Bonum Certa Men Certa

Tor Compromised by Microsoft Windows, Not Mozilla Firefox

Tor logo



Summary: Correcting irresponsible press coverage which rather than discourage use of Windows discourages use of Tor and Free software such as Firefox

A lot of Mozilla flaws routinely affect only Windows users, but corporate media is too negligent to point out the real weak links. Windows is just assumed to be a given; it is almost like journalists at corporate media try to reinforce the Microsoft monopoly with all the security holes.



"The Internet as a whole is being compromised by Microsoft yet again (not just botnets and spam)."Firefox is being blamed for what's essentially a Windows issue that let Tor be compromised. Some try to say that the NSA was not behind it, but an FBI Tor exploit and analysis of IP blocks does suggest that the US government was behind the cracking of Tor, exploiting Windows (which has NSA back doors).

Addressing this Microsoft/NSA issue, one blogger writes: "I like the expression, “Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water.” I almost used it to open this article, but I didn’t. It would be inaccurate. Nobody in his right mind would consider the Internet waters safe at this junction in time."

The Internet as a whole is being compromised by Microsoft yet again (not just botnets and spam). Tor with Microsoft sure makes a scary spectacle and a dangerous one for human rights.

Sean Michael Kerner says he foresaw this:

Approximately two and a half years ago, Tor (The Onion Router) Web anonymity project announced that was was going to build its own Web browser, to be known as the Tor Browser.

The Tor network provides a way for users to anonymize their online activities by running data packets through a number of "onion routers" that are servers that relay the user traffic but not the original header information (which indicates the user IP address). Prior to the Tor Browser, what many users did (myself included) was to simply use the Tor Button, which was a Firefox add-on that enabled Tor access on top of Firefox.

The Tor people back in 2011 thought that the Tor Button was a less-than-ideal solution and that building their own browser was a better idea. I wrote a blog post in May of 2011 warning of the risks of that approach and that it could lead to ruin.

I was right.


This is a problem only on Windows though. It is a shame that the press does not properly cover this crucial point. it leaves people more vulnerable to illegal intrusion.

Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 86 Out of 200: The Position of Courts on Computer-Generated Lawsuits and Filings From Another Continent (Made by Two Men Who Work for Slop Companies)
Lawsuits by proxy from California
 
A Promise IBM/Red Hat Could Not Keep
"all about control, not so much optics."
Links 25/05/2026: Russia Lobbing Oreshnik Ballistic Missile Again, Slop Comes Under More Fire
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2026: Injury in Gym and Abusive LLMs DDoSing Software Developers While Misusing Their Code
Links for the day
A 'Bank Holiday' When National Debt Doubles in a Decade
Maybe it's time to rename "Bank Holidays"
Links 25/05/2026: Lingering Environmental Concerns and Domain Registrars Targeted for Unmasking
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 24, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, May 24, 2026
Gemini Links 24/05/2026: Impressions of Auckland, the Age of Left or Right Extremism, and .zim files
Links for the day
Microsoft's 'Hiring Freeze' (Layoffs) and Salary Freeze (While Inflation Approaches Double-Digit Rates)
If they get replaced by anyone, it'll be low-paid folks in low-salary regions [...] workers' stress levels shoot up, compensation goes down
Slop Will Not End Humanity, The Pushers of It Do (Artificial Scarcities and Global Warming)
Causing hunger and poverty in the name of "computation"
How Can the 'Broligarchs' Love Us When They Don't Even Love Themselves?
Their SLAPPs have their limits
Death at IBM Due to Overwork
Dying for IBM is never worth it
We Publish Less, We Get More Exposure
UbuntuPit is coming to realise that quantity isn't what comes to matter or truly "count", especially when quantity comes at expense of authenticity
Codecs and Software Patents - Part IX - GNU Project Has Chosen to Adopt AV1 for Its Videos, Conversion and Additions Underway
One of our readers is working to help GNU through the maze of software patents and maze of patent lawsuits, which aren't the same thing but are somewhat overlapping issues
Links 24/05/2026: SoftBank CEO Getting Conned by Scam Altman, Hotter 2026 and El Nino With Growing Impact
Links for the day
Links 24/05/2026: Ebola Outbreak and "Journalists Identify Murder Victims Of Trump’s Boat Strike Program"
Links for the day
IAM Magazine is in Effect Dead, It's Now Fused Into Microsoft's Patent Troll (Which It Has Promoted All Along)
Microsoft-connected patent trolls in Europe [...] Now, in his new job, Wild can use his 'expertise' to help guide blackmail/extortion to better harm Europe's industry
A Huge Proportion of 'Articles' in The Register MS Are Actually Paid Spam of the Communist Party of China, Selling Compromised (for Wiretapping) Technology
The Register MS is having a go at becoming a marketing company or "B2B"
Top Officials Have Just Left Microsoft, Layoffs in Anything But Name
Microsoft's debt is very fast-growing
Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) Meets "Alicante Mafia" at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Report on meeting with VP1 and his team on 21 April 2026
UbuntuPit (ubuntupit.com) Has Deleted Slop Pages, Its Slopfarm Experiment Has Failed (Like Always!)
Turning one's site into a slopfarm is a death knell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 23, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, May 23, 2026
The "Next Big" Bonus for IBM's CEO Apparently Comes From American Taxpayers While Veteran IBMers Are PIP'd and RA'd (Laid Off)
the next big thing will be the CEO's bonus
Links 23/05/2026: Starbucks Scraps Disastrous Slopfest, Colbert’s Final ‘Late Show’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Poetry, Hobbies, ROOPHLOCH, and More
Links for the day
Government Bailouts Won't be Enough to Save IBM
Bailouts from taxpayers in the US
Links 23/05/2026: Social Media Bans and Demise of Userbase of LLM Chatbots
Links for the day
Legal Letters Are Not Postcards
It seems like intimidation, nothing more
SLAPP Censorship - Part 85 Out of 200: The United Kingdom's Rating for Press Freedom Has Improved, But We Can Do Even Better
we see the US at #64
Sites Realise That Becoming More Active by Using Bots (LLM Slop) is Self-Destructive
We'll soon (maybe next year) also show that some of the 85+ KG of legal papers sent our way are computer-generated garbage, which might run afoul of some rules
European Patent Office (EPO) Strikes Persist, EPO Management Tries to Give False Impression of "Happy Staff"
EPO is trying to broadcast to the world a totally phony image of itself
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Patience, LLM Chatbts Being Bad, and Unexpected Computer Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 22, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 22, 2026