After a ridiculously long sixteen months (or roughly ten years in pandemic time) I'm excited to announce that OnionShare 2.3 is out! Download it from onionshare.org.
This version includes loads of new and exciting features which you can read about in much more detail on the brand new OnionShare documentation website, docs.onionshare.org. For now though I'm just going to go over the major ones: tabs, anonymous chat, and better command line support.
In the olden days, OnionShare only did one thing: let you securely and anonymously share files over the Tor network. With time we added new features. You could use it as an anonymous dropbox, and then later to host an onion site.
But what if you wanted to, for example, run your own anonymous dropbox as well as share files with someone? If your OnionShare was busy running a service, you couldn't run a second service without stopping the first service. This is all fixed now thanks to tabs.
[...] Another major new feature is chat. You start a chat service, it gives you an OnionShare address, and then you send this address to everyone who is invited to the chat room (using an encrypted messaging app like Signal, for example). Then everyone loads this address in a Tor Browser, makes up a name to go by, and can have a completely private conversation.
[...] OnionShare 2.3 finally de-couples the command line and the graphical versions. You can install onionshare-cli on any platform, including headless Linux servers, using pip:
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2021, @10:46PM (6 children)
So who's using this? In theory, people who want to resist oppression or simply avoid having their data mined. In practice, isn't it just full of CP and other awful shit?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday February 23 2021, @10:52PM (1 child)
I thought Tor was a CIA honeypot.
I checked the Wikipedia entry and noted:
So it could be any one of the many secret police forces the US government has.
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday February 23 2021, @11:18PM
Just like the entire Internet - also initially a DARPA program - is (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2021, @01:04AM (2 children)
Well there isn't actually any theory either. Or at least none that I could see on the website. They really say nothing at all about the architecture.
Whatever layers they are running inside of TOR, will require some significant thought to NOT loose cryptographic entropy. The very nature of providing an "easier" way to use TOR, suggests that they are making some design assumptions that are likely to result in less anonymity, rather than more. They haven't documented any of how it actually works at a protocol level, (other than "look shiny! easy! good!). Given how hard it is to do what they say they can do and remain secure, (or as secure as you can be on TOR) makes me suspicious. (which is a given when anybody talks about TOR, granted...)
IMHO, If you want to improve crypto-anarchism the best approach at this point would be to FOSS up some bridge software that connects all the different crypto-anarchist networks transparently. (more or less, be the Cisco systems of crypto-anarchists) More capacity invites more demand invites more cryptographic entropy.. Or in a nutshell, just more. More is what makes it secure. The protocol is a start. But the SIZE is what pushes crypto-anarchism into a generally accepted practice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2021, @03:48AM (1 child)
It appears they say a few things. Perhaps not to a desirable level of detail.
https://docs.onionshare.org/2.3.1/en/features.html#how-it-works [onionshare.org]
https://docs.onionshare.org/2.3.1/en/security.html [onionshare.org]
Or the ultimate fuck-you, read the source to try to see what it's doing. I'll pass (on reading the source, and on the project in general) but it is there at least.
https://github.com/micahflee/onionshare [github.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2021, @09:51AM
You want people to do research before spouting of facts and opinions? I thought the Internet chased you all away, like westward expansion did to Bigfoot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2021, @05:52AM
I mean, I'll use this for an online game I play where I don't particularly care to be ID'ed, to exchange battle plans and maps.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2021, @11:07PM
In their drive for inclusiveness, they've forgotten about what their core purpose is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2021, @02:31AM
http://onionshare:dean-amber@khuuuyruegkbhjr6c6lfldlmkovy7lh4leqd3matmcad57sv326oslqd.onion [khuuuyruegkbhjr6c6lfldlmkovy7lh4leqd3matmcad57sv326oslqd.onion]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2021, @03:58AM (3 children)
Another frontpage article pretending to be a Slashvertisement, when we don't do that no more, and sounds like everyone should know what the hell Onionshare is?
What the hell is "Onionshare", and why should I care? Back in the day, I used to tie an onion to my belt, as was the custom at the time. But this does not sound like that, unless . . . Oh, you naughty, naughty people!!
(Score: 2, Touché) by Eratosthenes on Wednesday February 24 2021, @05:03AM (2 children)
Obviously, this has nothing to do with Tor, and is innocently an "app" (whatever that is), for people to share their onions. Maybe they grew too many? Perhaps they are salted, and from a pot of honey? Who knows.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 26 2021, @05:06AM (1 child)
Mods like this make obvious some people don't have a sense of humor.
(Score: 2) by Eratosthenes on Friday February 26 2021, @08:02AM
Mods? Are they OnionShareMods? I am so confused, both by the original summary, and the fine article, and the moderations. But, this is SoylentNews!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 25 2021, @03:30AM
Like many others I have some concerns about the origins of the Tor network but Onionshare looks very interesting.
Nothing is government-proof, or if it is, it's impossible to prove.
However, I would look at this as a tool that will keep just about everyone else BUT the government off my back.
I see it's available as a package on FreeBSD, but it's lagging a few versions behind. Please fan that particular flame.
Thank you for your work!