• Translation

Tor is an anonymity tool used by people who seek privacy and fight censorship on the internet. Over time, Tor has become very, very good at doing its job. Therefore, the security, stability, and speed of this network is critical to the people who rely on it.

But how does Tor work under the hood? In this article, we'll dive into the structure and protocols used on the web to get a close look at how Tor works.

A Brief History of Tor

The concept of onion routing (we will explain this name later) was first proposed in 1995. At first, these studies were funded by the Department of Naval Research, and then in 1997 DARPA joined the project. Since then, the Tor Project has been funded by various donors, and not so long ago, the project won a donation campaign on reddit.

The code for the modern Tor software was open-sourced in October 2003, and it was the 3rd generation of onion routing software. Its idea is that we wrap traffic in encrypted layers (like an onion) to protect the data and anonymity of the sender and recipient.

Tor Basics

We figured out the history - let's get down to the principles of work. At its highest level, Tor works by relaying your computer's connection to target computers (such as google.com) through multiple intermediary computers, or relays.



Packet path: guard node, intermediate node, exit node, destination

Now (February 2015), about 6000 routers are engaged in the transmission of traffic in the Tor network. They are located all over the world and run by volunteers who agree to donate some traffic to a good cause. It is important that most nodes do not have any special hardware or additional software - they all run using the Tor software configured to work as a node.

The speed and anonymity of the Tor network depends on the number of nodes - the more the better! And this is understandable, since the traffic of one node is limited. The more nodes you have to choose from, the harder it is to track a user.

Node types

By default, Tor passes traffic through 3 nodes. Each of them has its own role (we will analyze them in detail later).

Client, guard node, intermediate node, exit node, destination

The input or guard node is the entry point to the network. The input nodes are selected from those that work for a long time, and have shown themselves to be stable and high-speed.
Intermediate node - transmits traffic from security to the weekend. As a result, the former do not know anything about the latter.
An exit node is an exit point from the network that sends traffic to the destination that the client needs.

The usually secure method of running a sentry or smart host is a virtual server (DigitalOcean, EC2) - in this case, server operators will see only encrypted traffic.

But exit node operators have a special responsibility. Because they send traffic to the destination, any illegal activity done through Tor will be bound to the exit node. And this can lead to police raids, notifications of illegal activities and other things.

Meet the exit node operator - thank him. He deserves it.

And what about onions?

Having understood the route of connections going through the nodes, we ask ourselves the question - how can we trust them? How can you be sure that they won't hack the connection and extract all the data from it? In short - and we do not need to trust them!

The Tor network is designed so that nodes can be treated with minimal trust. This is achieved through encryption.

So what about the bulbs? Let's take a look at how encryption works in the process of establishing a client connection over the Tor network.

The client encrypts the data so that only the exit node can decrypt it.
This data is then encrypted again so that only the intermediate host can decrypt it.
And then this data is encrypted again so that only the sentinel node can decrypt it.

It turns out that we wrapped the original data in layers of encryption - like an onion. As a result, each node has only the information it needs - where the encrypted data came from and where it should be sent. Such encryption is useful for everyone - the client traffic is not open, and the nodes are not responsible for the content of the transmitted data.

Note: The output nodes can see the original data because they need to send it to the destination. Therefore, they can extract valuable information from the traffic, transmitted in clear text via HTTP and FTP!

Nodes and Bridges: The Problem with Nodes

After starting the Tor client, it needs to get the lists of all input, intermediate and output nodes. And this list is not a secret - later I will tell you how it is distributed (you can search the documentation for the word “concensus” yourself). Publicity of the list is necessary, but there is a problem in it.

To understand it, let's pretend to be attackers and ask ourselves: what would an Authoritarian Government (AP) do? Thinking in this way, we can understand why Tor is designed the way it is.

So what would the AP do? Censorship is serious business, and Tor allows you to bypass it, so the AP would want to block users from accessing Tor. There are two ways to do this:

• block users leaving Tor;
• block users from entering Tor.

The first is possible, and it is the free choice of the owner of the router or the website. All he needs to do is download the list of Tor exit nodes and block all traffic from them. This will be bad, but Tor can't do anything about it.

The second option is seriously worse. Blocking outgoing users from Tor can prevent them from visiting a particular service, and blocking all incoming users from going to any sites - Tor becomes useless for those users who are already suffering from censorship, as a result of which they turned to this service. And if there were only nodes in Tor, this would be possible, since the UA can download the list of sentinel nodes and block traffic to them.

It's good that the Tor developers thought about this and came up with a clever solution to the problem. Get to know bridges.

Bridges

Essentially, bridges are nodes that are not publicly available. Users behind a wall of censorship can use them to access the Tor network. But if they don't get published, how do users know where to find them? Is there a special list needed? We'll talk about it later, but in short, yes - there is a list of bridges that the project developers are involved in.

It's just not public. Instead, users may receive a small list of bridges to connect to the rest of the network. This list, BridgeDB, only gives users a few bridges at a time. This is reasonable, since they do not need many bridges at once.

