Access Whonix-Gateway™ Ports from the Host

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Access Whonix-Gateway Port From Host (Esoteric Documentation)

This is very esoteric and you probably do not need it! Advanced users only!

Access Whonix-Gateway Port From Host

Not tested since Whonix 0.5.6. May or may not work. Might need changes for later versions.

Example: Make port 9050 accessible from the host.

Host Setup

On the host.

In the Whonix-Gateway VM network settings. → Set up Port Forwarding: → within the Adapter 1 tab click Advanced → then Port Forwarding → Insert a new rule as follows.

Name: 9050
Protocol: TCP
Host IP: 127.0.0.1
Host Port: 9050
Guest IP: leave blank
Guest Port: 9050

Or the same as command line. You might have to adjust the name of your Whonix-Gateway.

Xfce:

VBoxManage modifyvm "Whonix-Gateway-Xfce" --natpf1 "9050",tcp,127.0.0.1,9050,,9050

CLI:

VBoxManage modifyvm "Whonix-Gateway-CLI" --natpf1 "9050",tcp,127.0.0.1,9050,,9050

Whonix-Gateway Setup

Inside Whonix-Gateway...

IP 10.0.2.15 is usually obtained from VirtualBox's DHCP server. Hope this always works, otherwise you have to adjust the IP or edit the network config. And use a static virtual LAN IP. (Template:Network_Config)

Open file /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf in a text editor of your choice with sudoedit.

If you are using Qubes-Whonix^™, complete the following steps.

Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q") → Whonix-Gateway™ ProxyVM (commonly named sys-whonix) → Tor User Config (Torrc)

If you are using a graphical Whonix-Gateway, complete the following steps.

Start Menu → Applications → Settings → /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf

If you are using a terminal-only Whonix-Gateway, complete the following steps. sudoedit /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf

Add. (The second line is not strictly required, useful for debugging.)

+SocksPort 10.0.2.15:9050 +SocksPort 127.0.0.1:9050

Save.

Reload Tor.

After changing Tor configuration, Tor must be reloaded for changes to take effect.

Note: If Tor does not connect after completing all these steps, then a user mistake is the most likely explanation. Recheck /usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf and repeat the steps outlined in the sections above. If Tor then connects successfully, all the necessary changes have been made.

If you are using Qubes-Whonix^™, complete the following steps.

Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q") → Whonix-Gateway™ ProxyVM (commonly named 'sys-whonix') → Reload Tor

If you are using a graphical Whonix-Gateway, complete the following steps.

Start Menu → Applications → Settings → Reload Tor

If you are using a terminal-only Whonix-Gateway, click HERE for instructions.

Complete the following steps.

Reload Tor.

sudo service tor@default reload

Check Tor's daemon status.

sudo service tor@default status

It should include a a message saying.

Active: active (running) since ...

In case of issues, try the following debugging steps.

Check Tor's config.

sudo -u debian-tor tor --verify-config

The output should be similar to the following.

Sep 17 17:40:41.416 [notice] Read configuration file "/usr/local/etc/torrc.d/50_user.conf".
Configuration was valid

Modify Whonix-Gateway^™ User Firewall Settings.

Note: If no changes have yet been made to Whonix Firewall Settings, then the Whonix User Firewall Settings File /usr/local/etc/whonix_firewall.d/50_user.conf appears empty (because it does not exist). This is expected.

If using Qubes-Whonix^™, complete these steps.
In Whonix-Gateway App Qube. Make sure folder /usr/local/etc/whonix_firewall.d exists.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/whonix_firewall.d

Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q") → Whonix-Gateway App Qube (commonly called sys-whonix) → Whonix User Firewall Settings

If using a graphical Whonix-Gateway, complete these steps.

Start Menu → Applications → Settings → User Firewall Settings

If using a terminal-only Whonix-Gateway, complete these steps.

In Whonix-Gateway, open the whonix_firewall configuration file in an editor.

sudoedit /usr/local/etc/whonix_firewall.d/50_user.conf

For more help, press on Expand on the right.

Note: This is for informational purposes only! Do not edit /etc/whonix_firewall.d/30_whonix_gateway_default.conf.

Note: The Whonix Global Firewall Settings File /etc/whonix_firewall.d/30_whonix_gateway_default.conf contains default settings and explanatory comments about their purpose. By default, the file is opened read-only and is not meant to be directly edited. Below, it is recommended to open the file without root rights. The file contains an explanatory comment on how to change firewall settings.

## Please use "/etc/whonix_firewall.d/50_user.conf" for your custom configuration,
## which will override the defaults found here. When {{project_name_short}} is updated, this
## file may be overwritten.

See also Whonix modular flexible .d style configuration folders.

To view the file, follow these instructions.

If using Qubes-Whonix, complete these steps.

Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q") → Template: whonix-gateway-17 → Whonix Global Firewall Settings

If using a graphical Whonix-Gateway, complete these steps.

Start Menu → Applications → Settings → Global Firewall Settings

If using a terminal-only Whonix-Gateway, complete these steps.

In Whonix-Gateway, open the whonix_firewall configuration file in an editor. nano /etc/whonix_firewall.d/30_whonix_gateway_default.conf

Add.

EXTERNAL_OPEN_PORTS+=" 9050 " EXTERNAL_UDP_OPEN_PORTS+=" 9050 "

Save.

Reload Whonix-Gateway^™ Firewall.

If you are using Qubes-Whonix^™, complete the following steps.

Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q") → Whonix-Gateway ProxyVM (commonly named sys-whonix) → Reload Whonix Firewall

If you are using a graphical Whonix-Gateway, complete the following steps.

Start Menu → Applications → System → Reload Whonix Firewall

If you are using a terminal-only Whonix-Gateway, run. sudo whonix_firewall

Debugging

Inside Whonix-Gateway...

Switch to clearnet user.

sudo -u clearnet bash

cd ~

Test if the port you want to make available on the host is available from inside Whonix-Workstation^™. (If that's not the case, something is fundamentally wrong and you need to fix this first.)

Circumventing uwt curl wrapper.

UWT_DEV_PASSTHROUGH=1 curl --output - 127.0.0.1:9050

It should answer This is a SOCKs proxy, not an HTTP proxy..

Testing

On the host...

curl 127.0.0.1:9050

It should answer This is a SOCKs proxy, not an HTTP proxy..

If you see that, that indicates that Tor is, which runs inside Whonix-Gateway is accessible on the host as well.

Forwarding that port to LAN

On the host...

This is untested, but should work.

You can use something like socat, systemd-socket-proxyd or SSH port forwarding to redirect that port 127.0.0.1:9050 to a different network interface. Otherwise you could experiment with the Whonix-Gateway VM network settings.

See Also

• Hosting a (private) (obfuscated) bridge or (exit) relay
• Ports
• Access Whonix-Workstation Ports from the Host

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