Tor Browser Downloader by Whonix - ERROR: Could not find out latest Tor Browser version! Excessive version string length. (323 characters)

Patrick · March 28, 2019, 1:13pm

Tor Browser Downloader by Whonix will currently show.

ERROR:
Could not find out latest Tor Browser version! Excessive version string length. (323 characters) Either check.torproject.org has been compromised or this is a Whonix bug.
Possible reasons:

The download server is down.

File size exceeded (endless data attack triggered).

Tor Browser Downloader (by Whonix developers) has been broken due to upstream changes.
Recommendations:

Try again later. If the error persists it probably won’t solve itself before the next update.

Check News: https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Stay_Tuned

Manually update: https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Manually_Updating_Tor_Browser

This is a known bug. No indicator for a security concern. It has already been reported to Tor Project:

Broken redirect on https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/RecommendedTBBVersions

Meanwhile please refer to:

Patrick · March 28, 2019, 1:17pm

Advanced users meanwhile could look up the version number here: https://2019.www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/RecommendedTBBVersions (or from other sources).

It’s possible to manually set the version you like to download thereby circumventing above bug.

Example stable version at time of writing:

tbb_version=8.0.8 update-torbrowser

Example stable version at time of writing:

tbb_version=8.5a10 update-torbrowser

mixalink · March 29, 2019, 1:34am

This bug also arises when updating qubes-whonix workstation template, after installing the latest point release to fix the recent apt vulnerability. An older tor version is supplied by qubesctl, so I updated tor using the internal updater.

HapticBovine · March 29, 2019, 7:28pm

Please forgive my ignorance, but I’m not sure where to perform these instructions.

For example, I applied Patrick’s advice–which seemed to work–in the whonix ws template vm, but then running the anon-whonix torbrowser browser, I found even after a restart that it kept dying on this error.

Where does one normally apply instructions such as these? (My first thought was “in the template vm,” because I thought the app vms don’t persist changes…)

HapticBovine · March 29, 2019, 7:43pm

Sorry I just noticed this is a Whonix forum, not Qubes OS… derp

0brand · March 30, 2019, 1:53am

Hi HapticBovine

If you are referring to manual Tor Browser download this is done in the AppVM.

No worries you are in the right place since this bug affects all platforms i.e. Qubes-Whonix, Non-Qubes-Whonix. There is also a Qubes-Whonix forum if you want to take a look:

https://forums.whonix.org/c/qubes-whonix

What to post in Qubes-Whonix forum:

https://forums.whonix.org/t/what-to-post-in-this-qubes-whonix-forum-and-what-not/2275

HapticBovine · March 31, 2019, 3:02am

0brand,

That seems to have worked nicely. Thanks for the clarifications.

Patrick · March 31, 2019, 10:45am

Patrick · March 31, 2019, 10:56am