Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: jonjon2 on July 06, 2012, 06:22 am

Title: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: jonjon2 on July 06, 2012, 06:22 am
i've been tryin to open some files about how to make meth and a few other things .. and every time i try it comes up with this popup .. 

"An external application is needed to handle:

http://***********.onion/*****/****************.pdf

NOTE: External applications are NOT Tor safe by default and can unmask you!

If this file is untrusted, you should either save it to view while offline or in a VM,
or consider using a transparent Tor proxy like Tails LiveCD or torsocks."
 
oh and 1 more thing whats a VM .. i'm a proper newb .. i know lol
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: jonjon2 on July 06, 2012, 07:26 am
so no1 fukin knows eh
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: LouisCyphre on July 06, 2012, 01:50 pm
An external application is needed to handle:

http://***********.onion/*****/****************.pdf

NOTE: External applications are NOT Tor safe by default and can unmask you!

This is one of the reasons why people need to be careful with PDFs and some other files.  That kind of thing is essentially reporting back to the site it rfers to that you are opening it.  Tracking you, basically.

A VM is a virtual machine.
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: kmfkewm on July 06, 2012, 09:17 pm
Opening PDFs in VMs without access to the internet, or in VMs that can only route through Tor, goes a long way towards protecting yourself when viewing PDFs. It isn't perfect, but it does offer substantial protection.
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: vlad1m1r on July 06, 2012, 10:33 pm
i've been tryin to open some files about how to make meth and a few other things .. and every time i try it comes up with this popup .. 

"An external application is needed to handle:

http://***********.onion/*****/****************.pdf

NOTE: External applications are NOT Tor safe by default and can unmask you!

If this file is untrusted, you should either save it to view while offline or in a VM,
or consider using a transparent Tor proxy like Tails LiveCD or torsocks."
 
oh and 1 more thing whats a VM .. i'm a proper newb .. i know lol

This is the reason I upload books in ePub format, no pesky java exploits (at least as far as I know - anyone?)

V.
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: oscarzululondon on July 06, 2012, 11:01 pm
This is the reason I upload books in ePub format, no pesky java exploits (at least as far as I know - anyone?)

They're much safer than PDF's although even ePub's should never ever ever ever ever ever be opened on any kind of mobile Apple device, including iPhones, iPads and iPods. This only specifically applies to iOS devices, so mobile Apple stuff.
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: jonjon2 on July 07, 2012, 02:04 pm
thanks guys appreciate all your comments :-)
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: jonjon2 on July 07, 2012, 02:17 pm
Opening PDFs in VMs without access to the internet, or in VMs that can only route through Tor, goes a long way towards protecting yourself when viewing PDFs. It isn't perfect, but it does offer substantial protection.

hmm intresting how would i do that exactly .. i'd prefer to use a VM that will route through tor tor as this would be easier thanks
Title: Re: how do you open pdf files etc safely, please help
Post by: vlad1m1r on July 08, 2012, 06:13 pm
set up a second vm or computer that runs tor and only accepts incoming connections from the internal network on port 9050

Would it be easier to load the TAILS live CD and download the PDF into the virtual memory and open it from there? I'm just wondering if this might be easier to do than create a VM? All thoughts are welcome.

V.