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Whonix ™ 13 Changelog

Whonix ™ 13 was released on May 31, 2016. Whonix ™ 13 contains many small security and usability improvements, features and bug fixes.

Descriptions of changes in Whonix ™ 12 and earlier versions can be found on sourceforge.net.

All Platforms

AppArmor

• Fixed the Tor Browser AppArmor profile to allow correct functionality.
• Resolved AppArmor conflicts affecting Pidgin, Chromium and Evince.
• Merged AppArmor profiles for sdwdate, timesync and whonix-check into their corresponding packages and now install them by default.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed broken whonix-setup-wizard functionality.

Code

• Updated Whonix ™ code for Tor Browser tb-updater.
• Refactored the Whonix ™ socks redirection firewall rules to reduce their size and use less script code.
• Refactored Whonix ™ code so that scripts only use configuration files that end with the .conf extension.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Modified whonixcheck to test for slow or fast system clocks which prevent Tor from properly connecting.
• Implemented an explicit check for timekeeping watchdog kernel messages in whonixcheck, so users are warned about clock jumps which prevent / time-out Tor connections.
• Enforced maximized terminal windows for xdg desktop users.
• Enabled Transparent Proxy Ports for Whonix-Gateway ™ by default (except for Whonix ™-Firewall).
• Configured Whonix ™ to use /etc/skel instead of writing to the home folder directly to maintain forward compatibility with Qubes. Further, this allows for proper error-handling where "user" is hardcoded in Whonix ™, and a newly created account with a different name has been used.
• Deprecated the timesync progress bar and replaced it with a tray icon using sdwdate-gui to improve usability and reduce confusion.
• Created a stable-proposed-updates repository for users who want to help in testing Whonix ™ fixes, without resorting to the testers repository which comes with many more changes.
• Moved the WhonixBackupScript to the usability-misc package to make it more accessible.
• Replaced XChat with HexChat, since the former is no longer actively maintained, and created a new AppArmor profile to contain it.
• Implemented a VPN_FIREWALL feature as part of whonix-ws-firewall.

Security Enhancements

• Created a security-misc package that turns off Nautilus and Dolphin file previews by default, since this poses security risks.
• A known, good version of Tor is now maintained and uploaded to the Whonix ™ repository from deb.torproject.org
• Uploaded the Tor 0.3.2.9 major (stable) release to the Whonix ™ repository to enable full v3 onion functionality for both hosting of onion services and access to v3 onion addresses in Tor Browser.
• Extended the lifetime of the Whonix ™ signing key.
• Sourced new onion services webservers for the sdwdate feature, which ensures the system's clock is correctly set for security, privacy and anonymity purposes.

Qubes-Whonix ™

Bug Fixes

• Fixed qubes-whonix-firewall systemd service start.
• Resolved whonixcheck fixes for Qubes R4.
• Corrected false positive failure messages for the updates proxy test in Qubes R4.
• Disabled qubes-SetDateTime / qubes.SyncNtpClock in Qubes-Whonix ™ VMs since it interfered with timesync.
• Resolved accumulation of old Tor Browser instances in /var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/ which caused users to run into full disk error messages.
• Resolved an occasional error message whereby Whonix ™ templates incorrectly reported they were not connected to the Whonix-Gateway ™ ProxyVM.
• Resolved the broken anon-ws-disable-stackedtor function in Qubes-Whonix ™.
• Enforced the opening of all links from sys-whonix, whonix-gw and whonix-ws in the anon-whonix AppVM to prevent error messages.

Builds

• Corrected the build failure of Whonix-Workstation ™ template in Qubes-Whonix ™ R3.2 and added the qubes-template-whonix to continuous integration service TravisCI.
• Resolved Whonix ™ template build failures in Qubes R4 related to Tor Browser downloads.
• Changed the Qubes-Whonix ™ build process to install Whonix ™ from the Whonix ™ binary APT repository. This simplifies code, results in faster builds, removes build dependencies inside the template, and reduces the overall template size.
• Allowed the Whonix ™ build script to run as root and reworked user_name.

Code

• Removed fetching of Whonix ™ source code in qubes-template-whonix.
• Removed the qubes-update-check system service from Qubes-Whonix ™ Templates, since it was unnecessary.
• Reworked / removed a number of installed packages in Qubes-Whonix ™ which are only required for the Non-Qubes-Whonix ™ desktop.
• Removed the default username and password in the Qubes-Whonix ™ terminal, because it is not required.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Ported whonixcheck and tb-updater to Qubes' qrexec-based updates proxy, since Templates are non-networked by default in Qubes R4.
• Changed the tb-updater configuration to use Qubes updates proxy, since Qubes R4 sets the NetVM of Templates to none by default.
• Implemented the ability to install Whonix-Workstation ™ and Whonix-Gateway ™ from dom0 with a sudo apt install whonix-(workstation|gateway) feature.
• Ported the bind-directories functionality upstream to Qubes.
• Implemented the new bind-directories functionality in Qubes-Whonix ™.
• Implemented a check for whether the whonix-gw ProxyVM (sys-whonix) has a NetVM which is set to "none", with a warning shown if this is the case.
• Implemented a new feature so that following an update of the Whonix-Workstation ™ Template, newly created AppVMs based on the updated Template come with an up-to-date version of Tor Browser.
• Modified whonixcheck to check if: Whonix-Gateway ™ is running in a NetVM or ProxyVM; Whonix-Workstation ™ is running in an AppVM; and to skip the test if a Template is detected.

Security Enhancements

• Prevented /usr/lib/qubes/qubes-setup-dnat-to-ns from running in Qubes-Whonix ™ to stop it from modifying firewall rules.

Whonix ™ 14 Changelog

Whonix ™ 14 was released on August 6, 2018. Significantly, Whonix ™ 14 is based on the Debian stretch (Debian 9) distribution which was released in mid-2017, instead of Debian jessie (Debian 8). Users now have access to numerous updated and new software packages, a more modern branch of GnuPG, and more.

All Platforms

AppArmor

• Fixed the whonixcheck AppArmor profile to remove continuous denied messages relating to signal.
• Fixed the AppArmor profile for obfs4proxy to enable correct functioning of Tor Bridges in Whonix-Gateway ™.
• Fixed the Tor Browser AppArmor profile to allow correct functionality.
• Corrected the tor-controlport-filter AppArmor profile to ensure correct functioning.
• Removed the Pidgin AppArmor profile, since Pidgin is recommended against for security reasons.
• Hardened the Control Port Filter AppArmor profile.
• Disabled installation of apparmor-notify (AppArmor notifications) by default, thereby removing the reporting of mostly harmless denied messages.

Bug Fixes

• Corrected the broken whonix-setup-wizard autostart on Whonix-Gateway ™.
• Fixed sdwdate-gui freezing when using right-click in the menu.
• Fixed dependency issues which prevented the whonix-setup-wizard gui from starting.
• Implemented the correct Tor --verify command for Whonix-Gateway ™ torrc configuration checks to prevent the reporting of false positives.
• Modified the uwt wrapper script to correctly handle symbolic links.
• Changed the Whonix-Gateway ™ firewall prerouting rules for socks ports so they do not interfere with trans port traffic.
• Modified whonixcheck to first test if network interfaces are up to prevent the test from failing unnecessarily.
• Fixed a whonixcheck whonix-firewall check race condition.

Builds

• Resolved genmkfile build dependencies for building Whonix-Workstation ™ and Whonix-Gateway ™.
• Confirmed the new and upgraded Whonix ™ 14 builds are identical.
• Fixed debian/control parsing with respect to make_deb_build_dependencies / make_deb_runtime_dependencies.

