Connecting to Lantern before Tor/Testing

Note: This Page is for Testing Only!

Please use the stable Connecting to Lantern before Tor Wiki page for Lantern configuration.

Advertisement:
Too difficult? Consider purchasing Premium Support.

User → Lantern → Tor → Internet

Introduction

Combining Tunnels with Tor

It is possible to combine Tor with tunnels like VPNs, proxies and SSH. The traffic can be sent through both Tor and the second tunnel, in either order. However, this is an advanced topic and appropriate only for special cases. Adding a second connection does not automatically improve security, but it will add significant complexity. The potential positive or negative effects on anonymity are being controversially debated.

The Whonix project remains technologically neutral in the anonymity discussion. The improper combination of Tor and another service may actually degrade a user's security and anonymity. One such case is using a proxy to hide Tor network traffic from your ISP.

While proxies are a type of tunnel-link they should not be thought of as a replacement for a VPN and SSH in this configuration. This is because connections to proxies are unencrypted and therefore should not be used to hide Tor use. Proxies are ok for circumvention of censorship if that has been shown to work from the users location but are unsuitable for hiding Tor due to lack of encryption.

Combinations of tunnels-links with Tor are difficult to set up and should only be attempted by advanced users. For the vast majority of Whonix users, using Tor in isolation – without a tunnel-link (VPN, proxy or SSH) – is the correct choice.

Tunnel-link before Tor use cases

User → tunnel-link → Tor → Internet

In this configuration network traffic will (1) enter the tunnel-link and pass through your ISP → (2) exit your tunnel-link server as encrypted Tor traffic→ (3) enter to the Tor network→ (4) exit the Tor network at a Tor exit node as normal internet traffic (encrypted or unencrypted).

Possible uses:

• You must connect to your tunnel-link to access the internet.
• Your ISP blocks Tor and Tor bridges but doesn’t block the tunnel-link.
• Fear of de-anonymizing attacks against the Tor network; belief that your tunnel-link is able to protect your identity in such case.

Warnings

Note: The following warnings are not Whonix specific issues. They are general issues associated with combining Tor with tunnel-links.

Tor blocks by destination servers can usually be bypassed using simple proxies, rather than adding an additional tunnel to Tor.

In order to circumvent state-level censorship of the Tor network, Bridges or other alternative circumvention tools will probably be required.

Trusting Service Providers

A tunnel service provider that knows your identity and/or location may be more willing and able to compromise your privacy than your ISP.

---

Failed Closed Configurations

If your software configuration doesn’t block all traffic when your tunnel-link connection suddenly disconnects, your encrypted Tor traffic will go through your ISP without warning. This is the default nature of most tunnel configurations and not an issue specific to Whonix.

---

Tunnel-links can Affect Anonymity

Using any extra tunnel, for example a VPN, proxy or SSH can can negatively affect anonymity under some circumstances.

To explain why that is, some background information is required so you can draw conclusions and take actions to avoid this risk. See below.

---

Using the same Tunnel Provider in Multiple VMs at the same Time

Don't use the same tunnel provider / configuration in more than one place at the same time.

For example, do not use the same tunnel setup inside Whonix-Gateway as well as inside Whonix-Workstation. Also do not use the same tunnel setup on the host and inside a Whonix-Gateway or Whonix-Workstation at the same time.

---

Reusing Tunnel-links

Individual tunnel-links should only be used for a single configuration and never reused in any other tunnel-link chains. Doing so could tie any anonymous identities associated with the tunnel-link to the user's ISP assigned IP address.

Example:

In tunnel-chain 1, the ISP assigned IP address is permanently linked to the tunnel-link. In tunnel-chain 2, the same tunnel-link was reused. Since the users ISP assigned IP address was previously linked to that same tunnel-link, that anonymous identity can now be linked to the user actual IP address.

• Tunnel-chain 1: (User → Tunnel-link[users IP address is linked] → Tor → Internet)

• Tunnel-chain 2: (User → Tor → Tunnel-link[anonymous activities linked] → Internet)

The previous example also holds true if the tunnel-link is first used with tunnel-chain 2 and then reused in tunnel-chain 1. If this were done, all anonymous activities conducted with tunnel-chain 2 would then be link with the users ISP assigned IP address.

---

Qubes-Whonix Templates

Qubes-Whonix users note:
You probably do not want to run the tunnel software from within a Template. This is because the \{\{project_name_gateway_template\}\} Template "is more like a workstation". It is behind sys-whonix. It is not sys-whonix itself.

