Factorbee

Factorbee is a free and open source Tor browser bundle for GNU/Linux operating systems.
This program allows the end user to connect to the Tor anonymity network without installing any software. This allows the application bundle to be run from any media on a Linux computer. The program works as an anonymous gateway on its own. It contains a custom build of Mozilla Firefox, allowing it to work without using an HTTP proxy like Polipo or Privoxy, as it is built with a patched version of Firefox sockets.
Factorbee is also able to increase the security of the environment wherein the applications are being executed, using external bash scripts to tweak various security related settings.
Historically, it has been the first Tor browser bundle for Linux systems.
Tor network
Applications featured
* Tor for anonymous web browsing.
* Vidalia GUI controller for Tor.
* Mozilla Firefox, a custom build of Firefox made to improve the safeness of the Mozilla's web browser; patched to work without needing an HTTP proxy.
* cURL, to download files without starting Firefox and to support the stop/resuming of downloads.
Firefox addons
* Torbutton, to improve Tor's anonymity in Firefox.
* Adblock Plus
* Certificate Patrol, used to detect man-in-the-middle attacks against SSL certificates.
* QuickJava, used to toggle JavaScript and disable the loading of images.
* BeeFree
* QuickRestart
* Edit Cookies
Security features
Factorbee's scripts allow the user to isolate the running applications.
* EncFS is an user-level FUSE-based encrypted filesystem. It allows Factorbee to safely store all bundles' temporary files on the local hard disks without needing superuser permissions.
** A one-time password is randomly generated and passed to EncFS when the encrypted directory is being mounted;
** The keyfile of EncFS is wiped when the volume is umounted;
** When used in conjunction with tmpfs, all encrypted files and the keyfile are stored into the temporary filesystem.
* tmpfs, the kernel built-in temporary filesystem, allows factorbee to store the written files in the volatile memory, instead of a writing them on the actual local hard disk drive.
* To avoid the swapping of RAM contents to the disk, swap files can be automatically turned off.
* RAM disks can be used to store the temporary home folders.
* chroots can be used to isolate Firefox, curl and user-made scripts. All writable folders inside the chroot are redirects to the main folder of Factorbee, created using EncFS and/or tmpfs.
The default behaviour of Factorbee is to refuse to start if the system is not sufficiently safe, and the files could end up directly written on the local hard disk.
Firefox is released with a different default configuration, enhancing privacy settings and it's built with some of its components removed at compile time:
* The plugins support
* The updater tool
* The crash reporter
* The safe browsing system and the websites reporter tool
* The addons installer (although it's possible to install addons into firefox using the addons installer script)
* The default web search plugins are replaced

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu