[guardian-dev] Orbot hidden services

[Nathan of Guardian]

Michael Rogers <michael at briarproject.org> wrote:

>That would be great! What I'm looking for is pretty basic:
 the user, of course).

All of what you proposed is definitely possible and plausible in the next update of Orbot coming in May. The main issue with Hidden Services setup is the variable delay from requesting one, to receiving the onion. This can easily be handled by an Intent result, but the calling app should consider the provisioning process to be highly asynchronous.

>
>But everything except (1) is non-essential. So how can I create a
>hidden service with the current version?

Here is a bit of sample code that shows what is possible now:

https://github.com/guardianproject/OrbotTalk/blob/master/src/info/guardianproject/messenger/OrbotTalkActivity.java#L231

In short:

1) request hidden service using the intent args above

2) request Orbot to start (see OrbotHelper class in OnionKit project) to make sure it is running. You may need to manually stop and start Orbot as well.

3) call the same request again as in #1 until you get a proper result callback with the .onion

Obviously this is a bit kludgy, which is why we don't promote the current partial implementation.

The other important thing to note about mobile HS is that if your IP address changes, say from WiFi to 3G, it could make your current HS unreachable. It may make sense to generate a new HS per network or unique IP. I am hoping we can improve Tor's ability to handle HS with dynamic IPs, but for now this is the reality.

+n