mini-TOR is a simplified anonymization system inspired by Tor (The Onion Router). It is designed to tunnel TCP traffic through an intermediate proxy node to protect user identity.
The system allows a client to connect to a chosen intermediate node using a secure tunnel. Unlike the original Tor network, this implementation uses a single intermediate node that connects directly to the target destination.
- TLS Tunneling: Communication between the client and the node is encrypted using TLS.
- Traffic Obfuscation: The proxy node introduces pseudorandom delays and modifies stream segmentation/resizing to hinder statistical traffic analysis.
- Developer Library: The final product includes a Python mini-library providing a pre-connected socket for easy integration into applications.
- Containerized Environment: Every component (client, node, and target server) runs within its own container.
- Anonymity: The system hides traffic details from telecommunication operators, server administrators, and local eavesdroppers.
- Trust Model: As a single-hop proxy, the node must decrypt and re-encrypt data. Therefore, the security of the client depends on the integrity of the intermediate node.
The proxy node is designed to be self-sustaining. In case of timeouts or connection errors (e.g., unreachable target server), the node will notify the client, terminate the current connection, and return to listening for new requests.
The project is divided into the following implementation phases:
- Establishing a basic TCP connection between containers.
- Implementing tunneling with a fixed server address.
- Enabling the client to pass the target address to the node.
- Wrapping client logic into a reusable library.
- Integrating pseudorandom delays and traffic segmentation.
The success of the implementation will be demonstrated by:
- Verifying that the target server sees the connection coming from the node's IP, not the client's.
- Demonstrating variable transfer speeds as evidence of the random delay mechanism.
- Wojciech Kukiełka
- Tomasz Okoń
- Adam Szkolaski