Error: Bridge address is not valid

Support Relay Operator
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1

Tor was running fine until I had to move it behind a NAT due to a new ISP. Now https://bridges.torproject.org/status gives:

* obfs4 IPv4: dysfunctional
  Error: Bridge address is not valid
  Last tested: 2025-05-06 15:43:27.10717811 +0000 UTC m=+507600.927118816 (5m56.313901198s ago)

This is the relevant part of torrc:

Address ********
ORPort 29013 IPv4Only
AddressDisableIPv6 1

I tried Address with both the public IP address and the domain name. Neither works.

Funny thing is that Tor is working fine using either its internal SocksPort or using the bridge address in a Tor browser.

Searching for “Bridge address is not valid” with duckduckgo gives no results :cry:.

Any idea?

2

This can only be a bug, right? If the bridge address wasn’t valid, it would be impossible to use it in a Tor browser, correct?

3

But because the tor bridge status page says that this bridge is dysfunctional, it won’t be offered to anyone, will it?

The error “Bridge address is not valid” started to emerge after changing ISP. Is the IPv6 causing the trouble?

4

Correct, dysfunctional bridges aren’t distributed.

Is it a dynamic IP? The domain name should work.

1 Like
5

Thank you for taking the time to help.

Yes. It is a dynamic IP. But maybe I expressed myself incorrectly. Tor works with both the public IP address and the domain name. The problem is that the message here is always:

* obfs4 IPv4: dysfunctional
  Error: Bridge address is not valid

which is clearly not good because it means that the bridge is not distributed as you confirmed.

It doesn’t change whatever I do. It was functional before changing ISP. Bizarre isn’t it?

6

Who can tell what causes this message?

* obfs4 IPv4: dysfunctional
  Error: Bridge address is not valid

Is it related to CGNAT? The current ISP cancelled it after my request to do so, but by default it was enabled.

7

Your bridge is publishing an address 192.168.0.x as it’s address. This is a local network address and is not reachable from the internet.

You need to configure the bridge with a public IP address, and have your obfs4 port reachable over internet. I don’t think you’ll be able to do that if you have CGNAT, as you’ll not be able to open any ports. But if you have disabled CGNAT you should be able to do it.

8

Thank you for taking the time to help.

That would explain everything. Can you tell me where you see that?

9

Can you tell me where you see that?

I saw it in the rdsys server (our bridge distribution system), but is not something people can look into themselves. The IP of the bridges is not public.

10

Interesting!

Can you check again?