On Collecting Onion Server Fingerprints and Identification of Their Operators
Yuuki Kimura, Soramichi Akiyama, Atsuo Inomata, Tetsutaro Uehara · 2023
Anonymous network technology exists to ensure anonymous communication. Among the many anonymous networks that have been developed, Tor (The Onion Router) is the most well-known and has the largest usage share. Tor can anonymize not only the client but also the server, which is a function called Onion Service. Although Onion Service makes it possible to operate websites while keeping IP addresses secret, it is sometimes used to post illegal content. To identify the operators of Onion Services containing illegal content, we propose combining and comparing fingerprints obtained through multiple methods. In addition, we also report on the rate and examples of information exposure by fingerprints. In this research, we collected approximately 40,000 Onion Domains and analyzed their fingerprints. From the results, we evaluate the possibility of identifying the operators of Onion Services.