bitcoind + vidalia and potenially dangerous connections

[Red Emerald]

I setup a small xubuntu VM to act as a safe for my wallet.  I installed tor, polipo, and vidalia more for fun than anything.  I set bitcoind to use the tor proxy and set my browser to use polipo.  My browser is able to connect to the tor network fine.

I added the proxy to my bitcoin.conf

Code:

proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

Bitcoin seems to be using the proxy, but when I look at Vidalia's message log, I see lots of

Potentially Dangerous Connection!
One of your applications established a connection through Tor to "x.x.x.x:8334" using a protocol that might leak information about your destination. Please ensure you configure your applications to use only SOCKS4a or SOCKS5 with remote hostname resolution.

So then I did

Code:

sudo apt-get install torsocks

and then I start the daemon with

Code:

torify bitcoind -daemon

but I get console warnings and I still get the "Potentially Dangerous Connection!" messages

Code:

[user@btc-ubuntu ~]$ torify bitcoind -daemon
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_init() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_query() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_search() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_send() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_querydomain() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_init() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_query() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_search() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_send() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!
16:57:35 libtorsocks(2539): The symbol res_querydomain() was not found in any shared library. The error reported was: not found!

Has anyone done this successfully without warning messages?

[1714162665]

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[1714162665]

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[1714162665]

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[Red Emerald]

I found this page, but am still not sure if I even need to change anything. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorFAQ#IkeepseeingthesewarningsaboutSOCKSandDNSandinformationleaks.ShouldIworry

I'm pretty sure bitcoin only uses IP addresses anyway, so I'm thinking these warnings are probably mistaken.

[theymos]

Bitcoin does do some DNS stuff for bootstrapping, though that message would appear regardless. You can disable the warning with a torrc option.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Bitcoin does do some DNS stuff for bootstrapping, though that message would appear regardless. You can disable the warning with a torrc option.

Disabling the warning does not stop the DNS leak of bitcoin's that Tor has detected though.

[theymos]

The message appears because Bitcoin is talking to IPs directly over SOCKS4. Even if you stop Bitcoin from using DNS with the -nodnsseed and -noirc switches, you'll still get the warning.

[finway]

Seems bitcoin client adapts tor not well.

[Red Emerald]

The message appears because Bitcoin is talking to IPs directly over SOCKS4. Even if you stop Bitcoin from using DNS with the -nodnsseed and -noirc switches, you'll still get the warning.

But those flags would be safer, correct? I'm fine with warnings if I am sure that the IPs were given as IPs and not as names.

[theymos]

But those flags would be safer, correct?

Maybe a little bit.

[astana]

why on earth would you run your bitcoin wallet on tor, to me that's just asking some to hack you.

[finway]

why on earth would you run your bitcoin wallet on tor, to me that's just asking some to hack you.

To stay anonymous.

[marcus_of_augustus]

why on earth would you run your bitcoin wallet on tor, to me that's just asking some to hack you.

Actually almost the opposite is true.

Running an unproxied bitcoin always from the same static IP on the internet is like dropping your trousers in public. (Having an unencrypted wallet connected to such a node would be like bending over with trousers around ankles in public.)