Useful Sites and Services on the TOR Network

By Ava McKinneyOnline Safety

Useful Sites and Services on the TOR Network

The TOR network is used by over 2 million people daily, with around 100,000 .onion addresses registered for various services. Anyone with an inexpensive Android device or Raspberry Pi can anonymously create their own corner of the internet. This article highlights a selection of useful sites and services available on the TOR network, which can help you enhance your privacy and security online.

Who Uses TOR?

Many reputable organizations and media outlets, such as the EFF, The Guardian, Forbes, and Gizmodo, promote TOR to the public. Contrary to popular belief, TOR is not just for criminals. According to the official TOR website, its users include:

  • Everyday people – to bypass censorship and protect against mass surveillance.
  • Journalists and their sources – for secure document transfer and anonymous communication via tools like SecureDrop.
  • Law enforcement – to investigate and catch criminals.
  • Activists and whistleblowers – to report human rights violations and organize safely.

TOR is not limited to HTTP sites; it also supports SSH, FTP, SMTP, Bitcoin, XMPP, Ricochet, and IRC servers, many of which are password-protected or private.

1. TOR Search Engines

  • Candle: Minimalist .onion search engine. Only supports word-based queries.
  • Grams: Search for jobs, digital and physical goods, often purchasable with Bitcoin.
  • Haystack: Claims to index over 1.5 billion pages from 260,000 .onion sites.
  • Not Evil: Indexes over 32 million .onion links.
  • Torch: Search engine with 450,000 links.
  • Tor Onionland: Indexes about 5 million pages from 57,000 sites.

2. Search Engines for the Regular Web

Google tracks users via tools like Google Analytics and cookies. For anonymous searching, consider:

  • DuckDuckGo: Privacy-focused search engine.
  • SearX: Open-source metasearch engine aggregating results from over 100 sources.
  • TPB: Search and download software and media files for free.

3. Security and Privacy Resources

  • GnuPG (GPG): Tool for cryptographically signing and encrypting data.
  • OnionShare: Open-source tool for secure, anonymous file sharing over TOR.
  • OpenPGPKeyserver: Anonymous PGP key repository.
  • Privacy International: UK-based charity advocating for digital rights.
  • Security in a Box: Guides for digital security tools and practices.
  • SKS OpenPGP: Another anonymous PGP key server.
  • TorProject: Official site for the TOR network and its resources.
  • Whonix: Community and guides for advanced privacy and OPSEC.

4. Pastebin Alternatives

  • DeepPaste: Simple pastebin with self-destruct feature.
  • Felixxx: Lesser-known pastebin alternative.
  • Riseup Paste: Pastes auto-delete after a week, max 50MB.
  • Pasta: Open-source pastebin with 10MB upload limit and self-destruct options.
  • Stronghold Paste: Long-standing open-source pastebin.
  • ZeroBin: Minimalist, open-source, end-to-end encrypted pastebin.

5. News Sites

  • Dark Web News: News, anonymity tools, and .onion links.
  • Deepdotweb: News on dark web arrests and TOR-related crime.
  • The New York Times: Available via TOR since 2017.
  • ProPublica: Nonprofit investigative journalism.

6. Email Services

  • Confidant: Open-source, encrypted, anti-spam email.
  • Daniel Email: Free, anonymous email (25MB storage per account).
  • Elude: Encrypted webmail, accessible only via TOR.
  • GuerrillaMail: Free disposable email with anti-spam.
  • Mailpile: Modern webmail with integrated PGP encryption.
  • ProtonMail: User-friendly, open-source, end-to-end encrypted email.
  • Riseup: Activist-run secure email, accessible via TOR.

7. Blogs and Personal Sites

  • drksh: Hacker blog and Git repository.
  • Jamie Scaife: Notes on Wi-Fi security, encryption, .onion services, and Linux.
  • Sarah Jamie Lewis: Researcher involved in OnionShare, Ricochet, and TOR studies.
  • Traudt: Naval research project on TOR and internet technologies.

8. Libraries

Most TOR libraries allow unrestricted downloads, but some content may be illegal or copyrighted. Always respect copyright laws.

