Restart/Reload Tor from inside workstation

Support
1

Is there a way to have the tor control panel inside the workstation, or just a command to restart tor from the work station.

I tried installing nyx inside workstation but isnt working. (python error)

This command inside gateway is perfect:
sudo systemctl --no-pager restart tor@default
Anyway to send that command to gateway from workstation.

“socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/var/run/tor/control” with signal “NEWNYM” does not seem to do much, not sure if there is a command to completely restart/reload tor instead of NEWNYM.

2

Qubes-Whonix: post likely possible with qrexec. Refer to Qubes documentation for that.

Non-Qubes-Whonix: Possible in theory but nobody invented that yet. Otherwise:

3

is “socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/var/run/tor/control” from “http://www.dds6qkxpwdeubwucdiaord2xgbbeyds25rbsgr73tbfpqpt4a6vjwsyd.onion/wiki/Tor_Controller#On_Whonix-Workstation_.E2.84.A2” on the right track?

What is the right direction to go in and ill explore, just not sure how to communicate with gateway and assume all the tor stuff in whonix workstation such as torrc and var/run/tor/control are just there for tor browser and have no effect to gateway tor.

Any direction would be appreciated!
Thanks

4

I am not aware of a Tor control protocol feature which would allow to restart/reload Tor. Check Tor control protocol spec.

https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/control-spec.txt

To avoid XyProblem - Greg's Wiki - what’s the point of this anyhow?

1 Like
5

Yeah seems like socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/var/run/tor/control does nothing at all with the other commands such SHUTDOWN, RELOAD etc.

I would like to be able to do this because I just have access directly into workstation and l like to restart tor after or before using certain apps.

6

I haven’t ever seen advice that it’s recommended to restart Tor before use of certain apps. Don’t recommend to invent that unless there is a strong rationale for it. Might not have the effect that is expected.

Instead I suggest to refer to this:

7

For example opening different apps I would like it to have a different IP, restarting tor would allow that.

8

For that no restart of Tor is not useful. Only newnym, stream isolation or for better assurance multiple Whonix-Workstation or even multiple Whonix-Gateway.

9

How comes?
Also is NEWNYM the same as new identity in Tor Control Panel in gateway.
Monero doesnt play nice with torsocks and i would have to change port each time of opening.

10

After successful NEWNYM, there is no need to change any port. After NEWNYM, Tor won’t be re-using the same circuit. That’s the point of it. Just make sure the application was properly shut down as NEWNYM cannot influence long running established connections. Thereby as I said, the following would provide higher assurance:

Multiple Whonix-Workstation ™ works because Tor by default stream isolates connections coming from different IPs. (IsolateClientAddr)

Multiple Whonix-Gateway ™ works because, well, using different Tor.

1 Like
11

Giving anything in the WS the power to restart Tor would be dangerous because it can help a network adversary figure out who the target is if they have malicious code that modifies Tor connetivity in visible ways.

2 Likes