TOR network

Ive just started using a program called TOR.
Im sure many of you have heard of it or are using it yourself.

Heres a quick overview from wikipedia:

Tor is a system intended to enable online anonymity. Tor client software routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers in order to conceal a user's location or usage from someone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes tracing Internet activity, including "visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages and other communication forms", to the user more difficult.[7] It is intended to protect users' personal freedom, privacy, and ability to conduct confidential business, by keeping their internet activities from being monitored.[8] The software is open-source and the network is free of charge to use.

It seems to me that everyone should be using this software. Why should you be traced online if you arent doing anything illegal?? Well....you shouldnt and this program stops it.

Ive only been using it for a couple of days but it seems pretty good.
There is a button for Firefox but you actually need the TOR program to run it (their servers).

It slows your internet down a bit...well not the internet, the connection is slower as its routed all around the world.

Has anyone else used this?? What do you think?? Do you think you will give it a go if you havent heard of it before??

I use "Tor"; but the thought occurred: "There's not any reason any one of the "network hops servers" couldn't be a server owned (plumbed) by the intelligence gathering services either private data mining or fed gov.( even an overseas server).So I don't trust anything "publically available" .

Keep your "junk mail" photo twitters to yourself "Anthony"!

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


Use some caution...if you are using TOR (it's been around for awhile now) then don't you think it is plausible that others that might use it maliciously know about it too (the FBI, CIA, etc...)?

I have TOR installed also, but rarely use it for browsing...because it's so damn slow...IMO.

Tor sounds like a good idea, but as with anything on an open network its open to hacking.
Theres been a whole list of incidents where tor has been compromised going back for years, so I wouldnt trust it to be honest

From 2006

A group called Packet Storm has published a paper detailing how the true IP addresses of Tor users can be discovered by the party that controls their traffic's exit node

link

From 2009

tomorrow there's a talk at Black Hat DC by Xinwen Fu on an active attack that can allow traffic confirmation in Tor. He calls it a "replay attack", whereas we called it a "tagging attack" in the original Tor paper, but let's look at how it actually works.

link

2011

Tor is a network of virtual tunnels which allows separate persons or groups of people to increase their security and protect their anonymity on Internet. In early January we discovered that two of the seven servers that run directory authorities were compromised.

link

I could go on

Damn I need to start a tor exit node to catch all this groovy data.

I can you know. You can too.

Tor puts your traffic in my hands, if I participate.

Let me see it, use tor

Interesting thread: thanks for making me look further into this and thanks to "Davespanners" above for the links. Seems I have a real untapped curiosity about "network security"


here's oneof the papers in .pdf:
dl.packetstormsecurity.net...

conclusion:" Tor"is fine: but the common software people use on their systems( flash and _javascript) can be exploited to tag and expose a users IP."

Good stuff toknow.

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


just use the Backtrack distro

comes with firefox w/ Tor

and java and flash disabled already installed