  • Comic Books: Large collection of public domain comics (may include illegal content).
  • Imperial: Open-source repository for DRM-free ebooks (user uploads allowed).
  • Z-Library: Claims to be the world’s largest library with over 3.4 million books.

9. Social Networks

  • Cyph Messenger: Open-source video chat and file sharing.
  • DNM Avengers: Forum for pharmaceutical discussions and reviews.
  • Dread: Reddit-like forum, including pharma topics.
  • Facebook: Accessible via TOR.
  • Hidden Answers: Stack Overflow-style Q&A for hacking, security, privacy, and more.
  • Smuxi: Free, user-friendly IRC client.
  • Suprbay: Official Pirate Bay forum.
  • TheHub: Forum for news, pharma, and security topics.

10. Hosting Services

  • Black Cloud: Encrypted file hosting.
  • Daniel Uploads: File hosting (up to 10GB per file).
  • dhosting: Free, anonymous hosting with PHP, MySQL, FTP, and .onion support.
  • Image Hosting: Free image hosting with up to 2GB storage.
  • OnionContainers: Secure hosting with Nginx, PostgreSQL, and WordPress support.
  • 0ut3r Space: Files auto-delete after 14 days (max 200MB).
  • PopFiles: Simple file hosting (max 500KB per file).
  • Riseup Etherpad: Open-source collaborative editor for real-time teamwork.

11. Operating Systems

  • Debian: Free, user-friendly, community-supported OS.
  • Qubes: Open-source OS focused on security through compartmentalization.
  • Whonix: Privacy-focused OS with built-in TOR and stream isolation.

12. SecureDrop

SecureDrop is an open-source system for anonymously and securely receiving documents, mainly used by news organizations like The New York Times, The Washington Post, ProPublica, The New Yorker, and The Intercept.

  • The Guardian: Award-winning British daily newspaper.
  • The Intercept: Investigative journalism platform, originally for Snowden documents.
  • NPR: American nonprofit news organization supporting 1,000+ public radio stations.
  • VICE: Digital media company covering politics, entertainment, pharma, and tech.

13. Bitcoin Mixers

Bitcoin transactions are not fully anonymous. Mixers blend your coins with others to obscure the source. Warning: None of these links are verified for legitimacy. Use extreme caution.

  • Bitblender: Random fees, bonus/referral program, PGP 2FA, no logs, fast processing.
  • BitCloak: Free API, random 2% fee, 0.0004 BTC per withdrawal address.
  • Blockchain: Little information available.
  • CryptoMixer: Instant mixing, no logs, min 0.001 BTC, referral program, flexible fees.
  • Elude: Random 1-3% fee per transaction.
  • PrivCoin: Supports multiple cryptocurrencies.

14. Miscellaneous

  • CloudFlare: Private DNS resolver, claims no data selling or abuse.
  • ExpressVPN: VPN service.
  • ExoneraTor: Database of IPs associated with TOR.
  • Fingerprint Central: Browser fingerprinting data for anti-deanonymization research.
  • jRAT: Cross-platform malware (currently inactive).
  • Keybase: Public key database, secure messaging, and code hosting.
  • Njalla: Private domain registrar allowing anonymous crypto purchases.
  • SMSPrivacy: Anonymous SMS service with crypto payments.
  • TorMetrics: Analytics tool for TOR network statistics and traffic patterns.
  • Tor Nyx: Command-line utilities for managing TOR instances.
  • 0day: Exploit database, some for sale via Bitcoin.

15. Onion Site Directories

Specialized spiders keep onion site lists up to date by removing inactive addresses. Here are some directories to help you find current .onion addresses:

  • CB3ROB: Database of about 4,000 working onion sites (currently inactive).
  • Daniel’s onions: Database of 7,000 addresses.
  • Fresh Onions: Open-source directory with over 5,000 unique addresses.
  • onionsoup: Curated list of dozens of onion services.
  • UnderDir: Database of 25,000 onion services (most inactive).
  • VisiTOR: Database of 5,000 addresses.

Conclusion

Most onion services disappear within hours of creation, often used for testing or experimentation. This offers a unique opportunity for quick, anonymous information sharing. However, finding legitimate content can be challenging. With affordable hardware like Android devices or Raspberry Pi, anyone can create an anonymous online presence without providing personal data, registering, or paying third-party providers.

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