Onion peering between INN and Rocksolid Light

[Syber Shock]

I need to be able to explain succinctly how a INN peer should connect
to a Rocksolid Light peer if such is possible.

Rocksolid Light (rslight) peers and syncs using client commands instead
of innfeed. It is very simple to configure. Rocksolid Light will peer
with any NNTP peer that has user account authentication. Enter the
credentials into the rslight config, list the desired newsgroups, and
away we go. Rslight uses client commands to check, push and pull
articles.

But what if a sysop using INN wants to peer with rslight? Does INN have
facility for this at user level? If I sync rslight with a INN peer, only
the rslight peer is doing the synchronization of articles. Does INN have
the facility to do the inverse with a rslight peer?

I configure the rslight cron job to synchronize at randomized
intervals. Ultimately my strategy is to check and synchronize articles
at random intervals from ten to thirty minutes over a tor hidden onion
circuit. I would expect a remote peer to do similarly. Randomization of
the synchronization times is a hedge against traffic analysis. Delays
of a few minutes before forwarding buffers connecting clients from
message timing correlation. It is not perfect but it helps and it
increases the cost for eavesdroppers.

The hidden onion circuit is an extra layer of security for the
connections. Each peer I link to would use a different hidden onion
address, and I would give a different hidden onion address to each such
peer. This allows every peer to hide physical location. It also allows
every peer to have a secure, private pipe to only one other peer.

Firstly I need to know how, if possible, to configure INN to
synchronize via client authentication and client commands, without
respect to the kind of network transport.

Secondly I need ideas on how to configure INN to use multiple Tor
hidden onion services, and connect INN to unique remote onion services
on a per-peer basis.

Please advise with concrete information.

[Retro Guy]

On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 01:58:43 -0500

Post by Syber Shock
I need to be able to explain succinctly how a INN peer should connect
to a Rocksolid Light peer if such is possible.
Rocksolid Light (rslight) peers and syncs using client commands instead
of innfeed. It is very simple to configure. Rocksolid Light will peer
with any NNTP peer that has user account authentication. Enter the
credentials into the rslight config, list the desired newsgroups, and
away we go. Rslight uses client commands to check, push and pull
articles.

Correct. rslight acts as a news client (nnrpd client), and also as a nnrpd
server. MODE STREAM is not supported in rslight at this time.

Post by Syber Shock
But what if a sysop using INN wants to peer with rslight? Does INN have
facility for this at user level? If I sync rslight with a INN peer, only
the rslight peer is doing the synchronization of articles. Does INN have
the facility to do the inverse with a rslight peer?

I am not aware of any feature of INN that allows it to act as a nnrpd client.
That doesn't mean there is no such feature, just that I am not aware of it.

Post by Syber Shock
I configure the rslight cron job to synchronize at randomized
intervals. Ultimately my strategy is to check and synchronize articles
at random intervals from ten to thirty minutes over a tor hidden onion
circuit. I would expect a remote peer to do similarly. Randomization of
the synchronization times is a hedge against traffic analysis. Delays
of a few minutes before forwarding buffers connecting clients from
message timing correlation. It is not perfect but it helps and it
increases the cost for eavesdroppers.

This should be simple with just shell scripts.

Post by Syber Shock
The hidden onion circuit is an extra layer of security for the
connections. Each peer I link to would use a different hidden onion
address, and I would give a different hidden onion address to each such
peer. This allows every peer to hide physical location. It also allows
every peer to have a secure, private pipe to only one other peer.

Makes sense.

Post by Syber Shock
Firstly I need to know how, if possible, to configure INN to
synchronize via client authentication and client commands, without
respect to the kind of network transport.
Secondly I need ideas on how to configure INN to use multiple Tor
hidden onion services, and connect INN to unique remote onion services
on a per-peer basis.
Please advise with concrete information.

[Syber Shock]

On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 04:46:51 -0700

Post by Retro Guy

Post by Syber Shock
I configure the rslight cron job to synchronize at randomized
intervals. Ultimately my strategy is to check and synchronize
articles at random intervals from ten to thirty minutes over a tor
hidden onion circuit. I would expect a remote peer to do similarly.
Randomization of the synchronization times is a hedge against
traffic analysis. Delays of a few minutes before forwarding buffers
connecting clients from message timing correlation. It is not
perfect but it helps and it increases the cost for eavesdroppers.

This should be simple with just shell scripts.

My setup avoids crontab and uses systemd init to spawn. Maybe a little
cleanup for install path vars would make this useful.

$ cat /etc/systemd/system/rslight-cron.service

[Unit]
Description=rslight nntp cron
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Service]
User=root
Type=simple
TimeoutSec=0
WorkingDirectory=/home/rslight/cron
PIDFile=/var/run/rslight_cron_service.pid
ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/rslight/cron/rslight.cron.bash
KillMode=process Restart=always
RestartSec=31s
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

$ cat /home/rslight/cron/rslight.cron.bash

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Cron loop randomizer for Rocksolid Light.
# Adjust the paths to match your installation.
# Bundled with a systemd service control script.

counter="0"
crondir="/home/rslight/cron"
cronlog="$crondir/rslight.cron.log"
timelog="$crondir/rslight.cron.timestamp.log"

while :
do

# logging timestamp for begin of cron job
date -u >> "$timelog

counter="$((counter+1))"
echo "$counter" >> "$cronlog"

cd /var/www/public_html/forum/spoolnews
bash -lc "php8.2 /home/rslight/config/scripts/cron.php" >> "$cronlog"
echo "--------" >> "$cronlog"
echo "" >> "$cronlog"

