Tor on Nobody's Home

Online Security Basics

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

These are the 101 - bare basics for accessing that sketchy link you don’t want tied to you (i.e. .cn, .ru). They key is understanding your threat model.

Are you concerned about your activity being monitored? -> VPN
Are you concerned about being attributed to you? -> TOR
Are you concerned about infecting your system? -> VM/Container

Resources

Terms

DNS: Domain Name Service
VPN: Virtual Private Network
TOR: The Onion Router
VM: Virtual Machine

How do you connect?

The basic model of an internet connect is:

Onion Redirect

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

This post should be short and sweet - the goal is to get this: in the Tor browser.

References

TOR.org TOR.onion (hint: it’s the same page)

Implementation

The first step is to set up a Tor site. After that, everything is easy.

Nginx

Add this line to your site’s .conf file:

add_header Onion-Location http://<your-onion-address>.onion$request_uri;

Folder Structure

├──your-project-folder
│  ├──Dockerfile
│  ├──your-website-contents-folder
│  │  └──[CONTENTS]
└──└──nginx.conf

Nginx Contain in Docker

This configuration assumes you’re building your own docker container, and probably getting a custom url.

Tor Proxy

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

I wanted to see how to route my network traffic over tor. Would it be too slow? Would it even work? TBH, the load times have been a bit worse, but yes - it works, and the load times aren’t even that bad.

The directory structure will end up looking like this:

├──tor-proxy
│  ├──compose.yaml
└──└──torrc

NOTE: I used Google’s Gemini, and a locally hosted gemma 4 model to build this. There are likely multiple resources that aren’t properly recorded.

Static Site from Start to Finish

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

This guide is meant to be a top level overview on how to get a Hugo based static site set up on both the clear-web, and the dark-web. Both sites will host the exact same content, have custom URLs, and will be publically accessible. The intent is to string together some prior posts into a cohesive walkthrough, with less detail than the individual guides linked below.

Install Docker -> Hugo Setup -> Tor & Cloudflare Tunnel

Named Tor Site

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What’s the Point of This?

Recently, schools across the US were hit by a breach of the education software Canvas by the ShinyHunters. The group’s ransom note included an interesting .onion url:

Normally a .onion address is randomly generated characters with no meaning. The site’s name being tied to the keys generated when the node joins the network. However, ShinyHunters and the CIA have been able to generate custom TOR keys to at least get a partially human readable url.

Tor Site

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Directory Setup

Set up the files and directories:

mkdir -p tor-site/keys tor-site/html tor-site/logs
touch tor-site/torrc

Set permissions:

chmod 700 tor-site/keys 
sudo chown root:root tor-site/keys tor-site/logs

Content Setup

Add the files for your website into the tor-site/html folder: example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
    <h1>Hello from the Onion Router!</h1>
    <p>This site is hosted inside Docker.</p>
</body>
</html>

Docker Setup

Install Docker Docker Compose File compose.yaml

services:
  nginx:
    container_name: nginx
    image: nginx
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    cap_add:
      - CHOWN
      - SETGID
      - SETUID
    volumes:
      - ./html:/usr/share/nginx/html:ro
      - ./logs:/var/log/nginx
    networks:
      - tor_network
  tor:
    container_name: tor
    volumes:
      - ./torrc:/etc/tor/torrc:ro
      - ./keys:/var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
    image: alpine:latest
    entrypoint: sh -c "apk add --no-cache tor && tor -f /etc/tor/torrc"
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    cap_add:
      - NET_BIND_SERVICE
    networks:
      - tor_network
    depends_on:
      - nginx

networks:
  tor_network:

nginx is the name of your web server container - this is important for the torrc file.
:ro sets the volume to read only
networks: tor_network means all the traffic stays inside the tor network
security_opt: - no-new-privileges:true prevents the user from running as root through setuid or setgid
cap_drop: -All removes all default Linux capabilities granted to a container
cap_add: - NET_BIND_SERVICE will allow tor to work with only the necessary capabilities
networks ensures that all traffic stays inside the docker network with a custom bridge tor_network to access the tor relays See Docker Permissions

Create `torrc`:

# Standard Tor config
DataDirectory /var/lib/tor

# Define the Hidden Service
HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
HiddenServicePort 80 nginx:80

note: the name nginx should be the same as you name your web server container in the compose.yaml (see [[#Docker Setup]]).

Notes:

Did you know you can make a custom tor site name? See the Named Tor Site.
The docker service setup: Dockhand Portainer


services:
  nginx:
    container_name: nginx
    image: nginx
    volumes:
      - {$PWD}/html:/usr/share/nginx/html:ro
    networks:
      - tor_network
  tor:
    container_name: tor
    volumes:
      - {$PWD}/torrc:/etc/tor/torrc:ro
      - {$PWD}/keys:/var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
    image: alpine:latest
    entrypoint: sh -c "apk add --no-cache tor && tor -f /etc/tor/torrc"
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    cap_add:
      - NET_BIND_SERVICE
    networks:
      - tor_network
    depends_on:
      - nginx

networks:
  tor_network:

Tor on Nobody's Home

Online Security Basics

Introduction

Resources

Terms

How do you connect?

Onion Redirect

Introduction

References

Implementation

Nginx

Folder Structure

Nginx Contain in Docker

Tor Proxy

Introduction

Static Site from Start to Finish

Introduction

Named Tor Site

What’s the Point of This?

Tor Site

Directory Setup

Content Setup

Docker Setup

Create torrc:

Notes:

References:

Create `torrc`: