from the not-as-hidden-as-you-may-have-thought dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow5743
[On September 12], Bleeping Computer came across a new Dark Web portal that allows users to search Tor Onion sites in the same way users utilize Shodan to discover Internet-exposed services [1, 2].
Named Ichidan — the Japanese word for "first stage/step" — the service is located at ichidanv34wrx7m7.onion, and, in the long run, can prove a useful tool for anyone investigating Dark Web services.
"This search engine is gold," said Victor Gevers, after Bleeping Computer asked the researcher for an opinion. "There is so much we didn't know about many .onion addresses. I am just amazed at things I see."
[...] Under normal circumstances, Tor sites should not be exposing such wealth of information, as they could reveal the whereabouts and identity of the website's owner.
While this much data is good news when tracking down cyber-criminals and other crooks, this might not be good news if you're running a secret news portal in a country with an oppressive regime.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @06:09AM (4 children)
I pointed my Tor browser to the given onion address, and got a pretty worthless website that could return no results of value, regardless of my inquiry.
Whatever it is, it ain't gold; this makes me think it's a trick.
By the way, when I first tried to post this comment, SoylentNews responded with the following error message:
Then, I got this:
Then I got this twice:
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @07:17AM (1 child)
For the first problem, use the "New Tor Circuit for This Site" option in your browser. The admins have decided to block anonymous posting from certain IP addresses, including some Tor exit nodes. When you post a comment, it can be moderated up or down and the IP address you used is assigned "Karma." When the "Karma" goes negative enough, anonymous posting from that IP address is blocked.
For the second problem, try copying the text you meant to post, using the reply link again, then pasting your comment and submitting it quickly. Logged-in users get much more time.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @07:50PM
that your Tor circuit has changed between when you started to reply and when you actually manage to post.
Tor circuits normally only have a 10 minute lifetime, unless an intervening node disconnects you first, and if the circuit is inactive at the end of that time you have to create a new one which almost always results in a new endpoint IP address and thus the message about the wrong key above.
I just got in the habit both here and on the green site of just typing up my post, copying it, then going back and starting a new circuit and THEN posting a comment. Less than a half a page comment you might get in under the deadline, but anything longer you almost definitely won't.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @08:25AM
Try entering an OS or distribution name for search, e.g. freebsd, raspbian, ubuntu. Those seem to produce results.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @07:52PM
if you're concerned about "infections" you could also get a grown up's OS instead of being a scared slave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @07:34AM (2 children)
That's ... fascinating. Or something.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @08:25AM
What they mean is that it's like shodan.io which polls various services running on hosts around the Internet, and saves the banners into a searchable index.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @08:34PM
The other site has had multiple mentions of this.
In particular, I remember the first one, from 2013.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @12:26PM
Exposing the security issues of onion site servers is better than letting the NSA and FBI exploit them for years while continuing to pretend Tor is an unstoppable force for evil.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @01:27PM (1 child)
Maybe some peopld just dont want to go thru trouble of dyndns ir pony up a domain name?
Not caring too mych about the speed hit via tor they can get a "domain" for free ... even if its a dynamic assigned ip from isp.
Other then that ... the sky is falling : ]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:16AM
It's cheap (free if you're not fussy about getting a memorable name) but it only works for visitors who have Tor.