Whonix

Jump to: navigation, search

Whonix-Gateway System DNS

This page contains changes which are not marked for translation.

DNS on Whonix-Gateway[edit]

Introduction[edit]

Advanced users only!
Usually recommended against and unnecessary.

All traffic from Whonix-Workstation and Whonix-Gateway is routed over Tor. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Whonix-Workstation is configured to use various SocksPorts, DnsPort and TransPort, see also Stream Isolation. Whonix-Gateway is only configured to use various SocksPorts. A global system DNS resolver is not required for Whonix-Gateway for any common use case to justify enabling it by default. Use cases where this could be useful include:

  • resolving the hostname of a proxy used in /etc/tor/torrc through Tor would be useful (technical explanation)
  • resolving the hostname of a VPN. But then using a VPN configuration using IPs only would be better.
  • Perhaps we could use /etc/hosts for such use cases rather than enabling system DNS?

How[edit]

Working. Using Whonix-Gateway's user clearnet.

Whonix first time users warning
Using the clearnet user, traffic will be sent over normal internet! Not over Tor! Will not be anonymous!

Disable /etc/dhcp/dhclient-enter-hooks.d/nodnsupdate by making it no longer executable so DHCP will write to /etc/resolv.conf

[select code]
sudo chmod -x /etc/dhcp/dhclient-enter-hooks.d/nodnsupdate

Make /etc/resov.conf mutable. Don't worry if the next command causes an error. It's not required anymore in recent Whonix versions.

[select code]
sudo chattr -i /etc/resolv.conf

Delete /etc/resolv.conf so we can regenerate it.

[select code]
sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf

Restart networking.

[select code]
sudo service networking restart

Login as user clearnet.

[select code]
sudo su clearnet

Test it, for example using ping.

[select code]
ping google.com

See Also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ↑ Since Whonix 0.2.1, Whonix-Gateway traffic is also routed over Tor. In this way, use of Whonix is hidden from persons or systems observing the network.
  2. ↑ To preserve the anonymity of a user's Whonix-Workstation activities, it is not necessary to torify Whonix-Gateway's own traffic.
  3. ↑ For reader interest: If DNS settings on Whonix-Gateway are changed in /etc/resolv.conf, this only affects Whonix-Gateways's own DNS requests issued by applications using the system's default DNS resolver. By default, no applications issuing network traffic on Whonix-Gateway use the system's default DNS resolver. All applications installed by default on Whonix-Gateway that issue network traffic (apt-get, whonixcheck, timesync) are explicitly configured, or forced by uwt wrappers, to use their own Tor SocksPort (see Stream Isolation).
  4. ↑ Whonix-Workstation's default applications are configured to use separate Tor SocksPorts (see Stream Isolation), thereby not using the system's default DNS resolver. Any applications in Whonix-Workstation that are not configured for stream isolation - for example nslookup - will use the default DNS server configured in Whonix-Workstation (via /etc/network/interfaces), which is the Whonix-Gateway. Those DNS requests are redirected to Tor's DnsPort by Whonix-Gateway's firewall. Whonix-Gateway's /etc/resolv.conf does not affect Whonix-Workstation's DNS requests.
Random News:

We are looking for help in managing our social media accounts. Are you interested?

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, the content of this page is copyrighted and licensed under the same Libre Software license as Whonix itself. (Why?)

Retrieved from "https://www.whonix.org/w/index.php?title=Whonix-Gateway_System_DNS&oldid=29732"