(If you are using openvpn inside Whonix-Gateway (commonly called sys-whonix) or Whonix-Workstation (commonly called anon-whonix) while following Whonix documentation, openvpn will not start inside the \{\{project_name_gateway_template\}\} or whonix-workstation-17 Template.)
In Qubes R4 and above, the Templates's NetVM is purposely set to none by Qubes default. (They are upgraded through the qrexec based updates proxy that will be running on sys-whonix.)

---

Hiding Tor Usage from ISPs

If using Tor is dangerous in your area, VPNs or SSH may not provide enough protection (due to software misconfiguration or sophisticated packet inspection).

Introduction to Lantern

Lantern is a censorship circumvention tool which can provide an alternative to Tor bridges. The design is similar to a VPN and encrypts all of a user's data through their servers and then proxies blocked sites. Note that Lantern in isolation is not an anonymity tool because it is technically possible to spy on user activity under this model. Another downside is that bandwidth limits also exist for non-subscribers:

Lantern is designed to provide you with fast unfettered access to information online. Lantern is secure and encrypts your connection to blocked sites, but it is not an anonymity tool, so if you need or would like to be anonymous online, please use Tor. Otherwise, Lantern will give you faster access to blocked sites. ... To keep our free version running, we implemented a bandwidth limitation of 500 MB/ month. When the bandwidth limit is reached, the connection is slowed down and Free users are prompted to upgrade to Lantern Pro.

After bandwidth limits are reached the connection slows down to approximately 20KB/s, making Lantern virtually unusable. In order to remove this restriction, users must pay for the 'Lantern Pro' service. The available options mean any payment is likely traceable, but this is not necessarily any more 'damaging' to privacy and/or anonymity than connecting to Lantern in the first place. Interested readers can learn more at the Lantern forums and develeopers Q&A.

Connecting to Lantern before Tor

Testers only! Qubes-Whonix only!

It is possible to configure Tor to use Lantern as a proxy to establish the following tunnel: User → Lantern → Tor → Internet

Before applying the following instructions, it is recommended to first read:

• Combining Tunnels with Tor
• Current limitations discussed in this blog post / forums discussion.

1. Create a new standalone ProxyVM called Lantern-Gateway based on the debian-12 template.

2. Unload all firewall rules in Lantern-Gateway ProxyVM.

The iptables rules must be unloaded.

If using Qubes, disable qubes-iptables and qubes-firewall systemd services. Non-Qubes users can skip this.

sudo systemctl mask qubes-iptables
sudo systemctl stop qubes-iptables
sudo systemctl mask qubes-firewall
sudo systemctl stop qubes-firewall

Open file ~/fw-unload in a text editor of your choice as a regular, non-root user.

If you are using a graphical environment, run. mousepad ~/fw-unload

If you are using a terminal, run. nano ~/fw-unload

Add.

#!/bin/bash

## Copyright (C) 2012 - 2015 Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@whonix.org>
## See the file COPYING for copying conditions.

set -o pipefail

error_handler() {
  echo "ERROR!" >&2
  exit 1
}

trap "error_handler" ERR

[ -n "$iptables_cmd" ] || iptables_cmd="iptables --wait"
[ -n "$ip6tables_cmd" ] || ip6tables_cmd="ip6tables --wait"

$iptables_cmd -P INPUT ACCEPT
$iptables_cmd -P FORWARD ACCEPT
$iptables_cmd -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

$iptables_cmd -F
$iptables_cmd -X
$iptables_cmd -t nat -F
$iptables_cmd -t nat -X
$iptables_cmd -t mangle -F
$iptables_cmd -t mangle -X
$iptables_cmd -t raw -F
$iptables_cmd -t raw -X

$ip6tables_cmd -P INPUT ACCEPT
$ip6tables_cmd -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
$ip6tables_cmd -P FORWARD ACCEPT

$ip6tables_cmd -F
$ip6tables_cmd -X
$ip6tables_cmd -t mangle -F
$ip6tables_cmd -t mangle -X
$ip6tables_cmd -t raw -F
$ip6tables_cmd -t raw -X

exit 0

Save.

Make ~/fw-unload executable.

chmod +x ~/fw-unload

Unload all iptables firewall rules.

sudo ~/fw-unload

After firewall unload, run the following command to see if all firewall rules are really unloaded.

sudo iptables-save | sed -e 's/\[[0-9:]*\]/[0,0]/' -e '/^#/d'

The output should show.

