How to achieve true online anonymity

Whether it's a buried cable or WiFi, the distance is too small to be very useful.

 

Thank you, mirimir, for--as usual--kindly sharing your extensive knowledge. It’s a real gift to someone like me, and much appreciated.

Alas, it looks like my (admittedly naïve) hopes about remote servers/desktops may have been unrealistic, given your comment that they would be able to see my home IP address (from where I am remoting into them). One (last gasp) question about this: would a remote server/remote desktop be able to see my home IP address, regardless of whether, on one hand, there is a direct connection between me and the remote server, or if, on the other hand, my connection goes through the remote company (e.g. Teamviewer, LogMeIn, etc.) servers? Similarly, would there be any difference here if I used the Windows built-in Remote Desktop Connection to connect directly, or used the Mac built-in Screen Sharing feature between my home Mac and a remote Mac? In all of these cases, my home IP address could be seen?

But for me it doesn’t feel safe, given how malware can reveal your true IP address, which brings me to this…

A ray of hope! When you say “all files would remain on the remote server until you got them via sftp”, does that include all cookies/javascript/malware/etc.? If yes, that feels like a major advantage to using a remote server. And when one then gets the files via sftp, how much of a risk is there that malware/cookies/etc.(specifically software which could reveal my home IP) could make its way to my home computer from the remote server?

What’s a “fraudulently-obtained ISP account”? I’m not interested in being fraudulent, but I’m also not interested in giving my real name to an ISP. I haven’t viewed it as fraudulent to set up an ISP account with an alias, as long as I pay my ISP bill. It’s not illegal to do that, nor is it unethical (in my view), since I don’t see where anyone is hurt. But perhaps I’m missing something with this; I definitely don’t want to go down an illegal road which could cause me problems.

 

Look. What your looking for is called a meshnet. You either need lots of money or you need to be creative. Think Raspberyy Pi's and your on your way.

I'll have more later.

 

Yes, meshnets are very cool

 

Thanks

I'm not saying that. The remote server knows the IP address of the machine that's connecting to it. If that machine were your computer, with no VPNs and/or Tor and/or other intermediaries, the remote server would know your home IP address. If you were connecting through VPNs and/or Tor and/or some other intermediary, adversaries would need to compromise each intermediary in order to get back to you.

If one of those intermediaries were Tor, doing that would be very difficult, even for adversaries with substantial resources. I'll say more about that below.

I'm not familiar with those. But generally, they would at best serve as a simple proxy, comparable to a one-hop VPN.

No, those are just desktop-sharing protocols, and don't affect IP addresses.

Your home IP address will always be seen by whatever you're connecting to. But whenever you go through an intermediary, you get a new IP address. Walking back the chain of intermediaries requires compromising each one, through observation and/or cooperation. Doing that is much harder with Tor and similar technologies where (in theory) only you know the routing path through chains of intermediaries.

Right. So you need to leave malware on the remote server

Yes, that includes everything, as long as you haven't created file shares or shared clipboard or whatever that malware can traverse.

You must be very careful. The safest thing is only moving text. But binary files can be ASCII-armored and moved as text. Still, after getting them back home, you would only convert them back to binary on a totally isolated machine. That is, you'd use a machine with no network access, no external drive sharing with other machines, no connection to anything. For getting files to that machine, you'd use CDs/DVDs and/or single-use USB flash drives.

I wasn't talking about your home ISP. I was saying that some "anonymity" services may obtain numerous individual ISP accounts, perhaps using pseudonyms, and rent them as proxies or VPN exit nodes. They do that to avoid looking like proxies.

Given your apparent level of expertise, I recommend starting with a solid home setup. And given your apparent risk model, I recommend using Tor tunnelled through a VPN.

It would be best to start with a clean machine, new if possible, or at least with a new hard drive. Use Xubuntu 12.04 x64 as the host OS, with whole-disk encryption (unless you don't care about local adversaries, or would be required to disclose passphrases). Set up AirVPN, BolehVPN or Mullvad on the host machine, using network manager, and then install shorewall and configure it as I've described.

After verifying that the VPN is working, download VirtualBox and install it, and also install the extension pack. Now download the Whonix 0.5.6 VMs and import them into VirtualBox. Start the Tor gateway VM, wait for it to boot, and then start the workstation VM. Now you're using Tor.

Once you're comfortable with that, you can start playing with a remote machine. A relatively simple and very secure setup would be running Tor on the remote machine, and then running ssh server as a hidden service. You'd ssh from your home setup to the remote machine's hidden ssh server through Tor. Your traffic would never leave Tor, except through the remote machine.

