IANA and IETF Designates .onion Domains Special Use

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and Internet Engineering Task Force

[engine]

Privacy took a big step forward with this move which means you can now get TLS encryption for .onion domains operating within the Tor network.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)—a department within the organization that oversees the domains of the internet known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—along with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), designated the .onion domain, used for sites hosted on the Tor network, as a “Special Use Domain,” giving it an official status that it previously lacked. IANA and IETF Designates .onion Domains Special Use [motherboard.vice.com]

[bill]

The ability of Tor hosts to use TLS is good news, but then we need an anonymous way to get certificates that the browsers will accept as valid. Most will be using the Tor Browser to access .onion sites, but that isn't the only way to browse Tor sites. Self-signed certs usually cause browser errors and will scare more people off.

[Webwork]

For those wondering if .onion domains is actually a hoax inflicted upon us / y'all by the satirical site The Onion the answer appears to be "no" . . though, AFAIC, judgment is not yet final.

More about .onion at the ever not-satirical :p [en.wikipedia.org ]

[Leosghost]

I would have expected that anyone who uses TOR would not be scared off by browser messages related to self signed certs..

Then again, if they actually think that TOR or any other system, and / or any cert system is secure against the 3 letter agencies....

The absence of boots upon doors does not mean that one is not being automatically shoulder surfed..


Hey !..look !.. over there !..squirrel !....