[liberationtech] Whonix ALPHA 0.4.5 - Anonymous Operating System

[adrelanos]

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Hi everyone,

Whonix hasn't been mentioned or discussed on this list. It looks like
a great list, providing lots of feedback and discussion. Therefore I
re-post an updated version of the original release announcement.

Whonix (called TorBOX or aos in past) is an anonymous general purpose
operating system based on Virtual Box, Debian GNU/Linux and Tor. By
Whonix design, IP and DNS leaks are impossible. Not even malware with
root rights can find out the user's real IP/location.

This is because Whonix consists of two (virtual) machines. One machine
solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway, which we call Whonix-Gateway.
The other machine, which we call Whonix-Workstation, is on a
completely isolated network. Only connections through Tor are possible.

This is only a very brief introduction. See Documentation [17] and/or
Technical Design [1] for a more comprehensive description, security
features and threat model. To find out how secure/anonymous Whonix is,
see Security Overview. [18]

Whonix is produced independently from the Tor (r) anonymity software
and carries no guarantee from The Tor Project about quality,
suitability or anything else.

Screenshots:

  https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Screenshots/

Highlights:

  Applications: Can torify almost any application safely. [13] [14]

  Bridges: (Private) (obfuscated) bridges can be used the same way
they could be used with vanilla Tor. [12]

  VPN/Tunnel Support: combining Whonix with VPNs, proxies or ssh in
any combination is possible. [11]

  Hidden Service Support: You can provide any kind of hidden service
with a greatly reduced risk for IP leaks. [10]

  Windows Support: Whonix-Gateway can also torify Microsoft Windows or
any other operating system. [9]

  Flash Support: Although recommend against Flash, people point
Mozilla Firefox, Flash and socksifier at their feet and pull the
trigger. Whonix is currently the safest method to use Adobe Flash. [15]

Homepage with documentation:

  https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Home/#whonix-homepage

Or a shorter homepage url:

  http://whonix.sf.net

Call for help:

  Please test and leave feedback.

General content anonymity caution note:

  Whonix uses the best of both worlds, the Isolating Proxy concept [2]
and the Transparent Proxy concept. At the moment there are no known
anonymity leaks or proxy bypass problems. The principal design is less
vulnerable for any kind of leaks. At time of writing (January 2012) I
have been working on the theoretical concept and practical
implementation for 13 months, the basics have been developed by (at
least) three people, adrelanos, smarm and anonymous. [3] [4]

  Although Whonix has been developed with greatest care, a negative,
being leak free or being free form mistakes in the extended project
description [1], can not be proven. This is Whonix's first version,
which was announced. I hope skilled people look into the concept and
implementation and fail to find anonymity related bugs.

Download link:

  Virtual Machine images for Virtual Box (.ova) can be downloaded from
sourceforge.

  https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Download/

Changelog:

  https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Changelog/

The GnuPG signature that signed this email is also the same key that
signs the Whonix images. You can find my gpg key here. [5]
[6] [7] [8] [16]

Thanks:

  Thanks to the many people who either directly or indirectly
contributed to this project. Thanks to the Free Software community,
the people who write papers and documentation, the Tor developers, the
Tails developers, the Virtual Box developers, upstream developers,
Debian/Ubuntu GNU/Linux developers, Whonix contributors, testers,
people active on mailing lists and so on. Without them, Whonix
wouldn't be possible!

Footnotes:

  [1] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Design/
  [2]
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorifyHOWTO/IsolatingProxy
  [3]
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorBOX?action=history
  [4] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorBOX?version=1
  [5] https://github.com/adrelanos/Whonix
  [6] http://whonix.sourceforge.net/adrelanos
  [7] http://su6ephfi7dtxnbtb.onion/
  [8] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/proper
  [9] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/OtherOperatingSystems/
  [10] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Hidden%20Services/
  [11] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Features/#vpn-tunnel-support
  [12] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Bridges/
  [13]
https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Whonix%27s%20Protocol-Leak-Protection%20and%20Fingerprinting-Protection/
  [14] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Stream%20Isolation/
  [15] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/BrowserPlugins/
  [16] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/TrustingWhonixSigningKey/
  [17] https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Documentation/
  [18]
https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Technical%20Introduction/#security-overview

Cheers,
adrelanos

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