tor-spec.txt

                         Tor Protocol Specification

                              Roger Dingledine
                               Nick Mathewson

Note: This document aims to specify Tor as currently implemented, though it
may take it a little time to become fully up to date. Future versions of Tor
may implement improved protocols, and compatibility is not guaranteed.
We may or may not remove compatibility notes for other obsolete versions of
Tor as they become obsolete.

This specification is not a design document; most design criteria
are not examined.  For more information on why Tor acts as it does,
see tor-design.pdf.

0. Preliminaries

      The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL
      NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY", and
      "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
      RFC 2119.

0.1.  Notation and encoding

   PK -- a public key.
   SK -- a private key.
   K  -- a key for a symmetric cipher.

   a|b -- concatenation of 'a' and 'b'.

   [A0 B1 C2] -- a three-byte sequence, containing the bytes with
   hexadecimal values A0, B1, and C2, in that order.

   H(m) -- a cryptographic hash of m.

   We use "byte" and "octet" interchangeably.  Possibly we shouldn't.

0.1.1. Encoding integers

   Unless we explicitly say otherwise below, all numeric values in the
   Tor protocol are encoded in network (big-endian) order.  So a "32-bit
   integer" means a big-endian 32-bit integer; a "2-byte" integer means
   a big-endian 16-bit integer, and so forth.

0.2. Security parameters

   Tor uses a stream cipher, a public-key cipher, the Diffie-Hellman
   protocol, and a hash function.

   KEY_LEN -- the length of the stream cipher's key, in bytes.

   PK_ENC_LEN -- the length of a public-key encrypted message, in bytes.
   PK_PAD_LEN -- the number of bytes added in padding for public-key
     encryption, in bytes. (The largest number of bytes that can be encrypted
     in a single public-key operation is therefore PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN.)

   DH_LEN -- the number of bytes used to represent a member of the
     Diffie-Hellman group.
   DH_SEC_LEN -- the number of bytes used in a Diffie-Hellman private key (x).

   HASH_LEN -- the length of the hash function's output, in bytes.

   PAYLOAD_LEN -- The longest allowable cell payload, in bytes. (509)

   CELL_LEN(v) -- The length of a Tor cell, in bytes, for link protocol
      version v.
       CELL_LEN(v) = 512    if v is less than 4;
                   = 514    otherwise.

0.3. Ciphers

   These are the ciphers we use _unless otherwise specified_.  Several of
   them are deprecated for new use.

   For a stream cipher, unless otherwise specified, we use 128-bit AES in
   counter mode, with an IV of all 0 bytes.  (We also require AES256.)

   For a public-key cipher, unless otherwise specified, we use RSA with
   1024-bit keys and a fixed exponent of 65537.  We use OAEP-MGF1
   padding, with SHA-1 as its digest function.  We leave the optional
   "Label" parameter unset. (For OAEP padding, see
   ftp://ftp.rsasecurity.com/pub/pkcs/pkcs-1/pkcs-1v2-1.pdf)

   We also use the Curve25519 group and the Ed25519 signature format in
   several places.

   For Diffie-Hellman, unless otherwise specified, we use a generator
   (g) of 2.  For the modulus (p), we use the 1024-bit safe prime from
   rfc2409 section 6.2 whose hex representation is:

     "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFC90FDAA22168C234C4C6628B80DC1CD129024E08"
     "8A67CC74020BBEA63B139B22514A08798E3404DDEF9519B3CD3A431B"
     "302B0A6DF25F14374FE1356D6D51C245E485B576625E7EC6F44C42E9"
     "A637ED6B0BFF5CB6F406B7EDEE386BFB5A899FA5AE9F24117C4B1FE6"
     "49286651ECE65381FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF"

   As an optimization, implementations SHOULD choose DH private keys (x) of
   320 bits.  Implementations that do this MUST never use any DH key more
   than once.
   [May other implementations reuse their DH keys?? -RD]
   [Probably not. Conceivably, you could get away with changing DH keys once
   per second, but there are too many oddball attacks for me to be
   comfortable that this is safe. -NM]

   For a hash function, unless otherwise specified, we use SHA-1.

   KEY_LEN=16.
   DH_LEN=128; DH_SEC_LEN=40.
   PK_ENC_LEN=128; PK_PAD_LEN=42.
   HASH_LEN=20.

   We also use SHA256 and SHA3-256 in some places.

   When we refer to "the hash of a public key", unless otherwise
   specified, we mean the SHA-1 hash of the DER encoding of an ASN.1 RSA
   public key (as specified in PKCS.1).

   All "random" values MUST be generated with a cryptographically
   strong pseudorandom number generator seeded from a strong entropy
   source, unless otherwise noted.

0.4. A bad hybrid encryption algorithm, for legacy purposes.

   Some specifications will refer to the "legacy hybrid encryption" of a
   byte sequence M with a public key PK.  It is computed as follows:

      1. If the length of M is no more than PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN,
         pad and encrypt M with PK.
      2. Otherwise, generate a KEY_LEN byte random key K.
         Let M1 = the first PK_ENC_LEN-PK_PAD_LEN-KEY_LEN bytes of M,
         and let M2 = the rest of M.
         Pad and encrypt K|M1 with PK.  Encrypt M2 with our stream cipher,
         using the key K.  Concatenate these encrypted values.

