24 KiB
Usage
Readme
After the system has installed a README file will be generated which contains passwords and some brief advice on using the installed systems. You can read this with the following commands:
ssh username@domainname -p 2222
emacs ~/READMEYou should transfer any passwords to a password manager such as KeepassX and then delete them from the README file. To save the file after removing passwords use CTRL-x CTRL-s.
To exit you can either just close the terminal or use CTRL-x CTRL-c followed by the exit command.
Improving ssh security
To improve ssh security you can generate an ssh key pair on your system and then upload the public key to the Freedombone.
On your local machine:
ssh-keygenFor extra security you may also want to add a passphrase to the ssh private key. You can show the generated public key with:
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pubLog into your system and open the control panel.
ssh username@domain -p 2222Select Administrator controls then Manage Users then Change user ssh public key. Copy and paste the public key here, then exit.
It's a good idea to also copy the contents of ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to you password manager, together with the private key password if you created one.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using ssh keys for logins. The advantage is that this is much more secure than a memorised password, but the disadvantage is that you need to carry your ssh keys around and be able to install them on any computer of mobile device that you use. In high security or hostile infosec environments it may not be possible to carry or use USB thumb drives containing your keys and so memorised passwords may be the only available choice.
If you wish to only use ssh keys then log in to the Freedombone, become the root user and open the control panel with the 'control' command. Select Security Settings then keep hitting enter until you reach the question about allowing password logins. Select "no" for that, then apply the settings. Any subsequent attempts to log in via a password will then be denied.
Administrating the system via an onion address (Tor)
You can also access your system via the Tor system using an onion address. To find out what the onion address for ssh access is you can do the following:
ssh username@freedombone.local -p 2222Select Administrator controls then select "About this system" and look for the onion address for ssh. You can then close the terminal and open another, then do the following on your local system:
freedombone-clientThis will set up your ssh environment to be able to handle onion addresses. In addition if you use monkeysphere then you can do:
freedombone-client --ms yesThen you can test ssh with:
ssh username@address.onion -p 2222Subsequently even if dynamic DNS isn't working you may still be able to administer your system. Using the onion address also gives you some degree of protection against corporate or government metadata analysis, since it becomes more difficult to passively detect which systems are communicating.
Chat Services
XMPP/Jabber
About XMPP
A well written article on the state of XMPP and how it compares to other chat protocols can be found here.
Using with Gajim
In mid 2016 Gajim became the first desktop XMPP client to support the OMEMO end-to-end security standard, which is superior to the more traditional OTR since it also includes multi-user chat and the ratcheting mechanism pioneered by Open Whisper Systems. To install it:
su -c 'echo "deb ftp://ftp.gajim.org/debian unstable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gajim.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install gajim-dev-keyring
sudo apt-get -y install git tor python-dev python-pip gajim-nightly
mkdir ~/.local/share/gajim/plugins -p
cd ~/.local/share/gajim/plugins
git clone https://github.com/omemo/gajim-omemo
sudo pip install protobuf==2.6.1, python-axolotl==0.1.35Open Gajim and enter your XMPP address and password.
Go to Edit/Preferences and select the Advanced tab. Under Global Proxy select Tor and the Close button. Then select Edit/Plugins and make sure that OMEMO is active (ticked), then select the Close button.
When you start a conversation make sure that the OMEMO box is ticked. You can also click on the keys button and trust various fingerprints. Both sides will need to do that before an encrypted chat can start.
If you wish to make backups of the OMEMO keys then they can be found within:
~/.local/share/gajimIf you wish to use OpenPGP to encrypt your messages then go to Edit/Accounts, select your account and then the Personal Information tab. You can then choose your GPG key. When initiating a chat you can select the Advanced button and then select Toggle OpenPGP Encryption. OpenPGP is not as secure as OMEMO, but does allow you to use XMPP in a similar style to email in that the recipient of the message does not necessarily need to be online at the same time that you send it.