Code

• Updated Whonix ™ code for Tor Browser tb-updater.
• Changed the bindp compile to postinstall to make it cross-platform (Qubes, 64-bit, 32-bit).
• Rewrote sclockadj in C and updated the sdwdate package to compile sclockadj.
• Implemented symlinks for onion-grater profiles to maintain functionality following profile upgrades.
• Enhanced onion checking in sdwdate to improve the unit test.
• Ported msgcollector to python3 and python3-pyqt5.
• Ported whonix-setup-wizard to python3.
• Ported python-guimessages to python3.
• Rewrote sdwdate to ensure python exceptions are written to the journal.
• Rewrote control-port-filter-python to ensure exceptions are written to the journal.
• Re-added some non-essential packages to Whonix ™ that were removed from Debian stretch.
• Ported helper-scripts so they instead use Tor authentication cookies.
• Ported whonixcheck check_tor_socks_port_reachability.bsh to use the Tor unix domain socket socks file.
• Ported anon-ws-disable-stacked-tor to systemd socket activation to remove unnecessary, idle socat listeners.
• Removed auditd configuration folder parsing /etc/audit/rules.d/ by default, since the feature has been implemented upstream.
• Implemented anonymous counting of Whonix ™ users via the whonixcheck Whonix ™ News function.
• Implemented, but did not activate changes to the Whonix ™ firewall so: sdwdate is stopped before suspend; timesync-fail-closed mode is set before suspend; sdwdate is restarted after resume; and Whonix ™ firewall enters full mode after resume following successful sdwdate activation.
• Configured auditd to process the configuration folder /etc/audit/rules.d/ by default to aid debugging.
• Implemented monitoring of changes to /var/lib/tor/lock access rights via auditd to aid debugging.
• Modified anon-ws-disable-stacked-tor to maintain Tor Browser functionality with Unix domain socket files redirection and prevent Tor over Tor scenarios.
• Configured whonixcheck to test for failed daemons.
• Implemented a sdwdate sd_notify systemd watchdog.
• Disabled systemd-resolved and instead implemented a /lib/systemd/system/systemd-resolved.service.d/ drop-in.
• Ported /usr/sbin/service to systemctl as the latter runs non-interactively.
• Disabled timedatectl network time synchronization in Debian stretch to prevent conflicts with sdwdate.
• Removed brltty, brltty-speechd and brltty-x11 since they create a local listener port which may conflict with onion-grater.
• Modified anon-ws-disable-stacked-tor systemd-unit-files-generator so it is configurable.
• Rewrote slockadj3 in C and determined how to prevent spamming of sclockadj3 time changes to logs.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Implemented the major new Anon Connection Wizard feature to simplify connections to the Tor network via a Tor bridge and/or a proxy.
• Integrated the Tor Pluggable Transport meek_lite.
• Integrated anon-connection-wizard into whonix-setup-wizard, so that the latter can now start the former.
• Removed the Control Port Filter Proxy script from anon-ws-disable-stacked-tor since it is no longer required for proper Tor connections or Tor Browser functions (its functionality is now replaced by onion-grater). This means Ricochet, Zeronet and OnionShare are now compatible with Whonix ™.
• Installed necessary dependencies for proper ZeroNet functionality.
• Installed onioncircuits by default in Whonix-Gateway ™.
• Added --list-interface to tor-controlport-filter, as it works better with dynamic IP addresses.
• Added a /etc/tor-controlport-filter.d configuration extension feature.
• Fixed the control-port-filer-python configuration to rewrite HS_DESC replies by Tor, so OnionShare is supported.
• Merged the tor-controlport-filter by Tails for various enhancements.
• Implemented more user-friendly error messages (instead of tb-starter error handlers) when non-Whonix ™ related Tor Browser issues cause start-tor-browser to fail and exit zero.
• Implemented sane built-in defaults for whonix-gw-firewall, whonix-ws-firewall, whonixcheck, sdwdate, uwt, onion-grater, rads, open-link-confirmation, tb-starter and tb-updater, even if configuration files do not exist.
• Changed uwt to set AllowOutboundLocalhost / AllowInbound which can help make servers utilizing Tor onion services work.
• Implemented a sd_notify watchdog feature for onion-grater so the service is restarted if it appears to be running, but has became unresponsive.
• Created a bindp Whonix ™ package to enable Whonix-Workstation ™ applications that use Tor ephemeral onion services to bind on all interfaces as necessary.
• Modified sdwdate to check if the clock is changed "behind the back" of the program and suggest a manual user fix.
• Improved default torsocks information / warning messages when wrapped commands are invoked to reduce user confusion.
• Both Non-Qubes-Whonix ™ and Qubes-Whonix ™ are now compatible with the Tor Project's sandboxed Tor Browser.

Security Enhancements

• Confirmed functionality of the kloak anti-keystroke deanonymization tool in Whonix ™.
• Identified more reliable onion servers as appropriate time sources for sdwdate, which enables correct network time synchronization for anonymity-focused distributions.
• Implemented Tails' Control Port Filter Proxy in Whonix ™ and merged recent changes since it was forked.
• Fixed security and hardening (stack canary) issues with the bindp libindp.so package (which were merged upstream).
• Uploaded Tor version 0.3.3.9 (stable) release to the Whonix ™ repository to enable full v3 onion functionality for both hosting of onion services and access to v3 onion addresses in Tor Browser.
• Onion sources are now preferred for Whonix ™ updates/upgrades for greater security. Note: this change has been reverted due to the unreliable nature of onion connections at present - see footnote.
• Disabled the apt-timer in Debian stretch to prevent auto updates, thereby preventing the attendant security risks associated with background updates without user input.
• Disabled nautilus previews by default due to the security risks.
• Implemented uwt to set TORSOCKS_ISOLATE_PID in Debian Stretch so all uwt wrapped applications are stream isolated.
• Implemented tor+http / apt-transport-tor rather than Acquire::BlockDotOnion "false" for better security and stream isolation.
• Disabled the systemd DNS resolver feature in order to reduce the attack surface and to remove the potential for adverse anonymity impacts.
• Established a dedicated Whonix ™.org repository, with appropriate redirects from Whonix ™ mirrors.
• Removed the DHCP client from Whonix-Gateway ™ and switched to a static network configuration so the dhclient is no longer present on all interfaces, including the internal network.
• Disabled VLC metadata collection by default.
• Disabled "Obey DRM limitations" in Okular, since Digital Rights Management (DRM) can be used as a tracking vector.

Non-Qubes-Whonix

Desktop shortcuts are no longer available in Non-Qubes-Whonix ™.

Bug Fixes

• Increased the Whonix-Gateway ™ VRAM in VirtualBox from 8 to 16 MB to avoid error messages and possible video problems when using full screen mode.
• Corrected sdwdate-gui systray so it properly registers in kde systray and does not appear as a gap in the Entry column.
• Corrected the sdwdate-gui tray icon so it is visible in Debian stretch.
• Corrected the virtualization detection method to properly recognize KVM.

Builds

• Reduced the size of the default, binary Whonix ™ images by approximately 50 per cent using zerofree.

Code

• Removed kmix-disable-autostart since it is no longer required to make sure the clipboard history icon is loaded into the system tray.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Created the grub-live package which can run Whonix ™ as a live system.
• Added Kscreen to Whonix ™ by default in order to allow DPI scaling and other basic desktop features of Plasma 5.
• Removed the VirtualBox shared folder and confirmed automounting of shares is enabled in Debian stretch.

Security Enhancements

• Removed okular from anon-shared-applications-kde to anon-workstation-default-applications so it is not installed on Whonix-Gateway ™.
• Hide the CPUID in VirtualBox 5 by setting generic values via HostCPUID.

Qubes-Whonix ™

Bug Fixes

• Implemented whonixcheck fixes for Qubes R4.
• Corrected false positive failure messages for the updates proxy test in Qubes R4.
• Resolved non-functionality of Tor Browser due to jemalloc corruption.
• Resolved segfaults in Tor Browser caused by excessive string length in the XDG_CONFIG_DIRS environment variable.
• Resolved accumulation of old Tor Browser instances in /var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/ which caused users to run into full disk error messages.
• Corrected dependencies in the qubes-whonix package to resolve issues when upgrading to Debian stretch.
• Fixed a corridor lintian warning on Debian related to systemd documentation.
• Resolved error messages associated with tput using an empty TERM environment variable.
• Resolved the failure of tb-updater to copy Tor Browser into the user's home directory on first VM startup in Qubes R4.
• Implemented the correct appmenus for Qubes-Whonix ™ 14 Templates and fixed missing appmenu entries.
• Resolved the false positive timedatectl error message when using whonixcheck.
• Corrected the absent 'Connected to Tor.' message, which arose due to a missing notification daemon.
• Resolved non-persistence of files in /usr/local, such as the Tor configuration file.
• Implemented a qvm-features-request whonix-ws=1, so that newly created Whonix-Workstation ™ AppVMs inherit the anon-vm tag.
• Created qubes-core-admin-addon-whonix to enforce the anon-vm tag for newly created Whonix-Workstation ™ AppVMs.
• Removed redundant warning messages affecting Whonix-Workstation ™ DisposableVMs that related to the first invocation of an open-link-confirmation.
• Fixed an APT package issue whereby some users were downgraded to a known vulnerable version.
• Corrected an aptitude update failure which affected all Qubes-Whonix ™ VMs.
• Installed Tor Browser by default in Whonix-Workstation ™-DisposableVMs, as it was previously missing upon VM launch.
• Fixed the periodic failure of Whonix-Workstation ™ AppVMs to start correctly, which prevented the launch of any user applications.
• Fixed an error which caused /etc in Qubes-Whonix ™ templates to be owned by user:user

Builds

• Corrected the build failure of the Whonix-Workstation ™ template in Qubes-Whonix ™ R3.2 and added qubes-template-whonix to the continuous integration service TravisCI.
• Removed older unstable Whonix ™ 14 builds from Qubes' unstable repository.
• Resolved unexpected build failures.
• Removed Whonix ™ 14 templates from Qubes' unstable repository, since testing versions now reside in qubes-templates-community-testing.
• Backported versioning of Whonix ™ template names from Qubes R4 to Qubes R3.2 to simplify the installation procedure for users on the earlier platform.