By issuing multiple bridges, you can prevent the blocking of the network by the Authoritarian Government. Of course, by getting information about new nodes, you can block them too, but can someone discover all the bridges?

Can someone discover all the bridges

The list of bridges is strictly confidential. If the UA gets this list, it can completely block Tor. Therefore, network designers have been researching the possibilities of obtaining a list of all bridges.

I will describe in detail two items from this list, 2nd and 6th, since these are the methods that managed to get access to the bridges. In point 6, researchers looking for Tor bridges scanned the entire IPv4 space with the ZMap port scanner, and found between 79% and 86% of all bridges.

The 2nd point implies the launch of an intermediate Tor node, which can monitor requests that come to it. An intermediate node is accessed only by guard nodes and bridges - and if the addressed node is not in the public list of nodes, then it is obvious that this node is a bridge. This is a serious challenge to Tor, or any other network. Since users cannot be trusted, it is necessary to make the network as anonymous and private as possible, which is why the network is made that way.

Consensus

Consider how the network functions at a lower level. How it is organized and how to find out which nodes in the network are active. We have already mentioned that the network has a list of nodes and a list of bridges. Let's talk about who makes these lists.

Each Tor client contains fixed information about 10 powerful nodes maintained by trusted volunteers. They have a special task - to monitor the status of the entire network. They are called directory authorities (DAs that manage lists).

They are distributed around the world and are responsible for distributing a constantly updated list of all known Tor nodes. They choose which nodes to work with and when.

Why 10? It's usually not a good idea to make a committee of an even number of members so that the vote won't end up in a tie. The bottom line is that 9 DAs deal with lists of nodes, and one DA (Tonga) deals with a list of bridges

List of D.A.s

Reaching consensus

So how do DAs keep the network up and running?

The status of all nodes is contained in an updatable document called "consensus". The DA maintains it and updates it hourly by voting. Here's how it goes:

• each DA creates a list of known nodes;
• then it calculates all other data - node flags, traffic weights, etc.;
• sends data as "status vote" to everyone else;
• gets the votes of everyone else;
• combines and signs all parameters of all voices;
• sends signed data to others;
• the majority of DAs must agree on the data and confirm that there is a consensus;
• the consensus is published by each DA.

The consensus is published over HTTP so that everyone can download the latest version. You can check it yourself by downloading the consensus via Tor or via the tor26 gate.

And what does it mean?

The Anatomy of a Consensus

Just reading the specification, this document is difficult to understand. I like the visual display to understand how the structure works. To do this, I made a poster in the style of corkami. And here is a (clickable) graphical representation of that document.

What happens if the knot goes into all serious

In a detailed review of the principles of the network, we have not yet touched on the principles of the output nodes. These are the last links in the Tor chain, providing a path from the client to the server. Since they are sending data to the destination, they can see it as if it just left the device.

This transparency implies a great deal of trust in the exit nodes, and they usually behave responsibly. But not always. So what happens when the exit node operator decides to turn on Tor users?

Sniffer Case

Tor exit nodes are almost a reference example of a "man-in-the-middle" (MitM). This means that any non-encrypted communication protocols (FTP, HTTP, SMTP) can be tracked by it. And these are logins and passwords, cookies, uploaded and downloaded files.

Exit nodes can see traffic as if it just left the device.

The ambush is that there is nothing we can do about it (other than using encrypted protocols). Sniffing, passive listening on the network, does not require active participation, so the only defense is to understand the problem and avoid transmitting sensitive data without encryption.

But let's say the exit node operator decides to damage the network in a big way. Listening is the occupation of fools. Let's modify the traffic!

We squeeze the maximum

Recall that the exit node operator is responsible for ensuring that traffic to and from the client is not modified. Yeah of course…

Let's see how we can change it.

SSL MiTM & sslstrip

SSL spoils all the raspberries when we try to screw up users. Luckily for attackers, many sites have problems implementing it, allowing us to force the user to go over unencrypted connections. Examples are redirecting from HTTP to HTTPS, enabling HTTP content on HTTPS sites, etc.

A convenient tool for exploiting vulnerabilities is sslstrip. We only need to pass all outgoing traffic through it, and in many cases we will be able to harm the user. Of course, we can just use a self-signed certificate and look at the SSL traffic passing through the node. Easily!

Hooking browsers to BeEF

Having examined the details of the traffic, you can start wrecking. For example, you can use the BeEF framework to take control of browsers. Then we can use the "browser autopwn" function from Metasploit, as a result of which the host will be compromised, and we will be able to execute commands on it. We've arrived!..

Back door binaries

Let's say that binaries are downloaded through our node - software or updates to it. Sometimes the user may not even be aware that updates are being downloaded. We just need to add a back door to them with tools like The Backdoor Factory. Then, after the program is executed, the host will be compromised. We've arrived again!

How to catch Walter White

While most Tor exit nodes behave decently, it's not uncommon for some of them to behave destructively. All the attacks that we talked about in theory have already taken place.

In part, the developers thought about this as well, and developed a safeguard against clients using bad exit nodes. It works as a flag in the consensus called BadExit.