The downside is that you would probably be limited to the command line. Although one can do X windows over ssh, doing that over Tor is hard, as I recall.

Alternatively, it occurs to me that one might run an OpenVPN server as a Tor hidden service. I'll look into that and say more later.

Edit: It seems that OpenVPN servers can work as Tor hidden services. So why don't I see anything online about that? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places

Edit2: It seems that OnionCat may be a far easier approach. See -https://www.cypherpunk.at/onioncat/ and -http://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/OnionCat/.

 

Thanks for this, ComputerSaysNo. I’m looking forward to your additional thoughts about this. After reading your post today, I did a bit of research about meshnets this afternoon. It seems that setting up a meshnet is typically done via wireless connections. My concern there is with all the (increasing) wireless triangulation that trackers are doing now, that wireless just doesn’t seem like an option for those seeking location anonymity. But perhaps I'm misunderstanding this, and/or maybe other options, like using an Ethernet cable, are viable with meshnet? Also, much of what I read made it seem like a large global meshnet hasn’t been developed yet. Can some kind of meshnet option be used in the meantime which would allow me to use the internet now without revealing my actual geolocation? Maybe it’s a matter of setting up my own meshnet and then just connecting from my home with it to the regular internet (as a way of not revealing my geolocation to any ISP?)


Mirimir, thanks again for all your thoughts last night. I’m pretty close to giving up on my quest to find a way to access the internet without having an IP address which connects to my home; it seems like there just isn’t a viable option which will do that [the remote options we’ve been recently discussing do have some appeal, but I’d still be involving my ISP-assigned IP address (albeit behind VPN’s/VM’s)]. I’m pretty close to now trying your system of VPN’s and/or Tor with VM’s (which sounds very effective; I just continue to have concerns about my ability to competently run such a system). In any event, before I completely give up on my quest re. no IP attached at all to my home, I can’t resist considering the meshnet option suggested by ComputerSaysNo. I read where you commented that meshnets are “very cool”; is there a meshnet option which I could use to hide my geolocation? Last week you commented that “Unless you have serious money, you're not going to be accessing anything very far away except through the Internet!” Were you thinking of meshnet when you said that? If I’m willing to spend some bucks, is there a good option here—meshnet or something else—which I could use to access the internet to give me the location anonymity I seek? For example, as I ask ComputerSaysNo above in this post, is there a way through meshnet or some other network to avoid altogether having an ISP-assigned IP address attached to my home?

 

until this gets finished

https://projectmeshnet.org/


youll just have to go with simple but great solutions like some nifty posts by mirimir like the vpn>tor>vpn chain , wich is a great way to get into location anonymity , strictly online speaking of course

 

You can use whatever method that you have to connect nodes: WiFi, CAT6, fiber, short-wave radio, coax, etc. The Internet is basically a global meshnet.

Let's say that you were part of a meshnet in your city. Maybe only a few of the nodes in the meshnet had Internet connections (aka gateways). When you accessed the Internet, remote sites would see the IP address of whatever Internet gateway that you were using.

Just as with VPNs and remote servers, adversaries could walk back through the meshnet to you. You'd need to trust your fellow meshnet nodes not to log traffic, just as you need to trust VPN providers.

Tor is your best option, I think.

 

OK, I’m done with my quixotic quest for an ideal approach to location privacy, and ready to implement a more realistic one. Thanks much for the helpful advice over the last couple of weeks on this thread, especially to mirimir, who is, frankly, amazing with his knowledge and willingness to take his time to share it. And apologies for my denseness in not grasping some concepts more quickly, and thanks again for your patience when that happened.

So…in setting up an “isolation and compartmentalization” system…

I’ve been experimenting with Tor in recent days, and it’s slow. Really slow sometimes, which is problematic for me, given my need to spend several hours a day online privately. It’s a shame that Tor is still so slow, because its onion router approach is so effective, and because Whonix seems like a great system. Adrelanos, you have much to be proud of with Whonix.

I’m going to try mirimir’s system, using VPN's (not Tor) and VM's, and cross my fingers that I can get it working.

What is the best machine(s) to use to set this up? Best to go with completely clean machines, so I’m going to buy brand new one(s). What’s best... in terms of hardware, as well as built-in operating system, and any other relevant variables? [I realize I will be changing things around re. OS, but I still want, if it’s relevant, to start by buying whatever is best.] Windows-based machine(s), Mac, or Linux, or something else? I want to make sure that whatever machine(s) I buy does not have a built-in GPS-chip (or at least has one that can be removed or disabled). What other variables are relevant in considering which machine(s) to buy for this?

