Credits and other Sources

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Credits, Inspiration, Alternatives, Sources.

Current Contributors[edit]

See Contributors.

Past Contributors[edit]

See Contributors.

Credits, Inspiration, Alternatives, Sources[edit]

Introduction[edit]

The success of the Whonix platform is the sum total of several factors:

  • The solid foundation at its heart - the Debian GNU/Linux distribution.
  • The software provided by several other projects (like Tor and Qubes) and the tireless efforts of their many developers and contributors. [1]
  • Lessons learned from:
    • Expert advice provided in various Internet forums and attendance at software development events.
    • Previous failures and successes in the Whonix development cycle.
    • The failures and successes of similar anonymity projects (like Tails).
  • Inspiration drawn from other projects, leading to the implementation of new or improved anonymity / security features.
  • Direct contributions by the Whonix community.

Credits[edit]

Whonix Development[edit]

In alphabetical order, the following projects or sources have had the greatest influence on Whonix development to date:

Anonymity and Security Development[edit]

In alphabetical order, the following projects have significantly influenced developer thinking about anonymity networks and threat modelling:

Sources[edit]

Over the lifetime of the Whonix project, development has been informed by thousands of external resources. For the reader's interest, a very small sample of older sources is listed here. Numerous updated sources can be found in developer documentation footnotes.

Similar Projects[edit]

There are a number of projects that share security and anonymity goals with Whonix. The reference list below captures a number of influential projects that have interesting proposals, security enhancements, desirable features and so on. [3] The intent is for any useful developments to be (potentially) ported to Whonix, as has occurred in the past.

Design Specifications[edit]

Miscellaneous[edit]

Networking and Firewalls[edit]

Tor Bridges and Relays[edit]

  • Torouterarchive.org: Alpha software to easily build a bridge or relay by default.

Transparent Proxies[edit]

  • JanusVMarchive.org. [9]
  • TorVMarchive.org: From the same authors as JanusVM, this project is also deprecatedarchive.org.
  • Another TorVMarchive.org: A contribution by unknown authors, with a site that imitates the official Tor one. [10]
  • Tor Project Transparent Proxyarchive.org: Now outdated, but it offers: transparent anonymizing traffic for a specific user; local redirection through Tor; an anonymizing middlebox; and local redirection and an anonymizing middlebox. [11] [12]
  • Transocksifying Torarchive.org: This method to use a different firewall with DNT is now outdated, since it was only needed when Tor did not natively support TransPort.
  • TorVPNarchive.org: The abandoned and unfinished predecessor to TorBOX. [13]
  • Old instructions from board.gulli.comarchive.org: Complicated German instructions to utilize TransPort back when it was not natively supported by Tor.
  • Easy and secure anonymous internet usagearchive.org by ra (an anonymous author). [14]

Whonix History[edit]

A brief history of the founding of Whonix can be read here.

License[edit]

Third Party Image Contributions[edit]

The Whonix website and documentation is enriched by a number of images and icons generously provided by third parties. Appreciation is expressed to those contributors who have placed their images in the public domain or specifically designed images for Whonix. [15]

Third Party Permissions[edit]

Appreciation is expressed to JonDonymarchive.org and Liberté Linuxarchive.org for permission to use material from their websites:

Website License[edit]

See the page footer.

Whonix License[edit]

See the license filearchive.org in Whonix source code.

Footnotes[edit]

  1. Which form part of the core anonymity and security features in Whonix.
  2. See Dev/Tails Doc Fork for a list of documentation pages which have been forked by Patrick Schleizer.
  3. This list includes projects that have directly affected prior Whonix development or those who made mistakes in either their design or implementation, which Whonix developers learnt from.
  4. Tails is listed on https://www.torproject.orgarchive.org. The design documents describe the Tor enforcementarchive.org mechanisms.
  5. Isolation is not enforced between client applications using Tor, and it has infrequent security releases.
  6. Qubes focuses on security through isolation based on virtualization. The actual implementation was left to the user at that time.
  7. Formerly hosted at http://lotjbov3gzzf23hc.onion/hostingtutorial/
  8. Formerly hosted at https://www.czeskis.com/random/tor-hidden-service-vm.html
  9. This was deprecated long ago. A few of those reasons listed in the link (not to use some other projects) are equally applicable here.
  10. This behavior raises questions about the possible motives of the developers.
  11. The configuration closest to Whonix is the anonymizing middlebox (Whonix is an isolating proxy).
  12. The guide also notes: "See ​Whonix for a complete, ready-made VM based solution (alternatively using multiple physical computers) built around the Isolating Proxy and Transparent Proxy Anonymizing Middlebox design."
  13. TorBOX was later renamed to Whonix.
  14. The source code can be viewed herearchive.org.
  15. Please add your contribution to the third party images page if it is not already listed.
  16. https://archive.ph/PkAs8archive.org

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