What is preventing the "Exit Node" from tampering with the message going to the server, or the message coming back to the user. As far as I understand, the "Exit Node" can read the unencrypted message, and there is nothing stopping it from tampering with the message, adding some sort of Trojan?
3 Answers
The best option to avoid exits tampering or inspecting your traffic is to only use encrypted protocols over Tor exit nodes. That means HTTPS, primarily, but if you're using another protocol (such as IMAP, for checking mail, or IRC) ensure it is the "over TLS" version.
The Tor Project monitors exit nodes and if one is found to be misbehaving, they can make sure that it has a "badexit" flag on the network and no middle nodes will send traffic there.
There is a community at Tor that specializes in bad relays. Check out their website if you want to know more about what they do.
answered Jan 28, 2020 at 16:23
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Can you back up "no middle nodes will send traffic there"? AFAICT the client is responsible for avoiding BadExits. Mar 9, 2020 at 2:20
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I provided the information that the Tor Project provided on the page that I linked to. I don't work on that team and you will need to contact them directly for more detail. Mar 9, 2020 at 17:32
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I read the page you linked but I don't read it the same way. Hence I checked the spec, which doesn't mention middle relays dropping the traffic. Mar 9, 2020 at 22:02
The answer is - It can't be trusted Tor is a network with just an alternative routing scheme, so you're up to yourself to guard your SSL, TLS and so forth... Even more: a malicious exit nodes are catched from time to time, so - unless you're maintaining a full-scale security on your side - Tor is totally not a remedy for this
answered Jul 2, 2021 at 22:25
