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Privacy in Technology, Related Information, How-To’s, Tips, Tools, and Guides

HOW TO SECURE YOUR TOR ONION KEYS

This is a quick guide on how to secure your Tor Onionsite from someone intercepting the keys and hijacking your domain.

Open a terminal and Type

sudo su –

Only hs_ed25519_secret_key is required for TOR to work

Copy other keys to a backup location

Do do this type:
mkdir /backup
mkdir /backup/current-tor-keys
cd /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
cp -R ./* /backup/current-tor-keys/
rm hs_ed25519_public_key
sudo chown -R debian-tor: /var/lib/tor/hidden_service
sudo chmod -R u+rwX,og-rwx /var/lib/tor/hidden_service

Now use WinSCP and copy the keys off the server to a safe location and delete them from your /backup directory

INSTALL TOR ON KALI 2024.1

This is a quick guide on how to install tor on the newest version of Kali Linux. By default the version that I am running does not have it.

Open a terminal and Type:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install tor -y
sudo apt install torbrowser-launcher -y

Now to run Tor you will need to open a second terminal

In the first terminal type:
tor
Press Enter. This will start the service

In the second terminal, type:
torbrowser-launcher
Press Enter

This will open the Browser

Try navigating to my Onion site to test it out:
longleycr37tvhhrxmbs3buk3ze6vtpyouz3gy6uytdqqfvoiqrf3yyd.onion

HOW TO SETUP A TOR ONIONSITE ON APACHE

Here is a simple how-to guide on setting it up in 2024

First you will want a server that has nothing on it and is not publicly available. I suggest getting a spare PC, or setting it up on a VM.

Make sure the PC/VM is on a standalone VLAN and behind a firewall so no other traffic can get to it. Open NO Ports, setup No NATs, TOR does not need them open to function properly.

First, Install Ubuntu Server 22.04 or Ubuntu Server 24.04

Then ssh into the server

Type:
sudo su –

dpkg –print-architecture

If it is either amd64, arm64 or i386, it will work, if it is not any of those structures, find a different system to run it on.

Type:
apt install apt-transport-https

lsb_release -a

What is your version of linux? It wil be listed as something like
Codename: focal
or
Codename: jammy
or whatever the latest flavor is

Install Apache:
apt-get update

apt install apache2

mv /var/www/html/index.html /var/www/html/index.html.orig

nano /var/www/html/index.html

Type in
Hi, You Found Me!

Save and Exit

Now Type:
cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

nano tor.list

paste in this:
deb     [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tor-archive-keyring.gpg] https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org <DISTRIBUTION> main
deb-src [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tor-archive-keyring.gpg] https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org <DISTRIBUTION> main

Change <DISTRIBUTION> to focal or jammy or whatever, so it looks like this:
deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tor-archive-keyring.gpg] https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org jammy main
deb-src [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tor-archive-keyring.gpg] https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org jammy main

Save and Exit

Now type:
wget -qO- https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org/A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89.asc | gpg –dearmor | tee /usr/share/keyrings/tor-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

apt update

apt install tor deb.torproject.org-keyring

nano /etc/tor/torrc

Uncomment these lines by deleting the #

HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80

Save and Exit

systemctl restart tor

systemctl restart apache2

cat /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/hostname

and your onion site will show like this:
longleycr37tvhhrxmbs3buk3ze6vtpyouz3gy6uytdqqfvoiqrf3yyd.onion

Now you can go to a site like torgateway.com and browse to that onion site to ensure it is live. I would prefer if you actually used your own tor browser instead using a setup like the one I created here for Tor and Tails.

Enjoy the darkweb!

HOW TO ACCESS TOR SAFELY

This is a quick How-To on installing Tails OS to a USB Drive, so you can use TOR on any computer, Anywhere

To start, on your computer:

Download BalenaEtcher and install it

Visit https://tails.net/ to get your copy of Tails, which was created by the makers of TOR

Download Tails, the latest version

Insert a USB into your Computer

Open BalenaEtcher

Click Flash From File

Select Tails

Select Target

Select your USB Drive

Click Flash!

Once it is done being flashed, you can put it in a computer to use

Boot/Reboot the computer

Select your USB Drive on startup

Tails will begin!

Once you are in Tails, to use TOR, click Activities in the Top Left

Select Tor Browser

Connect the circuit to the tor network.

Once connected to Tor you can test it by visiting my website:

Go to https://jaylongley.com and navigate to the Contact Page

Note that UBlock Origin has found trackers on my website. It finds google analytics and whatnot. This is supposed to happen. You will see why in a minute.

There you will see a tor address. Copy that address

Open a new tab in Tor

Place the Onion address that you received from my contact page, and navigate there

You will see my darkweb page appear

Now note UBlock Origin, has NO trackers here. To use Tor and ensure your safety, only work with pages and sites that do not track you!

Happy Surfing

HOW TO UPDATE FIREFOX TO THE LATEST VERSION

Quick how-to for updating Firefox with screenshots included.

Open Firefox

Click the hamburger icon (shown below) which is in the top right of your computer screen

Click Help (shown below) then select About

If there is an update, it will show here, if the update is installed you will need to restart the browser as shown. And that is it!

HOW TO UPDATE PI-HOLE

Quick How-To for updating pihole on Ubuntu

Open a terminal

Type:
sudo apt-get update
Enter in your password

Type
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Enter in your password

Type
pihole -up
Enter in your password

Pihole updates

That is it!

HOW TO CHECK A DKIM RECORD

This one is quick and easy. You need to know the record info that was setup with the DNS Provider to do it

Go to https://MXToolBox.com/NetworkTools.aspx

Find the DKIM Box

Enter in the domain:selector info
Example – tacticalware.com:mydkim

Press the DKIM Lookup button

If it is setup properly you will see in green, the dkim information. If it is setup improperly, you will see an error, as you would see if you searched for the dkim tacticalware.com:mydkim

GODADDY – BACKUP DNS ZONE

Here is how to backup your DNS information in GoDaddy

Login into your account

Navigate to https://dcc.godaddy.com/control/portfolio

Identify the Domain name you want to backup

Click the three dots next to it “…“

Select Edit DNS

On the DNS MANAGEMENT page, next to the ADD button, click the Three Dots “…“

Select Export Zone File

Your DNS will backup to your computer.

Save it to somewhere special, and go on your merry way

CREATE SPF RECORD

This is a quick how-to on setting up the SPF record for those of us not using Microsoft 365. They have a different record type If you want a more in-depth one, there are many available elsewhere. So for now, here it is

Login into your DNS Provider
Ex – Network Solutions, Hostgator, ENOM

Navigate to the area to Manage DNS records

Create a TXT record

Name will be
@

Value will be:
v=spf1 a mx ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ~all
Be sure to change xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the actual IP of your mail server

Save the record

Go to MXToolbox.com and enter your domain name

You should see a green box with your SPF record info contained inside