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Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#21

Post by emilsedgh »

Jach wrote: post #13
emilsedgh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They drop all encrypted connections. This means no https, no IMAP over TLS and no SSH connections. (Im in Iran)

How do they distinguish an encrypted connection from a non-encrypted connection? How do they know those indecipherable bits are an encrypted message vs. a part of an image or video? I suspect they just block domains and IPs and common ports or they sniff for common handshakes and key exchanges and kill those.

It works at different levels. First, they try to drop the connection during handshake (which is NOT encrypted yet). This works effectively. SSH has been taken down using this technique for a few months.

They also shape the bandwidth of encrypted connections. My guess is that they use something like L7 to guess the type-of-connection using different patterns.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#25

Post by emilsedgh »

ck2 wrote: post #24

Maybe http://m.gmail.com ? What about ssh tunneling over an alternate port? Gosh I cannot believe governments that do this to their people. I wonder if they are ironically using American engineered equipment and software to do the block too.

They drop ALL encrypted connections. You cannot even make a normal ssh connection, since they drop the connection during handshake. (SSH has been disabled for a few months)

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#26

Post by dasil003 »

emilsedgh wrote: post #25
ck2 wrote: post #24

Maybe http://m.gmail.com ? What about ssh tunneling over an alternate port? Gosh I cannot believe governments that do this to their people. I wonder if they are ironically using American engineered equipment and software to do the block too.

They drop ALL encrypted connections. You cannot even make a normal ssh connection, since they drop the connection during handshake. (SSH has been disabled for a few months)

What about ssh over port 80? I realize that would have to be set up in advance from outside the country, but the question is are they using port numbers to aid in their filtering or deep packet inspection?

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#27

Post by zalew »

ck2 wrote: post #24

Maybe http://m.gmail.com ? What about ssh tunneling over an alternate port? Gosh I cannot believe governments that do this to their people. I wonder if they are ironically using American engineered equipment and software to do the block too.

> I wonder if they are ironically using American engineered equipment and software to do the block too.

What exactly would be the irony of it? Iran doesn't forbid buying US products and services, it's the other way around.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#28

Post by rmc »

ck2 wrote: post #24

Maybe http://m.gmail.com ? What about ssh tunneling over an alternate port? Gosh I cannot believe governments that do this to their people. I wonder if they are ironically using American engineered equipment and software to do the block too.

Maybe http://m.gmail.com ?

If they are blocking https traffic, they are almost certainly intercepting and scanning http traffic (lots of countries do this, e.g. lots of UK ISPs did this to censor wikipedia).

So, even if you were to be able to access gmail over http, you probably don't want to. :)

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#29

Post by lorddfg »

That sucks, in Pakistan they're banning websites left and right, most of the websites can be accessed with Proxy but I have to use VPN just to upload files now. It's not only the porn websites they're banning, websites like pastebin etc. are getting axed as well.

In short, if any website goes against their stupid and yes effed up ideals they will ban it. The ISP's can't do anything because they're forced to comply.

Forget ACTA or SOPA, these idiots just do whatever they wish.

Re: Iran Shuts Down Major Websites and Https Protocol

#30

Post by gsa »

dasil003 wrote: post #26
emilsedgh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They drop ALL encrypted connections. You cannot even make a normal ssh connection, since they drop the connection during handshake. (SSH has been disabled for a few months)

What about ssh over port 80? I realize that would have to be set up in advance from outside the country, but the question is are they using port numbers to aid in their filtering or deep packet inspection?

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