tor log shows ignoring ExcludeNodes?

Question

Tor Log says:

[WARN] Not using bridge at [scrubbed]: it is in ExcludeNodes.

and

[NOTICE] Opened Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9150

It minds that my tor, conexion/router have been hacked?

To put you more in situation... I've been victim of cyberbulling from 4 years ago. I've been tracked multiple times, just as my internet traffic.

Thing that make me have suspect:

Often TorBrowser does rare things, I usually re-install it while have some suspicion.

Often cannot connect through obs4proxy, or the bridge shows a codified string instead of the ip number.

Or the nodes repeat too much on certain countries and/or have repeated countries.

A thing that doesn't seems to be good is that sometimes when I connect to youtube with tor, it shows in the YT icon the acronym of a country that I have excluded in nodes config, but in the circuit shows a different country.

Can help me to throw some light? (Im using Debian Buster)

Thankyou

Answer 1

There's nothing in your post that indicates any kind of attack or malicious activity. I would recommend using only the default Tor Browser settings, and you shouldn't need to set the ExcludeNodes option.

[WARN] Not using bridge at [scrubbed]: it is in ExcludeNodes.

In this case, you have told Tor to use a bridge, but you have also told Tor not to use that bridge with your ExcludeNodes setting. This is a warning because you've told Tor to do two conflicting things.

Often cannot connect through obs4proxy, or the bridge shows a codified string instead of the ip number.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but you may be looking at the guard's IPv6 address.

Or the nodes repeat too much on certain countries and/or have repeated countries.

Some countries have more relays than others. It's normal that some countries appear more often than others, and it's also common to see the same country appear twice in a circuit.

A thing that doesn't seems to be good is that sometimes when I connect to youtube with tor, it shows in the YT icon the acronym of a country that I have excluded in nodes config, but in the circuit shows a different country.

Companies often buy and sell IP addresses, and other people try to maintain mappings of IP addresses to physical countries. Sometimes these mappings become out of date, and Tor might only update their mapping once or twice a year. This means that the ExcludeNodes options isn't always very accurate, and Youtube may be using a different mapping than Tor. The ExcludeNodes option is a best-guess, not a guarantee.