMP
• Common ports 0, 53, 80, 123, 443
• Compare the result of UDP, TCP with
common ports and ICMP traceroute
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16. Keyword injection
Active/High
• Actively probe for blocking of particular
keywords
• Connect to unblocked IP address with fake
Host Header
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17. DNS probing
Active/High
Active/Medium
• Compare a good DNS server with a test
one
• This is used in Italy
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18. HTTP requests
Active/Low
Passive
• Manipulated HTTP requests
• HTTP GeT foo.html
• Check for altered response/request
headers
• This is used to detect squid
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19. URL lists
Active/High
• Use URL lists of known blocked sites
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
20. TPO in lebannon
Network latency
Active/Low
• Check if the latency is congruent with the
destination
• A case is Lebanon
Tuesday, November 8, 2011