Documentation

---

This documentation is a crash course in anonymity and security on the Internet. Whonix is a technological means to anonymity, but staying anonymous is not just a technological problem. Anonymity is a complex problem without an easy solution. The more you know, the safer you can be.

General Information

• Very Brief Introduction and Summary on Whonix Homepage
• Why do you Need Anonymity?
• The World Wide Web and your Privacy
• Surveillance Capabilities
• Data Collection Techniques
• Why does Whonix use Tor?
• Why is Tor Slow?
• More about Whonix
• Features
• System Requirements
• Warnings!
• Non-Technical Steps for Staying Anonymous
• Whonix Security in the Real World
• Whonix.org Site Security
• Comparison of Whonix, Tails, Tor Browser Bundle and TorVM
• Comparison of Different Whonix Variants
• Screenshots
• Trusting Whonix
• Fingerprint
• License
• Known Issues
• Why is Whonix Free in Price as well as in Freedom?

Get Whonix

• First Time User?
• Download Whonix
• Computer Security Education

First Steps with Whonix

• Security Advice after Installing Whonix
• Starting Whonix
• Using (Private) (Obfuscated) Tor Bridges
• Stay Tuned
• KDE / Whonix Desktop Tips
• Security Guide
• Advanced Security Guide
• Install Additional Software

Bugs

• Reporting Bugs
• Troubleshooting
• Known Issues

Connect to the Internet Anonymously

• Logging Into Captive Portals and Hotspot WiFi Registration
• Controlling Tor
• Browsing the Web with Tor Browser
  • Surfing, Posting and Blogging
  • Using Browser Plugins and Adobe Flash
• Chatting
  • General Safety Advice
  • Ricochet IM
  • RetroShare, Server-less Encrypted Instant Messengers and More (Experimental)
  • Chatting on IRC with HexChat
• Hosting Location / IP Hidden Servers
  • Hosting Tor Hidden Services and Hidden Webservers
  • Hidden Services Guides
• Filesharing and BitTorrent
• Email: Introduction, Webmail and Mozilla Thunderbird with TorBirdy
  • Sending Emails without Registration via Webinterface and Remailer Introduction
  • Mixmaster (Tor Remailer)
  • Nymservers and Pseudonymous Emails with Mixmaster
• rss Reader (Under Development), Subscribing to Website and/or Blog Updates, rss to Email and rss to SMS
• Anonymous Money, Anonymously Pay and Receive Money, and Bitcoin (Draft)
• Phone Calls and VoIP (Experimental)
• Accessing Other Anonymizing Services Over Tor
  • GNUnet
  • I2P
  • Freenet (Advanced Users)
  • JonDonym
  • RetroShare (Experimental)
• YaCy Decentralized Search Engine
• Grsecurity
• Corridor: a Tor Traffic Whitelisting Gateway

Encryption and Privacy

• Cleaning File Metadata
• OpenPGP with KGpg
• OpenPGP Key Distribution Strategies and Trust Models
• Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQCrypto)

Software Tools

• Media Player
• Image Viewer
• Desktop Screenshot Creator
• Desktop Video Recorder
• Calculator
• Terminal

Work on Sensitive Documents

• Office Suite
• Graphics
• Video
• Publishing
• Audio
• Printing and Scanning

Tunnel and Chaining Support

All kinds of tunnels are possible and tested to work with Whonix. With Whonix you can route a connection through a VPN, SSH, or proxy before Tor, after Tor, or both.

Using Tunnels with Whonix

• Tunnel Support
  • Tunnel Tor through proxy, VPN or SSH (user -> proxy/VPN/SSH -> Tor -> Internet)
    • How to connect to a VPN before Tor (user -> VPN -> Tor -> Internet)
    • How to connect to a proxy before Tor (user -> proxy -> Tor -> Internet)
    • How to connect to SSH before Tor (user -> SSH -> Tor -> Internet)
  • Tunnel proxy/proxychains/SSH/VPN through Tor (user -> Tor -> Proxy/SSH/VPN -> Internet)
    • How to connect to Tor before a VPN (user -> Tor -> VPN -> Internet)
    • How to connect to Tor before a proxy (user -> Tor -> proxy -> Internet)
    • How to connect to Tor before SSH (user -> Tor -> SSH -> Internet)
  • And if you want to combine both methods...
    • user -> Proxy/SSH/VPN -> Tor -> Proxy/SSH/VPN -> Internet
    • is possible as well.
  • Comparison Of Tor with CGI Proxies, Proxy Chains, and VPN Services
  • Free Example VPNs working with Whonix for testing purposes
  • Chaining Anonymizing Gateways (experts only!)

Replacing Tor with something is possible as well, although only for some combinations and networks. It's partially done but don't hold your breath for seeing those features finished, see Other Anonymizing Networks.

Miscellaneous

• FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
• VFAQ - Virtual Frequently Asked Questions
• Authors / Changelog, Sources, Credits and License
• Changelog
• Whonix History
• DISCLAIMER
• Whonix Page Index
• Contribute
• Donate
• Official Whonix Online Profiles and Social Media Accounts
• Contact Whonix Developers, Feedback and Questions