   Note that this "hybrid encryption" approach does not prevent
   an attacker from adding or removing bytes to the end of M. It also
   allows attackers to modify the bytes not covered by the OAEP --
   see Goldberg's PET2006 paper for details.  Do not use it as the basis
   for new protocols! Also note that as used in Tor's protocols, case 1
   never occurs.

1. System overview

   Tor is a distributed overlay network designed to anonymize
   low-latency TCP-based applications such as web browsing, secure shell,
   and instant messaging. Clients choose a path through the network and
   build a ``circuit'', in which each node (or ``onion router'' or ``OR'')
   in the path knows its predecessor and successor, but no other nodes in
   the circuit.  Traffic flowing down the circuit is sent in fixed-size
   ``cells'', which are unwrapped by a symmetric key at each node (like
   the layers of an onion) and relayed downstream.

1.1. Keys and names

   Every Tor relay has multiple public/private keypairs:

   These are 1024-bit RSA keys:

    - A long-term signing-only "Identity key" used to sign documents and
      certificates, and used to establish relay identity.
    - A medium-term TAP "Onion key" used to decrypt onion skins when accepting
      circuit extend attempts.  (See 5.1.)  Old keys MUST be accepted for a
      while after they are no longer advertised.  Because of this,
      relays MUST retain old keys for a while after they're rotated.  (See
      "onion key lifetime parameters" in dir-spec.txt.)
    - A short-term "Connection key" used to negotiate TLS connections.
      Tor implementations MAY rotate this key as often as they like, and
      SHOULD rotate this key at least once a day.

   This is Curve25519 key:

    - A medium-term ntor "Onion key" used to handle onion key handshakes when
      accepting incoming circuit extend requests.  As with TAP onion keys,
      old ntor keys MUST be accepted for at least one week after they are no
      longer advertised.  Because of this, relays MUST retain old keys for a
      while after they're rotated. (See "onion key lifetime parameters" in
      dir-spec.txt.)

   These are Ed25519 keys:

    - A long-term "master identity" key.  This key never
      changes; it is used only to sign the "signing" key below.  It may be
      kept offline.
    - A medium-term "signing" key.  This key is signed by the master identity
      key, and must be kept online.  A new one should be generated
      periodically.  It signs nearly everything else.
    - A short-term "link authentication" key, used to authenticate
      the link handshake: see section 4 below.  This key is signed
      by the "signing" key, and should be regenerated frequently.

   The RSA identity key and Ed25519 master identity key together identify a
   router uniquely.  Once a router has used an Ed25519 master identity key
   together with a given RSA identity key, neither of those keys may ever be
   used with a different key.

2. Connections

   Connections between two Tor relays, or between a client and a relay,
   use TLS/SSLv3 for link authentication and encryption.  All
   implementations MUST support the SSLv3 ciphersuite
   "TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA" if it is available. They SHOULD
   support better ciphersuites if available.

   There are three ways to perform TLS handshakes with a Tor server.  In
   the first way, "certificates-up-front", both the initiator and
   responder send a two-certificate chain as part of their initial
   handshake.  (This is supported in all Tor versions.)  In the second
   way, "renegotiation", the responder provides a single certificate,
   and the initiator immediately performs a TLS renegotiation.  (This is
   supported in Tor 0.2.0.21 and later.)  And in the third way,
   "in-protocol", the initial TLS negotiation completes, and the
   parties bootstrap themselves to mutual authentication via use of the
   Tor protocol without further TLS handshaking.  (This is supported in
   0.2.3.6-alpha and later.)

   Each of these options provides a way for the parties to learn it is
   available: a client does not need to know the version of the Tor
   server in order to connect to it properly.

   In "certificates up-front" (a.k.a "the v1 handshake"),
   the connection initiator always sends a
   two-certificate chain, consisting of an X.509 certificate using a
   short-term connection public key and a second, self-signed X.509
   certificate containing its identity key.  The other party sends a similar
   certificate chain.  The initiator's ClientHello MUST NOT include any
   ciphersuites other than:

     TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
     TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
     SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

   In "renegotiation" (a.k.a. "the v2 handshake"),
   the connection initiator sends no certificates, and
   the responder sends a single connection certificate.  Once the TLS
   handshake is complete, the initiator renegotiates the handshake, with each
   party sending a two-certificate chain as in "certificates up-front".
   The initiator's ClientHello MUST include at least one ciphersuite not in
   the list above -- that's how the initiator indicates that it can
   handle this handshake.  For other considerations on the initiator's
   ClientHello, see section 2.1 below.

   In "in-protocol" (a.k.a. "the v3 handshake"), the initiator sends no
   certificates, and the
   responder sends a single connection certificate.  The choice of
   ciphersuites must be as in a "renegotiation" handshake.  There are
   additionally a set of constraints on the connection certificate,
   which the initiator can use to learn that the in-protocol handshake
   is in use.  Specifically, at least one of these properties must be
   true of the certificate:

      * The certificate is self-signed
      * Some component other than "commonName" is set in the subject or
        issuer DN of the certificate.
      * The commonName of the subject or issuer of the certificate ends
        with a suffix other than ".net".
      * The certificate's public key modulus is longer than 1024 bits.

   The initiator then sends a VERSIONS cell to the responder, which then
   replies with a VERSIONS cell; they have then negotiated a Tor
   protocol version.  Assuming that the version they negotiate is 3 or higher
   (the only ones specified for use with this handshake right now), the
   responder sends a CERTS cell, an AUTH_CHALLENGE cell, and a NETINFO
   cell to the initiator, which may send either CERTS, AUTHENTICATE,
   NETINFO if it wants to authenticate, or just NETINFO if it does not.

   For backward compatibility between later handshakes and "certificates
   up-front", the ClientHello of an initiator that supports a later
   handshake MUST include at least one ciphersuite other than those listed
   above. The connection responder examines the initiator's ciphersuite list
   to see whether it includes any ciphers other than those included in the
   list above.  If extra ciphers are included, the responder proceeds as in
   "renegotiation" and "in-protocol": it sends a single certificate and
   does not request
   client certificates.  Otherwise (in the case that no extra ciphersuites
   are included in the ClientHello) the responder proceeds as in
   "certificates up-front": it requests client certificates, and sends a
   two-certificate chain.  In either case, once the responder has sent its
   certificate or certificates, the initiator counts them.  If two
   certificates have been sent, it proceeds as in "certificates up-front";
   otherwise, it proceeds as in "renegotiation" or "in-protocol".

   To decide whether to do "renegotiation" or "in-protocol", the
   initiator checks whether the responder's initial certificate matches
   the criteria listed above.

   All new relay implementations of the Tor protocol MUST support
   backwards-compatible renegotiation; clients SHOULD do this too.  If
   this is not possible, new client implementations MUST support both
   "renegotiation" and "in-protocol" and use the router's
   published link protocols list (see dir-spec.txt on the "protocols" entry)
   to decide which to use.

   In all of the above handshake variants, certificates sent in the clear
   SHOULD NOT include any strings to identify the host as a Tor relay. In
   the "renegotiation" and "backwards-compatible renegotiation" steps, the
   initiator SHOULD choose a list of ciphersuites and TLS extensions
   to mimic one used by a popular web browser.

   Even though the connection protocol is identical, we will think of the
   initiator as either an onion router (OR) if it is willing to relay
   traffic for other Tor users, or an onion proxy (OP) if it only handles
   local requests. Onion proxies SHOULD NOT provide long-term-trackable
   identifiers in their handshakes.

   In all handshake variants, once all certificates are exchanged, all
   parties receiving certificates must confirm that the identity key is as
   expected.  If the key is not as expected, the party must close the
   connection.

   (When initiating a connection, if a reasonably live consensus is
   available, then the expected identity key is taken from that
   consensus. But when initiating a connection otherwise, the expected
   identity key is the one given in the hard-coded authority or
   fallback list.  Finally, when creating a connection because of an
   EXTEND/EXTEND2 cell, the expected identity key is the one given in
   the cell.)

   When connecting to an OR, all parties SHOULD reject the connection if that
   OR has a malformed or missing certificate.  When accepting an incoming
   connection, an OR SHOULD NOT reject incoming connections from parties with
   malformed or missing certificates.  (However, an OR should not believe
   that an incoming connection is from another OR unless the certificates
   are present and well-formed.)

   [Before version 0.1.2.8-rc, ORs rejected incoming connections from ORs and
   OPs alike if their certificates were missing or malformed.]

   Once a TLS connection is established, the two sides send cells
   (specified below) to one another.  Cells are sent serially.  Standard
   cells are CELL_LEN(link_proto) bytes long, but variable-length cells
   also exist; see Section 3.  Cells may be sent embedded in TLS records
   of any size or divided across TLS records, but the framing of TLS
   records MUST NOT leak information about the type or contents of the
   cells.

   TLS connections are not permanent. Either side MAY close a connection
   if there are no circuits running over it and an amount of time
   (KeepalivePeriod, defaults to 5 minutes) has passed since the last time
   any traffic was transmitted over the TLS connection.  Clients SHOULD
   also hold a TLS connection with no circuits open, if it is likely that a
   circuit will be built soon using that connection.

   Client-only Tor instances are encouraged to avoid using handshake
   variants that include certificates, if those certificates provide
   any persistent tags to the relays they contact. If clients do use
   certificates, they SHOULD NOT keep using the same certificates when
   their IP address changes.  Clients MAY send certificates using any
   of the above handshake variants.

2.1. Picking TLS ciphersuites

   Clients SHOULD send a ciphersuite list chosen to emulate some popular
   web browser or other program common on the internet. Clients may send
   the "Fixed Cipheruite List" below.  If they do not, they MUST NOT
   advertise any ciphersuite that they cannot actually support, unless that
   cipher is one not supported by OpenSSL 1.0.1.

   The fixed ciphersuite list is:

     TLS1_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
     TLS1_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
     TLS1_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_SHA
     TLS1_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
     TLS1_RSA_WITH_AES_256_SHA
     TLS1_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
     TLS1_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
     TLS1_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
     TLS1_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
     TLS1_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_SHA
     TLS1_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
     SSL3_RSA_RC4_128_MD5
     SSL3_RSA_RC4_128_SHA
     TLS1_RSA_WITH_AES_128_SHA
     TLS1_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_DES_192_CBC3_SHA
     TLS1_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_DES_192_CBC3_SHA
     SSL3_EDH_RSA_DES_192_CBC3_SHA
     SSL3_EDH_DSS_DES_192_CBC3_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_RSA_WITH_DES_192_CBC3_SHA
     TLS1_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_DES_192_CBC3_SHA
     SSL3_RSA_FIPS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
     SSL3_RSA_DES_192_CBC3_SHA
     [*] The "extended renegotiation is supported" ciphersuite, 0x00ff, is
         not counted when checking the list of ciphersuites.

   If the client sends the Fixed Ciphersuite List, the responder MUST NOT
   select any ciphersuite besides TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,
   TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, and SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA:
   such ciphers might not actually be supported by the client.

   If the client sends a v2+ ClientHello with a list of ciphers other then
   the Fixed Ciphersuite List, the responder can trust that the client
   supports every cipher advertised in that list, so long as that ciphersuite
   is also supported by OpenSSL 1.0.1.

   Responders MUST NOT select any TLS ciphersuite that lacks ephemeral keys,
   or whose symmetric keys are less then KEY_LEN bits, or whose digests are
   less than HASH_LEN bits.  Responders SHOULD NOT select any SSLv3
   ciphersuite other than the DHE+3DES suites listed above.

2.2. TLS security considerations

   Implementations MUST NOT allow TLS session resumption -- it can
   exacerbate some attacks (e.g. the "Triple Handshake" attack from
   Feb 2013), and it plays havoc with forward secrecy guarantees.

   Implementations SHOULD NOT allow TLS compression -- although we don't
   know a way to apply a CRIME-style attack to current Tor directly,
   it's a waste of resources.

3. Cell Packet format

   The basic unit of communication for onion routers and onion
   proxies is a fixed-width "cell".

   On a version 1 connection, each cell contains the following
   fields:

        CircID                                [CIRCID_LEN bytes]
        Command                               [1 byte]
        Payload (padded with padding bytes)   [PAYLOAD_LEN bytes]

   On a version 2 or higher connection, all cells are as in version 1
   connections, except for variable-length cells, whose format is:

        CircID                                [CIRCID_LEN octets]
        Command                               [1 octet]
        Length                                [2 octets; big-endian integer]
        Payload (some commands MAY pad)       [Length bytes]

   Most variable-length cells MAY be padded with padding bytes, except
   for VERSIONS cells, which MUST NOT contain any additional bytes.
   (The payload of VPADDING cells consists of padding bytes.)

   On a version 2 connection, variable-length cells are indicated by a
   command byte equal to 7 ("VERSIONS").  On a version 3 or
   higher connection, variable-length cells are indicated by a command
   byte equal to 7 ("VERSIONS"), or greater than or equal to 128.

   CIRCID_LEN is 2 for link protocol versions 1, 2, and 3.  CIRCID_LEN
   is 4 for link protocol version 4 or higher.  The first VERSIONS cell,
   and any cells sent before the first VERSIONS cell, always have
   CIRCID_LEN == 2 for backward compatibility.

   The CircID field determines which circuit, if any, the cell is
   associated with.

   The 'Command' field of a fixed-length cell holds one of the following
   values:

         0 -- PADDING     (Padding)                 (See Sec 7.2)
         1 -- CREATE      (Create a circuit)        (See Sec 5.1)
         2 -- CREATED     (Acknowledge create)      (See Sec 5.1)
         3 -- RELAY       (End-to-end data)         (See Sec 5.5 and 6)
         4 -- DESTROY     (Stop using a circuit)    (See Sec 5.4)
         5 -- CREATE_FAST (Create a circuit, no PK) (See Sec 5.1)
         6 -- CREATED_FAST (Circuit created, no PK) (See Sec 5.1)
         8 -- NETINFO     (Time and address info)   (See Sec 4.5)
         9 -- RELAY_EARLY (End-to-end data; limited)(See Sec 5.6)
         10 -- CREATE2    (Extended CREATE cell)    (See Sec 5.1)
         11 -- CREATED2   (Extended CREATED cell)    (See Sec 5.1)
         12 -- PADDING_NEGOTIATE   (Padding negotiation)    (See Sec 7.2)

    Variable-length command values are:

         7 -- VERSIONS    (Negotiate proto version) (See Sec 4)
         128 -- VPADDING  (Variable-length padding) (See Sec 7.2)
         129 -- CERTS     (Certificates)            (See Sec 4.2)
         130 -- AUTH_CHALLENGE (Challenge value)    (See Sec 4.3)
         131 -- AUTHENTICATE (Client authentication)(See Sec 4.5)
         132 -- AUTHORIZE (Client authorization)    (Not yet used)

   The interpretation of 'Payload' depends on the type of the cell.

      VPADDING/PADDING:
               Payload contains padding bytes.
      CREATE/CREATE2:  Payload contains the handshake challenge.
      CREATED/CREATED2: Payload contains the handshake response.
      RELAY/RELAY_EARLY: Payload contains the relay header and relay body.
      DESTROY: Payload contains a reason for closing the circuit.
               (see 5.4)

   Upon receiving any other value for the command field, an OR must
   drop the cell.  Since more cell types may be added in the future, ORs
   should generally not warn when encountering unrecognized commands.

   The cell is padded up to the cell length with padding bytes.