To solve the problem of catching bad exit nodes, a tricky exitmap system has been developed. It works like this: for each output node, a Python module is launched that handles logins, downloading files, and so on. The results of his work are then recorded.

Exitmap works using the Stem library (designed to work with Tor from Python) to help build schemas for each exit node. Simple but effective.

Exitmap was created in 2013 as part of the "bad bulbs" program. The authors found 65 exit nodes that change traffic. It turns out that although this is not a disaster (at the time of operation, there were about 1000 output nodes in total), but the problem is serious enough to track violations. Therefore, exitmap still works and is supported.

In another example, the explorer simply created a fake login page, and logged in through every exit node. Then the HTTP logs of the server were looked at for an example of login attempts. Many hosts tried to infiltrate the site with the username and password used by the author.

This problem is not unique to Tor

It's important to note that this isn't just a Tor problem. Between you and the photo of the cat you want to look at, there are already quite a few nodes. It only takes one person with hostile intentions to cause a lot of harm. The best thing to do here is to force encryption to be enabled where possible. If traffic cannot be recognized, it cannot be easily changed.

And remember that this is just an example of bad operator behavior, not the norm. The vast majority of exit nodes take their role very seriously and deserve a lot of credit for all the risks they take in the name of the free flow of information.

So, many probably know about the existence of some anonymous Tor network, but do not know what it is and how it works. So, if you want to know more about this, please, ask under cat.

• Principle of operation

Tor (abbr. from English. T he O nion R outer) is free and open source software for implementing the second generation of the so-called onion routing.

In essence, this is a special proxy server system that allows you to establish a secure, anonymous connection, since all data is transmitted in encrypted form. The system itself, by the way, is written mainly in programming languages. C, C++ and Python.

Traffic anonymization is provided through the use of nodes - an extensive system of servers.

It all works like this: users of the Tor system run a proxy server on their computer, which, in turn, connects to the servers of the Tor network, thus forming a link in a chain that uses a multi-level encryption system.
Visual diagram of how Tor works

Each data packet that enters the system passes through three successive links (proxy server, host), chosen randomly. This packet is encrypted with three keys before being sent. When the first server receives the packet, it decrypts the "upper cipher" (something like an onion peel) and knows where it should send the given data packet. The same happens with the next two links of the chain. As a result, the packet “cleared” of all ciphers reaches its original destination.

• Spheres of use of Tor

Using the Tor system, users remain anonymous when visiting sites ( of course, if you log in to any service, this will not make much sense), working with any applications, blogging, etc. The Tor system provides significant protection against traffic analysis that compromises the privacy of sensitive information.

The initial page of the Swiftfox browser when connected to the Tor network
For example, journalists use Tor to communicate with anonymous whistleblowers( By the way, with the help of the Tor network, Edward Snowden reported about the PRISM intelligence program to The Washington Post and The Guardian newspapers).

Intelligence agencies also use Tor to ensure proper secrecy when performing special operations. Of course, this is far from all areas of use of this anonymizer.

• History of Tor

Tor was created at the US Naval Research Laboratory's High Performance Computing Center as part of the Free Haven project in conjunction with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on a federal order. In 2002, the development was widely publicized, and the source codes were transferred to independent developers who brought the client-server application to life and published it, so to speak, for testers - everyone could check Tor for errors.

Subsequently, the project was supported by the rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation, she made great efforts to promote and expand the network. At the moment, significant financial assistance is provided by the Department of Defense and the US State Department, as well as the National Science Foundation.

Tor now has approximately 7,000 network nodes, and the number of participants reaches 3 million. Russia ranks third among the countries most frequently using Tor.

• Facts about Tor

1.Tor is quite easy to use

Probably, many thought that Tor is something complicated, accessible to hackers and computer geniuses. In fact, at the moment, the developers have simplified its use as much as possible - all you need to do is download a browser that supports connecting to the Tor network (note Tor Browser), and when you start it, you will automatically be connected to the Tor network.

2.Tor is not slow

Yes, a couple of years ago, the Tor network was quite slow, but now everything you need is accessible with sufficient speed. Of course, it’s far for torrents, but in order to lead an active life on the Internet, it will do.

3. Tor is not a panacea

As I wrote above, Tor does not provide anonymity when logging into, for example, Facebook.
You should soberly understand how Tor works and use it competently, for your own benefit.

A very long time ago, only a few advanced Internet users, as well as developers, were familiar with the TOR browser. By the current period of time, this system has managed to gain popularity among those people who prefer safe Internet surfing. And there is nothing surprising here: in recent years, most users have to deal with the fact that there is no access to some sites in the territory of a particular country.

The ill-fated Roskomnadzor is blocking popular sites in the Russian Federation. His activities
representatives does not always leave ordinary Internet users satisfied, because very often blocking occurs on portals that do not contain dangerous content, which contain a large amount of information necessary for people.

Not everyone likes this alignment, so anonymization methods began to be actively improved. Among the most comfortable and practical tools for surfing in a confidential form, the TOP browser stands out. We will try to tell you more about its functional features and explain how to use them.

