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124 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
124 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
The Onion Routing (TOR) Frequently Asked Questions
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1. General.
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1.1. What is tor?
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Tor is an implementation of version 2 of Onion Routing.
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Onion Routing is a connection-oriented anonymizing communication
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service. Users build a layered block of asymmetric encryptions
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(an "onion") which describes a source-routed path through a set of
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nodes. Those nodes build a "virtual circuit" through the network, in which
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each node knows its predecessor and successor, but no others. Traffic
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flowing down the circuit is unwrapped by a symmetric key at each node,
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which reveals the downstream node.
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Basically tor provides a distributed network of servers ("onion
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routers"). Users bounce their tcp streams (web traffic, ftp, ssh, etc)
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around the routers, and recipients, observers, and even the routers
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themselves have difficulty tracking the source of the stream.
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1.2. Why's it called tor?
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Because tor is the onion routing system. I kept telling people I was
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working on onion routing, and they said "Neat. Which one?" Even if onion
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routing has become a standard household term, this is the actual onion
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routing project, started out of the Naval Research Lab.
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(Theories about recursive acronyms are ok too.)
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1.3 Is there a backdoor in tor?
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Not right now, but if this answer changes we probably won't be allowed
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to tell you. You should always check the source (or at least the diffs
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since the last release) for suspicious things; and if we don't give you
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source, that's a sure sign something funny could be going on.
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2. Compiling and installing.
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[Read the README file for now; check back here once we've got packages/etc
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for you.]
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3. Running tor.
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3.1. What kind of server should I run?
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The same executable ("or") functions as both client and server, depending
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on which ports are specified in the configuration file. You can specify:
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* APPort: client applications (eg privoxy, Mozilla) can speak socks to
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this port.
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* OPPort: onion proxies (client onion routers) connect to this port.
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* ORPort: other onion routers connect to this port
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* DirPort: onion proxies and onion routers speak http to this port, to
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pull down a directory of which nodes are currently available.
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3.2. So I can just run a full onion router and join the network?
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No. Users should run just an onion proxy (use the 'oprc' config file).
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If you start up a full onion router, the rest of the routers in the
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system won't recognize you, so they will reject your handshake attempts.
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3.3. How do I join the network then?
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If you just want to use the onion routing network, you can run a proxy
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and you're all set. If you want to run a router, you must convince
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the directory server operators (currently arma@mit.edu) that you're a
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trustworthy person. From there, the operators add you to the directory,
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which propagates out to the rest of the network. All nodes will know
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about you within an hour.
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3.4. I want to run a directory server too.
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If you run a very reliable node, you plan to be around for a long time,
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and you want to spend some time ensuring that router operators are
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people we know and like, we may want you to run a directory server
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too. We must manually add you to the 'dirservers' file that's part of
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the distribution; users will only know about you when they upgrade to
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a new version. Of course, you can always just start up your router as a
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directory server too --- but users won't know to ask you for directories,
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and more importantly, you'll never learn from the real directory servers
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about recently joined routers.
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4. Development.
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4.1. Who's doing this?
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4.2. Can I help?
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4.3. I've got a bug.
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5. Anonymity.
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5.1. So I'm totally anonymous if I use tor?
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5.2. Where can I learn more about anonymity?
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5.3. What attacks remain against onion routing?
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tagging: can change bytes in the cells, even through link encryption
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end node can give back wrong data, even subtly wrong data.
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6. Comparison to related projects.
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6.1. Onion Routing.
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Tor *is* onion routing.
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6.2. Freedom.
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7. Protocol and application support.
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7.1. http? ftp? udp? socks? mozilla?
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