Hacking the Tor Network: Follow Up

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Introduction

In a previous post, I presented the main techniques used to hack Tor networks and de-anonymize Tor users. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies consider “de-anonymization” of Tor users a primary goal.

Authorities can try to implement techniques to break the encryption used to anonymize the traffic or to exploit vulnerabilities in one of the software modules that allows anonymizing the user’s online experience.

There is also another option for authorities: to try secretly to destroy the overall Tor architecture or attack the hidden services to interfere with the traffic that flows to them.

Operation Onymous

Since the publication of the last post, a blow was dealt by the authorities to the cybercriminals that use the Tor network for illegal purposes. Police and intelligence agencies in a joint effort conducted the takedown of several illegal marketplaces as part of Operation Onymous. Coordinated by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Operation Onymous hit the criminal organization that exploited the Tor network to manage black markets. The operation is considered an important success in the fight agaisnst cybercrime, but many experts have begun to question how law enforcement was able to locate the servers hosting hidden services and operators who ran the illegal activities. The developers of the Tor Project published an interesting blog post titled “Thoughts and Concerns about Operation Onymous“, in which they have explained the possible techniques adopted by authorities to locate the hidden services and de-anonymize the operators that managed the most popular black markets, including Silk Road 2.0.

“Over the last few days, we received and read reports saying that several Tor relays were seized by government officials. We do not know why the systems were seized, nor do we know anything about the methods of investigation which were used,” states the post.

The principal assumptions that law enforcement has made on the possible attack scenarios implemented by the law enforcement are:

Lack of operational security of hidden services

Exploitation of bugs in the web application

Bitcoin de-anonymization

Attacks on the Tor network

The members of the Tor Project highlighted that the police has compromised the anonymity of the location of the servers behind the hidden services due to the lack of one of the following conditions:

The hidden service must be properly configured.

The web server should be not vulnerable: this means that it must be not affected by any flaw and must be properly configured.

The web application should have no flaws.

An attacker that is able to exploit a vulnerability in the web server or in the web application (e.g. the e-commerce system exposed by the operators to propose the illegal products) could easily hack the targeted hidden service.

Resuming, to de-anonymize Tor users it is possible to compromise a poorly configured server or the web application it exposes, and there is no need to search and exploit an alleged vulnerability in Tor architecture.

By exploiting a vulnerability in a third-party application used by a dark marketplace, it is possible to install a backdoor on the server, revealing its location and the identities of its operators.

Another possibility for law enforcement is to infect the machine of one of the alleged administrators with a spyware. The computer could be localized through ordinary investigations.

Whole Article at: Hacking the Tor Network: Follow Up - InfoSec Institute

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