v2 onion services deprecation, improvements to Tor Browser, LGBTQIA+ rights & internet freedom
Onion service admins must upgrade to v3 onion services as soon as possible
If you are an onion site administrator, you must upgrade to v3 onion services as soon as possible.
As we announced last year, v2 onion services will be deprecated and obsolete in Tor 0.4.6.x. As of April 2021, Tor Browser Alpha uses this version of Tor and v2 addresses no longer work in this and future versions of Tor Browser Alpha.
When Tor Browser stable moves to Tor 0.4.6.x in October 2021, v2 onion addresses will be completely unreachable.
Why are we deprecating v2 onion services? Safety. Technologies used in v2 onion services are vulnerable to different kinds of attacks, and v2 onion services are no longer being developed or maintained. The new version of onion services provides improved encryption and enhanced privacy for administrators and users.
It's critical that onion service administrators migrate to v3 onion services and work to inform users about this change as soon as possible.
We're excited to announce that Snowflake will be shipped as one of the default bridge options with stable versions of Tor Browser later this month.
What is Snowflake? Snowflake is a pluggable transport that uses a combination of domain fronting and peer-to-peer WebRTC connections between clients and volunteers to circumvent Internet censorship. Snowflake is highly censorship resistant, and used only for the initial bootstrapping of the connection. As such, it requires much lower bandwidth and shorter connections than existing domain fronting pluggable transports like meek, making it a more scalable alternative.
Every June, we recognize Pride month because internet freedom and the human rights of LGBTQIA+ people go hand in hand.
LGBTQIA+ people have the right to access information, resources, and community relevant to their identities without being tracked, surveilled, censored, or persecuted—but in many parts of the world, governments block LGBTQIA+ content and punish people who engage with it. As a result, LGBTQIA+ people need privacy and censorship circumvention tools like Tor to communicate with their peers, find important resources, or fight for their rights without facing violence.
(June 30) Tor 0.4.6.6 makes several small fixes on 0.4.6.5, including one that allows Tor to build correctly on older versions of GCC. You should upgrade to this version if you were having trouble building Tor 0.4.6.5; otherwise, there is probably no need. Full changelog.
(June 21) This version updates Tor to 0.4.5.9, including important security fixes. In addition, on Android, this version updates Firefox to 89.1.1, and NoScript to 11.2.8. Full changelog.
(June 14) After months of work, we have a new stable release series! Because this release includes security fixes, we are also releasing updates for our other supported releases. Full changelog.
(June 11) This version updates Firefox to 78.11esr and Fenix to 89.0. In addition, Tor Browser 10.5a16 updates Tor to 0.4.6.4-rc. This version includes important security updates to Firefox for Desktop and security updates for Android. Full changelog.
(June 2) This version updates Firefox to 78.11esr. In addition, Tor Browser 10.0.17 updates NoScript to 11.2.8, HTTPS Everywhere to 2021.4.15, and Tor to 0.4.5.8. This version includes important security updates to Firefox for Desktop. Full changelog.
The Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open-source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and furthering their scientific and popular understanding.