 

Yes, Tor can be slow. But sometimes it's not at all bad. In maintaining anonymity, Tor changes circuits periodically. There's a tradeoff between cleanliness and usability. Some circuits randomly use all high-bandwidth relays, and are fast. Others randomly use one or more low-bandwidth relays, and are slow. It's possible to limit circuits to high-bandwidth relays, but that reduces anonymity, and increases risk.

Running many VirtualBox VMs doesn't require gaming-level hardware. In my experience and fairly modern quad-core CPU is fine, as long as it supports virtualization (AMD-V or VT-x). I have hosts with Intel Core-Duo x4, Intel i5 x4, and AMD Athlon x4. RAM is more critical, and limits the number of VMs that you can run. Having at least 6-8GB is good.

If I were building a host today, I'd seriously consider using SSDs. My hosts use RAID10 arrays with four 1TB W-D RE3 SATAs. They're cheap, well suited for RAID and very reliable, in my experience. Now I'd probably play with RAID10 arrays of decent SSDs.

I've had good luck buying recently discontinued Gateway and HP models that had been returned and refurbished. They're often available for less than the CPU and memory would cost. If the power supply is under 500W, I replace it. I also replace the back case fan (e.g., 140mm with 50-100cfm) and wire it straight to 12V. I typically rip out the stock drive cage, and do whatever's necessary to get good air flow through the front. I use whatever's at hand to position the four RE3s where they'll get good air flow.

For the operating system, I'd use Xubuntu 12.04 x64 from the alternate install disk, which has the classic Debian text-style installer. It's very easy to set up RAID, LUKS crypto and LVM. The boot partition goes on its own ~300MB RAID10 array, using partitions at the beginning (outside) of each disk. The big RAID10 array (~2TB) is fully encrypted, and uses LVM for its partitions.

The defect with LUKS is that there's no encryption deniability. For that, you want Windows 7 with TrueCrypt. But good luck with RAID10, unless you have a real hardware RAID controller (not one that just uses a DLL).

Anyway, that's it for now. What do you think?

 

O

Hi, i'm wondering how up until now, you've managed to stay Private & also not be Geo Located etc ?

 

Thanks for all this info. Quite useful indeed.

 

Eventually, fate willing, I'll share my name, just before I die

 

Can't believe somebody forgot to mention that minimizing your presence on social media sites like facebook helps greatly increase your online anonymity. For example, if you post pictures of the interior of your bedroom, somebody could use the architecture of your bedroom to deduce which apartment you live in and rob you. Facebook is a very dangerous site.

Remember, Mark Zuckerberg once said "They trust me (with their personal info); those dumb****s".

 

How is Wilders different, really?

It is true that they don't sell our information. But Google etc do index everything.

 

Thanks for this advice. I must admit that I have no idea what most of these acronyms/initials/devices are, but I will start researching this right away this weekend.

For most of my life, I’ve been able to keep wherever my home location was very private. However, I went through a stretch, more recently, when I didn’t realize all the ways that using phones, the internet, etc. from one’s home removes privacy. My bad. Since then, I’ve moved into a new home which I’ve kept absolutely prisitine re. privacy. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, which I’ve allowed to compromise my anonymity there. But until I have a system in place to be able to make/send phone calls/emails privately from home, this means I don’t communicate at all from my home via the phone or internet. Huge inconvenience. It would be hard to put into words how much I am looking forward to finally being able to live a “normal” life again from my own home. Hopefully, that day is very near.

I’d be less concerned about architecture, and more worried about the fact that photos now typically have embedded GPS coordinates which can identify your geolocation precisely. You are right that social media sites are incredibly destructive of privacy; I’m amazed at how casually much of the world just voluntarily throws away their privacy on Facebook, Twitter et al.

 

Is X TCP based? If yes, you could access it over a hidden service.
Otherwise there is no reason not to use VNC? Since the hidden services provides encryption, it can also run a hidden VNC server.

If configured as TCP only, I think it can work.

(Don't ask me how to configure it leak free, I don't know. On the other hand installing Whonix on a server to get a leak free OpenVPN .onion server doesn't seem very attractive either.)

Well, generally people are afraid to run such kind of server software over Tor due to no one can really answer if there are leaks and the use case is kinda limited. For what is it required anyway?

I don't understand why it's required for a simple hidden VNC server?

 

Using X doesn't require remote desktop, which might be good for low end servers. But after reading, it seems that VNC uses less bandwidth, especially if "poll entire screen" is disabled.

Context: LampHigh wants the remote server to have no way of finding the public IP address of the machine that's connecting to it.

