# Obsf4 handshake failed: EOF

**URL:** <https://forum.torproject.org/t/obsf4-handshake-failed-eof/10507>\
**Category:** Relay Operator\
**Created:** [December 6, 2023, 1:38pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/obsf4-handshake-failed-eof/10507 "2023-12-06T13:38:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PacsoT](https://forum.torproject.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@PacsoT](https://forum.torproject.org/u/PacsoT)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 1:38pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/obsf4-handshake-failed-eof/10507/1 "2023-12-06T13:38:20Z")

</div>

Hi!

Semi- newbie here. I try to operate a obfs4 bridge on an old single core laptop running the current FreeBSD, and I am getting mixed results.

**First of all:** I do not have a fixed IPv4 address. My ISP rotates my address every couple days. I know that I will never get the stable flag, but is it good for the network that I operate a bridge this way?

**Second of all:**  
My bridge advertises it’s bandwidth around 1MiB/s. However I do not have any throttling on the line, It could easily do the 100Mbit/s line speed that the laptop has.  
If I don’t get the stable flag, Will I only get 1-2-3 clients a day to serve?

**And Third:**  
After a few days, of moderate use, and observing a few unique clients, the OBSF4 log starts to fill up with these lines:

```auto
2023/12/06 03:16:04 [INFO]: obfs4([scrubbed]:14798) - new connection
2023/12/06 03:16:06 [WARN]: obfs4([scrubbed]:14798) - handshake failed: read: read: connection reset by peer
2023/12/06 03:16:16 [INFO]: obfs4([scrubbed]:12514) - new connection
2023/12/06 03:16:17 [WARN]: obfs4([scrubbed]:12514) - handshake failed: read: read: connection reset by peer
2023/12/06 03:16:27 [INFO]: obfs4([scrubbed]:16100) - new connection
2023/12/06 03:16:29 [WARN]: obfs4([scrubbed]:16100) - handshake failed: read: read: connection reset by peer
2023/12/06 06:56:21 [INFO]: obfs4([scrubbed]:63608) - new connection
2023/12/06 06:56:31 [WARN]: obfs4([scrubbed]:63608) - handshake failed: EOF
2023/12/06 08:59:01 [INFO]: obfs4([scrubbed]:35076) - new connection
2023/12/06 08:59:04 [WARN]: obfs4([scrubbed]:35076) - handshake failed: EOF

```

And soon after my bridge goes offline:

```auto
obfs4: dysfunctional
  Bandwidth Ratio: 1.457227
  Error: timed out waiting for bridge descriptor

```

Do you happen to have any advice where to start looking?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PacsoT](https://forum.torproject.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@PacsoT](https://forum.torproject.org/u/PacsoT)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 11:41am UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/obsf4-handshake-failed-eof/10507/2 "2023-12-22T11:41:36Z")

</div>

I mean, I get it. If you want to host anything regarding TOR, you need to know your shit, but the _complete_ lack of responses on this forum is quite discouraging.

Not a single moderator, or tor developer can’t chime in? Where is everyone?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gus](https://forum.torproject.org/user_avatar/forum.torproject.org/gus/32/16_2.png) [@gus](https://forum.torproject.org/u/gus)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2023, 12:02pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/obsf4-handshake-failed-eof/10507/3 "2023-12-22T12:02:14Z")

</div>

Hello @PacsoT,  
Apologies for the late response.

> [@PacsoT](#):
>
> **First of all:** I do not have a fixed IPv4 address. My ISP rotates my address every couple days. I know that I will never get the stable flag, but is it good for the network that I operate a bridge this way?

> [@PacsoT](#):
>
> **Second of all:**  
> My bridge advertises it’s bandwidth around 1MiB/s. However I do not have any throttling on the line, It could easily do the 100Mbit/s line speed that the laptop has.  
> If I don’t get the stable flag, Will I only get 1-2-3 clients a day to serve?

The “stable” flag is not the biggest issue. The issue here is the bridge distributor user experience. Every time a bridge updates its IP address, users are required to obtain a new bridge via bridge distributors such as moat, telegram, email, https, etc. Because of that, it’s very likely that you won’t see a lot of users if your bridge changes the IP very often.

If you would like to help more users, please consider running a Tor snowflake standalone proxy. I believe @egypcio has packed snowflake for FreeBSD, which you can install by running `pkg install snowflake-tor`.  
Alternatively, you have the option to build it from the source or deploy it as a Docker container. More information and instructions can be found at the Tor Community portal: [Tor Project | Standalone Snowflake proxy](https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/snowflake/standalone/).

> [@PacsoT](#):
>
> And soon after my bridge goes offline:

Could you upgrade your bridge tor version? I see it’s running `Tor 0.4.8.5 on FreeBSD`.  
And please check your obfs4 version, maybe you’re running an old obfs4proxy package.

Finally, have you tried to connect to your bridge using Tor Browser? Did it work?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PacsoT](https://forum.torproject.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@PacsoT](https://forum.torproject.org/u/PacsoT)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.torproject.org/t/obsf4-handshake-failed-eof/10507/4 "2024-02-03T17:00:40Z")

</div>

Thank you gus for the kind help. As it turns out a new FreeBsd major release is out, so I’ll just rebuild the laptop from scratch.  
I found some other nasty log entries that I couldn’t find any useful info on it, so I switched to operating a simple Guards / middle relay for the time being.

```auto
Bridge 50B46DFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFPENISFFFFFFFFAF3C7 advertises:

* vanilla: functional
  Last tested: 2024-02-03 04:35:41.584618348 +0000 UTC (11h37m0.999742638s ago)

```

Thank you for the help, I’ll report back if I end up updating the current obfs4 proxy.