Now that we have Thales installed configured with persistence and we learned the basics on how to use
it and interact with it.
In this lecture, I want to talk about the Tor browser that comes with Thales and highlight a major
restriction that Thales enforces over the Tor web browser.
So go into the applications.
You can see we have in our favorites the Tor browser.
As you know, we've actually covered this browser before and we spoke about how it works and we learned
how to install it on different operating systems and how to properly configure it for optimum security
and anonymity.
So what we have here is an identical version to the browser that I showed you before.
You can go to check the Tor project.org to make sure that everything is connected.
But we already know that everything is working because as I mentioned before, all connections sent
from tales from the whole operating system go through the Tor network and we can confirm this from this
onion.
But if you really just want to double check, you can just go to check.
The third project.org.
And as you can see, it's telling us that everything is working, everything is configured properly,
and we are using the Tor network.
Now, as I showed you before, and here you can request a new identity, change security settings or
check for updates.
You can check your tour circuit from here and you can also modify the options from here.
Now, Like I said, I spent multiple lectures explaining what the circuit is.
What do we mean by a new identity and a new circuit?
How to modify the security options for optimum security and anonymity.
So I'm not going to talk about that now.
You can go ahead and do everything that I showed you previously because the steps to do it here are
identical to the steps you would follow with any Tor browser, regardless of what operating system it's
installed on.
So I'm just going to go and change my security settings and crack that to the safest and we are good
to go.
I'm also going to keep this screen at the sides because as I mentioned before, you don't want to use
the screen in full screen because that will give information about your monitor.
Also, keeping it at the default size is always a good idea because that makes you less unique.
And like I said, Tor and Tails work best by making it hard to distinguish the users that use these
services.
So when we keep the window at the default size, it's harder to distinguish between me and other users.
What I want to cover, though, in this lecture is an extra feature that Thales implements or an extra
restriction that tells applies to the Tor browser to improve the security of the whole browser so that
it's more difficult to exploit and use to gain access to our system.
Tells implement kernel level restrictions over the Tor browser so that it cannot access any folder,
any location within the file system except for one folder.
Therefore, if we wanted to download something from the browser or upload something, we can only do
that from one folder in our file system.
So if we look at the places here, you'll see we have a folder called Tor browser and we have a folder
called Tor browser Persistent because I enabled persistence on my installation.
You will only see this if you enable persistence and as the names suggest, the Tor browser folder is
non persistent, so anything you place in this folder will be deleted once you shut down or restart
tales.
The persistent folder is persistent, so if you store anything in that folder it will not be deleted
when you restart or shut down tales.
Now these two folders or directories are the only folders that the Tor browser has access to.
So if, for example, you wanted to save this image, so you're going to go right click and save image
as I'm just giving this as an example, but this applies for anything that you want to save.
You'll see we're automatically in Amnesia, which is the name of our user Tor browser.
So this is the path that we are in.
And if we wanted to change this path to save this somewhere else, you'll see we get an error message
saying Permission denied.
You'll get this error message if you click on any other directory in your computer except the Tor browser
directory, the Tor browser Normal and the Tor browser persistent.
So let's store this, for example, in the Tor browser in here, and it's just going to be called Tor
on PNG.
I'm going to save it.
And now if I go to places Tor browser.
You'll see we have the image here.
So it's just like any other directory.
The only thing is this is the only directory that is visible to the Tor browser.
So the same thing applies if you wanted to upload a file and send it anywhere.
You won't be able to upload any files unless they are stored in tor browser or in the Tor browser.
Persistent.
So if you had something on desktop or in music or in the documents, you'll have to first copy it to
one of these directories, either to tor browser or TOR browser persistent and then upload it from there.
So if I just go to a file sharing service, it's by no means anonymous or private.
I'm just using it as an example to show you how the browser only have access to specific directories.
So if I click on Browse to select the file that I want to upload, again, you can see by default I'm
in the Tor browser directory which I can upload files from with no problems.
But if I try to go to my documents again I'll get the same error.
Downloads or any other directory.
I'll always be getting this error.
Therefore, if you want to upload something you'll have to copy it, paste it in your Tor browser or
your TOR browser.
Persistent if you have one.
If you enable persistence.
And then from here you can just select it, open it and it'll upload just like any other operating system.
Now like I said, this is not a private or an anonymous way of uploading files.
I will show you a better way later on in the course.
So that's it for this lecture.
We've already used the Tor browser and we are already a little bit familiar with it.
I just wanted to highlight the restriction that tells enforces on the Tor browser and in the next lecture
I'm going to introduce you to the insecure browser that comes with tales.