How to Create a Tor Exit Node (2015)
madpsy.uk
madpsy.uk
If you really want to, first do a metric shitload of legal and commercial prep work, including picking a specific ISP for the exit node, registering an LLC or equivalent to be the legal entity that owns the exit node, and all sorts of steps that mean when the inevitable deluge of traffic from hackers, bittorrenters and so on come through your exit node, you're at least somewhat insulated from the blowback you'll get. Prepare for answering legal queries about your exit node being your full time job.
Read https://blog.torproject.org/tips-running-exit-node/ first, and note that even that post is 8 years old.
If you merely want there to be more Tor exit nodes in the world, I recommend you donate to an existing operator of them, like https://torservers.net/ -- if you read their blog, https://torservers.net/blog/ , you'll see the latest entries (also from 8 years ago) are about seized servers and arrested operators.
If you want to donate your ISP bandwidth for improving the Tor network, do it by running a guard relay or middle relay, that is relatively straightforward.
I know a person who (unrelated to running Tor exit nodes) was accused of doing something illegal using a computer and the police took all his personal electronic equipment - computers, consoles, phones, everything - and locked them up as evidence. Ultimately, the police decided the accusation lacked merit and no charges were brought, and years later he was graciously allowed to collect his equipment back from the police at his own expense.
Running an exit node can bring a police response if the strangers you're unconditionally letting use your IP address do something terrible with it. When it traces it back to you, you just have to hope they've heard enough about Tor not to confiscate your entire home's worth of equipment for years on end.
That's why I object to the 2015 article which reads like running an exit node on your own computer is like trying out a new MP3 player. It's fine running an exit node with some sort of legal firewall keeping it separate from your person and your home, but it's a failing not to bring this up.
I saw some call-to-arms post that got me excited for the free internet and set it up on my parents' residential service.
You can imagine the fallout. No permanent damage though.
Some time later I tried running a middle relay (VM non-persistent live distro) but Dan List (then) didn't differentiate between between exit and other node types and my public IP kept getting blacklisted. I eventually gave up.
> I’ll go with Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty)
This is extremely old. I am aware that the Tor project tries to keeps their defaults sane for any use, but someone has checked that the configuration here is still valid for this use?
Also, running tor as a root is bad idea, I don't think the client allows you to anymore (or at least warns you)
Article was published in 2015. Seems 14.04 was the LTS, as the time of writing.
It's not hard at all.
> If we had enough of these scattered around, would it matter?
No. Your relays won't be trusted with significant amounts of traffic until they've been up for a few weeks.
If it's IP, it will be the incoming IP, not outgoing. You might want a stable central node that routes outgoing traffic to the currently active transient edge node.
You can't move a fingerprint's IP without bringing it down, anyway, because the directory consensus is cached for a while and your node will look down to other nodes until they get the latest one.
in the us, entirely legal. you may get law enforcement knocking on your door with questions, from time to time.
best to do it as part of a non profit or other organization, and being open about running a node, so that law enforcement/etc knows what they're dealing with
If you host an exit node on your home internet connection, the daily thing you will struggle with is not law enforcement, but rather the fact that your public IP will be blocked by most big websites to the point that simply browsing the web will become a pain.
I've always thought that universities would be a great safe haven for exit nodes, probably managed by a student club but using campus's infra (with their fully informed permission and support, of course).
I think this would make them less likely to be shut down by the police because a university would lend them more credibility as a civic-driven research project rather than some random person running "shady" stuff, as most people unfortunately assume.
Here in Mexico there's very few Tor nodes running at all, but some of the longest running (non exit, TIL) nodes are run by UNAM [1], which is the biggest university.
That being said, I studied in a different university and I didn't have the confidence or knowledge to propose anything similar, so I've no idea of how effective would such a project be or how hard would it be to run.
[1] https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#search/country:mx
Police seized EVERYTHING, and I got my hardware returned to me after like 1 year.
Got caution for sharing pirated software, but they didn't prosecute. It was in the UK.
- how is it better than a VPN
- how is it untraceable
- what makes you think you dont get tagged by 3 letter agencies when are you trying to download it for the first time?
There isn’t one centralized entity with your email address and credit card information on file that can pass it on wittingly or otherwise to interested parties.
> how is it untraceable
It’s not. It tries to be by routing your connection through a random set of relays + exit node (each peeling back one layer of encryption, like an onion), but it hinges on the assumption that those nodes aren’t all operated by the same entity. If the network is dominated by a bad actor (at one point the FBI had a large fraction), your route can land entirely on their nodes, and they can associate the original request with the decrypted request at the exit node. Of course you’re still protected by regular internet security, plus the browsers often take additional measures to make tracing harder, but it’s definitely not a guarantee.
> what makes you think you dont get tagged by 3 letter agencies […]
You absolutely do, lots of mainstream media coverage about this.
I'm even using it right now, to post this comment!
Half the websites on the internet will block you while you're using it though.
Or the FBI setting you up and jail you for 3 years
Not to fear monger, in fact, the more people run exit node the harder it will be to go after individuals.