Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol • Hacker News Board

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#61

Post by kokey » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:10 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #37

I'm grateful for the Tunisian revolution. Internet Censorship (including ports disable) is at 0. The court justice has ordered to censor a few pages (because of some reasons) but the Global Internet provider in the country did not accept. The head of this agency is also working that the law prohibits any kind of censorship for any reasons. He was responsible for censoring content in the Ben Ali era, but he now thinks…

I'm not seeing much bad news coming out of Tunisia post revolution. I'm tempted to visit it.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#62

Post by bbrizzi » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:16 PM UTC

Pure speculation here, but would it be possible to use some kind of exotic Content-encoding HTTP header to avoid the DPI checks?

Of course it would also have to be implemented on the server-side but that's another problem.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#63

Post by Luyt » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:17 PM UTC

nkassis wrote: post #58

gsa wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they are dropping all encrypted connections, it doesn't matter what port you use for ssh, it'll be dropped.

How do they know it's encrypted? I mean would they block something that looks like gibberish but was plain text over port 80?

I like that idea. You could encode a block of octets with plain words. "\xC3\x08\x00\x23\xFA" would then actually travel on the wire as "Was named prefer to use the other especially in, every cast a chuckle on neithout getting. Into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual considered!", and be decoded back at the other end. You'd have to use common words so it looks as innocuous as possible.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#64

Post by chernevik » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:18 PM UTC

kiloaper wrote: post #52

humanfromearth wrote: post #32

They control the physical network. As long as they have that control they will be able to do what they want. The only way to deal with these fuckers (not just Iran) is to start using collectively Ipsec or something similar. All SSL movement is just the beginning. I'm sure every big service will try to encrypt it's traffic more and more to protect itself from governments that try to criminalize their users. Forcing co…

>Forcing countries like China, Iran and US to go into dark ages if they don't use the new all encrypted networks. The problem is some governments would be perfectly happy with that. In fact for the most repressive ones it's long term goal. China wants to create a separate internet for Chinese users and they're half way there. They have their own local censored versions of Google, Twitter and Facebook. Soon most inter…

Maybe but they'll lose the productivity gains from networked organizations and communities. China can grow a long way without those gains, but they'll eventually hit a wall.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#65

Post by bwarp » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:21 PM UTC

ajarmoniuk wrote: post #53

bwarp wrote: post #46

This is why good old analogue amateur or personal radio should still be a powerful force for people who are rebelling against their governments and corporate overlords. The Internet is easy to kill, as are digital cell-based radio networks. Proper amateur radio is not. Jamming is not that effective over a large area before anyone suggests that.

but it's easy to triangulate the broadcaster and take measures (imprison, torture, kill). I lived through the communist era in Poland. Amateur radio stations were banned and prosecuted (you would go to jail), even possession of a CB radio was a crime. Things may be similar in Iran.

It's not that easy and there are simple anti-triangulation countermeasures you can use. It's possible to drop decoy transmitters/relays, which are easy enough to knock up and are cheap. You can also use refraction to "bounce" HF radio waves off the ionosphere to mask the source. You can scramble the signals. You can disguise the signals as legitimate but include carrier data. There are lots of ways of hiding what you are doing.

As usual, if you don't take precautions, that will happen.

Pirate radio stations were and still are common in the UK, particularly around London. They move around regularly and broadcast for short periods so it's hard to trace or predict a location.

The same conditions apply here.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#66

Post by AndyJPartridge » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:22 PM UTC

kokey wrote: post #61

csomar wrote: post #37

I'm grateful for the Tunisian revolution. Internet Censorship (including ports disable) is at 0. The court justice has ordered to censor a few pages (because of some reasons) but the Global Internet provider in the country did not accept. The head of this agency is also working that the law prohibits any kind of censorship for any reasons. He was responsible for censoring content in the Ben Ali era, but he now thinks…

I'm not seeing much bad news coming out of Tunisia post revolution. I'm tempted to visit it.

I did last October, from the UK. Cracking price.

The one main memory I have is leaving my iPhone, with my hotel room key-card inside the case, in a Taxi.

The driver searched for me for 30 minutes to return it. Great people, and I love the barter culture.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#67

Post by Spearchucker » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:35 PM UTC

humanfromearth wrote: post #32

They control the physical network. As long as they have that control they will be able to do what they want. The only way to deal with these fuckers (not just Iran) is to start using collectively Ipsec or something similar. All SSL movement is just the beginning. I'm sure every big service will try to encrypt it's traffic more and more to protect itself from governments that try to criminalize their users. Forcing co…

I think that on the Internet TLS and SSL are fast approaching their sell-by dates [1].

We can do secure comms over HTTP - all it takes is a binary protocol like TLV, encrypting that, and implementing a well thought through approach to key management. Ideally something derived from the Needham-Schroeder protocol, but if we take on some lessons from PGP and the like, using timestamps instead of nonces.

The Internet is just a piece of wire - what travels across it is up to us. This goes back to the idea of building platforms rather than applications.

Maybe my ramblings here are a bit too much up in the clouds, but I think I'm going to build something that does secure comms over HTTP...

[1] Iran notwithstanding, the recent TrustWave snooping story shows that SSL is even losing its usefulness inside organisations! If you're interested, the story is here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/09/tustwave_disavows_mi...

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#68

Post by csomar » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:36 PM UTC

kokey wrote: post #61

csomar wrote: post #37

I'm grateful for the Tunisian revolution. Internet Censorship (including ports disable) is at 0. The court justice has ordered to censor a few pages (because of some reasons) but the Global Internet provider in the country did not accept. The head of this agency is also working that the law prohibits any kind of censorship for any reasons. He was responsible for censoring content in the Ben Ali era, but he now thinks…

I'm not seeing much bad news coming out of Tunisia post revolution. I'm tempted to visit it.

It's relatively stable. Politically, it's fine. Economically it is struggling, but not much. Prices for tourists should be reduced as Andy mentioned since it's the recession for hotels and agencies.

Internet is pretty slow (I use a 3G which runs on around 1Mb/sec and costs around $20/month), the infrastructure is poor, the people are either struggling or confused how all these structural problems could get solved.

Not a great place to be in, honestly. If you are in Europe and looking for some Sun, then may be it's a deal for you considering the cost.

If you happen to make a travel, I added my phone number. I'm moving to the capital this summer, and if I happened to purchase a car, I'll take you in a free drive around the capital and Hammamet.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#69

Post by ya3r » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:37 PM UTC

I live in Iran.

The fact about the shut down is correct. I would also add that secure connection to servers inside Iran is possible. I've tried some, and they work. But trying to connect to services like Github and PivotalTracker, which we relay on in our starup, results in no response.

Also I will note that the ssh protocol is the same. I can ssh into my university machine (inside Iran) but I can't access my rackspace VPS with ssh for example.

One thing to add is that `Sara70` creator of this thread, mentions some non-related reason for this (The reason for this horrible shutdown is that the Iranian regime celebrates 1979 Islamic revolution tomorrow.) which is wrong.

Here nobody officially said anything about this. But as this shutdown is getting more attention in the media, I suspect this issue to get resolved soon.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#70

Post by alkasir » Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 1:41 PM UTC

Do SOCKS proxies work at all? One can test if they work. Xroxy.org is a good place to start. Email me at admin(at)alkasir.com to send you free socks proxy servers for testing.