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There are several questions on how to enable plugins on Tor, all answered.

My question is simple, how can I add Flash and/or Silverlight plugins in Tor and make sure they actually work, and please don't give me that "oh your security is blown" talk.

I would actually like to see these plugins working, even if just as a proof-of-concept, because everyone says it supports them but they are disabled by default, but after trying everything I could find, it still doesn't work.

I've whitelisted sites, I've installed 32 bit versions of the extensions, enabled them in noscript, etc., but my add-ons page always comes up empty.

If this is not possible, we should stop saying it is and just accept it isn't.

If it IS possible, then please help me checking what I have to do that I haven't done yet.

How can I use silverlight with Tor?

Why can't Tor Browser use Adobe Flash Player?

Can Tor be used with Netflix or Hulu?

Silverlight not working

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  • There is no such thing as the untickable button (any more?). As of today there is absolutely no way to make Tor have Silverlight so you are in fact fully unable to watch Netflix with the U.S collection of movies. we are all very sorry.
    – user16466
    Commented Feb 26, 2017 at 11:59
  • Similar question, SO.... someone that is behind restricted firewall... china, (OR.. say... a connection partially blocked by isp because of not paying your bill.... hypothetically). Say they can surf normally under their situation thanks to TOR, but would like to watch Netflix. This is not possible? To use TOR to breach the restriction, yet watch whatever show? Not surfing DarkWeb or anything else really. just a situational fix.
    – Lenard Nemoy
    Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 8:16
  • last time I checked, netflix didn't work because the version of tor didn't support some of later browsers features. it falled back to an old version but even that didn't work. it's fun to play around but netflix is usually smart enough to either not work, or become so slow to the point it becomes unusable. you should give it a try and experience it for yourself - as things keep changing - but maybe proxy or vpn might be a better alternative. in my case I ended up giving up. I can use legit neflix on another device/network if I really want, or download for offline use perhaps (never tried it)
    – Tiago Duarte
    Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 8:52

2 Answers 2

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Look, using plug-ins in the Tor Browser is the same as using your default browser. Any protection from Tor is lost because the plugins COMPLETELY IGNORE THE PROXY SETTINGS.

If you want to use plugins, don't use Tor. Trying to use both at the same time is most wasted effort. The only difference between doing this and using your normal browser is the fact that your normal browser already has the plugins installed.

In fact, it'd be easier to set up a local Tor proxy, and tell your default browser to use that. Since plugins ignore the proxy, you'll get the exact same effect as on the Tor Browser.

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  • and again we're tackling a different problem. I am saying "let's prove we can have plugins in Tor" and you are saying "you can't have privacy with plugins". I'm sure this is a valid point, but it's just completely unrelated to what I am asking. if the plugin turns out to ignore proxy settings so be it, but in the end of the day all I want is to to see a plugin in Tor's plugins area
    – Tiago Duarte
    Commented Oct 27, 2016 at 15:18
  • Tiago Duarte well if you like remote code execution and deanonymization then there's literally a tickbox thats says it does exactly this under Tor Buttons Privacy and Security Settings. "if plugin turns out to" isn't the question, the question is "under what circumstances will it?" and thats not something you can comprehensively test for.
    – cacahuatl
    Commented Oct 27, 2016 at 17:13
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    Tiago, you should know by now that there is literally no valid reason to use plugins in Tor. At the end of the day, you can waste your own time getting to figure it out, because there's no valid reason for anyone to want to do this.
    – SuperSluether
    Commented Oct 27, 2016 at 18:32
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    "Let's prove we can have plugins in Tor" is the same as saying "Let's just use regular Firefox"
    – SuperSluether
    Commented Oct 27, 2016 at 18:33
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Documenting my findings in case it helps someone else.

Requisites

Tor > Privacy and Security settings > uncheck "Disable browser plugins (such as Flash)"

enter image description here

To Install Adobe Flash (23.0.0.205)

1) open https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

2) download and install flash (uncheck 3rd party software)

note: installer file is deleted after installation

3) open add-ons page, plugins, set flash to activate always

enter image description here

4) test flash: https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

enter image description here

To Install Silverlight (5.1.50901.0) - Unsuccessful

1) open https://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx

2) download and install silverlight

3) open add-ons page, plugins, set silverlight to activate always

4) test silverlight: https://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/default.aspx

Findings:

  • in "about:config" there is a property plugin.scan.plid.all. AFAIK this is responsible for finding plugins in the system on every run
  • file pluginreg.dat (about:support, click "show folder") shows detected plugins but is unable to find silverlight (32 or 64 bit). in firefox it works immediately
  • some people have been trying to use Tor for watching Netflix. aside from arguing how bad this is/looks, Netflix offers HTML5 support from Firefox 47, so anything below that will offer Silverlight instead. tweaking the user agent doesn't seem to help, as there are likely browser features required for the video rendering; another way to overcome this is to run actual firefox 47+ with a local Tor proxy (open Tor, copy proxy settings to firefox). in this case, technically everything will work, however, Netflix has recently implemented a validation that will detect proxies and block the service
  • in conclusion, plugins do work, but perhaps there is some kind of issue with Tor finding Silverlight as a valid plugin. anyway, in a couple of months firefox will also drop NAPI support

Notes/Further reading

Mozilla plans to drop support for all NPAPI plugins except for Flash in March 2017, when Firefox version 52 is released.

Netflix HTML5 requires Firefox v47+

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  • 4
    "set flash to activate always" ROFL holy shit. Have you any idea how long it took for infosec to disable that and make it click-to-play to avoid exploit kits owning everyone? That's a terrible idea and certainly not good advice for anyone, let alone Tor users even ones dumb enough to think Flash is acceptable.
    – cacahuatl
    Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 11:49
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    Hey Tiago, thank you for documenting what you have found, upvoted for having contributed your answer. Would you happen to know if it's possible to get a webRTC plugin for Tor? I made a post here: tor.stackexchange.com/questions/14660/getting-webrtc-on-tor and I'll be looking into if your solution is possible for my case.
    – Webeng
    Commented Apr 27, 2017 at 15:13
  • @Webeng I am not the best person to answer that, all I can say is that I managed to run plugins on Tor (with all the implications people like to focus on) simply by enabling them in the checkbox mentioned above. I'm guessing if you write a firefox plugin, you should in theory be able to use it in Tor as well (e.g. not sure if this is relevant: support.bluejeans.com/knowledge/firefox-webrtc). I know that there is a lot of hidden stuff in about:config and about:support that can potentially enable stuff, and Tor is a custom FireFox version, e.g. "6.5.2 (based on Mozilla Firefox 45.9.0)"
    – Tiago Duarte
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 0:12
  • @Webeng if you look for how to disable webRTC, you may find how to enable it, e.g. "Set media.peerconnection.enabled to false in about:config.", support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/963501
    – Tiago Duarte
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 0:14

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