{"id":24895,"date":"2018-06-11T16:30:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T16:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/06\/11\/turn-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-tor-relay-node\/"},"modified":"2018-06-11T16:30:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T16:30:51","slug":"turn-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-tor-relay-node","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/06\/11\/turn-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-tor-relay-node\/","title":{"rendered":"Turn Your Raspberry Pi into a Tor Relay Node"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you\u2019re anything like me, you probably got yourself a first- or second-generation Raspberry Pi board when they first came out, played with it for a while, but then shelved it and mostly forgot about it. After all, unless you\u2019re a robotics enthusiast, you probably don\u2019t have that much use for a computer with a pretty slow processor and 256 megabytes of RAM. This is not to say that there aren\u2019t cool things you can do with one of these, but between work and other commitments, I just never seem to find the right time for some good old nerding out.<\/p>\n

However, if you would like to put it to good use without sacrificing too much of your time or resources, you can turn your old Raspberry Pi into a perfectly functioning Tor relay node.<\/p>\n

What is a Tor Relay node<\/h3>\n

You have probably heard about the Tor project<\/a> before, but just in case you haven\u2019t, here\u2019s a very quick summary. The name \u201cTor\u201d stands for \u201cThe Onion Router\u201d and it is a technology created to combat online tracking and other privacy violations.<\/p>\n

Everything you do on the Internet leaves a set of digital footprints in every piece of equipment that your IP packets traverse: all of the switches, routers, load balancers and destination websites log the IP address from which your session originated and the IP address of the internet resource you are accessing (and often its hostname, even when using HTTPS<\/a>). If you\u2019re browsing from home, then your IP can be directly mapped to your household. If you\u2019re using a VPN service (as you should be<\/a>), then your IP can be mapped to your VPN provider, and then they are the ones who can map it to your household. In any case, odds are that someone somewhere is assembling an online profile on you based on the sites you visit and how much time you spend on each of them. Such profiles are then sold, aggregated with matching profiles collected from other services, and then monetized by ad networks. At least, that\u2019s the optimist\u2019s view of how that data is used — I\u2019m sure you can think of many examples of how your online usage profiles can be used against you in much more nefarious ways.<\/p>\n

The Tor project attempts to provide a solution to this problem by making it impossible (or, at least, unreasonably difficult) to trace the endpoints of your IP session. Tor achieves this by bouncing your connection through a chain of anonymizing relays, consisting of an entry node, relay node, and exit node:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    The entry node<\/strong> only knows your IP address, and the IP address of the relay node, but not the final destination of the request;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The relay node<\/strong> only knows the IP address of the entry node and the IP address of the exit node, and neither the origin nor the final destination<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    The exit node<\/strong> <\/strong>only knows the IP address of the relay node and the final destination of the request; it is also the only node that can decrypt the traffic before sending it over to its final destination<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Relay nodes play a crucial role in this exchange because they create a cryptographic barrier between the source of the request and the destination. Even if exit nodes are controlled by adversaries intent on stealing your data, they will not be able to know the source of the request without controlling the entire Tor relay chain.<\/p>\n

    As long as there are plenty of relay nodes, your privacy when using the Tor network remains protected — which is why I heartily recommend that you set up and run a relay node if you have some home bandwidth to spare.<\/p>\n

    Things to keep in mind regarding Tor relays<\/h4>\n

    A Tor relay node only receives encrypted traffic and sends encrypted traffic — it never accesses any other sites or resources online, so you do not need to worry that someone will browse any worrisome sites directly from your home IP address. Having said that, if you reside in a jurisdiction where offering anonymity-enhancing services is against the law, then, obviously, do not operate your own Tor relay. You may also want to check if operating a Tor relay is against the terms and conditions of your internet access provider.<\/p>\n

    What you will need<\/h3>\n