Questions about TAILS and clearnet

Posted this on r/darknetmarketsnoobs and the only response was this:

I am not expert ether i know good but onions links is like real onion

Anyway, here's my question. As far as anonymity and opsec are concerned, what is the difference between using TAILS/ Tor to browse clearnet sites and using it to browse onion sites? What is the main difference between .onion addresses and normal websites?


Comments


[12 Points] BelizeTourismOffice:

I am not expert ether I know good but onions link is like real onion

That's a beautiful answer which can never be topped. Congrats on receiving a top answer.

But I will attempt to come second to that golden one. Onion sites are are routed through the Tor network. Clearnet sites are routed through normal network where the data flows through a normal clearnet route. The Onion site's webserver is configured in a way that any incoming traffic goes through Tor and then to the webservers local installation.

In short Tor will listen to the standard Http port you have configured and then proxy back to the nginx instance on the local host where the web server is configured on. This goes out through that route again. Someone from Clearnet wouldn't be able to open the web page because that data will flow through the Tor package and Tor service will discard any clearnet connection. So the web server will never listen to the incoming connection from clearnet. But someone using Tor will get through because Tor will accept those incoming connections.

Privacy wise, Onion sites are hidden because of this. Someone hosting dank stuff on clearnet can be tracked and anyone opening that dank page on clearnet can be tracked back. Onion hosting ensures that the both the dank site owner and the frontend user are hidden because of the Tor service.

Thanks.


[1 Points] -YOUpeople-:

When you use a clearnet site, your request still routes through the Tor network but it uses an exit node on the final hop when it actually connects to the web site. Your IP address to the webserver you are accessing will be the IP address of the exit node, so you are "hidden" in that regard. But the exit node traffic is observable to the exit node. The exit node will know you are visiting whatever site. In that sense, a hidden service will be much more anon than visiting a clearnet site.

With a hidden service, no exit node is used and the site you are visiting is basically unknown to any relay or node on the Tor network. Hidden services will be much more anon because of that. I don't think the Tor nodes even know what type of traffic it is at all (ssh vs. http vs whatever) if you are accessing a hidden service. With a clearnet site, the exit node (not sure about the other nodes in between) will know its http(s), ssh, whatever).


[1 Points] lonaraxYY:

Bro... no matter if you browse an "indexed" website that is "accesable" through a common browser or a "onion link", it dosent matter, all information "packets" are still being routed through the Tor infestructure and going through "Tor nodes"

What are you even asking? Lol