Switch from v1 or v2 to v3 address on hidden service

Question

I am currently trying to run a hidden service on my kali laptop. Everything is working fine, except the address, which I have been poking around for 2 days trying to get a custom one. I only have these files in my hidden service directory when i do the ls command:

authorized_clients  hs_ed25519_public_key
hostname            hs_ed25519_secret_key

I am following the Null-byte tutorial to set up my hidden service. however, they seem to have only two files when they go to the hidden_service directory: hostname and private_key, which I don't have. It seems to be from there that they add the RSA key that matches a custom onion address, which is very short (v3?) but I simply don't have that file. Plus, my hostname file contains the address but the address is very long. So i think this means I have to switch to v3 but I have no idea how. Thanks!

Answer 1

The private_key file is an old format for v2 onion services, and the hs_ed25519_secret_key is the modern format for v3 onion services. Tor version 0.4 and above defaults to v3 onion services, but you can specify this manually in your torrc settings using the line HiddenServiceVersion 3 after your HiddenServiceDir line.

The only important file to copy is the hs_ed25519_secret_key file. Once you start the onion service, tor will automatically generate the other files (hostname, hs_ed25519_public_key, and the authorized_clients directory) for you.

If you're still having difficulty, then please update your post with your tor log, as well as the directory structure and permissions for your onion service directory. For example, run ls -l /var/lib/tor and ls -l /var/lib/tor/my_onion_service.