guardianproject/haven

Onion service should have a random prefix

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#47 opened on Dec 19, 2017

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enhancementhelp wantedlow-priority

Description

Until next gen onion services are live, the actual onion addresses aren't private from HSDir nodes. So it's possible that Haven onion services could get discovered by an attacker, giving them access to all of the evidence logs.

The easiest way to thwart this is to generate a random string and prefix all the URLs with it. So instead of starting with just http://blahblahblah.onion:8080/, the URLs should start with http://blahblahblah.onion:8080/randomstring/. This way, if an attacker discovered the onion service, they won't be able to view the logs without guessing the value of randomstring -- which is essentially a random password. This is how OnionShare URLs works.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javaandroid
Domain
security
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Android development basicsUnderstanding of Tor onion services
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
45
Research direction
First, scan the codebase for how the onion URL is generated and used. Check for any existing URL prefix or path handling. Likely files include activities or services that construct HTTP URLs. Also investigate the Tor service setup in the app. The issue is similar to OnionShare's approach; reviewing their implementation may provide guidance. No linked PRs or recent comments to draw from.