 

I’ve spent some time reading about the above hardware/software. I’m a bit confused. Perhaps it would be best for me to fill in the picture a little re. what sort of set up I envision, and what I’ll be using it for. I see having three computers for my needs. With all three, I plan on not storing anything on the computers themselves, but instead storing everything on external devices (probably mostly flash drives). Here’s more about these three computers:

“PRIVACY COMPUTER”: This is the one I’m trying to figure out on this thread, with which I’ll use an “isolation & compartmentalization” system of VPNs & VMs. This will be a brand new computer, which I will only use in my home, and never take out of my home (except when I first buy it and set it up and experiment with it for the first couple days to make sure everything’s working right). I anticipate accessing the internet via a local ISP’s broadband connection brought into my home through a cord (ie. not wireless).

“NON-PRIVACY COMPUTER”: This will be another brand new machine, which will also only be used from my home, but only for completely non-private, non-identifying use (e.g. checking the news headlines at CNN.com). I plan on only accessing the internet from this computer via a neighbor’s wireless connection, and without any kind of proxy/VPN nor VMs.

“TRAVEL COMPUTER”: This will be another new computer, which will never be at my home, and which I will travel with. I will access the internet via hotel broadband connections, hot spots, etc., and will access my data either through a cloud, or flash drives which I will bring with me, or FedX in advance to my destinations.

On the “PRIVACY COMPUTER”, I will send & receive emails, make & receive VoIP audio calls, use a word processing program, and browse the internet. I will not be using this machine for things like gaming, video editing, torrenting, etc. My priorities here are for as easy and user-friendly a set up as possible, and to not have slow speeds with the tasks I’m doing. My privacy priority is location anonymity; I don’t want anyone to be able to figure out the geolocation of my home.

In light of this additional information, do I need things like SSDs, RAID, LUKS? Given my needs, would a SSD make much difference vs. a traditional hard drive? Do I need to encrypt this computer, given that it will never leave my home? I haven’t been concerned with encryption (If someone is in my home looking at my computer, I’ve already lost my location privacy), but perhaps I need to encrypt anyway to help keep potentially prying “eyes” online from figuring out my location? Since I’m not planning on storing anything on this computer, maybe a RAID array isn’t needed? Similarly, do I need a quad-core CPU for my needs? I’m guessing I don’t need a bunch of VMs, maybe two would be enough? I don’t know. Whatever I need to get to give me a high level of location privacy, I will get; I just want to make sure I clearly represent what my needs are.

 

Given what I’ve observed with the rhythm and timing of posts here, I’m surprised there has been no response to my last post a couple of days ago. I hope I didn’t write anything at all inappropriate in that post; that certainly wasn’t my intention…

 

You're on my todo list

I actually do work sometimes

 

mirimir, please understand that I wasn’t complaining about the lack of response; I was just surprised because the pattern heretofore has been quicker responses, so I wanted to make sure I hadn’t stuck my foot in my mouth and written something that was somehow problematic. Of course, I understand you have a life and only have a finite amount of time to help, which is partly why I am so appreciative of the time you have already taken to help me. And I really am extremely grateful for both the quantity and the quality of your help…

 

Hey, please don't be concerned

I'm just maxed right now.

 

Big thanks to you LampHigh for initiating this line of questions. Often these ultra bright guys here at Wilders get into the bits and bytes amongst themselves and after five pages your head is spinning trying to make sense of the details. The group of responders here have done a good job of explaining this stuff at a higher level - my compliments to them all!

Your timing is great for me, as I've begun to explore similar concerns.

Not sure if you are located in an urban area or not (no need to answer this), but if so, you can google for open/free/unsecure wifi locations (often provided by various retail establishments). You may find that you have a rich selection available. Therefore, you don't have to resign yourself to your neighbor's connection.

On the flip side...I've also heard that hackers go "war driving" through neighborhoods searching for such access. If your neighbor's wifi access is not sufficiently protected, then your access via that route may become compromised, but what if anything the hackers can do to breach your anonymity this way, I don't know enough to say.

 

adrelanos, you've provided some very good insight...this section struck my eye, and I was wondering, perhaps I am not formulating my search well, but is there a link(s) that discuss which applications rate as "TOR-safe"?

I would think that this is critical knowledge, should one want to use TOR, even with an isolation approach.

There are many links throughout this thread, and I confess that I've not had a chance to comb through all provided (just started reading today), so I apologize if it has been.

The mention of Skype is concerning, as VOIP is a common use. Skype, Google Voice, OOMA, Magic Jack, Vonage, to name a few, all are popular common replacements for land line phones. Sounds like they open a new avenue of risk of exposure...or, do the suggestions made thus far also cover VOIP (assuming one does a LampHigh and purchase any of the paid services with an alias to begin with)?