maximousblk · September 8, 2020 06:29 · Sep 8, 2020
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+# Host your own Tor hidden service!
+
+A super simple guide to spinning up a Tor hidden service. [[tl;dr]](#tldr)
+
+Ubuntu 20.04 LTS was used for the making of this guide.
+
+### Install Tor
+
+you can install Tor using the following command
+
+
+```sh
+sudo apt install torbrowser-launcher
+```
+
+This package includes everything you need to run a Tor hidden service and to browse them.
+
+If you're running this on a server and don't need the browser, you can install the standalone Tor daemon using the following command
+
+```sh
+sudo apt install tor
+```
+
+### Config
+
+you need to look for a `torrc` file which will most probably be in the `/etc/tor` directory. open it in an editor. you'll need to use `sudo` because it is a protected file.
+
+```sh
+#nano
+sudo nano /etc/tor/torrc
+
+#vim
+sudo vim /etc/tor/torrc
+```
+
+Look for the following lines.
+
+```conf
+############### This section is just for location-hidden services ###
+
+## Once you have configured a hidden service, you can look at the
+## contents of the file ".../hidden_service/hostname" for the address
+## to tell people.
+##
+## HiddenServicePort x y:z says to redirect requests on port x to the
+## address y:z.
+
+#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
+#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80
+```
+
+you need to uncomment these lines and update accordingly
+
+```conf
+HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
+HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:PORT
+```
+
+Where `PORT` is the port number on which your application is accessible on the localhost.
+
+For this guide, we're going to use a simple directory listing server.
+
+If you have NodeJS installed, you can use the following command to start the server.
+
+```sh
+npx serve -l 5000
+```
+
+Alternatively, if you have Python 3 installed, you can use the following command to start a python http server.
+
+```sh
+python3 -m http.server --bind 127.0.0.1 5000
+```
+
+So our `torrc` file now looks like following
+
+```conf
+HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
+HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:5000
+```
+
+### Start Tor
+
+Now that everything is configured, you can start the Tor service by using the following command.
+
+```sh
+sudo tor
+```
+
+Upon starting tor for the first time, a new `.onion` address will be generated for you. you can get the address using the following command
+
+```sh
+sudo cat /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/hostname
+```
+
+If you've changed the `HiddenServiceDir` setting in the `torrc` file, you can find the hostname in `<HiddenServiceDir>/hostname` file.
+
+Anyone can now visit this address using Tor Browser to use your website.
+
+## tl;dr
+
+This is a pretty short guide though. But anyways...
+
+**Install Tor**
+
+```sh
+sudo apt install tor
+```
+
+**Config**
+
+```sh
+echo -e "HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/\nHiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:5000" | sudo tee -a /etc/tor/torrc
+```
+
+**Start server**
+
+```sh
+# NodeJS
+npx serve -l 5000
+
+# Python 3
+python3 -m http.server --bind 127.0.0.1 5000
+```
+
+**Start Tor**
+
+```sh
+sudo tor
+```
+
+**Get hostname**
+
+```sh
+sudo cat /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/hostname
+```
+
+And just like that, your web app is deployed on Tor. Now get off my lawn ι(｀ロ´)ノ
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