[tor-relays] "When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys"

Hi there.

I found the title of the above blog post highly ironic.

I run a Tor relay (middle and guard node). You appear to be sending
automated "abuse" reports to other ISPS as a result of what is
obviously (well obvious to anyone who studies the network traffic
properly) spoofed source address connections to SSH port 22 on random
servers around the net.

These "abuse" reports cause the ISP hosting the /real/ address of the
spoofed server to do one of two things. Either they just pass the
report on to the server admin for investigation, or they simply shut
down the srevr in question and lock the account of the operator. In
either case the perfectly innocent Tor server admin is highly
inconvenienced and the bad actor(s) doing the spoofing scans get the Tor
relay addresses blacklisted. This is detrimental to the health of the
Tor network.

Please look carefully at your automated abuse reporting system and add
some intelligence to it - preferably by getting a properly skilled
network administrator to look at the traffic /before/ firing off a
spurious report.

(Oh and BTW, SSH scanning at scale is so much part of the background
noise on the 'net that I am astounded that you should pay much
attention to it at all. I don't.)

Best

Mick

ยทยทยท

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Mick Morgan
gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312
blog: baldric.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------

_______________________________________________
tor-relays mailing list
tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays

1 Like

This will fall on deaf ears.

This isn't just an amateur that has innocently activated a script that
sends "reports" automatically. It's one of those trying to build a
protection racket business and the sending of the "reports" is part of
the marketing.

I'd not give them the attention they seek and rather focus on the ISP's
amateurism.

ยทยทยท

_______________________________________________
tor-relays mailing list
tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays

Possibly. Indeed, I grant you, quite probably. But I decided to give
them the benefit of the doubt. And anyway, I felt it right to call them
out on what is a pretty stupid reaction.

Best

Mick

ยทยทยท

On Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:58:32 -0000 tor-operator@urdn.com.ua allegedly wrote:

This will fall on deaf ears.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Mick Morgan
gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312
blog: baldric.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------

_______________________________________________
tor-relays mailing list
tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays