Hosting Tor website on dark-web the safe way
This is an educational demonstration
Tor has a clever way of hiding what you do online. When you use the Tor browser, it doesn't directly connect you to websites. Instead, it sends your data through the computers of other Tor users before it reaches the website you want to visit. Think of it like peeling the layers of an onion. This makes it difficult for anyone to determine what you're doing online.
This article gives a clear conception of how onion sites work internally. You can create one for free without purchasing a hostname. We'll use Kali for this tutorial, but you can use any Linux OS.
Let's get started.
Step 1:
Pre-requisite installation
- Install "Tor browser." For Kali Linux, use this command:
sudo apt install -y tor torbrowser-launcherThen open "Tor browser" if you haven't opened it.
2. Install python3
Step 2:
Open a terminal and make a directory.
mkdir torEnter into the directory:
cd torCreate a html file for the website.
touch index.htmlThen
nano index.htmlPaste this piece of code:
<html>
<body>
<h1>DARKWEB</h1>
<p>Onion is free!</p>
</body>
</html>
Use keyboard ctrl+o to write the file and press Enterthen ctrl+x to exit.
Step 3: Running a Python server on our local machine
- Open another terminal and run.
python3 -m http.server --bind 127.0.0.1 8080
NB: Leave the terminal open to keep the server running
- Now check the website using this URL
http://127.0.0.1:8080/
The site is displayed correctly. So, we will move on to the next step.
Step 4: Launching the website into the Tor network
Open another terminal. For the 'tor' location, run:
whereis tor
There will be multiple directories.
Before going to this directory /etc/tor, grant your terminal temporary root access.
sudo suThen do
cd /etc/torRun
lsThere will be two files open torrc, torsocks.conf
nano torrcNow, remove # from each of these two line in that file
Change port to 8080 same as our Python server port.
Copy this location /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/ separately
Step 5: Running the service
Open another terminal and enter the root
sudo suGo to this directory
cd /etc/torThen do
sudo tor
Leave the terminal open.
Final step: Retrieving website credentials
Enter into directory
cd /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/Then do
ls
Run cat
cat hostname
Finally, it is our onion address!!
Now, open "Tor browser" and go to that onion address.
Our site is live in the Tor network!
NB: you can use any cloud/local pc to host the server. The site will be live as long as our localhost is up and running. Credit goes to Shawonmir.
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