Code

• Removed cups and system-config-printer from Whonix-Workstation ™, since printing capabilities are better suited to alternate VMs and this also removes a local TCP listener that is otherwise created.
• Corrected anon-meta-packages compatibility for Qubes R3.2 and R4.
• Installed pulseaudio-qubes for audio support and removed pulseaudio and VLC from sys-whonix.
• Created a qvm-features-request whonix-gw=1 as a prerequisite for sdwdate-gui-qubes.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Confirmed full Qubes-Whonix ™ compatibility with Qubes R4.
• Confirmed Qubes-Whonix-Workstation has full DispVM support.
• Created a tb-updater storage path for Qubes R4 so new AppVMs and DisposableVMs have a copy of the latest Tor Browser version.
• Created Qubes-Whonix ™ 14 SaltStack state files with flexible versioning for future releases.
• Modified Qubes-Whonix ™ Salt code so the repository is not hard-coded, allowing users to choose either the qubes-templates-community or qubes-templates-community-testing repository.

Licensing

• Added a COPYING file to the Qubes-Whonix ™ template repository to assure users they are covered by a free software license.

Security Enhancements

• Added Qubes-Whonix ™ tags on domain-load rather than upon VM creation to avoid missing tags for users that upgrade.

---

Whonix ™ 14 Updates

As Whonix ™ is now a rolling distribution, users will benefit from regular small security and usability improvements, features and bug fixes as they enter the Whonix ™ stable repository. Those will be announced here.

Documentation

• Simplified Whonix ™ Documentation.
• Documented multiple Qubes Templates.
• Documented a recovery procedure after a (suspected) compromise.
• Created a systemd-socket-proxyd instructions template.
• Conducted research into Single Tor-Gateway with Multiple Workstations versus Multiple Tor-Gateways mapped 1:1 to Workstation VMs.
• Documented identity correlation attacks and defenses / removing the Apache recommendation.
• Created an APT Qubes template.
• Documented how to use SecBrowser and configured a secbrowser wrapper that disables Tor.
• Updated the onion-grater (Control Port Filter Proxy) wiki page.
• Created documentation for ZeroNet support.
• Finalized wiki edits for numerous, outstanding documentation fixes and additions.

Website Fixes and Outreach

• Website fixes: implemented the proposed download directory structure as well as download redirects, stable download links and permalinks.
• Implemented numerous mediawiki fixes for better website presentation.
• Opened a Peertube video channel.
• Updated Release Announcements to collate all places where this should be posted.
• Post Whonix release announcements in crypto currency Reddit forums.
• Researched social media strategies to increase Whonix ™ awareness.
• Established mirroring of all Whonix ™ announcements.
• Bookmarked the outreach workboard.
• Signed the Whonix ™ developer team up to various developer mailing lists.

All Platforms

AppArmor

• Corrected the dnscrypt-proxy AppArmor profile for full functionality.
• Removed unnecessary and extensive capabilities from the Tor Browser AppArmor profile.
• Amended the Tor Browser AppArmor profiles so 8.* versions correctly launch.
• Added capability sys_module to whonixcheck because it is required for ifconfig.
• Added a wildcard for non-Tor or modified Tor Browser Bundles.
• Deprecated /etc/apparmor.d/home.tor-browser.start-tor-browser due to broken functionality.
• Added various permissions to the XChat AppArmor profile for greater functionality.

Bug Fixes

• Implemented an automated /var/lib/tor permission fix.
• Installed the missing pinentry-qt package so Enigmail decryption is functional.
• Fixed the Whonix custom firewall settings start menu entry in Whonix XFCE.
• Fixed the false-positive "Tor Browser not installed" message in tb-starter.
• Onion-grater: fix Tor control auth cookie authentication even if HashedControlPassword is set.
• Fixed output when using open-link-confirmation.
• Change etc/.skel to etc/skel/Downloads in all code.

Builds

• Released new Whonix 14 builds to address the APT security update bug.

Code

• whonixcheck: grep journal for "fail", "error" and "denied".
• Re-implemented Tor Browser local version number detection.
• Decided against virtualizer configurations which attempt to hide the CPU model.
• Moved kcalc, okular, gwenview, kgpg, libkf5kipi31.0.0 and libkf5kipi-data from hardened-desktop-applications-kde to non-qubes-whonix-workstation-kde and qubes-whonix-workstation.
• Simplified code by using apt-key rather than custom code when adding a gpg key.
• Fixed the mime type in whonix-repository.
• Refactored the whonixcheck code and included an option to show "sudo apt-get-update-plus dist-upgrade" if it is available.
• Ported the IP check in whonixcheck to https://check.torproject.org/api/ip
• sdwdate-gui: permission lockdown, fixed merge conflicts, avoidance of 'clock is fast' false positives and other miscellaneous fixes.
• anon-ws-disable-stacked-tor: set 'restart' rather than 'start' to support running scripts.
• Added a mechanism to add variables to Debian packaging maintainance scripts.
• Thunderbird is no longer installed by default in Whonix ™.
• Beautified the Whonix landing page for Tor Browser v8.0+.
• Implemented use of /usr/lib/helper-scripts/terminal-wrapper rather than hardcoding Konsole.
• Deprecated anon-workstation-extra-applications, anon-workstation-langpack-common and anon-shared-desktop-langpack-kde.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Changed (Qubes-)Whonix default applications from KDE to XFCE.
• Installed magic-wormhole by default as an OnionShare alternative.
• Set mousepad as the default editor for sudoedit.
• Added support for XFCE, thunar and gksudo in Whonix-Gateway.
• Allow multiple flashproxy ports in Whonix firewall.
• Disabled Whonix ™ onion apt sources by default due to unreliability.
• Added a new branch for compression/decompression tools.
• Implemented support for the new Snowflake pluggable transport in Anon-Connection-Wizard.
• Implemented the Tor Controller GUI in Whonix ™ with various fixes.

Security Enhancements

• Removed mapaddress entries in torrc for 1.1.1.1 and 2.2.2.2 due to the fingerprinting risk.
• Run whonixcheck in Whonix-Workstation on first time boot.
• Added a spectre/meltdown test to whonixcheck.
• Enforce connections to deb.debian.org instead of us.debian.org and now use https (SSL/TLS) by default, as well as fixing build --connection onion.
• Implemented optional tb-updater onion mirrors download support.
• Corrected systemd hardening for onion-grater.
• Added systemd sandboxing for sdwdate.
• Enforced tor+http in apt sources lists to make use of apt-transport-tor.
• Disabled uncommon network protocols for improved security.
• Added a Bitcoin Core onion-grater profile.

Non-Qubes-Whonix

Bug Fixes

• Disabled KDE session restoration to prevent VirtualBox error notifications upon boot in either Whonix-Gateway or Whonix-Workstation.
• Start the KDE desktop session login with an empty session / resolve the kdesudo error popup window related to sdwdate-gui.
• Fixed the Whonix-Gateway XFCE / CLI keyboard layout error.
• Fixed a lintian error for sdwdate-gui / missing xml files for specific desktop environments.

Code

• Closed all KDE-related requests and bug fixes following the shift to XFCE. This includes:
  • Change default application to not use kmail.
  • Change KDE theme and KDE mouse theme.
  • Disable the Baloo file indexer.
  • Add /media to desktop icons.
  • Add /media to pinned places in Dolphin.
  • Disable/remove KDE system and network settings.
  • Disable web shortcuts.
  • settings-plasma search/configure search configurations from Whonix-Gateway.
  • Non-Qubes-Whonix KDE plasma 5 fixes.
• Implemented numerous XFCE fixes: Whonix builds, desktop shortcuts, xfce4-terminal, related meta-packages and general fixes.
• Created a configuration file for Whonix XFCE Desktop.
• Updated the check for installed meta packages for Whonix XFCE and Whonix CLI.
• Removed pulseaudio from hardened-desktop-applications-xfce.
• Removed Ristretto from hardened-desktop-applications-xfce.
• Deprecated non-qubes-vm-enhancements-gui.
• Merged whonix-shared-packages-recommended-cli into whonix-shared-packages-dependencies-cli.
• Port to and take ownership of /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml
• Modified whonix-firewall to remove the old IP 192.168.0.10 reference in non-qubes-whonix-gateway.
• Minimized VirtualBox Whonix-Gateway CLI differences with non-qubes-whonix-workstation cli.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Implemented Whonix for arm64 / Raspberry Pi (RPi).
• Implemented a unified Whonix download rather than separate Whonix-Gateway / Whonix-Workstation downloads.
• Re-enabled hidden files and volume management.
• Whonix Setup Wizard: added instructions on how to change keyboard layout in XFCE.
• Added mupdf and Ristretto to non-qubes-whonix-workstation-xfce.
• Show the pulseaudio plugin by default.
• Increased Whonix-Workstation VRAM in Non-Qubes-Whonix to 2GB to improve performance.

Security Enhancements

• Disabled maximizing of the Tor Browser window when moving to the top of the screen.
• Disabled previews / thumbnails in Thunar for better security.

Qubes-Whonix ™

Bug Fixes

• Corrected Tor Browser in whonix-ws-14 based VMs sometimes blocking JavaScript on first start.
• Qubes templates: removed the broken graphical updater (Apper).
• Resolved the command failure when running qubesctl state.sls qvm.anon-whonix.
• Added missing Whonix tags anon-vm / anon-gateway to user-created, Whonix-based VMs.
• Fixed failure of Whonix-Gateway to respond after an update.
• Corrected an update error caused by an expired release file.
• Corrected a false whonixcheck notification about outdated packages after performing an in-place upgrade.

Builds

• Amended builder.conf so template build commands are not ignored.
• Deprecated Whonix 13.

Code

• Set $tag:anon-vm $anyvm deny in template-whonix-ws.sls.
• Removed the default installation of emacs and vim.
• Modified the Spectre / Meltdown check so it only runs in Qubes R4 and above.

Security Enhancements

• Confirmed Qubes-Whonix ™ templateMVs cannot upgrade in timesync-fail-closed mode.
• Confirmed the efficacy of jitterentropy random number generation in Xen.

Whonix ™ 15 Changelog

Whonix ™ 15 was released on July 1, 2019. Significantly, Whonix ™ 15 is based on the Debian buster (Debian 10) distribution which was officially released on July 6, 2019 instead of Debian stretch (Debian 9). The buster release has nearly 60,000 packages and over 62 per cent of them were updated -- see the official Debian 10 release notes to learn more.

All Platforms

Bug Fixes

• Fixed file saving issues in scurl wrappers.
• Fixed the partial truncation of text in Whonix Connection Wizard.
• Installed cryptsetup by default so errors do not appear when using a GUI and interacting with encrypted containers.

Builds

• Ported the build script to cowbuilder; build packages in chroot and use mmdebstrap for better security.

Code

• Modified whonixcheck so it suggests to start networking / onion-grater if it is not running.
• Improved the /usr/share/sdwdate/unit_test
• Improved the sdwdate message Tor consensus message.
• Confirmed the sanity of systemd DNS after porting to Debian buster.
• Established sane built-in defaults even if configuration files are non-existing.
• Updated the onion list time sources for sdwdate so that offline and unwanted onions were removed.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Ported Whonix ™ from Debian stretch to Debian buster.
• Install Firejail and Firetools by default inside Whonix ™.
• Added the Metadata anonymisation toolkit v2 (MAT2) by default.
• Added a LUKS container GUI (zulucrypt-gui) by default to make management and creation of containers easy.
• OnionShare is now installed by default for easier, anonymous sharing of files.
• Added KeePassXC as the default Password Manager in Whonix-Workstation.
• Removed the Richochet instant messaging application since it is no longer working in Whonix ™ 15.
• Nyx has replaced tor-arm as the Tor controller, providing (slightly) better functionality and usability.
• Set VLC X11 video decoding by default so it works more reliably and avoids known problems.

Security Enhancements

• The Jitter RNG Daemon (jitterentropy) is now installed by default to improve randomness if entropy on the system runs low.

Non-Qubes-Whonix

Bug Fixes

• Corrected a VirtualBox error related to guest utils not starting.

Builds

• Significantly reduced the size of Non-Qubes-Whonix images using zerofree.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Added grub-live Live Mode as a default package.
• Added a description to whonix-vbox images.
• Implemented Whonix KVM serial console support.

Security Enhancements

• Disabled boot devices and modified audio settings in VirtualBox Workstation and Gateway to improve security.
• Forked the kloak - Keystroke Anonymization Tool and installed it by default in Non-Qubes-Whonix.
• Improved the default kernel hardening options for better security.

Qubes-Whonix ™

Bug Fixes

• Correctly configured Qubes-Whonix ™ Xfce default start menu entries (whitelisted appmenus).

Builds

• Created Qubes-Whonix 15 template configuration files.
• Confirmed the Whonix-15-gateway template builds.

Improved Functionality and Usability

• Simplified instructions for VM kernel in Qubes-Whonix ™ by installing the same recommended Qubes packages as Qubes Debian packages.
• In DisposableVMs, tb-updater / tb-starter was modified to no longer copy Tor Browser to the user home directory at first boot -- /var/cache/tb-binary is now directly used to improve startup performance.

Security Enhancements

• Confirmed Qubes-Whonix ™ TemplateMVs cannot upgrade in timesync-fail-closed mode.

---

Whonix ™ 15 Updates

As Whonix ™ is now a rolling distribution, users will benefit from regular small security and usability improvements, features and bug fixes as they enter the Whonix ™ stable repository. Those will be announced here.

The majority of the enhancements below also also apply to Qubes-Whonix ™. Exceptions include:

• kloak
• Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG)
• tirdad (TCP ISN CPU Information Leak Protection)
• Kernel Hardening through Kernel Boot Parameters
• Strong Linux User Account Separation / Protection against Bruteforcing Linux User Account Passwords
• apparmor-profile-everything (AppArmor for everything: APT, systemd, init, all systemd units, all applications)
• hardened-kernel patch and configuration

Many of these will be possible once the use of in-VM kernels is simplified and promoted in Qubes OS.

All Platforms

In 2019, point releases were announced on 10 September, 22 and 23 November. In 2020, point releases were announced on 16 and 27 February, 19 and 21 March, 29 May, 10 and 18 June, 27 August, 7 and 17 and 30 September, and 17 December. In 2021, point releases were announced on 17, 19, 22 and 27 April, 9 and 12 July.

AppArmor

apparmor-profile-everything:

• Further development of AppArmor for everything. APT, systemd, init, all systemd units, all applications.
• Implemented proper whitespace handling.
• Fixed various denial errors.

apparmor-profile-torbrowser:

• Implemented apparmor-profile-torbrowser improvements, see: Why does the Tor Browser AppArmor profile have sys_admin, sys_chroot and ptrace capabilities?
• Removed SecBrowser code since it is now deprecated.

Other AppArmor improvements:

• Implemented AppArmor Live Mode fixes and various enhancements.
• Numerous apparmor profile enhancements were added.
• Added a new apparmor-watch tool to check for DENIED and ALLOWED log messages.
• Implemented apparmor-info which parses AppArmor denial logs to hide unnecessary information and remove duplicates.

Bug Fixes

anon-apps-config:

• Disabled GPG default key servers.
• Removed SecBrowser code since it is deprecated.

anon-connection-wizard:

• Updated usr/share/anon-connection-wizard/bridges_default from ~/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Tor/torrc.
• Fixed error handling.
• Minor non-Whonix reliability fix.
• Modified wording to be similar to the newer tor-launcher.
• Partial fix for meek lite in Whonix ™.
• Added /usr/lib/anon-gw-anonymizer-config/edit-etc-resolv-conf as another part of fixing meek lite in Whonix ™.
• Fixed anon-connection-wizard truncated text.
• Fixed a bug in Whonix 15.0.0.8.9 where anon-connection-wizard added %include /etc/torrc.d/95_whonix.conf to /etc/tor/torrc configuration file even though Whonix was already ported to %include /etc/torrc.d/
• Fixed some “unknown connection tag” messages in Whonix-Gateway.
• Fixed default bridges.

anon-gw-anonymizer-config:

• Reload apparmor profiles after installation to make the package work -- a reboot is no longer required.
• Partial meek lite fix in Whonix ™ -- added /usr/lib/anon-gw-anonymizer-config/edit-etc-resolv-conf.

anon-meta-packages:

• Fixed ristretto missing thumbnails and popup by installing tumbler by default -- added “Depends: tumbler” to whonix-workstation-packages-recommended-gui
• OnionShare is no longer installed by default. Debian buster -- which Whonix ™ 15 is based on -- packages version 1.3.2. This only supports legacy v2 onions which are being phased out and deprecated on July 15th, 2021. The Flatpak installation method is recommended at this time.
• Bumped python-msgpack to python3. ZeroNet now uses python3 and python2 is removed from Debian as of bullseye.
• Split the repository-dist GUI / CLI dependencies.

anon-ws-disable-stacked-tor:

• Fixed "Firefox is offline" messages in Tor Browser 10.5a17 and above.

Various fixes for I2P inside Whonix-Workstation:

• Preparation for installation of i2p by default.
• Do not autostart i2p.service if installed.
• Do not autostart privoxy.service if installed.
• Do not autostart i2p.service in Qubes Template.
• Do not autostart privoxy.service in Qubes Template.
• Fixed the i2pbrowser local browser homepage.

open-link-confirmation:

• Remove SecBrowser code since it is deprecated.

Qubes-Whonix:

• Enabled a workaround for a Qubes (Xen) Monero bug - “Automatic fallback to softwarecontext renderer”.
• sdwdate-gui: Fixed an unwanted automatic restart of Qubes-Whonix-Workstation after shutdown and no longer qrexec notify self on shutdown.
• Fixed a msgcollector sudoers issue when qubes-core-agent-passwordless-root package was removed.
• vm-config-dist is now installed in Qubes-Whonix ™ so the QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext workaround is available.
• Fixed the Networks VMs are restarting themselves without valid reason bug in Qubes-Whonix.
• Fixed the qvm-kill'ing a DispVM leaves a spurious entry in qubes.xml bug in Qubes-Whonix.
• Allow dummy-dependency to fulfill the dependency of qubes-core-agent-passwordless-root in Qubes-Whonix.
• Attempted to fix the Qubes-Whonix bug: Setting up anon-base-files shows machine-id prompt followed by "OMINOUS WARNING".

security-misc:

• Fixed security-misc to allow group sudo and console to use consoles.
• No longer unconditionally abort pam for user accounts with locked passwords.

tb-default-browser:

• Removed SecBrowser code since it is deprecated.

tb-starter:

• Removed SecBrowser-specific code since it is deprecated.
• Added custom user.js support.
• Updated Tor Browser Integration.
• Fixed a tb-starter bug.

tirdad:

• Load tirdad before LKRG so LKRG does not judge tirdad to be malicious.
• /etc/modprobe.d/30-tirdad.conf softdep p_lkrg pre: tirdad: Imported from the LKRG package since it does not belong there and because Debian packaging for LKRG is now provided by upstream.

/usr/lib/anon-gw-anonymizer-config/torrc-d-cleaner:

• During package upgrades of anon-gw-anonymizer-config, avoid moving /etc/torrc.d/95_whonix.conf to /etc/torrc.d/backup/95_whonix.conf.dpkg-new.

whonix-firewall:

• Miscellenous improvements.
• Remove deprecated variable SOCKS_PORT_TBB_GPG.
• Whonix-Gateway firewall: implemented INTERNAL_OPEN_PORTS.
• Deprecated support for SOCKS_PORT_CUSTOM=" 9230 " syntax; use INTERNAL_OPEN_PORTS+=" 9230 " instead.
• Refactoring / code simplification.
• Fixed denial errors.

Other fixes:

• Fixed whonixcheck msgcollector permission errors.
• Corrected authentication failures related to Anon Connection Wizard and Whonix ™ repository.
• Resolved the APT error relating to Debian's suite value changing from 'testing' to 'stable'.
• Fixed starting pkexec-based applications from start menu, such as gdebi, synaptic and gparted.
• Added an encrypted swap file to the system to avoid Whonix-Gateway freezing (for systems with low RAM) during the apt full-upgrade procedure.
• Worked around a NoScript race condition that permitted JavaScript on around 30 sites in Tor Browser when the Security Slider was set to Safest.
• Prevented the keyboard-configuration debconf popup during apt full-upgrade.
• Implemented a command-not-found permission fix to avoid the WARNING:root:could not open file '/etc/apt/sources.list' message.
• Fixed the bug parsing torrc.d twice.
• Added x11-xserver-utils to kicksecure-desktop-environment-essential-gui to fix Xfce logout button.
• Disabled vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd=0 because it is currently broken.
• pkexec wrapper: fixed gdebi / synaptic but at the cost of checking for passwordless sudo /etc/suders /etc/sudoers.d exceptions.
• SecBrowser / i2pbrowser: no longer use firejail by default even if installed since it is not currently maintained by a contributor in Whonix / Kicksecure.
• Fixed an onioncircuits error report related to user permissions.
• Added an ENOUGH_RAM setting to swap-file-creator (1950 MB RAM default), so if there is enough RAM a swap file is not created (improving boot time).
• first-boot-skel: fixed /etc/skel/.bashrc to /home/user/.bashrc handling if the home folder is completely empty.
• Disabled the Tor Browser security slider question at first start because it is broken.
• Disabled proc-hidepid due to pkexec issues.
• Removed command-not-found from the default package installation, since it is not working out of the box which leads to confusing error messages.
• Ensured consistent parsing of /usr/local/etc/name.d for applications by Whonix that also parse /etc/name.d. Parsing /rw/config/name.d is still possible for compatibility but will be deprecated.
• Fixed adduser -- no longer writing to /nonexistent.
• Set the environment variable QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext (in VirtualBox, and also after upgrades in KVM) to workaround a VM-specific Monero bug.
• Implemented a sdwdate python 3.7 fix if the host timezone is set to something other than UTC.
• Fixed a false positive live mode detection in live mode indicator.
• Fixed update-torbrowser not seeing version 10.0.6 due to a new, upstream version format.
• Tor Browser Starter by Whonix Developers: fixed opening URLs which contain question marks and added more folder permission checks.
• ro-mode-init: fixed the non-functional Live Mode Indicator.
• Fixed Thunderbird connectivity out of the box with a torbirdy replacement.
• qtox is no longer installed by default.
• Disabled the following Tor stream isolation ports since the related applications in Whonix have been deprecated:
  • Mixmaster update (9120)
  • Mixmaster (9121)
  • Privoxy (9112)
  • Polipo (9113)
  • TorChat (9119)
  • Tor Browser Updater by Whonix Developers gpg key download (9116)
  • Tor Messenger (9153)
• Installation no longer requires auditd by default.
• kicksecure-meta-packages: Fixed missing ristretto thumbnails and popup by installing tumbler by default -- this adds “Depends: tumbler” to whonix-workstation-packages-recommended-gui.

Builds

kicksecure-meta-packages:

• Removed os-prober from non-qubes-vm-enhancements-cli since it is only useful for multi-boot which is rarely done inside VMs because it can cause build issues.
• Split repository-dist GUI / CLI dependencies.
• Removed SecBrowser code since it is deprecated.

repository-dist:

• Reduced dependencies for CLI version; split dependencies into repository-dist (CLI) and repository-dist-wizard (GUI).

Whonix Build Script:

• Ported onion support from onion v2 to onion v3.
• Mac M1 / arm64 architecture support development.

Other changes:

• Bumped base Debian packages to 10.1.
• Work on hardened Linux kernel for VMs and hosts.
• Work on fixing arm64 / RPi builds -- incomplete.
• Fixed packaging issues preventing experimental ppc64el builds.
• Fix building without using cowbuilder to allow for build support in more environments; that is, building with export make_use_cowbuilder=false.
• Fixed errors causing Whonix-Gateway build failures on a physical host.
• Packages are now more standalone in nature -- no Whonix-specific build dependencies (genmkfile) are required.

Contentious Changes

• Tor Browser Updater (by Whonix developers): reduced old versions being kept to 0 in /var/cache/tb-binary.

Developer Notes

anon-base-files:

• Do not create a home folder during postinst.
• Leave user user creation to Qubes.
• Fixed and actually use --no-create-home.

repository-dist:

• The same GPG signing key is now used with new e-mail addresses.

sdwdate:

• Split Anon Meta Packages into Anon Meta Packages (Whonix) and Kicksecure ™ Meta Packages.
• Renamed whonix-repository to repository-dist.
• Renamed setup-dist to setup-dist.
• Renamed whonix-setup-wizard to setup-wizard-dist.
• Renamed whonixcheck to systemcheck.
• Ported to onion v3.
  • Removed all v2 onion sources.
  • Ported to onion v3 onion sources.
• Restored MAX_FAILURE_RATIO=0.34 since enough v3 onions are available.
• Added /usr/share/sdwdate/onion_test_confirm; this is a script to check if onions correspond to archived link.
• Moved comment field rules to Sdwdate: Comment Field Rules.
• Change the onion source comment format, the archived link now appears first.
• Implemented a more human-readable format.
• Config test changes.
• Implemented arm64 architecture support fixes.
• Fixed onion_tester.
• Split arch-specific syscalls from the base whitelist.
• Added one more SystemCallFilter syscall for arm64.
• Added extra SystemCallFilter syscalls required for restarting sdwdate on arm64.
• Fixed systemd sandboxing for the arm64 platform.
• Fixed systemd sandboxing for the powerpc64 / ppc64el platform.

developer-meta-files:

• prepare_release: added libvirt raw image support and multiple platform support.

