Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Can you point to a good technical description of how Tor works under the hood?



If you are requesting a very high-level description: https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en . Basically you send an "envelope within an envelope within an envelope" over TLS (formerly SSL) to some node, they open it, read the address on the envelope inside, and send it on, until it gets to the last letter-opener who happens to also be the sort of node which follows instructions on a sheet of paper. Those instructions may be an HTTP request for example, or you might ask them to communicate part of a TLS negotiation with a secure web site, so that they cannot eavesdrop. The envelopes themselves are encryption containers, so that you can't open the envelopes en route to see where they're going.

If you want to understand more details about how exactly you create these "extending" routes and "circuits", the design docs are here:

https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en#Design...

In particular, the above picture is a little naive because you cannot send three open envelopes to the exit node for the return trip without the exit node learning who you are by peeking inside.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: