Whonix 15 has been Released

Patrick · July 1, 2019, 10:41am

Whonix: A High Security Method of Surfing the Internet

Whonix is a desktop operating system designed for advanced security and privacy. Whonix mitigates the threat of common attack vectors while maintaining usability. Online anonymity is realized via fail-safe, automatic, and desktop-wide use of the Tor network. A heavily reconfigured Debian base is run inside multiple virtual machines, providing a substantial layer of protection from malware and IP address leaks. Commonly used applications are pre-installed and safely pre-configured for immediate use. The user is not jeopardized by installing additional applications or personalizing the desktop. Whonix is under active development and is the only operating system designed to be run inside a VM and paired with Tor.

After approximately one year of development, the Whonix Project is proud to announce the release of Whonix 15.

Whonix 15 is based on the Debian buster (Debian 10) distribution. This means users have access to many new software packages in concert with existing packages, such as a modern branch of GNuPG, and more.

Major Changes and New Features

port Whonix from Debian stretch to Debian buster
kernel hardening
Blacklist uncommon network protocols
systemd unit sandboxing
improve entropy collection through extensive research and installation by default of jitterentropy-rngd
research implications of spectre / meltdown / retpoline / L1 Terminal Fault (L1TF) vs Whonix
Non-Qubes-Whonix: kloak - Keystroke Anonymization Tool
Non-Qubes-Whonix: Whonix Live / Live Mode Indicator / grub-live / grub-default-live
Non-Qubes-Whonix: switch desktop environment from KDE to XFCE (poll) (other desktop environments)
Non-Qubes-Whonix: reduced image size using zerofree
Whonix VirtualBox: CLI version (Whonix ™ with CLI is a version suited for advanced users – those who want Whonix ™ without a GUI.)
Whonix VirtualBox: unified ova downloads
Qubes-Whonix: change Qubes-Whonix default applications from KDE-ish to XFCE-ish
Qubes-Whonix: simplify installation of VM kernel by installing the same recommended Qubes packages as Qubes Debian packages (source 1 (source 2)
Whonix KVM: serial console support
update sdwdate time sources
List of processed Whonix 15 tickets
arm64 / RPi port
install by default zulucrypt, qtox, onionshare, keepassxc, firejail
new usability wrappers: scurlget, curlget, pwchange, upgrade-nonroot, apt-get-noninteractive, apt-get-update-plus
remove mixmaster, ricochet since dead upstream
support for Bisq - The P2P Exchange Network
port build script to cowbuilder; build packages in chroot and use mmdebstrap for better security
add UsrMerge compatibility

ChangeLog

Issues

Please report any other issues to us in the forums, after first searching for whether it is already known.

Known Issues - Whonix

Download Whonix 15

Whonix is cross-platform and can be installed on the Windows, macOS, Linux or Qubes operating systems. Choose your operating system from the link below and follow the instructions to install it.

https://www.whonix.org/download/

Upgrade to Whonix 15

Whonix 14 Deprecation Notice

As per Whonix Support Schedule, support for Whonix 14 will end in 1 month.

What’s Next?

Work on Whonix 15 is ongoing and interested users can refer to the Whonix 16 roadmap to see where Whonix is heading. Major items include a Whonix-Host Operating System (OS) ISO (tickets); live mode (tickets); Policy for Inclusion of Compiled Software (for install electrum bitcoin thin client by default?)

We need your help and there are various ways to contribute to Whonix - donating or investing your time will help the project immensely. Come and talk with us!

tempest · July 1, 2019, 12:49pm

@patrick https://download.whonix.org/ova/current/Whonix-XFCE-current.ova is still redirecting to whonix 14.

Patrick · July 1, 2019, 1:16pm

Fixed.

hoek · July 1, 2019, 4:59pm

Upgrade went smooth.

DelBoy · July 2, 2019, 8:14pm

Just updated mine and it went sweetly.
Enjoying it!
Thanks to you devs.

MouseFan · July 3, 2019, 7:40am

It is not possible to delete files in share folders (sf_Share). There is no Delete in the Right Mouse Button menu.

Cant unpack .tar.gz have error.
Cant add file to archive through Right Click Mouse Button
Cant create archive through xarchiver. I add files but have error:
Cant open file and Archive format is not recognized!
And impossible add more than one file.

Whisker, notification and PulseAudio Plugin icon (volume control) have white color. Solution - create file ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and add:

.xfce4-panel.background {
  background-color: rgba(35, 35, 35, 0.8);
  color: #fcfcfc;
  font-weight: normal; }
  .xfce4-panel.background button {
	background-image: none;
	background-color: transparent;
	border-radius: 0;
	border-color: transparent;
	box-shadow: none;
	padding: 0 1px;
	color: #fcfcfc;
	text-shadow: 0px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); }
	.xfce4-panel.background button:active, .xfce4-panel.background button:checked {
	  background-image: none;
	  background-color: transparent;
	  border-color: transparent;
	  color: #fcfcfc;
	  transition: none; }
	.xfce4-panel.background button:hover, .xfce4-panel.background button:active:hover, .xfce4-panel.background button:checked:hover {
	  border-color: transparent;
	  background-image: none;
	  background-color: rgba(0, 50, 90, 1.0);
	  color: #fcfcfc;
	  box-shadow: none;
	  transition: none; }
  .xfce4-panel.background entry {
	caret-color: #212121; }
  .xfce4-panel.background menu {
	-gtk-icon-effect: none;
	text-shadow: none; }

launch in terminal
xfce4-panel -r

In Whonix 14, the Dusk theme worked correctly. In Whonix 15 apps menu and background white. It does not look good. I create topic on Xfce forum with the problem but I cant post link

I think Whonix needs to be made not only safe but also beautiful. I suggest in Dusk theme to replace the huge and glossy window headers with something more minimalist, for example Axiomd (theme souce code open). As i said i can’t post links and images.

HehBoy · July 4, 2019, 3:06pm

arm command in terminal don’t work in Gateway
Workstation Freezing And Display Setting don’t open

Patrick · July 4, 2019, 3:40pm

use (project name changed by its upstream developer):

nyx

HehBoy · July 4, 2019, 4:19pm

Thanks But what about 2 question, lags with rendering in Workstation ?

Patrick · July 4, 2019, 5:28pm

Whonix 15 XFCE has much lower resource requirements than Whonix 14 KDE.

Try increase VM RAM.

Also:

MouseFan · July 4, 2019, 7:08pm

Just wondering. What applications are preinstalled by Whonix developers? I can not find the mat, but I see applications duplicate each other terminal and xterm. For each operating system there is a basic set of applications - a text editor, image viewer, video viewer, file manager, terminal, browser, and some others. If users need specific applications such as xpra, xpra browser, OnionShare, qTox, ZuluCrypt, gpa, KeePassXC, they will decide themselves that they want these applications or some other. It is not intrusive and I think more secure. Especially while the system theme is a mix of white and black. I understand that system theme is cosmetics, but put yourself in the place of a new user, who is technically not advanced. Whonix deserves to have a beautiful system theme! I do not want to offend the preferences of the developers just said what I think.

Patrick · July 4, 2019, 7:37pm

This is defined in this file:

anon-meta-packages/debian/control at master · Whonix/anon-meta-packages · GitHub

Likely due to technical limitations (dependencies). (Some Qubes package depends on xterm, not Whonix, I think.)

The following applies:

Also:

There’s indeed necessarily a degree of arbitrariness. There’s many flavors between minimalism and overload. Due to this and above it’s mostly the top contributors of Whonix who get to “vote”.

Advanced users can install CLI version of Whonix and then either package hardened-desktop-environment-essential-gui among others from anon-meta-packages/debian/control at master · Whonix/anon-meta-packages · GitHub or go for Other Desktop Environments - Whonix.

Mostly default theme. No theme customization yet due to lack of resources (developers making the changes). See also Xfce theming - a few suggestions - it “only” needs source code contributions.

HehBoy · July 4, 2019, 8:05pm

About freezing. It’s not about RAM, it’s started lagging only when I open XFCE menu I use MacOS with VB

Patrick · July 4, 2019, 8:07pm

Please describe. “freezing” is understood as “nothing reacts anymore”. And such issues are often resolved by adding more RAM. You might mean something different by “freezing”.

likewhonix · July 4, 2019, 9:05pm

thanks for release 15 version, but I think it has some emergency errors.

copied text files and some files from shared folder, after reboot, they are blank file(0 byte)
is this bug? or virus? I didn’t install any other app after new install whonix
on the gateway, connected tor network already, but when I open onion circute from tor-control-panel, it says not connected tor network and it is blank screen

Patrick · July 5, 2019, 5:17am

likewhonix via Whonix Forum:

copied text files and some files from shared folder, after reboot, they are blank file(0 byte)
is this bug?

Instruction for reproduction required as per:

or virus?

See:
Whonix Track Record against Real Cyber Attacks

on the gateway, connected tor network already, but when I open onion circute from tor-control-panel, it says not connected tor network and it is blank screen

Do log analysis.

Tor Documentation for Whonix Users

HehBoy · July 5, 2019, 6:19am

When I open the XFCE menu in the left corner - menu items responses very slow - about 10+ second when I navigate mouse on them. I gave about 6000 RAM. But another parts of system and apps work normaly

onion_knight · July 5, 2019, 8:17am

Excellent news Thanks a lot

onion_knight · July 5, 2019, 8:27am

I can’t find the KVM qcow2 files in the Download link, is it just me?
EDIT: I guess the current 15.0.0.3.3 version does not apply to KVM yet?
Also, I knew an URL with all currently available versions of Whonix builds to download for devs, I can’t find it anywhere now? I am currently looking for a KVM CLI version and I think one was available there.

Patrick · July 5, 2019, 11:03am

onion_knight via Whonix Forum:

I can’t find the KVM qcow2 files in the Download link, is it just me?

Usually separate release announcements.