Re: Tor and Putty

["Jeffrey F. Bloss" <jbloss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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On Wednesday 05 October 2005 11:34 am, mw_prev1@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I'm using a combination of Firefox>Privoxy>Putty>Tor>SSH
> Server>Internet, in order to access web-pages securely which I otherwise
> wouldn't be able to because they don't have SSL (like google).

What advantage does this have over a connection to "Google" through Tor alone, 
other than appearing to come from a consistent non-Tor IP? The connection is 
in the clear once is leaves the SSH server. From what you've written, it 
appears you believe that the connection is encrypted all the way to "Google", 
as it would be with an HTTPS connection.

> The problem is that sometimes Putty is being bypassed completely and I

The first obvious question is "How do you know for sure?". :) Eliminate the 
possibility you're being fooled by some sort of caching IOW.

> end up connecting to the destination URL from the Tor exit node.  Other
> times I connect to the SSH server via Tor, and from there to the
> destination URL, which is how it SHOULD work, but doesn't always.

Unless your SSH server is doing something funky or your configuration is 
horribly awry somewhere,  I'd suspect you have both HTTP and SOCKS proxies 
configured in your browser, and some condition is occurring that causes the 
SOCKS proxy Tor to be selected rather than the HTTP proxy Privoxy. 

Make sure your browser doesn't know anything about Tor on localhost:9050, and 
try enabling "Use proxy for local servers" temporarily if it's an option. I'm 
assuming Firefox, and it is.

I can think of a bunch of other things that would break your setup, but none 
spring to mind that would cause it to be intermittent. Maybe a similar "dual 
proxy" setup in Privoxy's config file?? Some connections being forwarded to 
PuTTY and some directly to Tor? Privoxy should be pointing only to the 
connection offered by PuTTY unless you have a good reason forward some 
connections differently.

It might help to post the  relevant sections of your configuration files and 
some details. Something might jump out as obvious. 

- -- 
Hand crafted on October 05, 2005 at 12:27:50 -0400

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
                                  -Groucho Marx
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