   Senders set padding bytes depending on the cell's command:

      VERSIONS:  Payload MUST NOT contain padding bytes.
      AUTHORIZE: Payload is unspecified and reserved for future use.
      Other variable-length cells:
                 Payload MAY contain padding bytes at the end of the cell.
                 Padding bytes SHOULD be set to NUL.
      RELAY/RELAY_EARLY: Payload MUST be padded to PAYLOAD_LEN with padding
                  bytes. Padding bytes SHOULD be set to random values.
      Other fixed-length cells:
                 Payload MUST be padded to PAYLOAD_LEN with padding bytes.
                 Padding bytes SHOULD be set to NUL.

   We recommend random padding in RELAY/RELAY_EARLY cells, so that the cell
   content is unpredictable. See the format of relay cells in section 6.1
   for detail.

   For other cells, TLS authenticates cell content, so randomized padding
   bytes are redundant.

   Receivers MUST ignore padding bytes.

   PADDING cells are currently used to implement connection keepalive.
   If there is no other traffic, ORs and OPs send one another a PADDING
   cell every few minutes.

   CREATE, CREATE2, CREATED, CREATED2, and DESTROY cells are used to
   manage circuits; see section 5 below.

   RELAY cells are used to send commands and data along a circuit; see
   section 6 below.

   VERSIONS and NETINFO cells are used to set up connections in link
   protocols v2 and higher; in link protocol v3 and higher, CERTS,
   AUTH_CHALLENGE, and AUTHENTICATE may also be used.  See section 4
   below.

4. Negotiating and initializing connections

   After Tor instances negotiate handshake with either the "renegotiation" or
   "in-protocol" handshakes, they must exchange a set of cells to set up
   the Tor connection and make it "open" and usable for circuits.

   When the renegotiation handshake is used, both parties immediately
   send a VERSIONS cell (4.1 below), and after negotiating a link
   protocol version (which will be 2), each send a NETINFO cell (4.5
   below) to confirm their addresses and timestamps.  No other intervening
   cell types are allowed.

   When the in-protocol handshake is used, the initiator sends a
   VERSIONS cell to indicate that it will not be renegotiating.  The
   responder sends a VERSIONS cell, a CERTS cell (4.2 below) to give the
   initiator the certificates it needs to learn the responder's
   identity, an AUTH_CHALLENGE cell (4.3) that the initiator must include
   as part of its answer if it chooses to authenticate, and a NETINFO
   cell (4.5).  As soon as it gets the CERTS cell, the initiator knows
   whether the responder is correctly authenticated.  At this point the
   initiator behaves differently depending on whether it wants to
   authenticate or not. If it does not want to authenticate, it MUST
   send a NETINFO cell.  If it does want to authenticate, it MUST send a
   CERTS cell, an AUTHENTICATE cell (4.4), and a NETINFO.  When this
   handshake is in use, the first cell must be VERSIONS, VPADDING, or
   AUTHORIZE, and no other cell type is allowed to intervene besides
   those specified, except for VPADDING cells.

   The AUTHORIZE cell type is reserved for future use by scanning-resistance
   designs.

   [Tor versions before 0.2.3.11-alpha did not recognize the AUTHORIZE cell,
   and did not permit any command other than VERSIONS as the first cell of
   the in-protocol handshake.]

4.1. Negotiating versions with VERSIONS cells

   There are multiple instances of the Tor link connection protocol.  Any
   connection negotiated using the "certificates up front" handshake (see
   section 2 above) is "version 1".  In any connection where both parties
   have behaved as in the "renegotiation" handshake, the link protocol
   version must be 2.  In any connection where both parties have behaved
   as in the "in-protocol" handshake, the link protocol must be 3 or higher.

   To determine the version, in any connection where the "renegotiation"
   or "in-protocol" handshake was used (that is, where the responder
   sent only one certificate at first and where the initiator did not
   send any certificates in the first negotiation), both parties MUST
   send a VERSIONS cell.  In "renegotiation", they send a VERSIONS cell
   right after the renegotiation is finished, before any other cells are
   sent.  In "in-protocol", the initiator sends a VERSIONS cell
   immediately after the initial TLS handshake, and the responder
   replies immediately with a VERSIONS cell. (As an exception to this rule,
   if both sides support the "in-protocol" handshake, either side may send
   VPADDING cells at any time.)

   The payload in a VERSIONS cell is a series of big-endian two-byte
   integers.  Both parties MUST select as the link protocol version the
   highest number contained both in the VERSIONS cell they sent and in the
   versions cell they received.  If they have no such version in common,
   they cannot communicate and MUST close the connection.  Either party MUST
   close the connection if the versions cell is not well-formed (for example,
   if it contains an odd number of bytes).

   Any VERSIONS cells sent after the first VERSIONS cell MUST be ignored.
   (To be interpreted correctly, later VERSIONS cells MUST have a CIRCID_LEN
   matching the version negotiated with the first VERSIONS cell.)

   Since the version 1 link protocol does not use the "renegotiation"
   handshake, implementations MUST NOT list version 1 in their VERSIONS
   cell.  When the "renegotiation" handshake is used, implementations
   MUST list only the version 2.  When the "in-protocol" handshake is
   used, implementations MUST NOT list any version before 3, and SHOULD
   list at least version 3.

   Link protocols differences are:

     1 -- The "certs up front" handshake.
     2 -- Uses the renegotiation-based handshake. Introduces
          variable-length cells.
     3 -- Uses the in-protocol handshake.
     4 -- Increases circuit ID width to 4 bytes.
     5 -- Adds support for link padding and negotiation (padding-spec.txt).


