-
Tor has announced that it is upgrading one of its foremost and oldest encryption mechanisms to a new algorithm known as Counter Galois Onion.
-
The new algorithm replaces the tor-1 algorithm, changing from a weak 4-byte digest to a sophisticated 16-byte authenticator.
-
This new structure also brings in immediate forward secrecy, making sure that all browsing session traffic remains undecryptable, even though a secret key is affected.
In a significant announcement for cybersecurity and decentralized space, the Tor Project is launching a crucial encryption overhaul. According to its November 24th blog post, this new overhaul will bring in a novel protocol called Counter Galois Onion (or CGO).
This step signifies one of the largest architectural upgrades to the Tor system’s core encryption algorithms in almost 20 years. For those new to the subject, Tor is the gateway to the dark web, a hidden network we explain in our Dark Web 101: The Complete Beginner’s Guide. This will change how data is protected as it transitions between various relays.
Tor Upgrades to the Counter Galois Onion Algorithm
This overhaul goes beyond mere software upgrade to directly mitigating both theoretical and practical flaws located in Tor’s legacy encryption mechanism, which it calls Tor1. By changing this outmoded cipher, the Tor Project is both fixing known vulnerabilities and safeguarding the network for the future.
According to The Tor Project (a non-profit organization that maintains the Tor Browser and Tor network to defend online freedom and privacy), the release of CGO is headed by the novel Rust-based Tor implementation called Arti. Also, in its existing C-based core, this underscores its dedication to incorporating modern, academically-intensive cryptography. Tor boasts that this will protect the millions of users who depend on its network for journalism, free speech, and even personal security.
How CGO Tackles Traffic Tracing
As per the blog post, the most alluring motivation behind the application of CGO is in the nullification of tagging attacks. The firm notes that its legacy Tor1 design employed a malleable stream cipher called AES-128–CTR for all circuit encryption.
This implies that a threat actor situated at both ends of a circuit could manipulate a pattern into the encrypted details at the ingress point and observe a predictable adjustment at the egress point.
Therefore, this manipulation functions as a covert channel or “tag,” and enables threat actors to connect two endpoints of the circuit. This allows third parties to adequately deanonymize the customer.
Notably, CGO mitigates this problem by introducing a mechanism called Rugged Pseudorandom Permutation (RPRP). According to Tor’s post, this construction ensures that even if a threat actor compromises any portion of the encrypted message, the overall cell becomes unrecoverable.
Thus, it uses an “all-or-nothing” protection mechanism, which destroys the threat actor’s ability to leverage predictable manipulation to trace traffic.
Tor noted that prominent cryptographers built the CGO, and its UIV and building blocks change with every message through a broad, wide-block construction. This immediately neutralizes the malicious tagging method that had long posed a consistent threat to the dark web.
Implications for User Experience and Anonymity
According to Tor, the launching of CGO promises a more sophisticated and protected experience for users, especially those who depend on age-old circuits like Onion Services. Tor also stated that this new algorithm provides immediate forward secrecy, an essential security feature found mostly in recent messaging applications like Signal.
This major security upgrade makes it a better time than ever to safely explore the legitimate and fascinating parts of the hidden internet. If you must visit, for a curated list of where to start, see our guide to the best dark web sites.
