Easily install Debian packages via Tor.
This package implements an APT "acquire method" that handles URLs starting with "tor+http://" or "tor+https://" in your sources.list.
apt-get install apt-transport-tor
If you are working from a git checkout, first run:
autoreconf -i
Then, or if installing from a tarball:
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install
Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list like so, adjusting the suite/components appropriately for your system:
deb tor+http://http.debian.net/debian unstable main
deb-src tor+http://http.debian.net/debian unstable main
Note the use of http.debian.net so that a mirror close to your exit node will be automatically chosen.
Alternatively, if you have the Tor hidden service address of a Debian mirror, you can use that:
deb tor+http://<long string>.onion/debian unstable main
deb-src tor+http://<long string>.onion/debian unstable main
Most users should not need to adjust SOCKS settings.
By default, apt-transport-tor uses the following SOCKS proxy setting, which matches the default Tor SOCKS port:
socks5h://apt:apt@localhost:9050
If you want to use a different port, you can edit the Acquire::tor::proxy apt preference:
Acquire::tor::proxy "socks5h://apt:apt@localhost:9050";
Note the use of a username/password to make use of the default IsolateSOCKSAuth Tor setting for stream isolation, which requires bug fixes from Tor 0.2.4.19 to work well. This means your apt traffic will be sent over a different circuit from your regular Tor traffic.
Although "sock5h://" is put explicitly in these examples, at the moment its use is hardcoded (to avoid DNS leaks).
Downloading your Debian packages over Tor prevents an attacker who is sniffing your network connection from being able to tell which packages you are fetching, or even that your traffic is Debian-related.
However, this does not necessarily defend you from, amongst other things:
- a global passive adversary (who could potentially correlate the exit node's traffic with your local Tor traffic)
- an attacker looking at the size of your downloads, and making an educated guess about the contents
- an attacker who has broken into your machine
Download speeds will be slower via Tor.
Copyright (C) 2014 Tim Retout diocles@debian.org
apt-transport-tor was forked from the APT https transport. APT has this copyright notice:
Apt is copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Jason Gunthorpe and others.
License:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
Comments and suggestions to: Tim Retout diocles@debian.org
Bug reports should be sent to the Debian BTS.