
You start a chat service, it gives you an OnionShare address, and then you send this address to everyone who is invited to the chat room (using an encrypted messaging app like Signal, for example). You can have as many tabs open as you want at a time, and you can easily save tabs (that's what the purple thumbtack in the tab bar means) so that if you quit OnionShare and open it again later, these services can start back up with the same OnionShare addresses. Now when you open OnionShare you are presented with a blank tab that lets you choose between sharing files, receiving files, hosting a website, or chatting anonymous. The secure, ephemeral and anonymous chat feature is particularly useful since it does not require account creation, is encrypted end-to-end and reduces the risk of messages being stored locally: Version 2.3 of OnionShare allows users to share/receive files, host websites or chat anonymously at the same time using a tabs feature. And, so long as your website visitors are able to access the Tor network, the website can’t be censored. People who visit your website will have no idea who you are – they won’t have access to your IP address, and they won’t know your identity or your location. This website is only accessible from the Tor network, so people will need Tor Browser to visit it. You drag all of the files that make up your website into the OnionShare window and click “Start sharing.” It will start a web server to host your static website and give you a. In addition to the “Share Files” and “Receive Files” tabs, OnionShare 2.2 introduces the “Publish Website” tab. Version 2.2 of OnionShare also permits the easy hosting of anonymous websites : This means you can receive files via OnionShare after they are uploaded by Tor Browser users this is a sort of 'SecureDrop Lite' or personal dropbox. The people you send the URL to then copy and paste it into their Tor Browser to access the OnionShare service.Īs of OnionShare version 2.0 it is also possible to run the program in Receive mode. A typical OnionShare address might look something like responsible for securely sharing that URL using a communication channel of your choice like in an encrypted chat message, or using something less secure like unencrypted e-mail, depending on your threat model. īy default, OnionShare web addresses are protected with a random password. Web servers are started locally on your computer and made accessible to other people as Tor onion services.

The OnionShare wiki succinctly describes the design: OnionShare is an open source program that allows users to share/receive files, host a website or chat anonymously utilizing the Tor network. 3.3.5 Visit Authenticated OnionShare Services using Tor Browser in Whonix.

2.2 Whonix-Workstation ™ Installation Steps.2.1 Whonix-Gateway ™ Installation Steps.
