Is the Onion Router a Secure Network?

Donald L Buresh,Dipanwita Thakur

doi:10.14302/issn.2692-5915.jafs-20-3366

Abstract

This paper attempts to answer the question of how government agencies use The Onion Router, or Tor, in conducting investigations. The essay observes that Tor is free open-source software that can be used by anyone who desires to communicate with others in a secure manner. In surveying the literature, it is found that Tor can be employed for both legal and illegal purposes. As the major financial contributor, Tor is used by government to secure its communications. Because Tor by bad actors, and because many of the Tor relays are operated by government agencies, Tor has been successfully employed in catching unsuspecting criminals. The conclusion of this exposition is that if one wants to communicate securely with someone else, and not be visible to government agencies, Tor should not be the vehicle of choice. There are alternative modes of communication that can thwart the risk of government surveillance.

Highlights

This paper attempts to answer the question of how government agencies use The Onion Router, or Tor, in conducting investigations
The purpose of this paper is to briefly review its history, describe how it works, discuss how it is currently employed, and highlight its strengths and weaknesses in an attempt to answer how Tor is used by government agencies in conducting investigations
The section observes that there are some legitimate uses for Tor, but the fact that Tor is government funded and that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) run many of the relays establishes the existence of a significant flaw its implementation

Summary

Introduction

This paper attempts to answer the question of how government agencies use The Onion Router, or Tor, in conducting investigations. Onion routing is accomplished by creating by encrypting the data in the application layer of its communication protocol.[7] When processing a packet using onion routing, it is as if the Internet communication protocol is peeling the layers of an onion.[8] Tor encrypts the data and the IP address of the destination node.[9] This encryption is accomplished many times, where each relay or server in the Tor network decrypts the outermost layer so that it can send the remaining encrypted packet along to the relay.[10] When a packet arrives at the relay just before the destination, the final encrypted layer is decoded, and the packet is sent to its destination.[11] The advantage of employing the onion methodology is that network surveillance cannot trace a packet backward to its source.[12] In the past, the National Security Agency (“NSA”) attempted to de-anonymize a user using its XKeyscore (“XKS”) system (codenamed “EgotisticalGiraffe”), where an email message, a telephone call, or web traffic can be monitored anywhere in the world without first obtaining a warrant.[13] A variety of organizations have funded Tor, but the majority of the monies originates from the United States federal government via the Office of Naval Research (“ONR”) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (“DARPA”).[14]. The section observes that there are some legitimate uses for Tor, but the fact that Tor is government funded and that the NSA and the GCHQ run many of the relays establishes the existence of a significant flaw its implementation

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion