whonixcheck Hardening
From Whonix
Rationale[edit]
Although whonixcheck already has apparmor and systemd hardening, some marginal security and anonymity benefits are gained by reducing: the number of network connections, the amount of code running, and unnecessary functionality. This is not the default configuration, since that would come at the cost of decreased usability for the entire Whonix ™ population.
Hardening Steps[edit]
Prevent Autostart[edit]
To prevent whonixcheck from automatically starting, run.
sudo systemctl mask whonixcheck
Prevent Whonix ™ User Census Counting[edit]
Whonix-Gateway ™ only.
This will prevent the anonymous, daily Whonix ™ census. [1] [2] [3]
Open file /etc/whonix.d/50_user.conf in an editor with root rights.
(Qubes-Whonix ™: In TemplateVM)
This box uses sudoedit for better security [archive]. This is an example and other tools could also achieve the same goal. If this example does not work for you or if you are not using Whonix, please refer to this link.
sudoedit /etc/whonix.d/50_user.conf
Add the following content.
whonixcheck_skip_functions+=" download_whonix_news "
Prevent Polluting TransPort[edit]
Whonix-Workstation ™ only.
Only useful when running whonixcheck --leak-tests. On the other hand, running whonixcheck --leak-tests with the Tor TransPort test disabled makes little sense. In that case it would would be useful as a Tor SocksPort connectivity test.
Deactivate the TransPort Test for better Stream Isolation.
Open file /etc/whonix.d/50_user.conf in an editor with root rights.
(Qubes-Whonix ™: In TemplateVM)
This box uses sudoedit for better security [archive]. This is an example and other tools could also achieve the same goal. If this example does not work for you or if you are not using Whonix, please refer to this link.
sudoedit /etc/whonix.d/50_user.conf
Add the following content.
WHONIXCHECK_DISABLE_TRANS_PORT_TEST="1"
Save.
Prevent Running apt-get[edit]
Complete these steps on both Whonix-Gateway ™ and Whonix-Workstation ™.
This prevents the running of apt-get by whonixcheck.
Open file /etc/whonix.d/50_user.conf in an editor with root rights.
(Qubes-Whonix ™: In TemplateVM)
This box uses sudoedit for better security [archive]. This is an example and other tools could also achieve the same goal. If this example does not work for you or if you are not using Whonix, please refer to this link.
sudoedit /etc/whonix.d/50_user.conf
Add the following content.
whonixcheck_skip_functions+=" check_operating_system "
Prevent torproject.org Connections[edit]
Default. No action required.
whonixcheck would only connect to torproject.org if the user would manually run whonixcheck --leak-tests.
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ https://phabricator.whonix.org/T689 [archive]
- ↑
There are strict requirements for the Whonix ™ user count:
- no private info transferred at all
- adds no additional risk other than that of apt-get communicating with Whonix ™ servers which users are doing anyway to their systems updated
- only on Whonix-Gateway ™
- no unique identifiers of any kind
- all transmissions go through Tor
- all transmissions are using Whonix ™ Tor onion v3 service
- so we will never collect any IP addresses
- submissions happen at randomized times
- only one submission within 24 hours
- can be easily disabled
- ↑ https://forums.whonix.org/t/whonix-census-counter-the-number-of-whonix-users/7620 [archive]
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