*mangle
:PREROUTING ACCEPT [0,0]
:INPUT ACCEPT [0,0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0,0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0,0]
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0,0]
COMMIT
*raw
:PREROUTING ACCEPT [0,0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0,0]
COMMIT
*nat
:PREROUTING ACCEPT [0,0]
:INPUT ACCEPT [0,0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0,0]
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [0,0]
COMMIT
*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0,0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0,0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0,0]
COMMIT

3. Disable IP Forwarding in the Lantern-Gateway ProxyVM.

This should be disabled since it is not required.

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=0

4. Install a missing Lantern dependency.

sudo apt install libappindicator3-1

5. Download and install Lantern.

Check if the path to the downloadable deb file is still correct. Navigate to https://getlantern.org/ and check for Linux desktop downloads.

curl --tlsv1.3 https://s3.amazonaws.com/lantern/lantern-installer-beta-64-bit.deb --output ~/lantern-installer-beta-64-bit.deb

Install Lantern.

sudo dpkg -i ~/lantern-installer-beta-64-bit.deb

6. Launch Lantern and configure HTTP proxy requests.

Start Lantern while listening on all, not just the internal, network interfaces so it is reachable from sys-whonix.

Let Lantern listen for HTTP proxy requests.

lantern -addr 0.0.0.0:8787

Or let Lantern listen for SOCKS5 proxy requests which is preferred.

lantern -socksaddr 0.0.0.0:8788

7. Change sys-whonix NetVM settings.

Shut down sys-whonix if it is running. Set the sys-whonix NetVM to Lantern-Gateway, then restart sys-whonix.

It is also encouraged to run various Tor tests at this step; see footnote.

8. Edit the Tor configuration file in sys-whonix.

Open file /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf in a text editor of your choice with sudoedit.

If you are using Qubes-Whonix, complete the following steps.

Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q") → Whonix-Gateway ProxyVM (commonly named sys-whonix) → Tor User Config (Torrc)

If you are using a graphical Whonix-Gateway, complete the following steps.

Start Menu → Applications → Settings → /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf

If you are using a terminal-only Whonix-Gateway, complete the following steps. sudoedit /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf

Depending on the proxy type configured at step 6, add the relevant setting below.

10.137.11.1 is just an example and it must be replaced with the IP of the Lantern-Gateway ProxyVM. To discover the Lantern-Gateway ProxyVM IP, run the following command in sys-whonix: qubesdb-read /qubes-gateway

HTTPSProxy 10.137.11.1:8787

Socks5Proxy 10.137.11.1:8788

9. Reload Tor.

Reload Tor.

After changing Tor configuration, Tor must be reloaded for changes to take effect.

Note: If Tor does not connect after completing all these steps, then a user mistake is the most likely explanation. Recheck /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf and repeat the steps outlined in the sections above. If Tor then connects successfully, all the necessary changes have been made.

If you are using Qubes-Whonix, complete the following steps.

Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q") → Whonix-Gateway ProxyVM (commonly named 'sys-whonix') → Reload Tor

If you are using a graphical Whonix-Gateway, complete the following steps.

Start Menu → Applications → Settings → Reload Tor

If you are using a terminal-only Whonix-Gateway, click HERE for instructions.

Complete the following steps.

Reload Tor.

sudo service tor@default reload

Check Tor's daemon status.

sudo service tor@default status

It should include a a message saying.

Active: active (running) since ...

In case of issues, try the following debugging steps.

Check Tor's config.

sudo -u debian-tor tor --verify-config

The output should be similar to the following.

Sep 17 17:40:41.416 [notice] Read configuration file "/usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf".
Configuration was valid

The procedure is complete and Tor will now use Lantern as a proxy.

Footnotes

Whonix The most watertight privacy operating system in the world.

Dark mode

Follow us on social media

FREE  ·  PLUS  ·  PREMIUM Support

At Whonix we value freedom and trust, supporting Open Source and Freedom Software

By using this website, you acknowledge you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these these agreements: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, E-Sign Consent, DMCA, Imprint Whonix ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LP, 2023

Your support makes
all the difference!

We believe security software like Whonix needs to remain open source and independent. Would you help sustain and grow the project? Learn more about our 10 year success story and maybe DONATE!