4.2. CERTS cells

   The CERTS cell describes the keys that a Tor instance is claiming
   to have.  It is a variable-length cell.  Its payload format is:

        N: Number of certs in cell            [1 octet]
        N times:
           CertType                           [1 octet]
           CLEN                               [2 octets]
           Certificate                        [CLEN octets]

   Any extra octets at the end of a CERTS cell MUST be ignored.

     Relevant certType values are:
        1: Link key certificate certified by RSA1024 identity
        2: RSA1024 Identity certificate, self-signed.
        3: RSA1024 AUTHENTICATE cell link certificate, signed with RSA1024 key.
        4: Ed25519 signing key, signed with identity key.
        5: TLS link certificate, signed with ed25519 signing key.
        6: Ed25519 AUTHENTICATE cell key, signed with ed25519 signing key.
        7: Ed25519 identity, signed with RSA identity.

   The certificate format for certificate types 1-3 is DER encoded
   X509.  For others, the format is as documented in cert-spec.txt.
   Note that type 7 uses a different format from types 4-6.

   A CERTS cell may have no more than one certificate of each CertType.


   To authenticate the responder as having a given Ed25519,RSA identity key
   combination, the initiator MUST check the following.

     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 2 "ID" certificate.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 4 Ed25519
       "Id->Signing" cert.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 5 Ed25519
       "Signing->link" certificate.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 7 "RSA->Ed25519"
       cross-certificate.
     * All X.509 certificates above have validAfter and validUntil dates;
       no X.509 or Ed25519 certificates are expired.
     * All certificates are correctly signed.
     * The certified key in the Signing->Link certificate matches the
       SHA256 digest of the certificate that was used to
       authenticate the TLS connection.
     * The identity key listed in the ID->Signing cert was used to
       sign the ID->Signing Cert.
     * The Signing->Link cert was signed with the Signing key listed
       in the ID->Signing cert.
     * The RSA->Ed25519 cross-certificate certifies the Ed25519
       identity, and is signed with the RSA identity listed in the
       "ID" certificate.
     * The certified key in the ID certificate is a 1024-bit RSA key.
     * The RSA ID certificate is correctly self-signed.

   To authenticate the responder as having a given RSA identity only,
   the initiator MUST check the following:

     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 1 "Link" certificate.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 2 "ID" certificate.
     * Both certificates have validAfter and validUntil dates that
       are not expired.
     * The certified key in the Link certificate matches the
       link key that was used to negotiate the TLS connection.
     * The certified key in the ID certificate is a 1024-bit RSA key.
     * The certified key in the ID certificate was used to sign both
       certificates.
     * The link certificate is correctly signed with the key in the
       ID certificate
     * The ID certificate is correctly self-signed.

   In both cases above, checking these conditions is sufficient to
   authenticate that the initiator is talking to the Tor node with the
   expected identity, as certified in the ID certificate(s).


   To authenticate the initiator as having a given Ed25519,RSA
   identity key combination, the responder MUST check the following:

     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 2 "ID" certificate.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 4 Ed25519
       "Id->Signing" certificate.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 6 Ed25519
       "Signing->auth" certificate.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 7 "RSA->Ed25519"
       cross-certificate.
     * All X.509 certificates above have validAfter and validUntil dates;
       no X.509 or Ed25519 certificates are expired.
     * All certificates are correctly signed.
     * The identity key listed in the ID->Signing cert was used to
       sign the ID->Signing Cert.
     * The Signing->AUTH cert was signed with the Signing key listed
       in the ID->Signing cert.
     * The RSA->Ed25519 cross-certificate certifies the Ed25519
       identity, and is signed with the RSA identity listed in the
       "ID" certificate.
     * The certified key in the ID certificate is a 1024-bit RSA key.
     * The RSA ID certificate is correctly self-signed.


   To authenticate the initiator as having an RSA identity key only,
   the responder MUST check the following:

     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 3 "AUTH" certificate.
     * The CERTS cell contains exactly one CertType 2 "ID" certificate.
     * Both certificates have validAfter and validUntil dates that
       are not expired.
     * The certified key in the AUTH certificate is a 1024-bit RSA key.
     * The certified key in the ID certificate is a 1024-bit RSA key.
     * The certified key in the ID certificate was used to sign both
       certificates.
     * The auth certificate is correctly signed with the key in the
       ID certificate.
     * The ID certificate is correctly self-signed.

   Checking these conditions is NOT sufficient to authenticate that the
   initiator has the ID it claims; to do so, the cells in 4.3 and 4.4
   below must be exchanged.


4.3. AUTH_CHALLENGE cells

   An AUTH_CHALLENGE cell is a variable-length cell with the following
   fields:

       Challenge [32 octets]
       N_Methods [2 octets]
       Methods   [2 * N_Methods octets]

   It is sent from the responder to the initiator. Initiators MUST
   ignore unexpected bytes at the end of the cell.  Responders MUST
   generate every challenge independently using a strong RNG or PRNG.

   The Challenge field is a randomly generated string that the
   initiator must sign (a hash of) as part of authenticating.  The
   methods are the authentication methods that the responder will
   accept.  Only two authentication methods are defined right now:
   see 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 below.

4.4. AUTHENTICATE cells

   If an initiator wants to authenticate, it responds to the
   AUTH_CHALLENGE cell with a CERTS cell and an AUTHENTICATE cell.
   The CERTS cell is as a server would send, except that instead of
   sending a CertType 1 (and possibly CertType 5) certs for arbitrary link
   certificates, the initiator sends a CertType 3 (and possibly
   CertType 6) cert for an RSA/Ed25519 AUTHENTICATE key.

   This difference is because we allow any link key type on a TLS
   link, but the protocol described here will only work for specific key
   types as described in 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 below.

   An AUTHENTICATE cell contains the following:

        AuthType                              [2 octets]
        AuthLen                               [2 octets]
        Authentication                        [AuthLen octets]

   Responders MUST ignore extra bytes at the end of an AUTHENTICATE
   cell.  Recognized AuthTypes are 1 and 3, described in the next
   two sections.

   Initiators MUST NOT send an AUTHENTICATE cell before they have
   verified the certificates presented in the responder's CERTS
   cell, and authenticated the responder.

4.4.1. Link authentication type 1: RSA-SHA256-TLSSecret

   If AuthType is 1 (meaning "RSA-SHA256-TLSSecret"), then the
   Authentication field of the AUTHENTICATE cell contains the following:

       TYPE: The characters "AUTH0001" [8 octets]
       CID: A SHA256 hash of the initiator's RSA1024 identity key [32 octets]
       SID: A SHA256 hash of the responder's RSA1024 identity key [32 octets]
       SLOG: A SHA256 hash of all bytes sent from the responder to the
         initiator as part of the negotiation up to and including the
         AUTH_CHALLENGE cell; that is, the VERSIONS cell, the CERTS cell,
         the AUTH_CHALLENGE cell, and any padding cells.  [32 octets]
       CLOG: A SHA256 hash of all bytes sent from the initiator to the
         responder as part of the negotiation so far; that is, the
         VERSIONS cell and the CERTS cell and any padding cells. [32
         octets]
       SCERT: A SHA256 hash of the responder's TLS link certificate. [32
         octets]
       TLSSECRETS: A SHA256 HMAC, using the TLS master secret as the
         secret key, of the following:
           - client_random, as sent in the TLS Client Hello
           - server_random, as sent in the TLS Server Hello
           - the NUL terminated ASCII string:
             "Tor V3 handshake TLS cross-certification"
          [32 octets]
       RAND: A 24 byte value, randomly chosen by the initiator.  (In an
         imitation of SSL3's gmt_unix_time field, older versions of Tor
         sent an 8-byte timestamp as the first 8 bytes of this field;
         new implementations should not do that.) [24 octets]
       SIG: A signature of a SHA256 hash of all the previous fields
         using the initiator's "Authenticate" key as presented.  (As
         always in Tor, we use OAEP-MGF1 padding; see tor-spec.txt
         section 0.3.)
          [variable length]

   To check the AUTHENTICATE cell, a responder checks that all fields
   from TYPE through TLSSECRETS contain their unique
   correct values as described above, and then verifies the signature.
   The server MUST ignore any extra bytes in the signed data after
   the RAND field.

   Responders MUST NOT accept this AuthType if the initiator has
   claimed to have an Ed25519 identity.

   (There is no AuthType 2: It was reserved but never implemented.)

4.4.2. Link authentication type 3: Ed25519-SHA256-RFC5705.

   If AuthType is 3, meaning "Ed25519-SHA256-RFC5705", the
   Authentication field of the AuthType cell is as below:

   Modified values and new fields below are marked with asterisks.

       TYPE: The characters "AUTH0003" [8 octets]
       CID: A SHA256 hash of the initiator's RSA1024 identity key [32 octets]
       SID: A SHA256 hash of the responder's RSA1024 identity key [32 octets]
       CID_ED: The initiator's Ed25519 identity key [32 octets]
       SID_ED: The responder's Ed25519 identity key, or all-zero. [32 octets]
       SLOG: A SHA256 hash of all bytes sent from the responder to the
         initiator as part of the negotiation up to and including the
         AUTH_CHALLENGE cell; that is, the VERSIONS cell, the CERTS cell,
         the AUTH_CHALLENGE cell, and any padding cells.  [32 octets]
       CLOG: A SHA256 hash of all bytes sent from the initiator to the
         responder as part of the negotiation so far; that is, the
         VERSIONS cell and the CERTS cell and any padding cells. [32
         octets]
       SCERT: A SHA256 hash of the responder's TLS link certificate. [32
         octets]
       TLSSECRETS: The output of an RFC5705 Exporter function on the
         TLS session, using as its inputs:
          - The label string "EXPORTER FOR TOR TLS CLIENT BINDING AUTH0003"
          - The context value equal to the initiator's Ed25519 identity key.
          - The length 32.
            [32 octets]
       RAND: A 24 byte value, randomly chosen by the initiator. [24 octets]
       SIG: A signature of all previous fields using the initiator's
          Ed25519 authentication key (as in the cert with CertType 6).
          [variable length]

   To check the AUTHENTICATE cell, a responder checks that all fields
   from TYPE through TLSSECRETS contain their unique
   correct values as described above, and then verifies the signature.
   The server MUST ignore any extra bytes in the signed data after
   the RAND field.

