The Dark Web is an area that resides on the Deep Web. Several people
confuse the Deep Web and the Dark Web thinking they are the same thing.
This is definitely not the case. The Dark Web is mainly accessed via a
software client called Tor, which will be discussed in more detail later
in this paper. Tor is a special browser that allows you to navigate the
Dark Web. One popular use of the Dark Web is in relation to malware.
Large amount of malware are using the Dark Web to communicate with their
Command & Control (C&C) servers. An example of a piece of
malware that does this is SkyNet (Cox, 2015).
SkyNet is a trojan that has the capabilities of performing a DDoS attack or mine Bitcoins. It uses Hidden Service provided by Tor to communicate anonymously with its C&C servers. An advantage of using these Hidden Service for C&C communication is that the traffic is encrypted, so it makes the origin, destination, and payload. Another advantage is that the owner of the C&C servers can move them around, since they can just re-use the private key for the Hidden Service("SkyNet, a Tor-powered botnet straight from Reddit", 2012). The use of Hidden Service on the Dark Web are very powerful.
In order to publish a Hidden Service, you need to make it available on the Tor network, so that users can connect to it. For the first step,the owner of the service will need to pick an introduction point and build Tor circuits to them. An introduction point is a Tor relay, which is essentially a router. Your Hidden service can choose up to 10 introduction points. The more popular your Hidden Service is, the more introduction points it will need ("Hidden Services need some love").After picking introduction points, you will need to advertise your Hidden Service as “something.onion”. The Hidden Service will create a descriptor, which will include its public key and a summary of the introduction points used by it. The Hidden Service will sign this descriptor with its private key. That descriptor gets sent to a distributed hash table, also known as the database. Once this happens, the Hidden Service is officially setup and users can access it by requesting it at “something.onion” ("Tor: Hidden Service Protocol”).
Now that the Hidden Service is setup, let’s take a look at how you can access it. First, you need to know that the specific “.onion” address is in existence, similar to when you need to know “google.com” exists before visiting it. Once you have a “.onion” address that you want to access for its Hidden Service, you will attempt to connect to it via a software client, such as Tor. The user will attempt to download the descriptor for the Hidden Service from the distributed hash table. This descriptor will tell the user the introduction points and public key that needs to be used. During this process, the user is also creating a Tor circuit to a random Tor relay that will be used as a “rendezvous point”. Once you have a descriptor and the “rendezvous point” has been established, the user will send a message that is encrypted by the public key of the Hidden Service, via a Tor circuit to one of the introduction points, that includes the “rendezvous point” location and a one-‐‑time secret. Once the Hidden Service has received the message, it will decrypt it. Then it will create a Tor circuit to the “rendezvous point” and send the one-‐‑time secret. Lastly, the “rendezvous point” notifies the user of a successful connection. Once this happens, the user can communicate with the Hidden Service via their Tor circuits to the “rendezvous point” ("Tor: Hidden Service Protocol”). One of the most popular services used is the Hidden Wiki.
The original Hidden Wiki was created a little before October of 2011 and was only accessible via Tor. It was ran through a .onion pseudo-‐‑top-‐‑level domain. A pseudo-‐‑top-‐‑level domain is a domain that doesn’t participate in the official DNS. Around August of 2013, the site became hosted on Freedom Hosting, which was one of the largest web hosting services used by these Hidden Services at the time. In March of 2014, the Hidden Wiki got hacked and was redirected to a site called Doxbin. Doxbin is a site used to disclose PII. Once this happened, content from the Hidden Wiki started to get mirrored to several other locations. Because of this, there is no single Hidden Wiki any more ("The Hidden Wiki", 2016). A popular site that the Hidden Wiki links to is Silk Road.
Accessing the dark web requires the use of an anonymizing browser called Tor. The Tor browser routes your web page requests through a series of proxy servers operated by thousands of volunteers around the globe, rendering your IP address unidentifiable and untraceable. Tor works like magic, but the result is an experience that’s like the dark web itself: unpredictable, unreliable and maddeningly slow.
Still, for those willing to put up with the inconvenience, the dark web provides a memorable glimpse at the seamy underbelly of the human experience – without the risk of skulking around in a dark alley.
