Meet TorWorld, an Upcoming Tor-as-a-Service Portal

Keeping the Tor network running takes more than just desire and physical resources. It also takes knowledge on how to properly configure Tor nodes in order to avoid exposing your users' traffic.

The best place to go learn about running Tor nodes is the Tor Project's documentation section, which includes step-by-step guides on how to set up Tor servers.

Last week, a new website launched that Tor fans will find very interesting. Named TorWorld, this website is part of the CryptoWorld Foundation, an umbrella organization that also manages several other anonymity services.

A project born out of necessity

"The idea for 'TorWorld' came about four months ago," Beard, one of TorWorld's founding members told Bleeping Computer.

"We originally ran a few Guard Relays for a little over a year privately," Beard continued. "After we had an issue with our Guard nodes being removed by our ISP at the time because of a misunderstanding, we thought about possibly setting up a service dedicated to running Tor nodes, and educating people on Tor."

"Eventually we started that [idea], and at first we looked for automation scripts to make it easier for us to deploy multiple Tor servers in a fast and dynamic way," Beard said. "To our surprise, we couldn't find a single script."

So, the TorWorld team developed them. The current line-up of TorWorld automated scripts includes Bash scripts for quickly deploying Tor guard (entry) nodes, Tor relay (middle) servers, Tor bridges (unlisted relays), and Tor exit nodes.

Currently, these scripts are in their early stages of development, but the TorWorld team feels good about using them to set up live Tor nodes.

TorWorld wants to be a hosting provider for Tor servers

According to Beard, this is only the beginning. These small Bash scripts will be used as the base for a Tor-as-a-Service (TaaS) offering.

In the future, users will be able to set up their own Tor nodes on top of TorWorld's server infrastructure with the push of a button.

Instead of running around like headless chicken gathering server hardware and learning complex deployment routines, people looking to contribute to the Tor network and play their part will be able to rent the server hardware from TorWorld and deploy a Tor node with the click of a button.

Journalists, activists, and others subject to censorship could also use TorWorld to set up a "Tor hidden service" and host their public websites on a .onion URL, making it accessible to their readers, despite local Internet filters.

TorWorld Bash scripts are open source

Staying true to the principles of the Tor Project, these Bash scripts have been open-sourced, and anyone can take and tweak them, or even contribute back to the TorWorld project.

"We'll be adding more dynamic customization options for the FastRelay, and FastExit scripts," Beard said, alluding to even more features in the coming months.

TorWorld will deal with your abuse notifications

But the scripts aren't everything about the upcoming TorWorld TaaS service, already under private testing.

"A lot of our friends have asked us to manage the abuse notices for their Tor servers," Beard told Bleeping Computer.

These people were willing to pay extra on top of their hosting costs to have the TorWorld team handle all their abuse notifications. If you've ever operated a Tor node, you know those abuse notifications will come in, sometimes daily.

No bad guys allowed

If you're thinking of using TorWorld to host cyber-crime services, don't even bother. Before the TorWorld team decided to go the route of a TaaS offering, the TorWorld project's primary goal was to be an educational website and teach people about the benefits of running Tor servers.

TorWorld's current website reflects this, with samples of abuse notifications, and basic explainers about how the Tor network works.

Until the TorWorld TaaS enters a public beta, the TorWorld team will be busy with slowly building a family of Tor nodes, which it currently contributes to the Tor network and helps relay your Tor traffic in a safe manner.

There's no timeline for when the TorWorld TaaS service will be ready, but the original idea behind it warrants our attention.