4.5. NETINFO cells

   If version 2 or higher is negotiated, each party sends the other a
   NETINFO cell.  The cell's payload is:

      TIME       (Timestamp)                     [4 bytes]
      OTHERADDR  (Other OR's address)            [variable]
         ATYPE   (Address type)                  [1 byte]
         ALEN    (Adress length)                 [1 byte]
         AVAL    (Address value in NBO)          [ALEN bytes]
      NMYADDR    (Number of this OR's addresses) [1 byte]
        NMYADDR times:
          ATYPE   (Address type)                 [1 byte]
          ALEN    (Adress length)                [1 byte]
          AVAL    (Address value in NBO))        [ALEN bytes]

   Recognized address types (ATYPE) are:

     [04] IPv4.
     [06] IPv6.

   ALEN MUST be 4 when ATYPE is 0x04 (IPv4) and 16 when ATYPE is 0x06
   (IPv6).

   The timestamp is a big-endian unsigned integer number of seconds
   since the Unix epoch. Implementations MUST ignore unexpected bytes
   at the end of the cell.

   Implementations MAY use the timestamp value to help decide if their
   clocks are skewed.  Initiators MAY use "other OR's address" to help
   learn which address their connections may be originating from, if they do
   not know it; and to learn whether the peer will treat the current
   connection as canonical.  Implementations SHOULD NOT trust these
   values unconditionally, especially when they come from non-authorities,
   since the other party can lie about the time or IP addresses it sees.

   Initiators SHOULD use "this OR's address" to make sure
   that they have connected to another OR at its canonical address.
   (See 5.3.1 below.)

5. Circuit management

5.1. CREATE and CREATED cells

   Users set up circuits incrementally, one hop at a time. To create a
   new circuit, OPs send a CREATE/CREATE2 cell to the first node, with
   the first half of an authenticated handshake; that node responds with
   a CREATED/CREATED2 cell with the second half of the handshake. To
   extend a circuit past the first hop, the OP sends an EXTEND/EXTEND2
   relay cell (see section 5.1.2) which instructs the last node in the
   circuit to send a CREATE/CREATE2 cell to extend the circuit.

   There are two kinds of CREATE and CREATED cells: The older
   "CREATE/CREATED" format, and the newer "CREATE2/CREATED2" format.  The
   newer format is extensible by design; the older one is not.

   A CREATE2 cell contains:

       HTYPE     (Client Handshake Type)     [2 bytes]
       HLEN      (Client Handshake Data Len) [2 bytes]
       HDATA     (Client Handshake Data)     [HLEN bytes]

   A CREATED2 cell contains:

       HLEN      (Server Handshake Data Len) [2 bytes]
       HDATA     (Server Handshake Data)     [HLEN bytes]

   Recognized handshake types are:

       0x0000  TAP  -- the original Tor handshake; see 5.1.3
       0x0001  reserved
       0x0002  ntor -- the ntor+curve25519+sha256 handshake; see 5.1.4


   The format of a CREATE cell is one of the following:

       HDATA     (Client Handshake Data)     [TAP_C_HANDSHAKE_LEN bytes]

   or

       HTAG      (Client Handshake Type Tag) [16 bytes]
       HDATA     (Client Handshake Data)     [TAP_C_HANDSHAKE_LEN-16 bytes]

   The first format is equivalent to a CREATE2 cell with HTYPE of 'tap'
   and length of TAP_C_HANDSHAKE_LEN.  The second format is a way to
   encapsulate new handshake types into the old CREATE cell format for
   migration. See 5.1.2 below. Recognized HTAG values are:

       ntor -- 'ntorNTORntorNTOR'

   The format of a CREATED cell is:

       HDATA     (Server Handshake Data)     [TAP_S_HANDSHAKE_LEN bytes]

   (It's equivalent to a CREATED2 cell with length of TAP_S_HANDSHAKE_LEN.)

   As usual with DH, x and y MUST be generated randomly.

   In general, clients SHOULD use CREATE whenever they are using the TAP
   handshake, and CREATE2 otherwise.  Clients SHOULD NOT send the
   second format of CREATE cells (the one with the handshake type tag)
   to a server directly.

   Servers always reply to a successful CREATE with a CREATED, and to a
   successful CREATE2 with a CREATED2.  On failure, a server sends a
   DESTROY cell to tear down the circuit.

   [CREATE2 is handled by Tor 0.2.4.7-alpha and later.]

5.1.1. Choosing circuit IDs in create cells

   The CircID for a CREATE/CREATE2 cell is an arbitrarily chosen
   nonzero integer, selected by the node (OP or OR) that sends the
   CREATE/CREATE2 cell.  In link protocol 3 or lower, CircIDs are 2
   bytes long; in protocol 4 or higher, CircIDs are 4 bytes long.

   To prevent CircID collisions, when one node sends a CREATE/CREATE2
   cell to another, it chooses from only one half of the possible
   values based on the ORs' public identity keys.

   In link protocol version 3 or lower, if the sending node has a lower
   key, it chooses a CircID with an MSB of 0; otherwise, it chooses a
   CircID with an MSB of 1. (Public keys are compared numerically by
   modulus.)  With protocol version 3 or lower, a client with no public key
   MAY choose any CircID it wishes, since clients never need to process a
   CREATE/CREATE2 cell.

   In link protocol version 4 or higher, whichever node initiated the
   connection sets its MSB to 1, and whichever node didn't initiate the
   connection sets its MSB to 0.

   The CircID value 0 is specifically reserved for cells that do not
   belong to any circuit: CircID 0 must not be used for circuits.  No