.onion
.onion is a Special-Use - top-level domain for the use of hidden services (German: Hidden Service) in anonymizer The Onion Routing (gate). The .onion addresses are not part of the DNS , but can be interpreted by applications if they are sent through a proxy into the Tor network. Such addresses are used to make both the recipient and the provider of the data or their flow difficult to trace, both with one another and with another host or others.
standardization
In October 2015, onion was registered as a special-use domain name with RFC 7686 and entered in the IANA registration database in accordance with the requirements of RFC 6761 . The proposed Internet standard defines how participants should treat the .onion name and how they should behave with it.
Access without a Tor client
There are services that allow access to .onion via their own proxy without the user being in the actual Tor network. Often only the ending .onion has to be replaced by another ending in a corresponding URL . In this scenario, both the operator of the proxy and the service in the Tor network can identify the user using the IP address or browser characteristics.
See also
- List of known onion services in the Tor network
- Anonymity on the internet
- Self data protection
- Provider privilege
Web links
- Tor: Design and Concept - Website: torproject.org (English)
- Registration database website
- .onion.cab Example of access without a Tor client
- .tor2web.org Example of access without a Tor client
Usage examples
Examples of services with an .onion address include: