Subject: New restricted exit relay (HTTP/HTTPS only) received BadExit flag – seeking diagnosis

Support Relay Operator
1

Hello everyone,

I am a new Tor relay operator. I recently converted my relay into a restricted exit relay that only allows HTTP and HTTPS traffic (ports 80 and 443). I am using OLA Krutrim

After operating as an exit for just a few days, my relay was assigned the BadExit flag. I would greatly appreciate any help understanding why this happened and how to resolve it.

Relay Information

  • Nickname: kanishkbakshi
  • Fingerprint: 5E31D455EB9E6ED5429EC682156DC38A3EBD0E1E
  • Platform: Tor 0.4.9.8 on Ubuntu 22.04
  • Provider: A cloud VPS provider (Asia)
  • Current flags: BadExit Exit Fast HSDir Running Stable V2Dir Valid
  • Uptime: 45+ days (no restarts)
  • Consensus weight: ~1600
  • Advertised bandwidth: ~6.17 MiB/s

Exit Policy

ExitPolicy reject *:25
ExitPolicy reject *:465
ExitPolicy reject *:587
ExitPolicy reject *:2525
ExitPolicy accept *:80
ExitPolicy accept *:443
ExitPolicy reject :

Diagnostics Already Performed

HTTP test:

curl -I http://example.com

-> HTTP/1.1 200 OK

HTTPS test:

curl -I https://example.com

-> HTTP/2 200

Google HTTPS test:

curl -I https://www.google.com

-> HTTP/2 200

DNS test:

host example.com

Returns valid IPv4 and IPv6 records.

Tor logs:

sudo journalctl -u tor --since "14 days ago" | grep -Ei "warn|error|exit"

Returns no warnings or errors.

iptables:
Default OUTPUT policy is ACCEPT. No rules are blocking outbound HTTP/HTTPS traffic.

Networking Setup

The VM uses a private IP address with a floating public IP. External checks confirm that the advertised OR address matches the public IP.

Questions

  1. Is there a reliable way to determine exactly what triggered the BadExit flag?
  2. Could this have been caused by Tor’s exit scanners, or is it more likely related to my cloud provider’s networking configuration (floating IP / NAT)?
  3. What additional diagnostics would you recommend?

Any insights, similar experiences, or suggestions would be very helpful.

Thank you in advance!
kanishkbakshi