Using with Profanity
The Profanity shell based user interface and is perhaps the simplest way to use XMPP from a laptop. It's also a good way to ensure that your OTR keys are the same even when logging in from different laptops or devices, and it also means that if those devices later become compomised then there are no locally stored OTR keys to be found.
ssh username@domain -p 2222Then select XMPP. Generate an OTR key with:
/otr genThen to start a conversation using OTR:
/otr start otherusername@otheruserdomainor if you're already in an insecure chat with someone just use:
/otr startSet a security question and answer:
/otr question "What is the name of your best friends rabbit?" fiffiOn the other side the user can enter:
/otr answer fiffiFor the most paranoid you can also obtain your fingerprint:
/otr myfpand quote that. If they quote theirs back you can check it with:
/otr theirfpIf the fingerprints match then you can be pretty confident that unless you have been socially engineered via the question and answer you probably are talking to who you think you are, and that it will be difficult for mass surveillance systems to know the content of the conversation. For more details see this guide
When accessed via the user control panel the client is automatically routed through Tor and so if you are also using OTR then this provides protection for both message content and metadata.
Using with Jitsi
Jitsi is the recommended communications client for desktop or laptop systems, since it includes the off the record (OTR) feature which provides some additional security beyond the usual SSL certificates.
Jitsi can be downloaded from https://jitsi.org
On your desktop/laptop open Jitsi and select Options from the Tools menu.
Click Add to add a new user, then enter the Jabber ID which you previously specified with prosodyctl when setting up the XMPP server. Close and then you should notice that your status is "Online" (or if not then you should be able to set it to online).
From the File menu you can add contacts, then select the chat icon to begin a chat. Click on the lock icon on the right hand side and this will initiate an authentication procedure in which you can specify a question and answer to verify the identity of the person you're communicating with. Once authentication is complete then you'll be chating using OTR, which provides an additional layer of security.
When opening Jitsi initially you will get a certificate warning for your domain name (assuming that you're using a self-signed certificate). If this happens then select View Certificate and enable the checkbox to trust the certificate, then select Continue Anyway. Once you've done this then the certificate warning will not appear again unless you reinstall Jitsi or use a different computer.
You can also see this video as an example of using OTR.
Using with Ubuntu
The default XMPP client in Ubuntu is Empathy. Using Empathy isn't as secure as using Jitsi, since it doesn't include the off the record feature, but since it's the default it's what many users will have easy access to.
Open System Settings and select Online Accounts, Add account and then Jabber.
Enter your username (username@domainname) and password.
Click on Advanced and make sure that Encryption required and Ignore SSL certificate errors are checked. Ignoring the certificate errors will allow you to use the self-signed certificate created earlier. Then click Done and set your Jabber account and Empathy to On.
Using Tor Messenger
Tor Messenger is a messaging client which supports XMPP, and its onion routing enables you to protect the metadata of chat interactions to some extent by making it difficult for an adversary to know which server is talking to which. You can download Tor Messenger from torproject.org and the setup is pretty simple.
Using with Android/Conversations
Install F-Droid
Search for and install Orbot and Conversations.
Add an account and enter your Jabber/XMPP ID and password.
From the menu select Settings then Expert Settings. Select Connect via Tor and depending on your situation you might also want to select Don't save encrypted messages. Also within expert settings select Keep in foreground. This will enable you to still receive notifications when your device is in standby mode with the screen turned off.
From the menu select Manage accounts and add a new account.
Jabber ID: myusername@mydomain
Password: your XMPP password
Hostname: mydomain
Port: 5222Then select Next. When chatting you can use the lock icon to encrypt your conversation. OMEMO is the recommended type of encryption. It's also going through Tor, so passive surveillance of the metadata should not be easy for an adversary.
Tox
Tox is an encrypted peer-to-peer messaging system and so should work without Freedombone. It uses a system of nodes which act as a sort of directory service allowing users to find and connect to each other. The Tox node ID on the Freedombone can be found within the README within your home directory. If you have other users connect to your node then you will be able to continue chatting even when no other nodes are available.
Using the Toxic client
Log into your system with:
ssh myusername@mydomain -p 2222Then from the menu select Tox Chat. Tox is encrypted by default and also routed through Tor, so it should be reasonably secure both in terms of message content and metadata.
