Linux -> Debian -> Tor refusing to start – Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP

22.Aug.2016

CyberSec / ITSec / Sicherheit / Security / SPAM, GNU-Linux, sharing resources

first of all thank you for donating spare (web)server power to keeping the privacy of activists safe.

this seems to be a bug and the only current solution seems to downgrade tor?

this problem was discovered on:

Linux dwaves.de 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-2+deb8u3 (2016-07-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux

and upgrade could not resolve the problem.

[cc lang=”bash” escaped=”true” width=”600″]

# you can try to debug the problem by looking at
journalctl -xe

# and

less /var/log/tor/log
cat /var/log/syslog|grep tor;

# i found that
Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP

Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves systemd[1]: Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves systemd[1]: Unit tor@default.service entered failed state.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves systemd[1]: tor@default.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves systemd[1]: Stopping Anonymizing overlay network for TCP…
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves systemd[1]: Starting Anonymizing overlay network for TCP…
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2921]: Aug 22 06:36:09.657 [notice] Tor v0.2.7.6 (git-605ae665009853bd) running on Linux with Libevent 2.0.21-stable, OpenSSL 1.0.1t and Zlib 1.2.8.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2921]: Aug 22 06:36:09.658 [notice] Tor can’t help you if you use it wrong! Learn how to be safe at https://www.torproject.org/download/download#warning
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2921]: Aug 22 06:36:09.659 [notice] Read configuration file “/usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc”.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2921]: Aug 22 06:36:09.659 [notice] Read configuration file “/etc/tor/torrc”.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2921]: Aug 22 06:36:09.663 [notice] Based on detected system memory, MaxMemInQueues is set to 750 MB. You can override this by setting MaxMemInQueues by hand.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2921]: Configuration was valid
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.728 [notice] Tor v0.2.7.6 (git-605ae665009853bd) running on Linux with Libevent 2.0.21-stable, OpenSSL 1.0.1t and Zlib 1.2.8.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.729 [notice] Tor can’t help you if you use it wrong! Learn how to be safe at https://www.torproject.org/download/download#warning
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.729 [notice] Read configuration file “/usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc”.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.730 [notice] Read configuration file “/etc/tor/torrc”.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.733 [notice] Based on detected system memory, MaxMemInQueues is set to 750 MB. You can override this by setting MaxMemInQueues by hand.
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.734 [notice] Opening Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9050
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.735 [notice] Opening Control listener on /var/run/tor/control
Aug 22 06:36:09 dwaves tor[2924]: Aug 22 06:36:09.735 [notice] Opening OR listener on 0.0.0.0:9001
Aug 22 06:38:09 dwaves systemd[1]: tor@default.service start operation timed out. Terminating.
Aug 22 06:38:39 dwaves systemd[1]: Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.
Aug 22 06:38:39 dwaves systemd[1]: Unit tor@default.service entered failed state.

systemctl -l status tor.service; # does not really help

● tor.service – LSB: Starts The Onion Router daemon processes
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/tor)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2016-08-22 13:40:03 CEST; 10min ago
Process: 706 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/tor start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CGroup: /system.slice/tor.service
└─854 /usr/bin/tor –defaults-torrc /usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc –hush

Aug 22 13:40:03 dwaves.de tor[706]: Starting tor daemon…done.
Aug 22 13:40:03 dwaves.de systemd[1]: Started LSB: Starts The Onion Router daemon processes.

# you can test if the tor port is reachable from outside with telnet
telnet 78.46.249.71 9001
[/cc]

it keeps repeating…

Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP

here you can also check if your tor network works:

https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/C31FD7DE847F6488CF4D08E57FD1937E87E5CF30

it seems to works if you start it manually

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systemctl -l restart tor.service; # give ctrl+c if it takes too long (it has 30sec timeout closing connections)
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i hope it continues to work gonna test restart the server soon to find out.

all i did changed

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#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
# to
HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor
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restarted tor

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systemctl -l restart tor.service; # give ctrl+c if it takes too long (it has 30sec timeout closing connections)
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than commented it out.

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#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor
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another look at the logs:
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journalctl -xe

Aug 23 06:30:53 dwaves.de sshd[23621]: Address 212.83.135.171 maps to 212-83-135-171.rev.poneytelecom.eu, but this does not map back to the address – POSSIBLE BREAK-IN ATTEMPT!
Aug 23 06:30:53 dwaves.de sshd[23621]: error: Received disconnect from 212.83.135.171: 3: com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException: Auth fail [preauth]
[/cc]

… no errors from tor atleast 😀 everything “normal” 😀

Linux -> Debian -> Tor refusing to start – Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP

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