Top all-time · #8134
Matt Traudt
Personal blog · matt.traudt.xyz/postssecuritysystems
Matt Traudt writes Loading..., a personal blog at matt.traudt.xyz about security and systems. Since 2017, 10 different Hacker News readers have linked it 18 times, most often “You Want Tor Browser . . . Not a VPN”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Matt Traudt's blog for posts on Tor: its spelling, tracking the network-wide v3 onion addresses, trade-offs of using Tor with a VPN, and media queries leaking information to servers.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- You Want Tor Browser . . . Not a VPN4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-10-29
- /p/YF4ciVY6.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-03-22
- /posts/2019-10-17-you-want-tor-browser-not-a-vpn/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-05-25
What Hacker News says?
> They can't just take control of the traffic in the middle, which absolutely can be done in Tor with enough gov controlled guard nodes, as the arms race of patching has proven. I think you're misunderstanding something here, with onion services traffic is e2e encrypted and self-authenticated, as Matt explains: > When you connect to an onion service, how do you know no one is MitM'ing you? Easy. It's impossible. The…
Comment linking /posts/dont-https-your-o44SnkW2.html
on “Mozilla Project Fusion: Tor Integration into Firefox”Submitted You Want Tor Browser – – – Not a VPN as a story · 5 points
HN discussionhttps://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/dont-https-your-o44SnkW2.html
Comment linking /posts/dont-https-your-o44SnkW2.html
on “Mozilla Project Fusion: Tor Integration into Firefox”Submitted Tracking Tor's network-wide V3 onion service outages as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIt was never "TOR", it's; Tor: https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/2021-02-22-tor-spelling . The DNS checking service is rate limited and adds latency, but there is a bulk exit list available here; https://check.torproject.org/torbulkexitlist (please don't use 3rd party blocklists, as those often contain middles and guards, even though traffic cannot leave those kind of relays). But, before you block Tor, please consider…
Comment linking /posts/2021-02-22-tor-spelling
on “Tell HN: Stack Exchange (Stack Overflow) is now blocking Tor”Submitted You Want Tor Browser . . . Not a VPN as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIt was never "TOR", it's; Tor: https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/2021-02-22-tor-spelling . The new blocking completely blocks access to the site, not just posting. See for yourself; https://www.torproject.org/ Tor is next to useless for DDoS attacks, as it doesn't offer any amplification. For every byte you send in via TCP, you get one byte out. For attackers with large botnets, it doesn't make sense to DDOS over Tor, a…
Comment linking /posts/2021-02-22-tor-spelling
on “Tell HN: Stack Exchange (Stack Overflow) is now blocking Tor”Submitted Using Private Apt Cache as a story · 3 points
HN discussionMedia queries can leak info to the server easily without JavaScript: https://matt.traudt.xyz/p/YF4ciVY6.html
Comment linking /p/YF4ciVY6.html
on “Show HN: 300k lines of Java UI code running native in browser at desktop speed”Submitted You want Tor Browser ... not a VPN as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFYI I’m seeing a 404 from that last link. Is this the intended link? https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/2019-10-17-you-want-tor-browse...
Comment linking /posts/2019-10-17-you-want-tor-browser-not-a-vpn/
on “Security Vulnerability in Tor Browser”Submitted You Want Tor Browser Not a VPN as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is deeply misleading and based on old data. > A reminder that Tor Browser might be one of the least safe browsers you can run: it's a fork of Firefox, meaning that its maintainers have to coordinate and port patches from the mainline project. Tor Browser ships updates as soon as new ESR versions come out. > Firefox is already not one of the most hardened browser engines. That might've been true in the past, it'…
Comment linking /posts/2019-10-17-you-want-tor-browser-not-a-vpn/
on “Security Vulnerability in Tor Browser”Submitted You Want Tor Browser Not a VPN: FAQ about VPN vs. Tor as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAnyone suspect this weeks major disruption to the tor network was related to this? 4 days ago: "All v3 Onion addresses unavailable": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25714424 This article says that police called their operation "Operation DisrupTor" in 2019.... edits: https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/tracking-tors-network-wide-v3-... suggests that it wasnt an attack although was written before the news.
Comment linking /posts/tracking-tors-network-wide-v3-onion-service-outages/
on “German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'”Submitted You Want Tor Browser Not a VPN as a story · 2 points
HN discussionTor+VPN has various trade offs and is not good for everyone. Generally i would say most people would not benefit from it. https://matt.traudt.xyz/posts/vpn-tor-not-mRikAa4h/
Comment linking /posts/vpn-tor-not-mRikAa4h/
on “Tor in 2022”> Why Tor sends window size to servers? If it has to, why it can't send closest multiple of 100 instead of real value? It's not Tor that does so, by using JS one can determine canvas size. Worse, CSS alone can be used to extract.[1] You can take a look here for a live demo.[2] [1] : https://matt.traudt.xyz/p/YF4ciVY6.html [2] : https://system33.pw/cssmediapoc
Comment linking /p/YF4ciVY6.html
on “An advanced browser fingerprint calculator aimed mainly at Tor Browser users”