After over a year of development, the Tor project has released a utility release OnionShare 2.3 , which allows you to securely and anonymously transfer and receive files, as well as organize the operation of a public file sharing service. The project code is written in Python and is distributed under the GPLv3 license. Ready packages prepared for Ubuntu, Fedora, Windows and macOS.
OnionShare runs a web server on the local system that acts as a hidden Tor service and makes it available to other users. To access the server, an unpredictable onion address is generated, which acts as an entry point for organizing file exchange (for example, “http: //ash4…pajf2b.onion/slug”, where slug are two random words to increase protection). To download or send files to other users, just open this address in the Tor Browser. Unlike sending files by email or through services such as Google Drive, DropBox and WeTransfer, OnionShare is self-contained, does not require access to external servers and allows you to transfer a file directly from your computer without intermediaries.
Other file sharing participants are not required to install OnionShare, just a regular Tor Browser and one instance of OnionShare from one of the users. The confidentiality of the transfer is carried out by the secure transfer of the address, for example, using the end2end encryption mode in the messenger. After completion of the transfer, the address is immediately deleted, i.e. you will not be able to transfer the file a second time in normal mode (requires a separate public mode). A graphical interface is provided on the side of the server running on the user’s system to manage the files sent and received, as well as to control the transfer of data.
Major innovations:
- Added support for tabs that allow you to simultaneously perform several actions in the program. It supports launching four types of services in tabs: providing access to your files, receiving third-party files, managing a local site and chatting. For each service, you can open multiple tabs, for example, you can run multiple local sites and create multiple chats. After a restart, previously opened tabs are saved and linked to the same OnionShare address.
