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OnionShare

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
OnionShare
DevelopersMicah Lee, et al.
Release2014; 12 years ago (2014)
Stable release
2.6.4[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 9 June 2026; 43 days ago (9 June 2026)
Written inPython
MiddlewareTor
Operating systemLinux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android[2]
Available in68[3] languages
TypeFile sharing
LicenseGPLv3
Website
Repositorygithub.com/onionshare/onionshare/

OnionShare is an open source file sharing, website hoster, and chat application, which relies on the Tor network to preserve the privacy and anonymity of its users.[4][5][6][7]. It is available on most major platforms and free to use.

Features

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Its main features are:[8][9][7]

  • Sending and receiving large files peer-to-peer over tor network.
  • Chat ephemerally.
  • Host a website.

The distinguishing feature of OnionShare is that users can do these things while maintaining anonymity.[4] Because of this, sensitive document sharing and whistleblowing activities are a primary use-case of the app.[10]

Sending files

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Sending large files over the internet can be a hassle without centralized servers.[4][11] OnionShare made it easier to share files because of its peer-to-peer nature. This also circumvented surveillance, possible because of centralized services. The circumvention is allowed by hosting shared files on tor network.[12]

Hosting websites

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OnionShare allows hosting static websites without JavaScript from the app.[5] This feature became available as of version 2.2. These sites can be visited by any browser that supports .onion sites, such as Tor Browser.

Usage

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OnionShare is most notably aimed at being used for sharing sensitive files and whistleblowing.[10][13]

History

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OnionShare was released in 2014. Its initial release was hampered by the RIAA and MPAA, who wanted to limit peer-to-peer file sharing solutions. They both actively lobbied against peer-to-peer protocols and software in which they had a hard time finding investment and development for, hence why it took so long to release such a tool.[4]

In February 2019, OnionShare 2 was released. It came with macOS sandbox enabled by default, support for v3 onion services, translations, etc. The .onion addresses were ephemeral by default, as always.[14]

In October 2021, OnionShare patched two low risk vulnerabilities which were uncovered in a security advisory by IHTeam.[15][12]

In December 2021, Radically Open Security published their penetration report of the audit conducted on OnionShare.[16][17] It was financed by Open Tech Fund and targeted version 1.1. The most impactful vulnerability found allowed to render arbitrary HTML inside the desktop application and a denial-of-service attack based on previously undisclosed Qt image parsing. 2 elevated, 4 low and 3 moderate severity issues were found. All issues were resolved before publication of the report.[17]

References

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  1. ↑ "Release 2.6.4". 9 June 2026. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2023-07-07. Retrieved 2023-07-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "Onionshare/Desktop/Onionshare/Resources/Locale at main · onionshare/Onionshare". GitHub.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Higgins, Parker. "The Troubling Truth of Why It's Still So Hard to Share Files Directly". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  5. 1 2 Legrand, David (2020-04-02). "OnionShare : partager des fichiers ou publier un site via Tor". www.nextinpact.com (in French). Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  6. ↑ Hassan, Nihad Ahmad (2016). Data hiding techniques in Windows OS : a practical approach to investigation and defense. Rami Hijazi, Helvi Salminen. Cambridge, MA: Syngress. ISBN 978-0-12-804496-4. OCLC 958455645.
  7. 1 2 "Share Files Securely Over Tor Network With OnionShare". itsfoss.com. 24 August 2020. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  8. ↑ "Simple Online Security: Sending Messages and Files Safely". The New York Times. 22 April 2022. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  9. ↑ "How To Share Files Anonymously Using Tor's Darknet And OnionShare?". Fossbytes. 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  10. 1 2 "Meet Onionshare, the File Sharing App the Next Snowden Will Use". Gizmodo. 2014-06-27. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  11. ↑ Greenberg, Andy. "Free App Lets the Next Snowden Send Big Files Securely and Anonymously". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  12. 1 2 "Golem.de: IT-News für Profis". www.golem.de. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  13. ↑ Hassan, Nihad A.; Hijazi, Rami (2017). Digital Privacy and Security Using Windows. Berkeley, CA: Apress. doi:10.1007/978-1-4842-2799-2. ISBN 978-1-4842-2798-5. S2CID 12194324.
  14. ↑ R, Bhagyashree (2019-02-21). "OnionShare 2, an open source tool that uses Tor onion services for securely sharing files, is now out!". Packt Hub. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  15. ↑ "OnionShare: Secure communications platform used by whistleblowers and journalists patches data exposure bug". The Daily Swig | Cybersecurity news and views. 2021-10-05. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  16. ↑ "Golem.de: IT-News für Profis". www.golem.de. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  17. 1 2 "2021 Penetration Test Report.pdf" (PDF).
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