The release of the specialized browser Tor Browser 14.0 has been announced, which transitions to the ESR branch of Firefox 128. The browser focuses on ensuring privacy and security, with all traffic routed exclusively through the Tor network. Direct access through the current system's standard network connection is not possible (if the browser is compromised, attackers could access the system's network parameters, so to completely block potential leaks, products like Whonix should be used). Tor Browser builds are prepared for Linux, Android, Windows, and macOS.
For additional protection, Tor Browser includes the 'HTTPS Only' setting, allowing encryption of traffic on all sites where possible. To reduce threats from JavaScript-based attacks and to block plugins by default, the NoScript extension is included. To combat traffic blockage and inspection, fteproxy and obfs4proxy are used. Alternative transports are offered for establishing an encrypted communication channel in environments that block any traffic except HTTP.
To prevent tracking of user movement and to limit the identification of visitor-specific characteristics, APIs such as WebGL, WebGL2, WebAudio, Social, SpeechSynthesis, Touch, AudioContext, HTMLMediaElement, Mediastream, Canvas, SharedWorker, WebAudio, Permissions, MediaDevices.enumerateDevices, and screen.orientation have been disabled or restricted, as well as telemetry sending tools, Pocket, Reader View, HTTP Alternative-Services, MozTCPSocket, 'link rel=preconnect', and libmdns has been modified.
In the new version:
- The transition to the Firefox 128 ESR codebase has been completed (previously, Firefox 115 was used). During this transition, an audit of changes in Firefox was conducted, analyzing and addressing more than 200 potential issues that could negatively impact privacy and security.
- In the Android version, a 'New circuit' button has been added to the menu for refreshing the chain of nodes through which traffic is routed in the Tor network when accessing a specific site (after refreshing for the site, the request will appear as coming from another user with a different IP address). Previously, refreshing the node chain was done through a fixed notification displayed in the Android notification area, and it has now been moved to the standard Tor Browser menu.
- Following Mozilla's extension of the ESR branch of Firefox 115's support period at least until March 2025, it has similarly been decided to extend the support for the Tor Browser 13.5 branch, which continues to support Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, as well as macOS 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14. Thus, the upgrade to Tor Browser 14.0 will only be offered to users on Linux, Windows 10+, and macOS 10.15+, while users with older versions of Windows and macOS will remain on the Tor Browser 13.5 branch.
Source: opennet.ru
