[tor-talk] How to build circuits manually to request a different Tor exit IP address?

Mike mikely at riseup.net
Wed Feb 5 15:45:04 UTC 2020


On Tue, 04 Feb 2020 06:26:05 +0000 yoehoduv at protonmail.com wrote:

> If all you need is another random circuit, the SocksPort option in
> torrc takes isolation flags.  IsolateSOCKSAuth is on by default which
> means for every SOCKS username / password pair you get a different
> circuit.

For my particular case setting up separate SocksPort for each
connection would be an overkill. Let me explain shortly:

Suppose I want to update N different RSS feeds which are hosted on IP
addresses owned by one or few big tech companies - a network activity
with a very recognizable pattern. Such pattern then can be correlated
to other identifiable information which makes tracking (or creating a
shadow profile of) a person easier.

So to minimize the possibility of such patterning I am willing to:

(1) refresh each feed from a different IP address
(2) at (more or less) different times
(3) perhaps using a different *popular* user agent string (but I still
don't know which ones are the most used ones for RSS readers).

On this mailing list I am hoping to find an efficient solution to (1).
Currently I do it like:

----------
#!/bin/bash
oldip=$(torsocks dig @resolver1.opendns.com ANY myip.opendns.com +short)
newip="${oldip}"
while [ "${newip}" == "${oldip}" ]
do
    # Request new identity as described in http://vt5hknv6sblkgf22.onion/faq.html#how-do-i-request-a-new-identity-from-tor
    newip=$(torsocks dig @resolver1.opendns.com ANY myip.opendns.com +short)
done
----------

I am willing to avoid the call to an external service for checking the
current and new IP address. On tor-relay list I was told that the best
way is to build circuits manually. Unfortunately I don't know how to do
it, so I am asking here.

I hope that clarifies.


More information about the tor-talk mailing list