The release of Whonix 16 has taken place, aimed at providing guaranteed anonymity, security, and protection of private information. The Whonix images are designed to run under the KVM hypervisor. Builds for VirtualBox and for use in the Qubes operating system are delayed (test builds of Whonix 16 are still being provided). Project developments are distributed under the GPLv3 license.
The distribution is based on Debian GNU/Linux and uses Tor for anonymity. A distinctive feature of Whonix is the separation of the distribution into two separately installable components — Whonix-Gateway, which implements a network gateway for anonymous communications, and Whonix-Workstation with a desktop environment. Both components are provided within a single bootable image. Networking from the Whonix-Workstation environment is performed only through the Whonix-Gateway, isolating the working environment from direct interaction with the outside world and allowing only fictitious network addresses. This approach protects the user from real data leakage. an IP address in the event of a web browser compromise and even during exploitation of a vulnerability that grants the attacker root access to the system.
Compromising Whonix-Workstation would only allow the attacker to obtain fictitious network parameters, as the real IP and DNS settings are concealed beyond the network gateway, which routes traffic solely through Tor. It should be noted that Whonix components are designed to run as guest systems, meaning the possibility of exploiting critical 0-day vulnerabilities in virtualization platforms that could provide access to the host system cannot be ruled out. Therefore, it is not recommended to run Whonix-Workstation on the same computer as Whonix-Gateway.
Whonix-Workstation provides a default user environment of Xfce. Included are applications such as VLC, Tor Browser (Firefox), Thunderbird+TorBirdy, Pidgin, etc. The Whonix-Gateway package includes a set of server applications, including Apache httpd, nginx, and IRC servers, that can be used to organize the operation of hidden Tor services. Tunneling over Tor for Freenet, i2p, JonDonym, SSH, and others is also possible. VPNYou can find a comparison of Whonix with Tails, Tor Browser, Qubes OS TorVM, and corridor on this page. If desired, the user can only use Whonix-Gateway and connect their regular systems through it, including Windows, which provides the ability to ensure anonymous access for workstations already in use.
Key Changes:
- The package base of the distribution has been updated from Debian 10 (buster) to Debian 11 (bullseye).
- The repository for installing Tor has been switched from deb.torproject.org to packages.debian.org.
- The binaries-freedom package has been deprecated, as Electrum is now available from the standard Debian repository.
- The fasttrack repository (fasttrack.debian.net) has been enabled by default, allowing the installation of the latest versions of Gitlab, VirtualBox, and Matrix.
- File paths have been updated from /usr/lib to /usr/libexec.
- VirtualBox has been updated to version 6.1.26 from the Debian repository.
Source: opennet.ru
