The Sysadmin’s Daily Grind: Tor
SECRET SURFING
Some people don’t mind leaving traces of their IP address wherever they go, others prefer to use a tool like The Onion Router.
The Onion Router (Tor) [1] runs as a Socks 4 proxy and mangles incoming connections through a network of distributed, independent servers, thus removing any traces of the original data packets. The Onion is similar to Java Anonymous Proxy (JAP), a tool that supports anonymous web surfing. Your ex won’t be able to evaluate the IP address of a blog entry to find out who added those unflattering comments about her. The IP address will be that of the last server in the Onion routing chain. I downloaded Tor from [2], which has a collection of ready-made packages for a variety of Linux distributions, BSD derivates, MacOS, and Windows. I decided to build from scratch using the current tarballs, a quick process. I had to install the OpenSSL and Libevent libraries on my machine, but then it was standard procedure: ./configure && make && make install. As I did not specify any preferences for the target directory, the binaries ended up in /usr/local/bin, and a sample configuration file was placed in /usr/local/etc/tor/.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.