[Whonix-devel] Major Updates for Qubes + Whonix!

Mon Mar 16 23:36:51 CET 2015

Hello everyone, WhonixQubes here. :)

I wanted to finally update you on some major updates with the Qubes + Whonix platform that have been accomplished over the past few months.

TLDR Summary:

Qubes + Whonix is the seamless combination of Qubes OS and Whonix OS for best-in-class Security + Anonymity.

The Qubes + Whonix port has been fundamentally upgraded to a native seamless architecture (ProxyVM + AppVM).

Qubes + Whonix is now easy to install (Install Guide available on the wiki) and most all of the past usability issues have been fixed.

We now have upstream integration into the Qubes codebase and templates repository.

We now have newly updated documentation guides on our wiki with more to come soon.

Based on Qubes OS R2 and Whonix OS 9.6, the current newly released versions of the new Qubes + Whonix RPM templates is 2.1.8 and DEB updates package is 9.6.2.

Qubes + Whonix Primary Sources:

- Wiki:    whonix.org/wiki/Qubes
- Forum:   whonix.org/forum/Qubes
- Blog:    whonix.org/blog/Qubes
- Tracker: whonix.org/tracker/Qubes

Full Version:

First: What is Qubes + Whonix all about?

Qubes OS (qubes-os.org) is one of the most secure OS architectures you will ever encounter that is able to withstand greater attack due to its advanced isolation properties.

Whonix OS (whonix.org) is a Tor-based virtual machine OS for anonymizing all of your traffic through Tor in a meaningfully more optimal and secure way than normal.

Qubes + Whonix is the seamless combination of Qubes OS and Whonix OS for best-in-class Security + Anonymity.

New Architecture:

Last year, I accomplished the first port of Whonix OS over to Qubes OS.

Now, with big thanks to nrgaway, we have a new -- much improved -- seamless combination of Qubes + Whonix.

The new Qubes + Whonix is a much more natively integrated, seamless and easy to use combination of Qubes + Whonix.

Instead of the old TwoHVM architecture, we now make use of a seamless ProxyVM + AppVM architecture.

The Whonix-Workstation is installed as an AppVM in Qubes, which is where your user applications reside, and all of their traffic gets forced through the separate Whonix-Gateway Tor ProxyVM.

The Whonix-Gateway is installed as a ProxyVM in Qubes, which is where your Tor connection proxy resides, and is securely isolated so that malware can't simply circumvent your Tor connection to easily find out your real identity, as it can with other Tor systems.

With the new architecture, we have seamless GUI desktop integration with Qubes OS.

And we have Qubes tools integration that allow for things like easy-and-secure copy/paste as well as easy-and-secure file moving between VMs.

>From the base TemplateVMs, you can dynamically generate as many Whonix VMs as you please, to use simultaneously, for more optimal anonymous workspace isolation.

The new native port architecture of Qubes + Whonix is much more useful.

Upsteam Integration and Install/Updates:

The Qubes team has enjoyed our work on Qubes + Whonix and we now have upstream integration in the Qubes codebase and templates repository.

This also means that installation is very easy to do via the RPM packages (Install Guide available on the wiki).

Also, much of the Qubes + Whonix code has been moved out of the Qubes template builder codebase to an independent Whonix package called "qubes-whonix".

This qubes-whonix package will now allow us to push more convenient updates to Qubes + Whonix without always needing to rebuild and reinstall the underlying TemplateVMs.

So install and update are much improved.

Qubes + Whonix Packages:

There are now three packages specific to the Qubes + Whonix platform now:

- Whonix-Gateway TemplateVM which comes as a RPM package in Qubes and is currently at version 2.1.8.

- Whonix-Workstation TemplateVM which comes as a RPM package in Qubes and is currently at version 2.1.8.

- qubes-whonix which comes as a DEB updates package in Whonix and is currently at version 9.6.2.

These current versions are based on Qubes OS R2 and Whonix OS 9.6.

New and Improved Documentation:

We have new documentation for Qubes + Whonix on our wiki (whonix.org/wiki/Qubes).

Here you can learn more about the platform and get some primary guides on how to work with Qubes + Whonix.

The new documentation was just recently launched and more is being added throughout the near-term future.

To learn more, go check it out the wiki documentation for yourself.

Also, the general Whonix wiki has extensive knowledge available about optimizing your Tor-based anonymity.

So, if you want to supercharge your Security + Anonymity, then feel free to try out Qubes + Whonix.

Also, if you've got skills, feel free to get in touch and join in on the development effort of the Qubes + Whonix platform.

More improvements coming soon.

Thanks everyone! :)

WhonixQubes

Qubes + Whonix Primary Sources:

- Wiki:    whonix.org/wiki/Qubes
- Forum:   whonix.org/forum/Qubes
- Blog:    whonix.org/blog/Qubes
- Tracker: whonix.org/tracker/Qubes

This post has been automatically cross-posted by whonix.org/blog To see the original (including links), go to https://www.whonix.org/blog/major-updates-for-qubes-whonix