[tor-talk] Tor over SSH (torsocks) (?)

[blobby at openmailbox.org]

On 2015-02-16 22:56, Dave Warren wrote:
> On 2015-02-16 03:30, blobby at openmailbox.org wrote:
>> On 2015-02-16 02:31, Dave Warren wrote:
>>> On 2015-02-15 16:35, Mirimir wrote:
>>>> On 02/15/2015 02:22 PM, blobby at openmailbox.org wrote:
>>>>> I want to login to my VPS over SSH.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Is torsocks still a safe way to do this? A lot of the documentation
>>>>> (such as it is) is several years old.
>>>> I prefer to run an SSH hidden service on the VPS.
>>> 
>>> I'd tend to agree; if you control the endpoint, set it up as a hidden
>>> service rather than having Tor exit node involved at all.
>>> 
>>> While running hidden services alongside non-hidden services 
>>> introduces
>>> some risks, most of these are less significant when connecting to SSH
>>> on a server that you control.
>> 
>> I don't think I phrased my question very well. I'm not running a 
>> hidden server. I'm just logging in to a shared VPS to ftp. etc, rather 
>> than logging in to a control panel over HTTPS.
>> 
>> I just want a simple way to do "ssh IP port" but with Tor.
> 
> Understood. But the suggestion is that you SHOULD run a hidden server
> to listen for SSH connections over Tor as this will be far more
> reliable and secure than having to rely on an exit node.
> 
> The rest of the server doesn't need to be a hidden server, and SSH can
> still listen as both a Tor hidden server and a regular public server,
> but by making it a hidden server within Tor, you remove one of the
> major risk factors of using Tor: The exit node.


Thanks for the advice. I understand what you are saying. My point is 
that, to me at this moment, setting up a hidden service on my VPS sounds 
somewhat intimidating. I realise that to you and most technical people 
on this list, it's something trivial. I am not a "naturally" technical 
person (if we can divide people up into technical and non-technical 
segments). Hence, to you and your ilk, what is normal and easy, appears 
complicated and demanding to people like me.

At the same time, perhaps I'm wrong and it's easy to set-up a hidden 
server to look for SSH connections? Perhaps I'm assuming that things are 
harder than they are in order to persuade myself not to learn. I'm also 
"time poor" at the moment which doesn't help!