[tor-project] Anti-censorship team monthly report: September 2019

[Philipp Winter]

Hi everyone,

Here's what the anti-censorship team has been up to in September:

Snowflake
=========

- Snowflake will be part of the upcoming Windows version for Tor
  Browser: <https://bugs.torproject.org/25483>

- Moved from the Chrome WebRTC standalone library to the Pion/WebRTC
  library in our proxies and clients.

obfs4
=====

* Published a prototype of sharknado: a flow obfuscator for obfs4 (and
  other pluggable transports).  Sharknado is a net.Conn wrapper that
  injects padding traffic to thwart traffic classification attacks.
  Here's some more info: <https://bugs.torproject.org/30716#comment:10>

* Improved obfs4 bridge setup guides.  Thanks to several volunteers who
  spotted issues in our guides and contributed new guides!

* Updated our obfs4 Docker image to the new Debian buster.  Made our
  image's "latest" tag point to the latest version, which is currently
  0.2: <https://bugs.torproject.org/31692>
  Thanks to a volunteer, we now have a list of usability issues that we
  will tackle soon: <https://bugs.torproject.org/31834>

BridgeDB
========

* Removed the email link to frontdesk at tpo from BridgeDB's landing page
  and added links to our documentation:
  <https://bugs.torproject.org/28533>
  Released BridgeDB version 0.8.2 after the merge.

* Worked on syncing BridgeDB's usage metrics over to the metrics team:
  <https://bugs.torproject.org/19332>

* Made lots of progress on updating BridgeDB's requirements.txt file:
  <https://bugs.torproject.org/29484>  Got to a point where all unit
  tests pass with up-to-date libraries.

* Started working on a specification for BridgeDB's usage metrics:
  <https://bugs.torproject.org/31780>

* Started experimenting with a language switcher for BridgeDB:
  <https://bugs.torproject.org/26543>

* BridgeDB's assignments.log file are now archived by CollecTor again:
  <https://collector.torproject.org/archive/bridge-pool-assignments/>
  This allows bridge operators to see over what mechanism their bridges
  are distributed: HTTPS, email, moat, or manual.
  <https://bugs.torproject.org/29480>

GetTor
======

* GetTor now uses the Internet Archive and a Google Drive folder to
  distribute Tor Browser links.  Give it a shot by sending an email to
  gettor at torproject.org and write "windows", "osx", or "linux" in the
  email's body.

* Updated documentation and added nagios check to monitor GetTor's email
  responder.

Outreach
========

* Worked with new obfs4 bridge operators who set up a bridge as part of
  our bridge campaign:
  <https://blog.torproject.org/run-tor-bridges-defend-open-internet>
  So far, we are counting 82 new bridges.  Thanks to everyone who
  participated!

* Provided an NGO with private obfs4 bridges for distribution among its
  users.  We are working with a set of operators to set up new,
  reliable, and fast private bridges, so we can help other NGOs:
  <https://bugs.torproject.org/28526>

Miscellaneous
=============

* Deployed a set of new default obfs4 bridges thanks to Tobias Pulls
  from Karlstad University: <https://bugs.torproject.org/31164>

* Fixed a number existing papers and added a WebSci'18 paper to
  CensorBib: <https://censorbib.nymity.ch>

* Fixed outdated documentation on "BridgeDistribution" in tor's man
  page: <https://bugs.torproject.org/31807>