![]() ![]() One can just start a chat server, share the link via some disposable way, and then wait for the other people to join while maintaining anonymity.īecause it's an onion service, there is no way for an attacker to eavesdrop on the messages. Hence, people chatting can stay anonymous, and everything happens inside the tor network. Also, adding to the anonymity feature, OnionShare chat doesn't need any form of signing in. Given that the OnionShare chat feature works over the onion network, so it also has the additional anonymity feature. OnionShare chat rooms don’t store any messages anywhere, so the problem is reduced to a minimum. Even if disappearing messages is turned on it’s hard to confirm all copies of the messages are actually deleted from all devices, and from any other places (like notifications databases) they may have been saved to. If, for example, you send a message to a Signal group, a copy of your message ends up on each device (the devices, and computers if they set up Signal Desktop of each member of the group). Hence, it leaves much less trace compared to other chat applications.Ī good example of the above as mentioned by Micah in his blog is: So once the chat server is closed, and the Tor Browser tab with the chat client is closed, there is no data (or metadata) related to chat that remains, even in the person's system who started the server. The chat server stores no information at all (not even the usernames of people chatting). There is no form of storage whatsoever in OnionShare chat mode. Why do we need an anonymous chat?Ī common question that we got during developing this feature is what's the use of an anonymous chat room since we already have end-to-end encrypted messaging apps. Let's dive in a little deeper into the feature. So if you want to start a chat service, you just start the chat server, share the onion address of the server with people you want to chat with, everyone opens this onion address in Tor Browser and voila! You have an anonymous chat. Just like the other modes (share, receive, and website), there is now a chat mode. One of the main new features that I helped build was the anonymous chat feature in OnionShare. If you want to run a public OnionShare service that anyone can access and doesn't have a secret key, like if you're setting up an anonymous dropbox, then just check the "This is a public OnionShare service (disables private key)" box before starting the server, or use the -public flag on the command line.So the new OnionShare is out and it has a bunch of exciting new features and some improvements in the UI/UX designs of the tool. You can do that like this (in this case, running the command line version from the snap package): onionshare.cli -chat -title "retro gamerz only" Let's say you want to set up a secret chat room. The command line version, of course, works the same way. Once your friend copies and pastes the correct private key, they can access the onion site like normal and download the secret Nintendo ROM. If they don't have it then it's simply impossible to connect. When your friend opens Tor Browser and pastes the address, Tor itself will pop up a little window asking for the private key. ![]() You open up an encrypted messaging app like Signal and then send both the OnionShare address and the private key. You open OnionShare, drag the file in, and start the server. ![]() For example, lets say you want to send a super secret Nintendo ROM to your friend. ![]() When you start an OnionShare service you get both, and you have to give both to the people who want to use your service. Today though, the passwords are gone! OnionShare 2.4 addresses look something like this: Īnd the private keys look something like this: K3N3N3U3BURJW46HZEZV2LZHBPKEFAGVN6DPC7TY6FHWXT7RLRAQ If you didn't have the password and guessed wrong enough times, OnionShare would detect a potential attack and shut down the service. Basically, if you load that address in Tor Browser without the username and password part, it would prompt the user to login. Check out the new version at !īefore today, OnionShare web addresses looked something like this: first part, onionshare:constrict-purity, is an HTTP basic authentication username (always 'onionshare') and random password. I'm excited to announce that OnionShare 2.4 is now out and the major change in this version is that we've completely gotten rid of passwords! Private OnionShare services are now protected using private keys (aka client authentication) on the Tor layer instead of instead of basic authentication on the HTTP layer. ![]()
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