Whonix ™ Variants

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Comparison of Whonix ™ in a VM vs Whonix ™ with Physical Isolation with and without virtualized Gateway.

Comparison of Different Whonix ™ Variants[edit]

The security and usability of the Whonix ™ platform is significantly affected by the hardware and virtualization configuration, and whether a Whonix-Custom-Workstation ™ is created. Qubes-Whonix ™ is currently recommended as providing the best combination of security and usability, although it has strict hardware requirements The Web Archive Onion Version .

Virtualization and Hardware Configurations[edit]

Table: Whonix ™ Platform Comparison

Variant Systems Number of systems Security Usability
Standard Binary Download host + VM + VM 2 Basic Easy to redistribute and install
Physical Isolation with Bare-metal Gateway host + VM + host 3 Equivalent to the standard binary download Difficult to install and for advanced users only
Physical Isolation with Virtualized Gateway host + VM + host + VM 4 Higher attack surface Easier to deploy. Four operating systems must be kept updated
Physical Isolation without any Virtualization host + host 4 Nearly the same as standard Physical Isolation [1] Without virtual machines, there is no protection against hardware fingerprinting Difficult to install and for advanced users only
Qubes dom0 + VM + VM 3 Better compartmentalization. See: Why use Qubes over other Virtualizers? Best
OneVMarchive.org (ignore page title) host + VM 2 Deprecated -
UniStation host 1 Proof of concept only -

Virtual machines can provide the following security-related features:

  • Network isolation: Connections can easily be forced through Tor.
  • Hardware isolation: Unique hardware serials can be hidden.
  • Roll back feature: Users can revert to clean and/or working snapshots.
  • Multi-level security: Multiple clones / VMs / DisposableVMs provide significant protection.

In comparison, live CDs provide:

  • Non-persistence: This increases safety in the event of a software compromise. [2]
  • Anti-forensics capability and plausible deniability: If the computer is powered down and RAM has faded or been wiped, remnants of critical information like encryption keys should be impossible to retrieve.
  • Update issues: It is difficult to roll out security updates and maintain a fully up-to-date system.

Operating System Configurations[edit]

Whonix ™ provides multiple operating system options:

  • Debian bullseye GNU/Linux: The Default-Download-Version is recommended for most users.
  • Other Operating Systems: Windows, FreeBSD, other GNU/Linux, and Android Whonix-Custom-Workstation ™ are possible.

Info Users should refer to Security Comparison: Whonix ™-Download-Workstation vs. Whonix-Custom-Workstation ™ before choosing this option. A number of anonymity protections must be manually configured in Whonix-Custom-Workstation ™.

Security Comparison: Whonix ™-Download-Workstation vs. Whonix ™-Custom-Workstation[edit]

See Security Comparison: Whonix ™-Download-Workstation vs. Whonix-Custom-Workstation ™. Unless otherwise stated, the documentation and design refers to the Default-Download-Version.

Old Instructions[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ↑ For further discussion of this issue, see: More or Less Protection inside a VM?archive.org
  2. ↑ Unless sophisticated and targeted malware manages to leverage the exploit, leading to a compromise of firmware or other persistent systems (like BIOS).
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