[tor-bugs] #18994 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Tor crashes after tor browser update running bridge mode in Windows

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#18994: Tor crashes after tor browser update running bridge mode in Windows
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 Reporter:  eli                       |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect                    |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  tor broser, bridge mode   |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by teor):

 Replying to [comment:5 eli]:
 > comment by teor:
 > > Your Tor is running as a bridge relay using the Tor Browser bundle
 > on Windows.
 > > I'm not sure if that's something we support.
 > > Where are those instructions from?
 >
 > Nowhere.  Based on my experience running windows bridges in previous
 versions of tor I assumed that the same could be done in tor browser 4+.
 I guess I should've taken the hint when torrc-defaults no longer had any
 suggestions for bridge lines.  I did ask about this at
 help at rt.torproject.org before I learned that it had been shut down.
 >
 > FWIW: I'd bought a low-power box intending to dedicate it to running
 bridges 24/7, assuming that I could load a linux distro onto it.  Turns
 out that's not true; the CPU/graphics chips, which are hardwired in, can't
 load Debian or even run it from a live USB or CD.  So as long as I'm using
 that box I'll have to run tor for windows.
 >
 > The other reason that I thought I should be able to run a bridge mode
 under tor browser is the windows bridges I'm seeing in .../server-
 descriptors/ .

 Do you mean bridges, or relays?

 Bridges are relays with `BridgeRelay 1` set in their torrc, and they don't
 appear in the standard set of Tor network descriptors.

 The supported way of running a bridge or relay on Windows is using the
 expert bundle linked from
 https://www.torproject.org/download/download.html.en

 > (Admittedly a small number: currently less than 100. I haven't been able
 to make the time to extract previous numbers from archives.  Tor browser
 in client mode is excellent; but are devs moving toward bridge mode being
 enabled in *nix only?)

 No, we are happy for people to run relays or bridges on Windows, but it's
 not a very common configuration. So we sometimes have trouble debugging
 and maintaining it.

 We would love people to test relays and bridges on Windows and help
 improve support for them.

 > > It's also worth noting that you just leaked your bridge's IP address,
 > so it might be worth getting another IP address if it's static.
 >
 > That may be because I've been testing different configurations, and not
 paying attention to DNS leakage. Could it be because I'm enabling
 SafeLogging 1 during tests?

 Do you mean `SafeLogging 0`?
 `SafeLogging 1` is the default, and hides client IP addresses in some log
 messages.
 But it doesn't hide bridge IP addresses, see #19060 for a suggested fix
 for this.

 > > It looks like your torrc is not set up in a way that Tor Browser can
 > > find the ControlPort. Is the ControlPort on 9150 where Tor Browser
 > > expects it to be?
 >
 > Yes, that's the error msg about half the time. I was able to use
 ControlPortWriteToFile to identify the control port in previous
 configurations (I recall it was 9150, but I killed that log and may be
 misremembering.) In the few configurations I was able to (too quickly) run
 this past week, that line hasn't been producing output.

 Why not set a static ControlPort using `ControlPort 9150`?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/18994#comment:6>
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