Advanced Topics

• Time Attacks
• Whonix Modular Flexible (.d Style) Configuration Folders
• Torrifying Other Operating Systems (Windows, Ubuntu, etc.) via the Whonix-Gateway
• Other Desktop Environments (Gnome, LXDE, Xfce, etc.)
• Backup Whonix VMs
• Manually Create Whonix VM Settings to Restore .vdi Hard Disk Image Files
• Manually Updating Tor Browser if torbrowser updater Breaks
• Build Documentation, How to Build and Update Whonix from Source Code
• Download Security
• Replacing the Desktop Environment
• Hardening using Whonix's AppArmor Profiles
• Using Multiple Instances of Tor Browser
• Using Multiple Whonix-Workstations
• Using Multiple Whonix-Gateways
• Chaining Anonymizing Gateways
• Hiding Tor and Whonix Usage
• Connections Between Whonix-Gateway and Whonix-Workstation
• Technical Design
• Transporting UDP Tunnels over Tor with a VPN
• Increasing the Virtual Harddisk
• Secondary DNS Resolvers
• Authenticated DNS Over Tor and DNSSEC Over Tor
• Encrypted DNS Over Tor, DNSCrypt by OpenDNS, and httpsdnsd by JonDos
• Hosting a (Private) (Obfuscated) Bridge or (Exit) Relay
• Using Tor's SocksProxy in Whonix-Workstation (See Stream Isolation)
• Best Possible Protection Against Identity Correlation via Circuit Sharing (See Stream Isolation)
• Connect to a Tor Gateway on your Local Network using a PPTP VPN
• Whonix's APT Repository and Enabling / Disabling
• Whonix Debian Packages and Safe Removal
• File Transfers
  • Security Overview
  • Transfer Files from the Host into Whonix-Gateway or Whonix-Workstation via ISO images
  • Adding a USB Device to VirtualBox
  • Shared Folders

• • sshfs (or ssh) into Whonix-Gateway
  • sshfs (or ssh) into Whonix-Workstation
  • sshfs into Whonix-Workstation (Standalone Instructions)
  • Mount and Inspect Images (IMG, VDI)
• Tuning
  • Introduction
  • Increase Virtual Machine RAM
  • Increase CPU Cores
  • Removing Packages
  • Replacing the Desktop Environment
  • Synthetic CPUs
  • Nested Paging and VPIDs
  • Guest Additions
  • Hardware-Accelerated Graphics
  • Memory Ballooning, Page Fusion and Memory Over-Commitment
  • 64-bit Architecture
  • Optimized Builds
  • PCI Passthrough
• Manually Creating Whonix
• Other Virtualization Platforms
• Skipping / Blacklisting Selected Whonix Postinst Scripts
• Sparse Files
• Nested Virtualization (e.g. VirtualBox Inside VirtualBox)
• Comparison of Tor with CGI Proxies, Proxy Chains, and VPN Services
• Tor
  • Non-Persistent Entry Guards
  • Blacklist Certain Hidden Services from Connecting
• Whonix-Workstation is Firewalled
• Whonix-Workstation Firewall
• Opening a Port(s) in Whonix and Port Forwarding

Advanced Topics: Platform Support

• Whonix with a Physically-Isolated Gateway
• Whonix using KVM
• Whonix using QEMU (Unmaintained)
• Whonix using VMware (Unmaintained)
• Whonix using Qubes OS

Esoteric Issues (Advanced Users)

• Accessing Whonix-Gateway Ports from the Host, and Making Tor Accessible Running Inside Whonix-Gateway on the Host
• Enable Transparent Proxying for Whonix-Gateway's Own Traffic
• Enabling the Global System DNS Resolver on Whonix-Gateway (not Recommended)
• Unfinished: Censorship Circumvention Tools Other than Bridges

Non-Qubes-Whonix Only

• Non-Qubes-Whonix means all Whonix platforms except Qubes-Whonix. That includes KVM, VirtualBox and Physical Isolation.
• Download the Whonix Signing Key
• Verifying Whonix Images
  • For Linux: Ubuntu, Debian, Whonix etc. using KGpg
  • For Linux on the Command Line
  • For Windows or Mac
• Change the System Language
• Change the Keyboard Layout
• Non-Qubes-Whonix Known Bugs
• VirtualBox-Specific:
  • Whonix does not Start
  • Installing Newer Versions of VirtualBox
  • VirtualBox Guest Additions and Shared Folders (not Recommended)
  • Higher Screen Resolution without Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions

Appendix

• Introduction to the Whonix Documentation
• Debian Host Operating System Tips, Download, ISO GPG Verification, Installation and Security
• Forcing .onion on Whonix.org
• ExoneraTor: a Website Tool to Check for Tor Relay IP Addresses
• Tor Metrics Portal
• Tor Compass
• Browser Test Websites (e.g. ip-check.info, whoer.net, etc.)
• Whonix Website and Source Code Backup
• Get a Backup of this Wiki:
  • Mediawiki Markup
  • Mediawiki xml
• Whonix Portal
• Things we do at the Whonix Project: Innovation, Cooperation and Education
• Whonix Packages for Debian Hosts and Whonix Host Enhancements
• Whonix User Help Forum Best Practices
• sdwdate - Secure Distributed Web Date (Homepage)

License

Whonix Documentation wiki page Copyright (C) Amnesia <amnesia at boum dot org>
Whonix Documentation wiki page Copyright (C) 2012 -2014 Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@riseup.net>

This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the wiki source code.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; see the wiki source code for details.

---

Random News:

Bored? Want to chat with other Whonix users? Join us in IRC chat (Webchat).

---

Impressum | Datenschutz | Haftungsausschluss

https | (forcing) onion
Share: Twitter | Facebook | Google+ This is a wiki. Want to improve this page? Help is welcome and volunteer contributions are happily considered! See Conditions for Contributions to Whonix, then Edit! IP addresses are scrubbed, but editing over Tor is recommended. Edits are held for moderation. Whonix (g+) is a licensee of the Open Invention Network. Unless otherwise noted above, the content of this page is copyrighted and licensed under the same Free (as in speech) license as Whonix itself.