Also Read,
Dark Web Hidden Services
Hidden Services on the Dark Web are used to provide a variety of services to users of the Dark Web, while the users identities remain anonymous. Some of the categories of services that are offered are Financial, Communications, Commerce, News, Pornography, Search Engines, File Storage, and Hidden Service Directories and Portals. There are specific services associated with these categories. For example, if you wanted to use some Financial Hidden Services, you could use Bitcoin, Fog or BitBlender. The use of Communications Hidden Services could be take advantage of by using TorChat or RiseUp. There are several Hidden Services for Commerce as well. This is usually associated with the Darknet Market. An example of a couple of Commerce Hidden Services are Asssassination Market and AlphaBay Market. If you are using News Hidden Services, you could use DeepDotWeb or Wikileaks. A couple of Search Engines Hidden Services available are The Pirate Bay and Sci-Hub. Free Haven in one of the most popular Hidden Services for File Storage, and for the most popular Hidden Service Directory, you can use The Hidden Wiki ("List of Tor Hidden Services", 2016). There are tons of Hidden Services available, and the details of how they work are complex.In order to publish a Hidden Service, you need to make it available on the Tor network, so that users can connect to it. For the first step,the owner of the service will need to pick an introduction point and build Tor circuits to them. An introduction point is a Tor relay, which is essentially a router. Your Hidden service can choose up to 10 introduction points. The more popular your Hidden Service is, the more introduction points it will need ("Hidden Services need some love").After picking introduction points, you will need to advertise your Hidden Service as “something.onion”. The Hidden Service will create a descriptor, which will include its public key and a summary of the introduction points used by it. The Hidden Service will sign this descriptor with its private key. That descriptor gets sent to a distributed hash table, also known as the database. Once this happens, the Hidden Service is officially setup and users can access it by requesting it at “something.onion” ("Tor: Hidden Service Protocol”).
Now that the Hidden Service is setup, let’s take a look at how you can access it. First, you need to know that the specific “.onion” address is in existence, similar to when you need to know “google.com” exists before visiting it. Once you have a “.onion” address that you want to access for its Hidden Service, you will attempt to connect to it via a software client, such as Tor. The user will attempt to download the descriptor for the Hidden Service from the distributed hash table. This descriptor will tell the user the introduction points and public key that needs to be used. During this process, the user is also creating a Tor circuit to a random Tor relay that will be used as a “rendezvous point”. Once you have a descriptor and the “rendezvous point” has been established, the user will send a message that is encrypted by the public key of the Hidden Service, via a Tor circuit to one of the introduction points, that includes the “rendezvous point” location and a one-‐‑time secret. Once the Hidden Service has received the message, it will decrypt it. Then it will create a Tor circuit to the “rendezvous point” and send the one-‐‑time secret. Lastly, the “rendezvous point” notifies the user of a successful connection. Once this happens, the user can communicate with the Hidden Service via their Tor circuits to the “rendezvous point” ("Tor: Hidden Service Protocol”). One of the most popular services used is the Hidden Wiki.
Hidden Wiki
The Hidden Wiki is a site that contains links to various Hidden Services available on the Dark Web. The below figure shows the Hidden Wiki main site.
Silk Road
Silk Road was an online marketplace on the Dark Web that was used to sell drugs, guns, personal data, malware, and more. It was pretty much the Amazon of the black market and was created by Ross William Ulbricht. Silk Road was active for around 2 years before it was taken down in 2013. The site had a similar feel to Amazon. You could shop by categories, search for products, and communicate with sellers. Once you found something you wanted to buy, you would add it to your cart and checkout. The currency used to pay for the items was Bitcoin, which is a currency still in use today. Bitcoin is a virtual currency used that is created and stored electronically with no paper trail, and is essentially untraceable. Each Silk Road user was required to have a Bitcoin address. These addresses were stored on Silk Road’s servers in a “wallet”. As far as getting your suspicious purchases delivered, it was very inconsistent. Your packages may or may not have gotten intercepted by law enforcement, but that was the risk that was taken (Albanesius, 2013).Dark Web Browser
All of this activity, this vision of a bustling marketplace, might make you think that navigating the dark web is easy. It isn’t. The place is as messy and chaotic as you would expect when everyone is anonymous, and a substantial minority are out to scam others.Accessing the dark web requires the use of an anonymizing browser called Tor. The Tor browser routes your web page requests through a series of proxy servers operated by thousands of volunteers around the globe, rendering your IP address unidentifiable and untraceable. Tor works like magic, but the result is an experience that’s like the dark web itself: unpredictable, unreliable and maddeningly slow.
Still, for those willing to put up with the inconvenience, the dark web provides a memorable glimpse at the seamy underbelly of the human experience – without the risk of skulking around in a dark alley.
Also Read,
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