[tor-bugs] #6821 [Tor bundles/installation]: TBB startup script should clear env vars which TorBrowserButton would read

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki torproject-admin at torproject.org
Wed Sep 12 20:00:24 UTC 2012


#6821: TBB startup script should clear env vars which TorBrowserButton would read
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 Reporter:  rransom                   |          Owner:  erinn
     Type:  defect                    |         Status:  new  
 Priority:  normal                    |      Milestone:       
Component:  Tor bundles/installation  |        Version:       
 Keywords:                            |         Parent:       
   Points:                            |   Actualpoints:       
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Comment(by rransom):

 Replying to [comment:1 mikeperry]:
 > I dunno. I designed TOR_TRANSPROXY in #6254 so that a command line user
 could easily override the use of Vidalia+Tor...

 I think that most users do not understand environment variables (based on
 the fact that some ''developers'' of Tor products have not understood them
 in the recent past).  I think that users who do understand environment
 variables can edit the script (or write a replacement from scratch)
 themselves, and users who do not understand them should use canned scripts
 prepared (or at least reviewed) by people who do understand them.

 > I actually think our startup script should be more friendly for people
 who want to create wrappers for alternate launch modes for things like
 Tails or for use with a system tor instance.

 If a user unintentionally runs TBB with the `TOR_TRANSPROXY` environment
 variable set, they have lost their anonymity completely.  If Tails or some
 other product which configures TorBrowser to use a system Tor cannot pass
 the `TOR_TRANSPROXY` environment variable through the `start-tor-browser`
 script, they will have to ship their own script -- which they would have
 to do anyway in order to launch the browser without an extraneous instance
 of Vidalia.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6821#comment:2>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
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