This seems like the appropriate list to ask on, so here goes.. I've been considering writing what I've been calling a TORdialer.. Something that would basically connect to the DB which stores the hash files for the hidden services links and basically index the entire DB with the intent of creating a definitive index of all hidden services points in the TOR network. I know this probably sounds like I have fundamental misunderstanding of how this whole process works which is why I'm emailing this list. I'll probably also forward this email to the TOR dev mailing list. If anyone has any reason this absolutely will not work in any way, shape, or form, I'd like to hear about it. What I'm figuring I'd do is start TOR and attempt to connect to a bunch of known .onion addresses, sniff that traffic and attempt to gather where/when TOR connects to this hash db I've read about on the hidden services docs.
From there write a script to query the DB myself and perhaps figure out how to download the entire db, then write a script to convert all the individual hashes into valid .onion addresses.
Again, I may have a completely naive view of how the system works, just from reading the past two days this is my idea. Any input would be appreciated, I gather most of you folks know far more about cryptography and anonymity systems like TOR than I could dream of. Fire away, tell me this won't work. Scott