Other changes:

• Added anon-base-files to whonix-host-xfce-kvm-freedom.
• Added hardened-malloc to hardened-packages-dependencies-cli.
• Removed unneeded dependency live-config-systemd.
• No longer depend on logrotate.
• Whonix Development News
• Significant progress regarding Whonix-Host development.
• Whonix is slowing migrating from GitHub to GitLab.

Documentation

• Documented how to use recovery mode.
• Created detailed Whonix Networking Implementation Documentation which documents the differences with Debian networking.
• Wrote research notes on how to write good VirtualBox bug reports that actually have a chance of getting fixed.
• Wrote VirtualBox developer documentation on VirtualBox Licensing Issues, unavailable in Debian main and Debian backports, missing features, VirtualBox security and arguments for keeping VirtualBox Support.
• Documented Onion Services Authentication for v3 onions.
• Researched and documented entropy / randomness generation.
• Rebranded Whonix as a research project.
• Added vanguards documentation.
• Added security-misc documentation for stable security features, testing security features and experimental security features.
• Documented how to create and use a Physical One-time Pad for unbreakable message or email encryption (perfect secrecy).
• Created an entry on How To setup Asterisk VoIP server over OpenVPN in Tor hidden service.
• Documented how to change the system timezone.

Multiple, new wiki chapters:

• Mobile Phone Security
• Cold Boot Attack Defense
• Evil Maid Attack
• General Threats to User Freedom
• Login Spoofing
• Orca Screen Reader
• Phone Number Validation vs User Privacy
• Policy On Non-Freedom Software
• Social Engineering and (Spear) Phishing
• Telegram
• Tor Myths and Misconceptions
• Tuning VM Performance
• Utilize Search Engines and Documentation
• VM Fingerprinting threats and defenses
• Watching and Downloading YouTube Videos

Multiple wiki improvements/enhancements:

• Build Documentation: Physical Isolation
• Full Disk Encryption
• Installation of Whonix ™ on a USB
• Metadata
• Minimizing threats posed by speakers
• Multiple Whonix-Gateway instructions for Non-Qubes-Whonix
• Safely Use Root Commands
• sdwdate Clock Randomization and Time Sources Criteria
• Secure screen locking documentation
• Stream Isolation instructions for manually installed applications
• Strong Linux User Account Isolation
• Supply Chain Attacks
• System Recovery using SysRq Key
• Two-factor Authentication (2FA)
• What is a TransparentProxy
• Whonix-Workstation Firewall
• Whonix ™ Default Application Policy

Improved Functionality and Usability

anon-apt-sources-list:

• Removed extra spaces.
• Disabled deb-src by default and implemented comment consistency.
• Implemented the same format as https://onion.debian.org.
• Removed the trailing slash ("/") from Debian security repository.
• Updated to Debian v3 onion sources: https://onion.debian.org

anon-connection-wizard:

• Updated the default bridges in anon-connection-wizard from The Tor Project and removed ‘-max 3’ from the snowflake command.
• Removed the deprecated obfs3 bridges option from Anon Connection Wizard.

anon-consensus-delete:

• Created a new anon-consensus-delete command line utility.
• Tor Consensus Re-Download
• While Tor Entry Guards persist, it results in Tor re-downloading the Tor Consensus document.

anon-log:

• Created the new anon-log command line utility.
• anon-log simplifies the manual dump Tor log command by only showing relevant log entries and no non-issues.

anon-verify:

• Report extraneous Tor configuration files (files that do not end with file extension .conf).
• Ignore file names starting with dot (.)
• Ignore subfolders when using %include /path/to/folder
• Fix checking of all files in torrc.d folders for issues.

binaries-freedom:

• Upgraded the Bitcoin Electrum wallet to version 4.1.2.
• Added ThomasV signing key.
• Added SomberNight signing key.
• Updated to version 4.1.4.

helper-scripts:

• Added apt-key-install. This is a utility to install APT signing key to the system Input file. It can support GPG keys in either ASCII-armored or binary format.

genmkfile:

• Changed the output of genmkfile deb-chl-bumpup-manual.

gvfs:

• Installed gvfs by default:
• Fixed access to LUKS encrypted USB drive with Thunar.
• Added gvfs to kicksecure-desktop-applications-xfce.

helper-scripts:

• Added the initramfs-debug-enable debugging tool which enables xtrace (set -x).
• Removed unnecessary cat calls.
• Disabled running anondate-get as diagnostic utility since it cannot currently be run due to no new privs apparmor issues with the sdwdate apparmor profile.

Monero:

• Installed Monero GUI by default in Whonix-Workstation.
• Upgraded the monero-gui package to version 0.17.2.1.

onion-grater:

• Added new command line tools onion-grater-add / onion-grater-remove which will allow to simplify instructions that require onion-grater configuration changes.
• Removed Whonix specificity from onion-grater.
• Simplifed and updated 40_bitcoind.yml so it works with bitcoind v0.21
• Added Wahay profile.
• Added changes for arm64.

Onion services authentication:

• Created a anon-auth-autogen(8) Tor Authenticated Onion Service Configuration Generator.
• Created a anon-server-to-client-install(8) Tor Authenticated Onion Service “.auth_private” file (private key) Server to Client Installer.

sdwdate-gui:

• Ported from tor-control-status tor_status to anon-connection-wizard and fixed minor confusing log output.
• Disabled systemxcheck “Connecting to Tor…” and “Connected to Tor.” messages in favor of sdwdate-gui.

security-misc:

• Implemented systemd RemainAfterExit=yes for better usability.
• pam abort when attempting to login to root when the root password is locked.

systemcheck:

• Depends: replaced bsdtar with libarchive-tools.
• Improved the text.
• Added a check for deprecated derivative (Whonix or Kicksecure) versions.
• Ensured Kicksecure ™ compatibility.
• Fix telling if Tor is disabled.
• Added a Package Manager Consistency Check.
• Reorderd tests.
• Fixed the AppArmor profile for ppc64le.

tor-control-panel:

• Removed obfs2 and obfs3.
• Utilize the same default bridges as anon-connection-wizard.

Tor:

• Upgraded Tor to version 0.4.2.6-1, 0.4.3.5, 0.4.5.7 and then again to version 0.4.5.9 in a later release.

tb-updater:

• Upgraded Tor Browser to version 10 and later releases in this series.
• Set alpha tbb_hardcoded_version=“10.5a16”.
• Set tbb_hardcoded_version=“10.0.18”.
• Utilize the Heikki Lindholm GPG signing key for digital signature verification of arm64 builds from sourceforge.net created by Heikki Lindholm.
• Added the Heikki Lindholm GPG signing key for arm64 builds.
• Created an arm64 port.
• Added arm64 platform support.
• Updated the signing key.
• Fixed DispVM mounting.
• Updated to Tor Project onion v3 for --onion.
• Depends: replaced bsdtar with libarchive-tools

Tor Browser Downloader configuration options:

• Added --onion to optionally download over onions.
• Added --alpha to optionally download alpha rather than stable versions.

usability-misc:

• Added a dpkg-noninteractive wrapper script.
• Improved the speed of "apt update" processes.
• Updated the signing key.

uwt:

• Now guess and tell the user which package needs installing.
• Improved output.

VirtualBox:

• Enabled serial console functionality in VirtualBox, see: Serial Console.
• From the VirtualBox host, simplify the sending of SysRq commands to VirtualBox VMs using the vboxmanage command.
• No longer install serial-console-enable by default due to issues.

whonix-libvirt:

• Added UTM configs.

