Dev/Torified Wi-Fi Hotspot

Whonix ®

Download

Windows Linux Mac VirtualBox KVM Qubes Intel / AMD64 ARM64 PPC64 USB ISO Raspberry Pi More options Source Code

About

Overview Features Whonix vs VPNs Why Open Source? Project Activities Contributors Mission & Vision

Docs

Documentation FAQ Troubleshooting

Community

Forums Forum Best Practices Contribute

Support

Self Support First Policy Search Engines, Docs and AI Support (Limited) Reporting Bugs Contact (Restricted)

Tools Upload file Special pages Recent changes Print Version Page meta What links here Related changes Page information

Page Read Edit History Move Protection Unwatch Watch Delete Purge

User Preferences Watchlist Contributions Logout Create account Login

Donate

Development considerations on using Whonix to provide a Torified Wi-Fi Hotspot or Torified VPN server.

Reputational Considerations

• For now Whonix has a simple design and great reputation. At time of writing, no clearnet IP leak found ever. See Whonix Protection against Real World Attacks.
• If that gets mixed with android-anyting, the quality if leak protection could be lower due to issues causes on the Android, not Whonix side.

Torified WiFi Hotspot

Even if a WiFi USB stick was added to Whonix-Workstation^™... Possible causes for clearnet leaks on the Android side:

• The WiFi could go off / out of range. Then the device might jump to an untorified open WiFi.
• Users might turn off WiFi off while forgetting to keep mobile network (clearnet) turned off.
• madaidan:

  The mobile device wouldn't be isolated from local networks though. Nothing stops it from bruteforcing your neighbour's WiFi and deanonymizing you that way. Unlike in a Whonix workstation VM, where it can't access those.

• Adding all the security challenges of WiFi.
  • A 1) insecure WiFi + TLS is less of a problem than 2) insecure WiFi connection to Whonix-Gateway which would be even more of an issue. 1) could still be OK because TLS secures the contents of the connection. But 2) could be used to de-anonymize the user.
• Using a stock android device once non-anonymously, then routing all traffic over Tor would not be as anonymous as expected due to TransparentProxyLeaks.
  • TransparentProxyLeaks are not an issue in the usual Whonix, Whonix-Gateway^™ + Whonix-Workstation design. Mixing Whonix-Gateway^™ with stock android gives the developers of Whonix a lot less design abilities. Similar to using Whonix with other operating systems, Whonix-Custom-Workstation^™, see security comparison.

forum discussion: https://forums.whonix.org/t/whonix-gateway-whonix-workstation-torified-wi-fi-hotspot/4751

Using VPN

A VPN tunnel from Android to Whonix-Gateway or Whonix-Workstation.

Many Android phones do not have a fail closed mechanism. When the VPN connection gets interrupted, device continues to connect without VPN.

Related

• Dev/DHCP

Whonix The most watertight privacy operating system in the world.

Dark mode

Follow us on social media

Supported by Power Up Privacy

Whonix is proudly supported until 2025 by Power Up Privacy, a privacy advocacy group that seeks to supercharge privacy projects with resources so they can complete their mission of making our world a better place. (Strictly subject to our sponsorship policy.)

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 agreements: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, E-Sign Consent, DMCA, Imprint 2012- 2025 ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LLC

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 13 year success story and maybe DONATE!