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135 lines
9.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
How OnionShare Works
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====================
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OnionShare works by starting web servers locally on your own computer and making them accessible to other people as `Tor <https://www.torproject.org/>`_ `onion services <https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/>`_.
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By default, OnionShare web addresses are protected with a random password. A typical OnionShare address might look something like this::
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http://onionshare:constrict-purity@by4im3ir5nsvygprmjq74xwplrkdgt44qmeapxawwikxacmr3dqzyjad.onion
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In this case, the Tor onion address is ``by4im3ir5nsvygprmjq74xwplrkdgt44qmeapxawwikxacmr3dqzyjad.onion`` -- this is random, and each time you use OnionShare you'll get a different onion address. The username is always ``onionshare`` and the random password is ``constrict-purity``.
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You're responsible for securely sharing that URL using a communication channel of their choice such as in an encrypted chat message, or using something less secure like a Twitter or Facebook message, depending on their `threat model <https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/your-security-plan>`_.
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The people who you send the URL to must then copy and paste it into `Tor Browser <https://www.torproject.org/>`_ (a privacy-protecting anonymous web browser) to access the OnionShare service.
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With OnionShare, *your own computer is the web server*. If you run OnionShare on your laptop to send someone files, and then suspends your laptop before the files have been downloaded, the service will not be available until your laptop is unsuspended and connected to the internet again. OnionShare works best when working with people in real-time.
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Because your own computer is the web server, *no third party can access anything that happens in OnionShare*, not even the developers of OnionShare. It's completely private. And because OnionShare is based on Tor onion services too, it also protects your anonymity. See the :doc:`security design </security>` for more information.
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Share Files
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-----------
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You can use OnionShare to securely and anonymously send files and folders to people. Just open OnionShare, drag in the files and folders you wish to share, and click "Start sharing".
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.. image:: _static/screenshots/share.png
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After you add files, you'll see some settings. You can change these settings before you start sharing, but not after, so make sure you choose the setting you're interested in first.
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.. image:: _static/screenshots/share-files.png
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By default, as soon as someone finishes downloading your files, OnionShare will automatically stop the server, completely removing the website from the internet. If you want to allow multiple people to download these files, uncheck the "Stop sharing after files have been sent (uncheck to allow downloading individual files)" box.
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Also, if you uncheck this box, people will be able to download individual files that you share rather than a single compressed version of all of the files.
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When you're ready to share, click the "Start sharing" button. You can always click "Stop sharing", or quit OnionShare, to immediate take the website down. You can also click the up arrow icon in the top-right corner to show the history and progress of people downloading files from you.
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.. image:: _static/screenshots/share-sharing.png
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Now that you have a website that's sharing files, copy the address and send it to the person you want to receive the files. If the files need to stay secure, you should use an encrypted messaging app. That person then must load the address in Tor Browser. After logging in with the random password that's included in the web address, they will be able to download the files directly from your computer.
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.. image:: _static/screenshots/share-torbrowser.png
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Receive Files
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-------------
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Host a Website
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--------------
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Chat Anonymously
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----------------
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Connecting to Tor
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-----------------
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There are several options for how OnionShare should connect to Tor. You can change them in Settings, which you can get to by clicking the gear icon in the bottom-right of the window.
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.. image:: _static/screenshots/settings.png
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Use Tor that is bundled with OnionShare
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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This is the default way that OnionShare connects to Tor, and it's also the simplest and most reliable way. For this reason, it's recommended for most users.
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When you open OnionShare, it will launch a Tor process in the background that's configured specifically for OnionShare to use. This Tor process won't interfere with other Tor processes on your computer, so you're free to run Tor Browser or use a system Tor in the background.
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Attempt automatic configuration with Tor Browser
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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You can configure OnionShare to connect to the Tor that comes with Tor Browser. First, `download Tor Browser <https://www.torproject.org>`_ here if you don't already have it. With this setting selected, you need to keep Tor Browser open in the background while you're using OnionShare.