Other changes:

• Added support for OnionShare “bundled Tor”.
• Packaged str_replace for literal search and replace functions.
• Display the pulseaudio plugin by default.
• Added arc-theme, gnome-themes-extra, gnome-themes-extra-data and gtk2-engines-murrine for better visual presentation and a more modern look.
• Set SUDO_EDITOR="mousepad" if: mousepad is installed and the environment variable SUDO_EDITOR has not already been set.
• Full /etc/torrc.d/*.conf configuration snippet drop-in folder support.
• The Whonix build script now optionally supports installing packages from the Whonix remote repository, rather than building packages locally.
• Simplified the default sudo lecture (presenting text upon first run) so it only shows the default password for Whonix.
• Work towards Whonix Host operating system.
• Renamed package non-qubes-vm-audio to non-qubes-audio.
• corridor -- Tor traffic whitelisting gateway and leak tester -- merged upstream changes and improved Debian host support.
• Added usability and output enhancements to grub-live, and improved the live mode indicator systray.
• Added packaging and other improvements to Hardened Malloc
• Added a sudo askpass wrapper for automated testing.
• Added packaging and other enhancements for kloak.
• Refactored Qubes-Whonix network proxy setup.
• Created debug-misc: opt-in package which enables miscellaneous debug settings for easier debugging.
• Added links to search engines to the Whonix landing page in Tor Browser.
• Split most of /usr/share/tor/tor-service-defaults-torrc into /etc/torrc.d drop-in configuration snippets.
• Hide verbose output messages during boot to improve startup speed (logs are still available in the journal).
• Changed the desktop background images to better distinguish Whonix-Gateway from Whonix-Workstation and vice versa.
• Upgraded packages by packages.debian.org
• Set hostname to localhost for VM builds.
• Disable DNSCrypt by default for now due to issues.
• The Debian stable-updates repository is now enabled by default.
• Merged python-guimessages into helper-scripts.
• Set ClientOnionAuthDir in /var/lib/tor/authdir.
• Permit Tor Browser to show improved error pages for onion service errors.
• Whonix-Workstation Firewall: added a configuration option firewall_allow_udp=true to allow outgoing UDP.
• anon-apps-config: Skip setting timezone to UTC if file /etc/noutc or /usr/local/etc/noutc exists.
• whonixcheck now warns if dmesg contains “Bad RAM detected”.
• Added a DVD drive by default for Whonix-Custom-Workstation.
• Created a constrained system resources program starter wrapper which is useful to run applications with limited system resources.
• Implemented an apt-get-reset command for improved usability.
• whonix-welcome-page: added a link to https://web.archive.org/https://t.me/s/Whonix_All_News
• Added gpg-dearmor. This is a wrapper to convert to GPG ASCII-armored format binary format. .

Kernel and Related Hardening

Significant kernel and other security hardening has been implemented; numerous enhancements have been made to security-misc:

• Enabled kernel panic on kernel oops after boot, see: set oops=panic kernel parameter or kernel.panic_on_oops=1 sysctl for better security.
• Enabled pam_umask.so usergroups, so group permissions are the same as user permissions.
• Removed read, write and execute access for others for all users who have home folders under folder /home.
• Group sudo membership is required to use su.
• Passwordless, recovery / emergency mode has been implemented.
• Lock user accounts with pam_tally2 after five failed authentication attempts are detected.
• Fix pam_tally2 check when read-only disk boots without ro-mode-init or grub-live.
• The thunderbolt and firewire modules were blacklisted, since they can be used for Direct Memory Access (DMA) attacks.
• Every module must now be signed before being loaded; any module that is unsigned or signed with an invalid key cannot be loaded.
• Uncommon network protocols were blacklisted: these are rarely used and may have unknown vulnerabilities.
• Enabled IOMMU.
• The SysRq key is restricted to only allow shutdowns/reboots.
• Restrict the SysRq key so it can only be used for shutdowns and the Secure Attention Key.
• A systemd service mounts /proc with hidepid=2 at boot, thereby preventing users from seeing each other’s processes.
• A systemd service clears System.map on boot as these contain kernel symbols that could be useful to an attacker.
• Remove System.map after a kernel upgrade.
• remove-system-map: use shred instead of rm.
• The kernel logs are restricted to root only.
• The BPF JIT compiler is restricted to the root user and is hardened.
• The ptrace system call is restricted to the root user only.
• Added user root to group sudo. This is necessary so it is still possible to login as a user in a virtual console.
• Kernel symbols in /proc/kallsyms are hidden. This prevents malware from reading and using them to learn more about system vulnerabilities that can be attacked.
• Kexec is disabled because it can be used for live patching of the running kernel.
• Bluetooth is blacklisted to reduce the attack surface.
• Added experimental SUID Disabling and Permission Hardening:
  • A systemd service removes SUID / GUID from non-essential binaries as these are often used in privilege escalation attacks.
• Enables mitigations for the L1TF (L1 Terminal Fault) vulnerability.
• Unconditionally enable all kernel patches for CPU bugs (spectre, meltdown, L1TF and so on) -- this might reduce performance:
  • spectre_v2=on
  • spec_store_bypass_disable=on
  • tsx=off
  • tsx_async_abort=full,nosmt
• The MSR kernel module is blacklisted to prevent CPU MSRs from being abused to write to arbitrary memory.
• Vsyscalls are disabled as they are obsolete, are at fixed addresses and are a target for ROP.
• Page allocator freelist randomization is enabled.
• The vivid kernel module is blacklisted as it is only required for testing and has been the cause of multiple vulnerabilities.
• An initramfs hook sets the sysctl values in /etc/sysctl.conf and /etc/sysctl.d before init is executed so sysctl hardening is enabled as early as possible.
• The kernel panics on oopses to prevent it from continuing to run a flawed process and to deter brute forcing.
• Improve entropy collection:
  • Load jitterentropy_rng kernel module.
  • Distrust the CPU for initial entropy at boot as it is not possible to audit, may contain weaknesses or a backdoor.
  • Disable trusting RDRAND.
  • random.trust_cpu=off
• Experimental: remount /home, /tmp, /dev/shm and /run with nosuid,nodev (default) and noexec (opt-in). To disable this, see footnote.
• Fix xfce4-power-manager xfpm-power-backlight-helper pkexec lxsudo popup.
• Do show lxqt-sudo password prompt if there is a sudoers exception.
• Improved pkexec wrapper logging.
• Installation fix in the case when user user does not exist.
• Better output if trying to login with a non-existing user.
• Add user user to group console in Whonix and Kicksecure.
• Lock user accounts after 50 rather than 100 failed login attempts.
• Disable the busmaster bit on all PCI bridges during very early boot to avoid holes in IOMMU.
• Only allow symlinks to be followed when outside of a world-writable sticky directory, or when the owner of the symlink and follower match, or when the directory owner matches the symlink’s owner. Prevent hardlinks from being created by users that do not have read/write access to the source file. These prevent many TOCTOU races:
  • fs.protected_symlinks=1
  • fs.protected_hardlinks=1
• Restrict loading TTY line disciplines to CAP_SYS_MODULE to prevent unprivileged attackers from loading vulnerable line disciplines with the TIOCSETD ioctl which has been used in exploits before.
• For a full list of changes, see: https://github.com/Kicksecure/security-misc

hardened-kernel:

• Enabled CONFIG_KPROBES.
• Reverted “Optionally enable kprobes/ftrace for LKRG support”

KVM

• Command line control of KVM VMs is now supported.
• The microphone is disabled by default.
• Switched RNG to /dev/urandom.
• pvspinlock is enabled.
• Fixed Whonix-Gateway firewall desktop shortcuts.
• No longer install pulseaudio by default on Whonix-Gateway.
• Various apparmor fixes.
• Created new apparmor profiles for bootclockrandomization, permission lockdown, and pam tally2 information.
• Ensured future compatibility for apparmor-profile-everything.
• Improved the output of remove system.map.
• Fixed the KVM prepare_release script.
• Fixed the GPU tag in libvirt XML.
• Updated Tor Browser to version 9.0.1, then later versions (9.5).
• Fixed Kicksecure ™ KVM’s broken networking.
• Moved to gitlab.com.
• Other platforms build fix.
• monero-gui can be uninstalled.
• Fixed /etc/resolv.conf.
• Enabled export QMLSCENE_DEVICE=softwarecontext for KVM.
• Upgraded to the 2020 Whonix ™ Logo version.
• Upgraded monero-gui.

Security Enhancements

anon-shared-build-apt-sources-tpo:

• Updated deb.torproject.org comments to onion v3

Much stronger Linux user account isolation has been enforced in Non-Qubes-Whonix ™:

• Locked and expired the root account in new Whonix builds. Existing users who upgraded are advised to lock their root account.
• Disabled root login in virtual consoles by default.
• Added a Tor Browser first startup popup to ask whether the security slider should be set to safest -- this was disabled in a later release due to broken functionality.
• Anonymized /etc/machine-id.
• anon-gpg-tweaks: disabled keyservers for improved security.
• Enabled APT seccomp sandboxing and added more seccomp hardening.
• Enforced msgcollector security (mount option) hardening.
• Implemented systemd unit file hardening of services maintained by Whonix.
• Tor Browser Starter (tb-starter Whonix package) hardening: implemented optional --hardening / tb_hardening="true" which utilizes Firejail and/or Hardened Malloc, see: Tor Browser Hardening documentation.
• Installed Hardened Malloc by default to ease usage (although it is not enabled by default to avoid breakage).
• Upgraded Hardened Malloc to version 2 and switched to compile with clang rather than gcc as per upstream preference.
• sudoedit is now used in Whonix software and documentation (rather than the lxqtsudo editor) for better security.
• Created an opt-in feature to restrict hardware information to root, see: Restrict Hardware Information to Root.