VoIP (Voice and text chat)
Text chat
In addition to voice it is also possible to do text chat via mumble. The security of this is pretty good provided that you do it via Plumble and Orbot on mobile, but compared to other options such as XMPP/Conversations or Tox the security is not as good, since the mumble server currently doesn't support forward secrecy.
Using with Ubuntu
Within the software center search for "mumble" and install the client then run it. Skip through the audio setup wizard.
Click on "add new" to add a new server and enter the default domain name for the Freedombone, your username (which can be anything) and the VoIP server password which can be found in the README file on the Freedombone. Accept the self-signed SSL certificate. You are now ready to chat.
Using with Android
Install F-Droid
If you don't have Orbot installed then enable The Guardian Project repository from the drop down menu and install it.
Search for and install Plumble.
Press the plus button to add a Mumble server.
Enter a label (which can be any name you choose for the server), the default domain name of the Freedombone, your username (which can also be anything) and the VoIP server password which can be found in the README file on the Freedombone.
Open the settings. Select General, then Connect via Tor. This will provide better protection, making it more difficult for adversaries to know who is talking to who.
Selecting the server by pressing on it then connects you to the server so that you can chat with other connected users.
Note: if you don't know the default domain name and you did a full installation then it will be the same as the wiki domain name.
SIP phones
Freedombone also supports SIP phones The username and domain is the same as for your email address, and the SIP password and extension number will appear within the README file in your home directory. Various SIP client options are available, such as CSipSimple on Android and Jitsi on desktop or laptop machines. Ideally use clients which support ZRTP, which will provide the best level of security.
About ZRTP
ZRTP appears to be the current best standard to end-to-end encrypted voice calls, combining good security with simplicity of use. When the initial cryptographic negotiation between phones is done at the start of a call a short authentication string (SAS) is calculated and displayed at both ends. To check that there isn't anyone intercepting the call and acting as a man in the middle - as stingray type devices try to do - the short authentication string can be read out and verbally confirmed between the callers. If it's the same then you can be pretty confident that the call is secure.
Using with CSIPSimple
Add an account. Under General Wizards choose Expert and enter the following details:
| Account name | Your username |
| Account ID | sip:username@yourdomain |
| Registration URI | sip:yourdefaultdomain |
| Realm | * |
| Username | Your username |
| Data (Password) | Your SIP password |
| ZRTP Mode | Create ZRTP |
If everything is working the account should appear in green with a status of Registered.
Using with Ring
From the menu select Manage accounts.
Add an account with the following details:
| Alias | Your full name or nickname |
| Protocol | SIP |
| Hostname | yourdefaultdomain |
| Username | Your username |
| Password | Your SIP password |
Select the Security tab. Under SRTP Key Exchange select ZRTP. Unde SRTP Preferences select Not supported warning and Display SAS Once.
RSS Reader
The way that RSS reading is set up on Freedombone gives you strong reading privacy. Not only is there onion routing between you and the server but also between the server and the source of the RSS feed. The only down side is that many RSS feeds are still http only, and so could be vulnerable to injection attacks, but it's expected that more of this will go to https in the foreseeable future due to a combination of growing recognition of security issues and systems like Let's Encrypt which make obtaining certificates much easier.
Finding the onion address
See the control panel for the RSS reader onion address.
ssh username@domainname -p 2222Select Administrator controls then select the About screen.
The RSS reader is accessible only via an onion address. This provides a reasonable degree of reading privacy, making it difficult for passive adversaries such as governments, corporations or criminals to create lists of sites which you are subscribed to.
To set up the system open http://rss_reader_onion_address and log in with username admin and the password obtained either at the beginning of the install or from the README file in your home directory. You can then select the Actions menu and begin adding your feeds.
On mobile
To access the RSS reader from a mobile device you can install a Tor compatible browser such as OrFox. It will try to automatically change to the mobile version of the user interface. Remember to add the site to the NoScript whitelist, and you may also need to turn HTTPS Everywhere off.