# timestamp for end of cron job in timestamp only file
date -u >> "$timelog"
echo "--------" >> "$timelog"

# rotate log files
tail -c 65536 "$cronlog" > "$cronlog.temp"
mv "$cronlog.temp" "$cronlog"
tail -c 65536 "$timelog" > "$timelog.temp"
mv "$timelog.temp" "$timelog"

# random 10-30 minute pause in loop
randpoz="$RANDOM$RANDOM"
randpoz="$((randpoz%1200))"
randpoz="$((randpoz+600))"
sleep "$randpoz.600600600600600600" # easy to see with ps grep

done # while true

[Anonymous]

Post by Syber Shock
My setup avoids crontab and uses systemd init to spawn

What is the reason that you use systemd ? Or just by chance ?

[rek2 hispagatos]

Post by Anonymous

Post by Syber Shock
My setup avoids crontab and uses systemd init to spawn

What is the reason that you use systemd ? Or just by chance ?

and here comes the long old with new accents
vim vs emacs
linux vs *bsd
kde vs gnome
tiling vs non-tiling
....
Systemd vs Initd
xorg vs wayland

:D :D

/me goes to prepare usenet popcorn

Happy Hacking
ReK2

[Ivo Gandolfo]

Post by Retro Guy
On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 01:58:43 -0500

Post by Syber Shock
But what if a sysop using INN wants to peer with rslight? Does INN have
facility for this at user level? If I sync rslight with a INN peer, only
the rslight peer is doing the synchronization of articles. Does INN have
the facility to do the inverse with a rslight peer?

I am not aware of any feature of INN that allows it to act as a nnrpd client.
That doesn't mean there is no such feature, just that I am not aware of it.

You can connect as server (with mode stream) or with client (with IHAVE
and other permission). You can choose both way.

Post by Retro Guy

Post by Syber Shock
The hidden onion circuit is an extra layer of security for the
connections. Each peer I link to would use a different hidden onion
address, and I would give a different hidden onion address to each such
peer. This allows every peer to hide physical location. It also allows
every peer to have a secure, private pipe to only one other peer.

Makes sense.

Pay attention! run a news server take a lot of bandwich. One peer with
my server (full feed) take _at least_ 2GB/day in/at least 500MB/day out.
(all hyearchies, nothing excluded) It's realistic run them over a (poor)
bandwich network? IMHO no.

Post by Retro Guy

Post by Syber Shock
Firstly I need to know how, if possible, to configure INN to
synchronize via client authentication and client commands, without
respect to the kind of network transport.
Secondly I need ideas on how to configure INN to use multiple Tor
hidden onion services, and connect INN to unique remote onion services
on a per-peer basis.
Please advise with concrete information.

just use correctly the readers.conf permission, or setup the feed.
innfeed not have much capabilities, but a little setup with sucks or
other software to jump, or a batch, a feed it's possible.

If you want to test, my server have areally a TOR service active, but
experimental.

(to all other user's here: WARNING! it's experimental! service are not
garantuee at this time. If you want to test them, feel free, but
remember to report to my email any bug/malfunction you found!)

node: bofhteamhroxbmd6pxbjrg6egqrnnu2vj7vlxpcnb3ypk56devuyj6yd.onion


Sincerely

[Retro Guy]

Post by Retro Guy
On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 01:58:43 -0500

Post by Syber Shock
snip
But what if a sysop using INN wants to peer with rslight? Does INN have
facility for this at user level? If I sync rslight with a INN peer, only
the rslight peer is doing the synchronization of articles. Does INN have
the facility to do the inverse with a rslight peer?

I am not aware of any feature of INN that allows it to act as a nnrpd client.
That doesn't mean there is no such feature, just that I am not aware of it.

I had forgotten that I used to use 'pullnews' before ever starting on rslight.
I would sort of peer inn servers this way because I had no idea what I was
doing :)

Anyway, pullnews will allow you to poll a nnrpd server and feed to another, and
it works quite reliably.

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/docs/pullnews.html

I believe there are other programs that can do this or similar, but I have
not used them.

[Julien ÉLIE]

Hi Retro Guy,

Post by Retro Guy
Anyway, pullnews will allow you to poll a nnrpd server and feed to
another, and it works quite reliably.
https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/docs/pullnews.html

Yup! Thanks to recent discussions in news.admin.peering which permitted
to greatly improve pullnews and fix a few bugs.

[Retro Guy]

Post by Retro Guy
On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 01:58:43 -0500

Post by Syber Shock
snip
Firstly I need to know how, if possible, to configure INN to
synchronize via client authentication and client commands, without
respect to the kind of network transport.

See my previous message in this thread (pullnews).

Post by Retro Guy

Post by Syber Shock
Secondly I need ideas on how to configure INN to use multiple Tor
hidden onion services, and connect INN to unique remote onion services
on a per-peer basis.

Multiple instances of pullnews run from however you want (cron, systemd,
whatever) should do this.

I also have a script provided to me by the co-creator of rocksolid.* that
makes it pretty simple to connect anything to a local port and have it
communicate with a remote .onion address. Just let me know if you'd like
a copy.

Post by Retro Guy

Post by Syber Shock
Please advise with concrete information.

My head is full of concrete, so not a problem.