Whonix 15.0 Has Been Released and is Available for All Platforms
Last updated June 29, 2021
- Whonix, the privacy-focused Linux distro has just released a new version, and it’s better than ever.
- Whonix can be deployed inside any other OS, securing your anonymity while surfing the net.
- This system is the only one to offer such levels of privacy for free, and all that it requires is some setting up work.
Whonix is privacy and anonymity-focused operating system that is based on the Tor network and the Debian Linux distribution. This makes it robust both in terms of security and in terms of system stability. Moreover, and since it uses the extra-lightweight XFCE user interface, Whonix is a speedy OS that won’t hum and haw no matter what you’ll throw at it. This makes it also ideal for use inside Virtual Boxes, Qubes, on Windows, OS X, or other Linux distributions, so it’s a versatile anonymity space that you may enter whenever you want.
From a technical perspective, Whonix consists of two parts, the Gateway, and the Workstation. The Gateway runs on Tor, and as the name suggests it serves as a gateway. The Workstation is a completely isolated network that only allows Tor connections, so DNS leaks, real IP leaks, malware infections with root privileges, etc., are impossible scenarios. Going deeper into the technical territory, Whonix offers stream isolation, even when one of the X workstations behind the same gateway is compromised in the default configuration. Moreover, it provides superior fingerprint protection for browsing anonymously, tunneling all traffic through Tor, not including tordate, and randomizing the network time synchronization. Even if you wanted to connect to the public Tor network by mistake, the Whonix’s connection wizard would prevent you from doing so.
Security-wise, Whonix is protected from root exploits and IP address and location discovery malware tools. The only way for someone to get in Whonix is to exploit Tor, the Virtual Machine platform, or via a backdoor. As for the browser security, there can be no proxy bypass IP leak, prompts the user to delete Flash cookies after every session, confuses trackers by reporting a different number of installed fonts, while the Flash plugin is hidden inside “anon-whonix” when the user decides to install it for any reason.
Compared to the previous major version (14), this latest one (15) comes with kernel hardening, a refreshed blacklist of uncommon network protocols, systemd unit sandboxing, port to Debian buster (new packages), improved entropy collection (better cryptography and encryption), support for the Bisq P2P network, and a lot more. If you need a quick way to enter the net completely anonymously and safely, Whonix is a great way to do it. It may take some time to set up, but once you have it configured, it will be there and ready for deployment at any time.
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