Long Wiki Edits Thread

Ah okay - will fix that here and there in the wiki.

1 Like

Could you please document

  • clock-random-manual-cli (see man clock-random-manual-cli)
  • and clock-random-manual-gui?

It’s there since Whonix 14 already but never documented. It is supposed to be used in case sdwdate is failing.

I’ve never tried Coreboot/Libreboot as it’ll probably brick my motherboard. I would recommend against Libreboot though as
it allows no proprietary firmware at all. This means no microcode updates which are pretty important for security.

1 Like

It doesn’t look like forcing onion with HTTPS Everywhere user rule sets is possible with the current version which is 2019.5.13. Or at least it can’t be done using these instructions.

https://whonix.org/wiki/Forcing_.onion_on_Whonix.org#Adding_User_Rules

I am able to copy over my user rule sets from an earlier Tor Browser/HTTPS Everywhere version. (works OK). However, unless someone has an idea, this part of the forcing onion docs should be deprecated imo.

1 Like

@Patrick

Please do a mass find-replace for “->” and use the HTML right-hand arrow instead:

→

which looks much better.

What do you think @HulaHoop ? remove? (if mere mortals can’t achieve it & no microcode updates available)

1 Like

Yeah please recommend against libreboot and the reason why (hopelessly impractical becuase firmware blacklisting), also keep a note on Coreboot for those who might want to buy systems that have it by default like Chromebooks or maybe they would want to research how to flash it onto the handful of refurbished boards out there that support it.

1 Like

Done. :slight_smile:

Thanks, will fix that.

Thanks, looks much better :slight_smile:

Confirmed that these instructions don’t work (as you pointed out already):

http://www.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/Onionizing_Repositories#Onionize_whonix.list

(x2 on that page)

sudo whonix_repository --baseuri http://deb.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion --enable --repository stable

whonix_repository unknown option: --baseuri

The only thing I couldn’t remember in those edits was whether it must be tor+http for whonix sources list, or just http.

(Or maybe you already modified the code block by default to have the onion available just by uncommenting - don’t remember, was a while since I played with whonix sources)

1 Like

Thanks for pointing that out. Room for improvement here.

As a general rule:
When using apt-get and .onion one should always be using tor+http whether inside or outside of Whonix. Non-critical (as per footnotes in link below).

I added that to Essential Host Security but it may still not be clear enough.

Also Essential Host Security might not be perfect placement and also interlinking with Onionizing Repositories is missing.

Having learned that, pointing out tor+http on Onionizing Repositories might be useful too?

When using apt-get and .onion one should always be using tor+http whether inside or outside of Whonix. Non-critical (as per footnotes in link below).

That said, we might be missing tor+http in various places on Onionizing Repositories and even in (Qubes) source files?

Onionizing Repositories: Difference between revisions - Whonix - template deprecation isn’t ideal. If tor+http doesn’t work on plain Debian, then we need to update the instructions for plain Debian. The fix would be “install apt-transport-tor beforehand” most likely. tor+http isn’t developed by Whonix, apt-transport-tor implements it. Could you revert that please?

A post was split to a new topic: Tor ConnectionPadding

Will fix that.

In that apt-transport-tor stuff, I had also changed one of the weird onions (earth… .onion) to the proper Debian security one? Check that was correct also.

BTW Can Whonix builds etc. borrow any settings from this hardening list?

https://wiki.debian.org/Hardening

1 Like

The compile time hardening stuff has to be implemented by Debian. It’s related to compiled code. Whonix can’t recompile all of Debian. In the few places where Whonix is using compiled code we enable all compile time hardening.

1 Like

Well looks like I was wrong. Not sure why but the window to add user rule set now drops down when I click on “see more”. Previously this was now showing up.

Updated the page. They were relatively safe edits imo. So pushed to live wiki.

https://whonix.org/w/index.php?title=Forcing_.onion_on_Whonix.org&curid=966&diff=47758&oldid=46354

1 Like

Another big task would be rebooting the FAQ.

The period of when a project is new and lots of people suggesting all kinds of major changes (marry with Tails, why not use OpenBSD) is long over. Most geeks wanting all sorts of obscure things such as secondary DNS are onboarded already.

Moving most if not all of its contents to where these would fit better or even new pages if needed. Some under /Dev.

Dev/Operating System - Whonix
Post-installation Security Advice
Alternative DNS Resolver - Whonix
Why is Tor Slow?
Tor - Whonix
Whonix ™ Virtualization Platforms
Combining Tunnels with Tor

We could then count questions what the actual FAQ are nowadays are and repopulate the FAQ.

Added video & audio editor and they are cross DEs.

1 Like

Tor Browser/Advanced Users: Difference between revisions - Whonix

un-template this section for better formatting (& only used on this page?

To answer this question…

On any template page (here: Template:TorBrowser Proxy Configuration - Whonix) upper right gearwheel drop down menu What links here

that page is also used here:

Agree the FAQ is a bit sloppy at present and needs lots of bits being cut and pasted to other pages with a “see here:” link to those relevant sections. Other priorities as I see it:

  1. Whonix 14 Updates & Whonix 15 release notes (should be 1-2 months and Whonix 15 will be available across all platforms). If you want to list a bunch (all) of the resolved bug links there, that would help (I’ll do the rest)
  2. A number of templates now have outdated links e.g. to the old mega large security guides → Needs a proactive manual check x250 templates or so. Yah!
  3. Encrypted email entry is pointing to dead VFEmail. Needs text changes and a lot of pic upgrades to account for that.
  4. Continual rephrasing, link checking, updates of instructions, updated output, updated info etc. from Anonymous Email section down - although we’ve achieved lots of fixes and improvements in various sections/areas further down the page already. (PS take mig5 off the current maintainer list?)

The first 9 sections up to and including Anonymous Browsing are now in a reasonable, functional, up-to-date state IMO.

Other observations - the text generally looks better when:

  • no abbreviated words e.g. “devs”
  • avoiding abbreviated forms e.g. “it’s”, “they’re” etc. Full form is better
  • avoiding # presentation e.g. [[Multiple_Whonix-Gateway#KVM]]
  • defining acronyms first before using them
  • avoiding ‘folksy’ language like the intro section here → http://www.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/VoIP (will fix that)
  • stating things affirmatively, rather than in third person i.e. avoiding “users” & passive language
  • avoiding personal pronouns in general (I, you, we, she/he, they, us etc.) e.g. “If you want to set a …” → “To set a …”, “If you are getting an error when …” → “If an error appears when …” etc.
  • consistency in boxing & numbering long instructions
  • consistency in spacing
  • info boxes generally at the top of each section it applies to

Just gives it a more professional feel IMO.

PS I think the Tor devs hiding away NoScript from taskbar is a mistake. Better to have visual confirmation and I have seen attacks in the wild that enable it automatically - you wouldn’t know if it was tucked away… which reminds me that moving NoScript icon into taskbar is probably fingerprintable(?).

1 Like

We can even try without “see here”. For example I doubt anyone is going to miss Whonix ™ Source Code Introduction which was never a FAQ to being with. We can add the “see here” when things actually become FAQ. The only way I see to clean sweep the FAQ.

Sorry, I am kinda overworked with stuff like server maintenance. Very invisible but also very important. So this won’t happen.

For that mass search replace could be used.