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Using a system Tor in Windows
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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This is fairly advanced. You'll need to know how edit plaintext files and do stuff as an administrator.
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Download the Tor Windows Expert Bundle, which you can get `from here <https://www.torproject.org/download/tor/>`_. Extract the zip file and copy the extracted folder to ``C:\Program Files (x86)\``, and rename the folder to ``tor-win32``, so that inside that folder is the ``Data`` and ``Tor`` folders.
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Make up a control port password. I'm going to use ``comprised stumble rummage work avenging construct volatile`` as my password. Now open a command prompt as an administrator, and use ``tor.exe --hash-password`` to generate a hash of your password. For example::
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cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\tor-win32\Tor"
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tor.exe --hash-password "comprised stumble rummage work avenging construct volatile"
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The hashed password output is displayed after some warnings (which you can ignore). In my case, it was ``16:00322E903D96DE986058BB9ABDA91E010D7A863768635AC38E213FDBEF``.
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Now create a new text file at ``C:\Program Files (x86)\tor-win32\torrc`` and put this in it, replacing the ``HashedControlPassword`` with the one you just generated::
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ControlPort 9051
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HashedControlPassword 16:00322E903D96DE986058BB9ABDA91E010D7A863768635AC38E213FDBEF
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In your administrator command prompt, install tor as a service using the appropriate ``torrc`` file you just created (see `here <https://2019.www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#NTService>`_ for more information on doing this). Like this::
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tor.exe --service install -options -f "C:\Program Files (x86)\tor-win32\torrc"
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You're now running a system Tor in Windows!
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Open OnionShare. Click the Settings icon. Under "How should OnionShare connect to Tor?" choose "Connect using control port", and set the control port host to ``127.0.0.1`` and the port to ``9051``. Under "Tor authentication options" choose "Password" and set the password to your password, in my case ``comprised stumble rummage work avenging construct volatile``. Click the "Test Settings" button. If all goes well, you should see successfully connected to tor.
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Using a system Tor in Mac OS X
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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First, install `Homebrew <http://brew.sh/>`_ if you don't already have it. Then, install Tor::
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brew install tor
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Now configure Tor to allow connections from OnionShare::
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mkdir -p /usr/local/var/run/tor
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chmod 700 /usr/local/var/run/tor
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echo 'SOCKSPort 9050' >> /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc
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echo 'ControlPort unix:"/usr/local/var/run/tor/control.socket"' >> /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc
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And start the system Tor service::
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brew services start tor
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Open OnionShare. Click the Settings icon. Under "How should OnionShare connect to Tor?" choose "Connect using socket file", and set the socket file to be ``/usr/local/var/run/tor/control.socket``. Under "Tor authentication options" choose "No authentication, or cookie authentication". Click the "Test Settings" button. If all goes well, you should see successfully connected to tor.
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Using a system Tor in Linux
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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First, install the tor package. If you're using Debian, Ubuntu, or a similar Linux distro, I recommend you use Tor Project's `official repository <https://2019.www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html.en>`_. For example, in Ubuntu 20.04::
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sudo su -c "echo 'deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org focal main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/torproject.list"
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curl https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org/A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89.asc | gpg --import
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gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | sudo apt-key add -
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sudo apt-get update
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sudo apt-get install -y tor deb.torproject.org-keyring
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Next, add your user to the group that runs the Tor process (in the case of Debian and Ubuntu, ``debian-tor``) and configure OnionShare to connect to your system Tor's control socket file.
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Add your user to the ``debian-tor`` group by running this command (replace ``username`` with your actual username)::
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sudo usermod -a -G debian-tor username
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Reboot your computer. After it boots up again, open OnionShare. Click the Settings icon. Under "How should OnionShare connect to Tor?" choose "Connect using socket file", and set the socket file to be ``/var/run/tor/control``. Under "Tor authentication options" choose "No authentication, or cookie authentication". Click the "Test Settings" button. If all goes well, you should see successfully connect to Tor. |