Added vanguards to protect against guard discovery and related traffic analysis attacks:

• The daemon in Tor through 0.4.1.8 and 0.4.2.x through 0.4.2.6 does not verify that a rendezvous node is known before attempting to connect to it, which might make it easier for remote attackers to discover circuit information -- vanguards fixes this.
• Use vanguards from packages.debian.org
• Ensured vanguards do not start in a Template in Qubes-Whonix.

Eased installation of Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) for users of Non-Qubes-Whonix ™, Kicksecure ™ and Debian hosts -- sudo apt install lkrg:

• Improves overall system security and is compatible with tirdad.
• Hardens kernel security by killing whole classes of exploits, detecting exploits and performing Linux kernel runtime integrity checking.
• Worked with LKRG upstream to fix LKRG VirtualBox host support.
• Packaging enhancements were incorporated, so any standard Debian build tool can be used.
• Disabled the “System is clean!” message to avoid spamming dmesg and tty1.
• Fixed compilation using DKMS on kernel upgrade by adding support for make variable KERNELRELEASE (DKMS sets it).
• Auto-load LKRG after installation.
• Upgraded LKRG to the latest upstream version (version 0.8.1; although not yet installed by default).

sandbox-app-launcher:

• Wait (blocking) for processes inside the sandbox to be killed.
• Replaced dynamic wrapper script creation with static script for code simplification.
• Fixed wrapper script creation and access rights.
• Improved the command to create a wrapper script for more self-explanatory bash xtrace.
• Unduplicated/removed permission check code in function run_program because it is already performed in function setup_or_check which runs anyhow.
• Minor usability improvements:
  • Downgraded messages if removal previously completed to INFO:.
  • Show INFO: after setup was successfully completed.
  • ShowINFO: after remove was successfully completed.
• Run all checks before start.
• Indentation.
• Use sal_is_run_with_root instead of extra id calls.
• Reordering.
• Implemented more robust checks.
• Removed if statement when copying wrapper-script-wx.
• Check for wrapper-script-wx.
• Fixed AppArmor.
• Added an option to list all currently configured sandboxes.
• Pass app_user to bwrap-wrapper.
• Pass variables to bwrap-wrapper.
• Implemented proper whitespace handling.
• Added proper quoting for multiple parameter support.
• Added usr/share/sandbox-app-launcher/bwrap-wrapper.
• Created an initial unfinished bwrap-wrapper implementation.

sdwdate:

• Improved sandboxing.
• Code refactoring.
• Updated onion time sources.
• Increased the timeout to 120 seconds to deal with potentially slow onions.
• Implemented Time Replay Protection.

security-misc:

• pam-abort-on-locked-password: implemented more descriptive error handling.
• Restricted sudo’s file permissions.
• config-package-dev: displaced /etc/dkms/framework.conf
• Modified DKMS configuration file /etc/dkms/framework.conf: lower parallel compilation jobs to 1 if there is less than 2 GB RAM to avoid virtual machine freezing (parallel_jobs=1).
• Added /etc/dkms/framework.conf.security-misc original.

Other security enhancements:

• Advanced users can utilize Signify to verify Whonix ™ digital signatures.
• Updated various security-critical software including APT, electrum, Monero, Tor Browser, Tor Browser Downloader by Whonix Developers and Hardened Malloc.
• Implemented TCP ISN CPU Information Leak Protection to prevent de-anonymization of Tor onion services and installed Tirdad kernel module for random ISN generation by default.
• Fixed compilation using DKMS on kernel upgrade by adding support for make variable KERNELRELEASE (DKMS sets it).
• Console lockdown: allow members of group console to use console. Everyone else except members of group console-unrestricted are restricted from using console using ancient, unpopular login methods such as using /bin/login over networks, which might be exploitable.
• Protect Linux user accounts against brute force attacks -- lock user accounts after 50 failed login attempts using pam_tally2.
• No longer install firejail by default because of fingerprinting reasons.
• Prevent verbose output during boot to prevent kernel information leaks.
• Extensive security hardening and updated packages.
• Improved Thunderbird protocol level leak prevention by enforcing functionality previously provided by TorBirdy.
• Improved systemd sandboxing for onion-grater.
• Implemented the OpenSSL security fix for Debian and Tor Browser (OpenSSL 1.1.1d) (CVE-2021-3449).
• Added a minimum-time-check feature for better security.
• Created and implemented hardened-malloc-type-test.

VirtualBox

• As at April 2021, the recommended VirtualBox version is 6.1.20.
  • Implemented a Whonix ™ compatibility fix for VirtualBox version 6.1.20.
  • Switched to SATA AHCI virtual storage controller hardware.
• Upgraded VirtualBox guest additions to version 6.1.14.
• vm-config-dist: run vbox-guest-installer when package virtualbox-guest-additions-iso is updated.
• VirtualBox 6.1.12 upgrade:
  • Rebuilt using VirtualBox 6.1.12.
  • Uploaded VirtualBox 6.1.12 to Whonix ™ repository (downloaded from virtualbox.org repository).
  • Overcame technical challenges acquiring VirtualBox 6.1.12 on Debian buster.
  • Installed virtualbox-guest-additions-iso by default in new builds beginning from this version.
  • vm-config-dist: add a usability feature to install VirtualBox guest additions from virtualbox-guest-additions-iso package.
• Reverted to vmsvga grapics controller settings due to issues.
• Increased Whonix-Gateway default RAM to 1280 MB. Otherwise, VirtualBox guest additions kernel modules fail to compile.
• Current VirtualBox screen resolution situation:
  • Functional VirtualBox VM Window → View → Virtual Screen 1 → resize to resolution
  • Functional VirtualBox VM Window → View → Adjust Window Size
  • A workaround to improve this situation is still required.
  • Added xserver-xorg-video-vmware to kicksecure-desktop-environment-essential-gui because it is required by VirtualBox Graphics Controller VMSVGA for auto resize and resize through VirtualBox settings menu.
  • Again set the VirtualBox Graphics Controller to VMSVGA (equivalent to “VirtualBox → click a VM → Settings → Display → Graphics Controller → VMSVGA → OK”).
  • Increased Whonix VirtualBox Whonix-Gateway video RAM to 128 MB since the previous assignment of only 16 MB RAM can cause resize issues.
  • Updated VirtualBox and VirtualBox guest addition to 6.1.4. The VirtualBox guest addition has been further upgraded to 6.1.6 in a later Whonix release.
• Added a workaround for the bug causing the VirtualBox screen resolution to be too small; the screen resolution is now 1920x1080 by default for all VMs.
• Configured three (instead of four) virtual CPU cores by default as this can improve stability.
• Enabled the Debian stable-updates repository by default.
• Consolidated Whonix packages.
• Installed fewer unneeded packages such as rsyslog (see footnote).
• Unbreak VirtualBox clearnet DNS settings when not using DNSCrypt.

Website Improvements

• Wiki editing over onion.
• Using Whonix ™ forums over onion.
• Mostly fixed onion forum site redirects to clearnet.
• Implemented the Onion-Location header, which shows the “onion available” message to any Tor Browser user visiting the clearnet version of whonix.org.
• Fixed a false Mediawiki message that identified Whonix ™ forum logins as insecure over onion (thereby offering a https connection to the onion URL).
• Implemented Expect-CT security header for whonix.org.
• Fixed URL with no onion mirror.
• Reviewed hardenize.com results (no clean HSTS-Preload / DNSSEC).
• Researched DANE TLSA (DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities) for whonix.org.
• Whonix software signature verification documentation discussion: VirtualBox vs KVM - GPG / signify / codecrypt.
• Checked broken discourse email replies.
• Investigated uploaded images not presenting after creating a topic.
• Documented Testing the Whonix ™ server with test websites such as hardenize.com / securityheaders.com / Mozilla Observatory / SSL Labs / hstspreload.org.
• Improved documentation chapter Trusting the Whonix ™ Website.
• Considered drop-www vs yes-www.
• Considered Hide Server IP.
• Set up a dedicated server for Kicksecure, with dedicated domain kicksecure.com, homepage, wiki and soon forums.

Footnotes

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