build(deps): update tor from v0.4.7.13 to v0.4.8.7

[theborakompanioni]

Updates local tor from v0.4.7.13 to v0.4.8.7.

Release notes: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/commit/51cefce3e689461492d22275b0bcac36db61ac8e

[AdamISZ]

Seems like a really worthwhile update.

How does the interaction between updated and non-updated Tor connections to onion services work, I wonder?

Is it just, if you are an unupdated client, then you might be OK, but if DOS connections kick in and you can't provide a PoW, then you just won't be able to connect?

[kristapsk]

ACK c0dbd61

[theborakompanioni]

Seems like a really worthwhile update.

How does the interaction between updated and non-updated Tor connections to onion services work, I wonder?

Is it just, if you are an unupdated client, then you might be OK, but if DOS connections kick in and you can't provide a PoW, then you just won't be able to connect?

I suppose so, but I don't know exactly.

[...] This introduces several torrc options prefixed with "HiddenServicePoW" in order to control this feature. By default, this is disabled.

At first glance, it seems, clients that dont provide PoW when requested, are de-prioritized.
You can find the whole proposal here: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/torspec/-/blob/main/proposals/327-pow-over-intro.txt

[kristapsk]

Related Wasabi Wallet discussion about upgrading to Tor v0.4.8.x - WalletWasabi/WalletWasabi#10833.

[theborakompanioni]

Rebased and update to v0.4.8.6 (formerly v0.4.8.4).

[AdamISZ]

Update on this; I posted this on nostr but that can be flaky, so copy-pasting:

(Also before the post, two things: it's 0.4.8.6 specifically; the bug was still in 0.4.8.5 apparently. And, it seems the update is specifically needed for the onion service side, so, in our case, the directory node, not so much the client (though I'm not 100% sure).

---

A heads-up to people who are using Tor onion services in their code.

Pre- the latest release (0.4.8.6) of Tor, there was a serious bug causing connection issues. I am not sure that this is the reason that Joinmarket's onion messaging has been having serious reliability issues, but it might be. Either way, this was a problem so if your Tor version is still lower than above and you serve onion services, I suggest you fix it ASAP:

Quote:

"According to our analysis, expiry of ALL introduction points, from both descriptors, all at once, causes an availability issue. Every time a consensus is received (roughly every hour on average), the service is not available for up to two minutes, as the descriptor cache of the clients is valid for two minutes. Until the clients load a new descriptor, the service is not available.
In addition, the expiry of introduction points may lead to unnecessary hidden service descriptor uploads, which may affect the performance of both TOR clients and relays."

From: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/issues/40858

https://snort.social/e/nevent1qqsfun99t4ts5pfpn368t43aq5fclw0ef5vu2594009q4g7ju732vacpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6vp39e3x7mr59ehkyum9wfmx2u30qgsxwkuyle67y94tj378gw8w2xw2wa6nwmwlqhddlwnz0z7sztsaw2qrqsqqqqqpptrmxv

[AdamISZ]

Oh, slight qualification on my previous post: I forgot that makers also serve onions, so logically they must update for the same reason, though I don't know if they were having similar availability issues, probably the 1 hour doesn't kick in for them .. well, anyway, everyone should just update :)

[kristapsk]

I'm having trouble testing this right now. Currently from my development laptop JM scripts fail to connect to any directory nodes both with Tor v0.4.8.6 and v0.4.7.14.

[kristapsk]

Configured directory nodes - 3kxw6lf5vf6y26emzwgibzhrzhmhqiw6ekrek3nqfjjmhwznb2moonad.onion:5222, jmdirjmioywe2s5jad7ts6kgcqg66rj6wujj6q77n6wbdrgocqwexzid.onion:5222, bqlpq6ak24mwvuixixitift4yu42nxchlilrcqwk2ugn45tdclg42qid.onion:5222.

I''m running bitcoin-qt in parallel, it has no problems connecting to onion peers.

[AdamISZ]

Configured directory nodes - 3kxw6lf5vf6y26emzwgibzhrzhmhqiw6ekrek3nqfjjmhwznb2moonad.onion:5222, jmdirjmioywe2s5jad7ts6kgcqg66rj6wujj6q77n6wbdrgocqwexzid.onion:5222, bqlpq6ak24mwvuixixitift4yu42nxchlilrcqwk2ugn45tdclg42qid.onion:5222.

I''m running bitcoin-qt in parallel, it has no problems connecting to onion peers.

Confirmed: Everything works perfectly at first, but after a few hours after the directory node was restarted (in this case I think about 3 hours), the same pattern is repeating, something like (a couple of extra debug messages, but same pattern):

2023-09-21 14:14:35,916 [INFO]  Updating status to connected for peer 3kxw6lf5vf6y26emzwgibzhrzhmhqiw6ekrek3nqfjjmhwznb2moonad.onion:5222.
2023-09-21 14:14:35,917 [INFO]  We, xxx.onion:5222, are calling the handshake callback as client.
2023-09-21 14:14:35,918 [INFO]  Sending this handshake: {"app-name": "joinmarket", "directory": false, "location-string": "xxx.onion:5222", "proto-ver": 5, "features": {}, "nick": "yyy", "network": "mainnet"} to peer 3kxw6lf5vf6y26emzwgibzhrzhmhqiw6ekrek3nqfjjmhwznb2moonad.onion:5222
Was sending the handshake as client successful?:  True
2023-09-21 14:14:36,075 [DEBUG]  We got a disconnect event: 3kxw6lf5vf6y26emzwgibzhrzhmhqiw6ekrek3nqfjjmhwznb2moonad.onion:5222
2023-09-21 14:14:36,076 [INFO]  Going to reattempt connection to 3kxw6lf5vf6y26emzwgibzhrzhmhqiw6ekrek3nqfjjmhwznb2moonad.onion:5222 in 103.515625 secon

etc.

This pattern has been largely unchanged for a long time afaict. I'm slightly surprised that it is not related to the aforementioned bug, but it seems, it is not.

[AdamISZ]

ACK e37f8b4

Checked the hash manually.

@kristapsk please merge if it's OK with you (leave it for you since it's your area).

[theborakompanioni]

ACK e37f8b4

Checked the hash manually.

Aaaand v0.4.8.7 is already out 🙈
Release 4 days ago (2023-09-25).

From the release notes

Major bugfixes (conflux):
- Fix an issue that prevented us from pre-building more conflux sets
after existing sets had been used. Fixes bug 40862; bugfix
on 0.4.8.1-alpha.

Update?

[kristapsk]

@AdamISZ Will get back to this next week.

[kristapsk]

ACK e37f8b4
Checked the hash manually.

Aaaand v0.4.8.7 is already out 🙈 Release 4 days ago (2023-09-25).

From the release notes

Major bugfixes (conflux):

• Fix an issue that prevented us from pre-building more conflux sets
  after existing sets had been used. Fixes bug 40862; bugfix
  on 0.4.8.1-alpha.

Update?

Yes, I think it makes sense to go for v0.4.8.7 instead of v0.4.8.6.

[theborakompanioni]

Yes, I think it makes sense to go for v0.4.8.7 instead of v0.4.8.6.

Agree. Rebased and force-pushed. With faster intervals between new tor releases, it will probably need an update again before a new JM release anyway. 🙌

[kristapsk]

ACK c08e824