Dishonest Tor relay math question - tor-talk is to lazy

PrivacyArms privacyarms at protonmail.com
Thu Oct 7 13:43:19 PDT 2021


Dear Cypherpunks community,

I came across a post on the Whonix forum recently. Since I am also interested in this question I copied it here:
https://forums.whonix.org/t/math-behind-honest-tor-nodes/12464
http://forums.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/t/math-behind-honest-tor-nodes/12464

The question (edited):
How can I calculate how much impact X honest Tor relays have?
Is it better to calculate with bandwidth consumed (250Gbps), despite the number of relays (~7000)?

Basically, I want to get the mathematical equation to this statement:
I run X Tor relays at Y Mb/s each and by doing so I secure Z % of the Tor network!
Starting thoughts:
- Each “normal” route has three nodes involved: Guard, Middle, Exit
- I am aware of guard pinning and vanguard protection for middle relay pinning
- Maybe it is easier to assume an infinite usage time of the network to eliminate guard and vanguard pinning
- I guess the best is to assume a scenario with 1%, 5%, 10%, etc. dishonest relays

My take on this:
Tor has approximately 7000 relays.
If I consider a number of 5% malicious relays, this would be: 350
My calculation:
(1/(7000/350))*(1/(7000/349))*(1/(7000/348))
= 0.000123931
= 0.0123931%
1) Is my approach correct?
2) Not every relay has the same bandwidth. How could I change the calculation to make it more realistic?
3) How can I add the effect of guard fixation?
4) How can I include the effect of mid-node fixation by the vanguard?

I would love to hear your thoughts about it and a concrete math equation would be amazing.
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