Tor Browser 6.0a2-hardened is released

by gk | February 15, 2016

A new hardened Tor Browser release is available. It can be found in the 6.0a2-hardened distribution directory and on the download page for hardened builds.

This release features important security updates to Firefox. Users on the security level "High" or "Medium-High" were not affected by the bugs in the Graphite font rendering library.

Additionally, we fixed a number of issues found with the release of Tor Browser 5.5, which already got addressed in Tor Browser 5.5.1, and we switched to a Debian Wheezy system for building the hardened series as well.

Note: There is no incremental update from 6.0a1-hardened available due to bug 17858. The internal updater should work, though, doing a complete update.

Here is the complete changelog since 6.0a1-hardened:

Tor Browser 6.0a2-hardened -- February 15 2016

  • All Platforms
    • Update Firefox to 38.6.1esr
    • Update NoScript to 2.9.0.3
    • Bug 18168: Don't clear an iframe's window.name (fix of #16620)
    • Bug 18137: Add two new obfs4 default bridges
  • Windows
  • OS X
  • Linux
  • Build System
    • Linux
      • Bug 15578: Switch to Debian Wheezy guest VMs (10.04 LTS is EOL)
      • Bug 18198: Building the hardened Tor Browser in a Debian Wheezy VM is broken

Comments

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February 15, 2016

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all these amazing improvements
blessings, praise, respect, magnaminity and sunshine and rainbows to all the team at Tor
I appreciate this has been asked before but I'm not completely clear:

This hardened version is a parallel release to the regular updates as it is still in beta

Are these two streams intended to coincide at some point - ie - is the
regular update going to incorporate all the hardened features?

There are no plans for this. However, we plan to get the hardened series merged with the alpha one at some point in the future to not split our thin user group for the alpha series even further.

February 15, 2016

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can anyone help:

if I am using Tor and Malwarebytes (with its real time background protection) suddenly informs me "malicious website blocked - tor.exe and an IP address" the internet connection then gets disabled

does this mean a malicious packet has been injected via a node?

or is this a ''false positive" that I understand can happen with virus and malware software, because of the way they function - when using tor and tails

It sounds more like Malwarebytes has decided that the entry node is a malicious IP address. Who knows how they come to that conclusion.

i would enjoy a response to this query also as I experience the same phenomena - malware blocker running in the background whilst using Tor, randomly and suddenly telling me it 'has blocked the file - tor.exe' and wonder why or what it means

February 15, 2016

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Anonymity Online mejorar quitarles las fallas de seguridad y otras fallas

que no se congele

tor mejorar quitarle las fallas de seguridad y otras fallas

que no se congele

que se pueda instalar y desinstalar correctamente

mejorar compatibilidad

ligero navegador

y ligero en todo los demas

privacidad mejorada no graba historial y descargas y ip

The only thing groundbreaking in that article is the way SMS is used as an exploit. Everything else has been going on for years.

February 16, 2016

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I think servers can still determine your identity, no? Even if a browser is used with randomization, doesn't the server still register your hardware?

server can only get what you send. tor effectivelly hides your protocol stack only tcp data information is passing through unmodified. that is why js is very dangerous in the first place. it is just the same as if you install any wild programme and ask if it can detect your hardware and use yout tor tbb module.
suppose there is such programme (say to simplify av) wich "legally" frequently connect to the "home". av at time 1 receive command to dl new euristic module. this module scan running processes and check for listenning tcp ports. when it gets tor process and port it connects to this port and sends collected info immitating your browser connection. at time 2 it deletes itself.
btw microsoft was catched red handed several years before with regular updates.

Without Flash or Java they can't get detailed info; Javascript allows some but can be disabled, and CSS only can be used for fingerprinting if you don't use a standard browser window size.

February 18, 2016

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Dear Arma/ GK/ Tor Admin

how do you feel about the suggestions, in the Snowden files, that HTTPS is broken?

I don't think that https, properly implemented and properly used, is broken.

But I do think that the certificate authority mess with websites these days is really bad news for users.

February 18, 2016

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Why do Tor even publish the IP addresses of Tor exit routers. Is this supposed to be 'gentlemanly' conduct or something? Time to take the gloves off and play the scurrilous "Clownfare" at their own game. Why make it easy for them?

February 18, 2016

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Sorry to put this in here. Norwegian exit tor1multisec (193.90.12.86) appears to have relayed a certificate for https://archive.org/ which pops up an unrecognized certificate issuer warning. The unrecognized GoDaddy certificate authority is installed in TorBrowser with its default permissions. Using another exit the certificate for archive.org was accepted.

February 20, 2016

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It seems there is a movement to make things more mainstream for Tor. I don't necessarily believe that is a good or bad thing yet. What compromises would the project make to be accepted that way?

February 20, 2016

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Have you heard anything why Tweetdeck is banning Tor users? Has been for weeks. Twitter owns tweetdeck.

February 21, 2016

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thanks for another great release! in particular, i'm grateful that the team has kept pace with firefox patch/update schedules

March 01, 2016

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If I run the Tor Browser in a VM, am I providing any services, including relays?

Or am I just getting the benefits of TOR, but contributing nothing?