Web Browsing with Tor

In my Installing Privoxy post I said I needed to install Privoxy for a certain task. I decided to use Privoxy with Tor to facilitate anonymous Web browsing.

First I installed Tor via package.

orr:/root# pkg_add -vr tor
...edited...
Package 'tor-0.1.1.23' depends on 'tsocks-1.8.b5_3' with 'net/tsocks' origin.
...edited...
extract: Package name is tsocks-1.8.b5_3
extract: CWD to /usr/local
extract: /usr/local/man/man1/tsocks.1.gz
extract: /usr/local/man/man5/tsocks.conf.5.gz
extract: /usr/local/man/man8/tsocks.8.gz
extract: /usr/local/bin/tsocks
extract: /usr/local/etc/tsocks.conf.sample
extract: /usr/local/lib/libtsocks.so.1
extract: /usr/local/lib/libtsocks.so
extract: /usr/local/share/examples/tsocks/tsocks.conf.complex.example
extract: /usr/local/share/examples/tsocks/tsocks.conf.simple.example
extract: /usr/local/share/examples/tsocks/README
...edited...
Package 'tor-0.1.1.23' depends on 'libevent-1.2' with 'devel/libevent' origin.
- already installed.
Running pre-install for tor-0.1.1.23..
Added group "_tor".
Added user "_tor".
extract: Package name is tor-0.1.1.23
extract: CWD to /usr/local
extract: /usr/local/man/man1/tor.1.gz
extract: /usr/local/man/man1/tor-resolve.1.gz
extract: /usr/local/man/man1/torify.1.gz
extract: /usr/local/bin/tor
extract: /usr/local/bin/tor-resolve
extract: /usr/local/bin/torify
extract: /usr/local/etc/tor/tor-tsocks.conf.sample
extract: /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc.sample
extract: CWD to /usr/local
extract: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor
...edited.
================================================================================
To enable the tor server, set tor_enable="YES" in your /etc/rc.conf
and edit /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc. Also note that the rc.subr script overrides
many torrc options and is tunable. See /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor.sh for details
================================================================================
...truncated...

Next I made a copy of the config file and enabled Tor's startup script.

orr:/root# cp /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc.sample /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc
orr:/root# echo "tor_enable=YES" >> /etc/rc.conf

Finally I told Privoxy to accept connections and send them to Tor, which would listen on port 9050 TCP.

orr:/root# echo "forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 ." >> /usr/local/etc/privoxy/config

Using SOCKS4A means my local host will not make DNS requests. Instead, they will be made by the SOCKS server (ostensibly through Tor).

Thanks to this guide for help!

Now I start Privoxy.

orr:/root# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/privoxy start
Starting privoxy.


Finally I start Tor.

orr:/root# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor start
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor: WARNING: /var/db/tor is not a directory.

That's no good. I make the required directory. (Why isn't that a default?)

orr:/root# mkdir /var/db/tor
orr:/root# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor start
Starting tor.
Sep 18 10:50:59.336 [notice] Tor v0.1.1.23. This is experimental software.
Do not rely on it for strong anonymity.
Sep 18 10:50:59.346 [notice] Initialized libevent version 1.2 using method kqueue. Good.
Sep 18 10:50:59.348 [warn] /var/db/tor is not owned by this user (_tor, 256) but by root (0).
Perhaps you are running Tor as the wrong user?
Sep 18 10:50:59.349 [warn] Failed to parse/validate config: Couldn't access/create private data
directory "/var/db/tor"
Sep 18 10:50:59.350 [err] tor_init(): Reading config failed--see warnings above. For usage, try -h.

Shoot. I need to let the _tor user access the directory I just made.

orr:/root# chown _tor:_tor /var/db/tor

Now I start Tor.

orr:/root# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor start
Sep 18 11:12:06.587 [notice] Tor v0.1.1.23. This is experimental software.
Do not rely on it for strong anonymity.
Sep 18 11:12:06.597 [notice] Initialized libevent version 1.2 using method kqueue. Good.
Sep 18 11:12:06.597 [notice] connection_create_listener(): Opening Socks listener on
127.0.0.1:9050
Sep 18 11:12:06.600 [warn] options_init_logs(): Can't log to stdout with RunAsDaemon set;
skipping stdout

Let's see what's listening.

orr:/root# sockstat -4
USER COMMAND PID FD PROTO LOCAL ADDRESS FOREIGN ADDRESS
_tor tor 39325 4 tcp4 192.168.2.5:57518 62.35.214.207:9030
_tor tor 39325 5 tcp4 127.0.0.1:9050 *:*
_tor tor 39325 6 tcp4 192.168.2.5:56850 70.32.145.204:9001
_tor tor 39325 8 tcp4 192.168.2.5:64675 218.189.210.17:4806
root privoxy 39312 3 tcp4 127.0.0.1:8118 *:*
richard ssh 691 3 tcp4 192.168.2.5:49499 172.16.3.2:22
root sendmail 468 4 tcp4 127.0.0.1:25 *:*
root sshd 462 4 tcp4 *:22 *:*
root syslogd 320 7 udp4 *:514 *:*

Now I configure my Web browser to connect to port 8118 (where Privoxy is listening), and Privoxy will send my traffic to port 9050 TCP where Tor is listening.

Now if I browse to a site like whatismyip.com I get a result like 195.71.8.10, which is plug.rfc822.org.

You can see Tor node status at sites like serifos.eecs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/exit.pl and node2.xenobite.eu/torstat.php.

Comments

Anonymous said…
What is your pkg_add source?
I'm using the packages at pointyhat.
Anonymous said…
Great article! I'm able to run privoxy through tor, and privoxy runs on startup, but I can't get tor to run on startup, even though I have tor_enable="YES" in my /etc/rc.conf. Any suggestions?
Hmm, I suggest editing /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor to make the first line

#!/bin/sh -x

then run /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor manually and see what errors appear.
Anonymous said…
I get "Permission Denied" when running as either root or my user account
What are the permissions on /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor ?
Anonymous said…
-r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 2705 Sep 29 18:08 /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor
Anonymous said…
I changed the permissions to 550 and now my permissions are as follows:
-r-xr-x--- 1 root wheel 2705 Sep 29 18:08 /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tor. However, when I try to run it under my user account, it won't run, but I can run it under my root account. I am in the wheel group, so I should be able to execute this file.
Anonymous said…
It asks for a password. I am able to run /usr/local/bin/tor and I don't have any problem, but when I try to run the one in etc, I have the problem.
Anonymous said…
I finally got it to work. I installed both privoxy and tor through the ports collection. Then added the changes to the rc.conf and privoxy.conf. Then copied the torr.sample to torrc.

Thanks for your interest.

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