Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: piratesam on June 07, 2013, 07:01 pm

Title: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: piratesam on June 07, 2013, 07:01 pm
 When I'm on Tor I frequently also have open a regular firefox or chrome we browser open. Is it safe to be using non Tor  browsers to access clearnet sites while using Tor to access SR and other .onion?
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: JohnDelay on June 07, 2013, 07:03 pm
Short answer: no.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: blacksmith on June 07, 2013, 07:03 pm
there is another thread about this, apparently it IS ok to do. i was wondering the same thing
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: Ziggy1973 on June 07, 2013, 07:09 pm
I don't think there is a problem, I do the same thing. I can't see how accessing clearnet websites would affect anything going on in TOR? But then what do I know really...
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: piratesam on June 07, 2013, 07:28 pm
Short answer: no.

Explain please.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: PsychedelicSphere on June 07, 2013, 07:32 pm
Short answer: no.
That was a pretty short answer.... Now explain yourself. I would definitely be interested in what you have to say.

~PsychedelicSphere


EDIT: accidentally copy and pasted the SR link instead of my name lol
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: sharliecheen2 on June 07, 2013, 07:45 pm
I would tend toward the paranoid and avoid using Firefox alongside the (Firefox-based) Tor Browser Bundle. This is based purely on a fear of mixing up the browsed content between the two somehow - either my own stupidity or some confusion between installed and (apparently portable) coexisting versions of the software.

I don't want to inadvertantly put my Tor traffic through clearnet or vice versa.

Can't see where the risk would be in co-running browsers from different companies though. IE and Chrome (for example) typically aren't aware of the others existence (including separate caches and sessions). You could have one on clearnet generally independently of on Tor (the TBB or whatever).

Not that it's impossible to run multiple Firefox instances ( --no-remote and -p options ), just unwise in this case.

I do all of my dealings via a memory-only VM, so nothing persists after power off.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: Jack N Hoff on June 07, 2013, 11:03 pm
It's fine.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: potential on June 07, 2013, 11:18 pm
The increased risk definitely exists, but most people trust their browsers enough to neglect it. Browsers are big programs in widespread use and are therefore a popular attack vector. Although modern operating systems do a pretty good job with process isolation, it's not impossible for one process to access another process's memory (for example, using remote thread execution). That said, unless someone is really out to get you or you're wearing a tinfoil hat, there's not much to worry about in that situation. Just don't paste something from one browser to the other by accident or run any pesky Java web applets in either browser. In fact, disabling Java within the browser is a good security measure in general.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: flashlight5 on June 08, 2013, 01:24 am
guess its fine.

But doing some cnn surfing is different that having one browser open with facebook, gmail and amazon, one via tor and a third one, unpached streaming porn and browsing shady privacy sites.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: Baggie on June 08, 2013, 01:54 am
Quote
sharliecheen2
Your username is eerily similar to a recent scammer who went by the name of Charlie Sheen.  Just making sure there is no connection there.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: samaxe1981 on June 08, 2013, 02:07 am
Short answer: no.

Explain please.

Not sure how much to or can explain on it, but natively one TCP connection cannot intrude on another just. The only way someone on the non TOR side could see your TOR activity would be if you had spyware or some other virus type thing injected on your machine. Then the person would actually be either taking over your machine and reading netstat/tcpdump stuff from your machine (if that is what they installed on your machine) but not particularly looking from one TCP "lane" to another. other browser or TCP sessions terminate their visibility on your machine, they can't see past it.
Bottom line is it doesn't matter. If you have something installed on your machine that allows remote viewing it doesn't matter if you have a spearate firefox browser open.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: mbius298074 on June 08, 2013, 09:21 am
When I'm on Tor I frequently also have open a regular firefox or chrome we browser open. Is it safe to be using non Tor  browsers to access clearnet sites while using Tor to access SR and other .onion?

As with every answer regarding security and Tor, the correct answer is, it depends.

If you want to be more secure then don't use both at the same time.
Title: Re: Multi tasking tor and non tor browsers?
Post by: sharliecheen2 on June 08, 2013, 05:44 pm
Quote
sharliecheen2
Your username is eerily similar to a recent scammer who went by the name of Charlie Sheen.  Just making sure there is no connection there.

Yes, I am known for my expertise in both scamming and browsers.
The two skills complement surprisingly well.