Installing the TOR Browser

The TOR browser has such a simple and convenient interface that almost any user will be able to master it. To carry out confidential access to the global network, you must download the browser installer. Find the mono file on the official portal. The installer will unpack the files of the TOR browser into the final folder, which is specified in the settings by the user himself (the standard location is Desktop). After that, the installation will be finally completed.

Instructions for using the TOR browser

Next, the user will need to run the program, and then wait until the connection to the confidential network is completed. In case of successful launch, the main page will appear, where there will be a notification about the connection with the TOR browser. After that, the user should no longer have any special problems with the transition to sites, since confidentiality will be fully preserved.

The browser has a set of all necessary options, so there is no need to make any changes to the settings. Be sure to pay attention to the special plug-in “NoScript”. The TOR browser needs this add-on to control Java and other scripts hosted on Internet portals, because some scripts may violate the client's privacy rules.

Sometimes this function is used to deanonymize certain TOR clients or install virus type files.

It must be remembered that in the standard mode, the “NoScript” function is activated to detect scripts. This means that when visiting dangerous websites, the global display of scripts must be deactivated. This is done by clicking on the plugin icon.

There is a completely different way to visit the Internet network in a confidential form through TOR - by installing the TAILS distribution kit. It contains a system that has a large number of nuances that are designed to provide the highest level of protection for customers using the service confidentially. Each of the outgoing connections is sent to the TOR browser, while each regular connection is blocked. Also, after the user uses TAILS, there will be no information on the PC regarding all the operations performed. The distribution of additional software has not only the TOR browser, which has a large number of additions and modifications. It also contains other programs of a functional type, for example, passwordmanager, many applications for working with a cipher, as well as an i2p client that provides access to the "Darknet" (Darkinternet).

In addition to viewing blocked portals on the Internet, TOR also allows you to visit sites located in the area of ​​the .onion pseudo-domain section. while viewing it, the client has developed confidentiality, as well as a reliable level of security. The user can get acquainted with the addresses of these portals by finding them in an online search engine or in directories of a particular type. The main portals can be found by links by going to Wikipedia.

And finally, the browser has some disadvantages:

1. Internet traffic sometimes significantly slows down the loading of many pages viewed by the user by transferring information across different continents.
2. Your ISP may become aware of the use of the TOR service (it is recommended to study in detail how to ensure that your IP is masked).

Hello guys Today I will show you how to install the Tor browser and show you how to use it, although what you can do there, everything is simple. So a little incoming information, so to speak. What is Tor? This is an anonymous network so that you can watch sites, communicate, but at the same time so that no one can understand where you are from. Well, that is, you will be anonymous.

Tor in general is such a network, really serious in its structure, the data inside it is all encrypted and transmitted through several servers (they are called nodes). Everywhere on the Internet they write that Tor is slow, but I can’t say anything here, for some reason I have it normal, not super-fast, but not a turtle

By the way, at first I have a picture showing an onion, do you know why? Because the Tor network works like an onion, there is even such a thing as onion routing. Three servers are used to transfer data, which ones can be found in the Tor browser (this is called a server chain type). Well, the traffic from you is encrypted three times, and each server can remove only one protection. That is, the third server removes the last protection.

I’ll also write this, there are such people, well, not quite normal, in short, you know what they do? I've written that the traffic is encrypted and transmitted through three servers. And already on the third server, it is decrypted and becomes available to the recipient, figuratively speaking. Well, not quite normal people set up such a server, so to speak, they raise the node and comb the traffic that goes through it. For this node will definitely be the last one for someone. Well, do you understand what happens? The node is the last one, the traffic is already completely decrypted on it and it can be scanned, well, comb it for your own purposes, so to speak. Therefore, I do not advise you to enter your login and password somewhere in the Tor browser, well, there, for example, VKontakte or other social networks, because in theory you can just be stupidly hacked

Okay, enough talking, let's get down to business. How to install Tor browser on a computer? Spakuha, everything is simple here. So you first need to go to this site:

There you need to click on the purple Download button, this button is:

Just keep in mind that it is better to download only the stable version (Stable Tor Browser), in principle, they go first. Just then there are experimental versions (Experimental Tor Browser), in which there may be errors, I do not advise downloading such a version

Everything, then the Tor browser installer will start downloading. By the way, the browser itself is made on the basis of Mozilla, which is good, because Mozilla does not eat a lot of operatives, it works fast and all that. The Tor browser installer has been downloaded, run it:

It was I who downloaded it in Chrome, in another browser something similar will be. Then you will see a security window, well, there is some kind of warning, in short, click here Run:

By the way, you may not have this window. So, next you will have a choice of language and Russian (Russian) should already be selected there:

Then there will be a window where it will be written exactly where the browser will be installed, so I want it to be placed on the desktop, well, so be it. If everything suits you here, then click Install (well, or click the Browse button to select a different installation folder):

Everything, then the installation will begin, it will pass quickly:

At the end of the installation, you will have two checkboxes:

The first one, I think, is understandable, and the second one is to add Tor browser shortcuts to the start menu and to the desktop. If shortcuts are needed, then do not uncheck the box. In general, we click ready and if you did not uncheck the first checkbox, then the Tor network settings window will start immediately, here is the window:

Well, from this place, so to speak, let's talk in detail. So what do we see in this window? There is a Connect button, there is a Configure button. The Connect button, this will use the usual settings, that is, you can not bathe, but take and press the Connect button and wait a bit. The second button is already to configure Tor and now I will press it to show you what settings are. So I clicked it and this window appeared:

What do we see here? And what we see here is that they ask us if our provider blocks Tor? There are such unusual providers that have nothing to do and they block Tor, there are those that even cut the speed of torrents, such pies. I'll choose Yes here, to again show you additional settings, here's the window that then opened:

What do we see here? And we see some bridges here, and what kind of bridges are they? These bridges, so to speak, are the servers through which Tor will work, that is, it is from these servers that Tor will enter its network. But such a server, that is, a bridge, it can be only one, you can choose only its type. This works very well, but the speed may or may not be lower, it also depends on what type of bridge you choose. In general, these bridges, well, that is, servers, they are called repeaters. You can also manually enter them, first received on the Tor website, I don’t remember exactly what the site is called, but I don’t see much point in this if the Tor browser setting itself can do it. In general, I didn’t touch anything here, I didn’t change the transport, I click Next . Then there will be a window like this:

Here we are asked, how do we go to the Internet, through a proxy or not? Well, what can I say here, here you need to specify a proxy if Internet access goes through it. But damn it, you can just specify the left proxy (the main thing is to have a working one), in order to increase your anonymity, so to speak! In general, I will choose Yes here to show you the window where the proxy is entered, here it is:

But I won’t enter a proxy, I don’t have it stupidly, but it’s working and free, then I’m too lazy to look, it’s not so easy to find such a proxy. So I pressed the Back button, and then I chose No and pressed the Connect button. The process of connecting to the anonymous Tor network has begun:

If everything turned out fine, there are no jokes and jambs, then the Tor browser itself will open, this is how it looks like:

Well, all the guys, I congratulate you, the main thing you did, that is, you installed the Tor browser and I hope that it will also just work for you as well as for me! Or didn't work? Well guys, it means something went wrong, I don’t know what exactly, but I personally didn’t find jambs in the Tor browser. No, I'm not saying that you have crooked hands, it's just that it's probably an antivirus or a firewall, so check this moment.

So, the Tor browser has opened, the start page will load. First, you can click on the Open security settings button (although I don’t know if you will have such a button, I got it immediately after starting the browser):

You will see the Privacy and Security Settings window:

Well, I don’t advise changing anything here, except that you can turn the slider up for better anonymity, but to be honest, I didn’t touch it. This window can also be opened by clicking on this triangle:

As you can see, there are other useful items in this menu. So there is such a thing as a New Personality, what is it? Do you know what it is? This is just to restart the Tor browser, that is, it will close and then automatically open. In this case, the IP address in the Tor browser will change. The second point is the New Tor chain for this site, this is to change the IP address in the browser itself without closing it (if I understand correctly). At first I thought that it was to change the IP address for the current open tab, that is, the site, after all, it was written there for this site, but I checked and realized that no, this changes the Tor chain for the entire browser along with all tabs. The third point is that you already know what it is. The fourth item, that is, Tor network settings, then there you can change the relay, set a proxy and specify the allowed ports. I opened the network settings and put two checkmarks there (a little lower) so that you can see all the options, so to speak, here, look:

Well, the fifth point is just checking for updates, by the way, I advise you not to ignore them

Another thing I advise you to do, not often, but you know, well, to check the Tor browser. So you launched it, right? Well, the start page will open, you click on it Check Tor network settings:

After that, you should see a page like this with congratulations:

If you saw her, then everything is just super, you guys are all in a bunch

By the way, after such a check, if you press that triangle again, well, opposite the button with the bow icon, you will see through which countries the current Tor chain works:

All these countries (that is, servers) seem to change regularly, but if you need to change right now, you can click New Personality, well, in principle, I already wrote about this above

True, the only thing I did not understand is whether the repeater belongs to the servers? Well, that is, I mean that the Tor network has three servers, does the relay also apply to them? That is, I created a connection through a relay and I see that it goes like this: relay> server 1> server 2, but I don’t see the third one. So the repeater is included in the total number of servers, so to speak, in the top three? So I disabled the relay, clicked New Identity, the browser restarted, then I clicked Check Tor network settings and this is what I saw:

That is, as I thought, if you turn on the repeater, then it will play the role of the first server, so to speak

So, what else do I want to tell you. So, when you clicked on Check the Tor network settings, well, it will say there that everything is okay, everything is in a bundle, and so there will still be something below that they say you can see the information about the output node (server) and for this you need to click on Atlas:

What is it all about? Well, here you can find out the country of the node, it seems that you can also find out the speed of the server .. In general, such info, so to speak, is not very interesting, but still .. In general, this is what page you will open if you click on Atlas:

Well, have you more or less figured out how to use the Tor browser? That is, it is a regular browser, but which accesses the Internet only through the Tor network. The settings of the Tor network itself are conveniently made, everything is quite clear, I personally didn’t have any errors, the network works like not the slowest mobile Internet, well, that’s me in terms of speed

By the way, I went to the 2ip website, and this is the information he gave me about my IP address:

Well, that is, as you can see, there are no problems with changing the IP address, and where Proxy is written, it also says that the proxy is not used. But do not rush to rejoice! Even 2ip in most cases determines that the IP address belongs to the Tor network .. You just need to click on clarify in front of the Proxy ..

So, what else do I want to say. So the Tor browser runs under such processes as tor.exe (so to speak, the main module for accessing the Tor network), obfs4proxy.exe (if I'm not mistaken, it is responsible for the operation of the relay) and firefox.exe (modified Mozilla to work with the network Tor). All components are in the Browser folder along with Mozilla itself. By the way, the Tor browser does not conflict with the usual Mozilla, well, suddenly you have it installed.

In general, I think that I should tell you what the Tor browser really is, that is, how it works. So look, in fact, everything is a little simpler. The Tor browser itself, then you already understood that this is Mozilla, well, this is a redesigned Mozilla, in which any leaks of your real IP address are excluded. Well, that is, the security is set up strongly, there are also special extensions (by the way, I don’t advise touching them at all). But it still remains the usual Mozilla. The most important thing is tor.exe, this is the file that enters the Tor network. When Mozilla launches it, it raises, so to speak, a proxy server to which Mozilla connects and then can go to the Internet. This proxy server can be used by other programs, but for it to work, the Tor browser must be running, this is important. This proxy, by the way, is the SOCKS proxy type. In general, here is this proxy:

That is, it can even be set in the Internet Explorer browser and it will also go to the Internet through Tor. How to ask? Well, it's very simple, you go to the Control Panel, there you find the Internet Options icon, launch it, then go to the Connections tab and click the Network Settings button there. Then check the Use a proxy server checkbox, then click the Advanced button and specify the proxy in the Socks field:

But it may be that you will need in the Properties: Internet window (well, when you clicked on the Internet Options icon in the Control Panel), click not on the Network Settings button, but simply click on Settings (located above), it will be active if you have you have a connection in the Dial-up and VPN setup box! To be honest, I don’t remember what type of Internet it is, it hasn’t been like this for a long time, but I only know that this type of Internet exists. Well, guys, I think you'll figure it out

Everything, after such actions, well, what I wrote above, then after that Internet Explorer will already work for you through the Tor anonymous network. Do you think everything is so simple? No guys! I don't recommend doing this, because Internet Explorer is a regular browser that is not designed for anonymous work in the way the Tor browser is. Do you understand? I just told you all this as an example. This SOCKS proxy is suitable for many programs, not only for Internet Explorer. Well, that's all to say to you on a note

If you are interested, you can see what extensions are in the Tor browser, for this you need to go to this address:

Well, here are all installed extensions:

You can press the Settings buttons to see the settings themselves, but I advise you to change something only if you are sure of it! In general, as you can see, the Tor browser, well, that is, this Mozilla, it is well modified and contains just a bunch of mechanisms to ensure the maximum level of anonymity. Guys, this is goodness.

So what else do I want to say. You can download in the Tor browser, the speed can be low or high enough, as for the Tor network, but here you need to play with the servers, some may be faster, some slow, the same applies. Just when you start the browser is constantly a new server. To be honest, I don’t know if the repeater affects the speed, but if logically, it seems to affect, well, I don’t know, but it seems that my speed was lower on one repeater, higher on the other .. Well, it seems so ... Or is it just a coincidence … I do not know for sure..

I will say again that if anonymity is important to you, then just don’t change anything either in the Tor network settings or in the browser itself!

When you start the Tor browser, you will have this small window:

There you can click the Open settings button and configure the connection to the Tor network, well, it means the relay and proxy settings. By the way, if you choose a repeater, then I advise you to choose exactly obfs4, in principle, as advised by default. Although, you can get into all these settings already with the Tor browser running, it will be enough just to click on the triangle next to the onion icon:

Well guys, everything seems to be? I just don't know if I wrote everything, but it seems to be everything. There is nothing difficult in mastering the Tor browser, I think there will be no problems with the settings either, it is easy to use, it works stably without glitches and jambs. Well, personally, I didn’t have such a thing that he wouldn’t work here. And by the way, I don’t know why they say about him that he’s terribly slow, I certainly don’t have a reactive one, but you can still use it

I don't know if you need it or not, if it's interesting or not, but I'll write it. Do you know how to change the country in Tor? Well, maybe you know, maybe not, but it’s not so easy to do this in the Tor browser, because there is no such built-in feature (it seemed to be in the old version). You need to manually edit the torrc config file. In general, I will write how to do this, I think that everything will work out for you, I personally checked it myself, yes, yes, it is POSSIBLE to change the country, but with a joke ..

I almost forgot the most important thing to write to you, before editing the torrc file, you need to close the Tor browser! The joke is that the new setting, well, which we will introduce, it can bring down. And then, when you already launch the browser with the selected country, then you don’t need to configure anything in terms of the Tor network, otherwise the setting that you manually set, it may go wrong!

So what needs to be done to change the country in the Tor browser? So, first you need to open the torrc file, I don’t know where you will have the Tor browser installed, but I have it installed on my desktop, so the path to the torrc file is here:

C:\Users\VirtMachine\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor

There is the word VirtMachine in the path, it's just the name of the computer, that is, the account. You may have it in another place, but in any case, the main thing is the internal path, so to speak, I will write again, here it is:

\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor

That Tor folder contains the torrc. So, okay, got it figured out. Now you need to open it, double-click on it, there will be a program selection dialog, there you need to select Notepad and click OK:

The following file will open:

This file already has the settings that I set. Well, that is, here are the settings that are set in the Tor network settings window where the relay and proxy are selected. See the lines that start with Bridge obfs4? Well, these are the repeater teams, so to speak. After all, the torrc file is a settings file for the Tor network itself, and this file is needed for the tor.exe module, do you understand? Well, there below, if you still twist the mouse, it will be like this:

This also applies to repeaters, 1 is to use them, and 0 is not to use, everything is logical. These are commands, I hope this is sorted out. So what should be done now? And now you need to add a command that will set the country of the destination server (or destination node). Roughly speaking, to change the country, you need to add this command to the end of the file:

ExitNodes (country code)

Where the country code is, then there you need to specify the country, well, for example RU, BY, UA, and so on. Honestly, I don’t know all these codes, but if you really need it, then you can search for this information on the Internet, I don’t think this is a problem. In general, for example, I will set RU, that is, Russia, here is what command you need to write in this case:

We write it at the end of the file:

Then close the file and save the changes. Well, do you understand a little? Then you launch the Tor browser and you will already be permanently in the country whose code you specified in the command. But the problem is that when you start the Tor browser, it will pick up the command with the country code and everything will work fine, but the command WILL NOT be in the torrc file itself, it will DISAPPEAR. Therefore, next time you will have to manually set the command again, such a gembel! I forgot something and did not write that you can specify not one country, but several, for example:

ExitNodes (RU), (UA), (BY)

In this case, the IP addresses of the specified countries will be used as outgoing servers. But there is another command, it is the opposite of this one, on the contrary, it prohibits the IP addresses of the specified countries. Here is the command:

ExcludeExitNodes

As you can see, I have banned outgoing servers from having Russian IPs. Here, too, you can specify several countries separated by commas. And also add to the file.

In general, these are the things guys, it's a pity that the commands from the torrc file disappear after they were picked up by the Tor browser. This is all because such commands are not part of the Tor browser functionality! But I don't think it's such a terrible thing. Although the joint is so joint

But in general, you can somehow fool around with this Tor browser and with the torrc file, maybe you will find some more working way, well, so that the commands are not deleted. You can make a copy of a file like ..

In general, there are a lot of commands for the torrc configuration file, but it's not always easy to deal with them. In general, guys, here's a link with the teams (this is the official site):

Well, there is a lot of useful information, interesting commands, in general, if you are interested, then be sure to take a look

Personally, I advise you to use the Tor browser only with relays, because there is not much difference, what with them, what without, well, I'm in terms of speed, but relays, so to speak, increase anonymity. Here is such a moment.

And I want to write something else, just not everyone knows about it. Tor servers are not only those who specifically do this, that is, specially created servers to support the Tor network, but also ordinary users. I don't know exactly how they do it, so I won't say anything. But what do they do it for, what do you think? They do it in order to scan traffic! If the server is the last, then after it the traffic is not encrypted, which means you can view it! Thus, they try to find out logins and passwords from everything that is possible. But it’s true, well, there don’t seem to be many such servers, but it’s better not to take risks and not go anywhere in the Tor browser, that is, do not enter a username and password. This is just my advice guys.

In general, what can I say, well, so to say, what conclusion can be drawn? I'll try to be brief. The Tor browser is cool, at one time I got the idea to use the Internet only through Tor, I even managed to download movies through it, but damn it, it’s still slow compared to the regular Internet. Yes, and it is not safe to use your personal mail through it, go to some sites there, well, in principle, I already wrote about this. So in short, that's the way things are guys.

Well, the guys are on it and that's it, it seems that I wrote everything, or not everything, but I tried to write as much information as possible, just already tired of Malech. If something is wrong, then I'm sorry, but I hope that everything is so and that everything is clear to you here. Good luck in life and that everything is fine with you.

08.12.2016

Browser Tor(Further Tor Browser) ensures the anonymity of your activities on the Internet. It hides your identity and protects your web connections from many types of online surveillance. Tor can also be used to bypass Internet blocking.

• How to stay anonymous and bypass internet censorship

What you will learn from this chapter

• How to hide your digital identity from the websites you visit
• How to hide the websites you visit from ISPs and spyware
• How to Bypass Internet Censorship and Filters
• How to protect yourself from insecure and potentially malicious websites with an add-on NoScript

1. Introduction to Tor Browser

2.1 Download Tor Browser

Image 2. Tor Browser bridge settings

Step 2 Select Yes.

Image 3. Setting up bridges

Step 4 Select option Connect to predefined bridges.

Step 5 Click button [Further] to customize proxy.

Tor Browser will ask if you need to access the Internet local proxy. In this example, we're assuming you don't need it. If a need, look at the settings of your usual browser and copy the proxy settings from there. (In the Firefox browser, you can find this in the menu Settings > Advanced > Network > Customize. In other browsers, you can find the same settings in the Internet access settings. You can refer to support system browser for help.

Image 4. Proxy settings

Step 6 Select option [Not].

Step 7 Click button [Connect] to launch launch Tor Browser.

Image 5. Connecting to the Tor network

After a couple of moments, Tor Browser will open.

3.2.2. Connecting to the Tor network with other bridges

You can also connect to the Tor network by entering bridges on one's own. This is rarely used (mostly preferred predefined bridges), and therefore there is less chance that this method will be blocked. If you are unable to access the Tor Project website, you can ask for bridge site addresses by sending an email to [email protected] , provided you are using an account Riseup, gmail or Yahoo. Insert words get bridges in the body of the letter.

If you have there is to access the Tor Project, you can find the addresses of such bridges, Go to the page https://bridges.torproject.org/options and follow the steps.

Step 1. Click button Just give me the addresses of the bridges!.

Image 1. Getting addresses of Tor bridges

Step 2 Dial characters from the picture ( captcha) and press Enter.

Image 2. Captcha

You will see three bridge addresses.

Image 3. Addresses of bridges

Step 3 Now that you have the bridge addresses, you can dial them in Tor bridge settings as shown below.

Note. If this is your first time launching Tor Browser, you may see a screen Tor bridge settings, just following the steps from . If Tor Browser is already configured, refer to .

Image 4. Tor bridge settings

3.3. Changing the settings for accessing the Tor network

You can change Tor's settings when the program is already configured. Let's say you're traveling to a country where Tor is blocked. How to change settings? Follow the steps:

Step 1: Click button to see the Tor Browser menu.

Image 1. Tor Browser settings menu

Step 2 Select Tor network settings to determine how Tor Browser connects to the internet.

Image 2. Tor network settings

In the settings, you can enable or disable bridges, and select other options.

When you're done click button and restart Tor Browser.

4. Anonymous access to the Internet through the Tor Browser

It is important to remember that Tor Browser provides anonymity only for those actions that occur in the Tor Browser window. All other online activity is not protected by Tor itself.

Note. In accordance with privacy policy , Tor Browser configured to not save browser history to hard drive. Every time you exit Tor Browser, the history is deleted.

4.1. How to check if Tor Browser is running

Tor Browser hides your IP address from the sites you visit. If the program is configured correctly, it should look like you are accessing a website on the Internet from an IP address that is different from your normal IP address, and your physical location cannot be calculated from the IP address.

The easiest way to make sure that the program works is to check on the developer's website https://check.torproject.org/ .

If you don't use Tor, you will see:

Image 1. Checking shows that Tor is not working as it should

If you are using Tor, the image will look like this:

Image 2. Verification shows that Tor is working as it should

Want to know the IP address under which you connect to the Internet through the network Tor? There are many opportunities on the Internet to do this, including websites that support encryption. https(which makes life difficult non-providers who will want to "fake" the result):

If you go to this site not through Tor Browser, you can see your real IP address associated with your real location. If you access through Tor Browser, a different IP address will be displayed.

4.2. Creation of a new identity

You can create a "new identity" in Tor Browser. In this case, Tor Browser will randomly select a new set of relayers. From the outside, it will look like you are logging in from a new IP address when you visit a particular website. To create a new identity:

Step 1. Click button to bring up the Tor Browser settings menu.

Image 1. Creating a new identity in Tor Browser

Step 2 Select paragraph New identity.

Tor Browser will clear your browsing history and cookies, then restart and you will continue with a different IP address.

4.3. NoScript add-on

4.4. Tor Browser update

You will be notified when Tor Browser updates are released.

Step 1. Click button to bring up the Tor Browser menu.

Image 1. Tor Browser Settings

Step 2 Select Check for updates to Tor Browser.

Image 2. Checking for updates to Tor Browser

The program will tell you if there is a new version of Tor Browser and if an update is required.

Image 3. Software updates

FAQ

Question. Why should I Tor Browser?

Answer. Tor Browser is a useful program if you need to bypass censorship and gain access to certain sites. Tor Browser comes in handy if you don't want your ISP to know what sites you visit. The program also hides your location on the Internet from sites.

Question. I run Tor Browser; now all programs that access the network work through the Tor network?

Answer. No, by default, only what you work with is sent through the Tor network. Tor Browser. Other programs work as usual - directly through your Internet access provider. You can find out if the Tor network is working by going to Tor verification page by the address https://check.torproject.org. The developers of Tor also expect people to be careful, use common sense and act prudently when accessing new and unfamiliar websites.

Question. Is what I do in encrypted Tor Browser?

Answer. Tor encrypts all communications inside Tor networks. Keep in mind that Tor cannot encrypt data that leaves the Tor network. To protect data between Tor exit node and the site you are linking to, it's still best to use HTTPS.