A note for the paranoid is that on mobile devices you get redirected to a different onion address which is specially set up for the mobile interface, so don't be alarmed that it looks like your connection is being hijacked.
With Emacs
If you are an Emacs user then you can also read your RSS feeds via the Avandu mode.
Add the following to your configuration, changing the address and password as appropriate.
(setq avandu-tt-rss-api-url "http://rss_reader_onion_address/api/"
avandu-user "admin"
avandu-password "mypassword")If you don't already have Emacs set up to route through Tor then also add the following:
(setq socks-noproxy '("localhost"))
(require 'socks)
(require 'tls)
(setq socks-server (list "Tor socks" "localhost" 9050 5))And ensure that the Tor daemon is installed:
sudo apt-get install torGit Projects
Github is ok, but it's proprietary and funded by venture capital. If you been around on the internet for long enough then you know how this story eventually works itself out - i.e. badly for the users. It's really only a question of time. If you're a software developer or do things which involve the Git version control system then it's a good idea to become accustomed to hosting your own repositories, before the inevitable Github shitstorm happens.
A Git hosting system called Gogs can optionally be installed. This is very similar to Github in appearance and use. It's lightweight and so well suited for use on low power ARM servers.
Navigate to your git site and click the Register button. The first user registered on the system becomes the administrator. Once you've done that then it's a good idea to disable further registrations. Currently that's a little complicated, but you can do it as follows:
sudo username@domainname -p 2222Select Exit to the comand line.
sudo su
sed -i "s|DISABLE_REGISTRATION =.*|DISABLE_REGISTRATION = true|g" /home/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini
sed -i "s|SHOW_REGISTRATION_BUTTON =.*|SHOW_REGISTRATION_BUTTON = false|g" /home/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini
systemctl restart gogs
exit; exitThis will stop any spam accounts being created by random strangers or bots. You might want to mirror existing repos, and at any time a mirror can be converted into the main repo.
Adding or removing users
Log into the system with:
ssh username@domainname -p 2222Select Administrator controls then User Management. Depending upon the type of installation after selecting administrator controls you might need to enter:
sudo su
control
Blocking Ads
Everyone except for advertisers hates adverts. Not only are they annoying, but they can consume a lot of bandwidth, be a privacy problem in terms of allowing companies to track your browsing habits and also any badly written scripts they contain may introduce exploitable security holes. Also if you're poor then adverts often make you want things that you can't have.
You can block ads for any devices connected to your local network by installing the pihole app from Add/Remove Apps on the administrator control panel. This may help to improve overall performance of your devices by not wasting time downloading unwanted images or scripts.
Also don't expect perfection. Though many ads may be blocked by this system some will still get through. It's a constant cat and mouse game between advertisers and blockers.
Set a static IP address
Ensure that your system has a static local IP address (typically 192.168..) using the option on the control panel. You will also need to know the IP address of your internet router, which is usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254.
When that's done select About this system from the control panel and see the IPv4 address. You can use this as a DNS address in two ways:
On each client system within your local network
sudo chattr -i /etc/resolv.conf
sudo nano /etc/resolv.confComment out any existing entries with a # character and add:
nameserver [IPv4 address from the About screen]Normally resolv.conf will be overwritten every time your reboot, but you can prevent this with:
sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.confOn your internet router
If you can access the settings on your local internet router then this is the simplest way to provide ad blocking for all devices which connect to it. Unfortunately some router models don't let you edit the DNS settings and if that's the case you might want to consider getting a different router.
Edit the DNS settings and add the IPv4 address which you got from the control panel About screen. Exactly how you do this will just depend upon your particular router model. You may also need to set the same address twice, because two addresses are conventional.
LibreCMC
On a router running LibreCMC from the Network menu select DHCP and DNS. Enter the static IP address of your Freedombone system within DNS Forwardings, then at the bottom of the page click on Save & Apply. Any devices which connect to your router will now have ad blocking.
Configuring block lists
You can configure the block lists which the system uses by going to the administrator control panel, selecting App Settings then choosing pihole. You can also add any extra domain names to the whitelist if they're being wrongly blocked or to the blacklist if they're not blocked by the current lists.
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