Hacklog Volume 1 Anonymity: it security & Ethical Hacking Handbook

Figure 47: in this example, three virtualized environments are in place:
Work, Shopping and Random.
All  three  environments  have  a  Firefox  active  process;  these,  however,  are
threated as separate jobs, so if you are logged into Amazon in the Shopping VM,
you  won’t  be  in  Work  and  Random,  thus  ensuring  the  process  isolation  across

---

the workspaces.
Was  an  Operating  System  really  needed?  Couldn’t  they  create  three  virtual
machines instead? Sure, but the three VMs would have required three operating
systems, each consuming hardware resources, requiring updates and so on.
10.2.1.1 Virtualization logic
The  Qubes  built-in  hypervisor  allows  to  create  unlimited  qubes  using  a
single  Operating  System,  which  natively  supports  Fedora,  Debian,  Windows
(after  installing  the  latter
[146]
)  and  Whonix;  furthermore  the  workspaces  share
the same graphic environment, thus eliminating the annoying switch from an OS
to another and vice versa. You may also have noticed that the three workspaces
are color-coded; the same happens with the graphical level (Figure 48).
Figure 48: working logic of Qubes virtualized environments
As you can see, the three windows are represented by a different color, just
like  the  infographics.  Additionally,  only  one  is  bright,  while  the  others  are
slightly shaded.
Qube  OS  allows  to  immediately  recognize  the  workspaces  breaking  them
down  by  color,  as  well  as  to  show  the  ones  you’re  working  on  in  real  time,
highlighting  the  application  that  can  inter-communicate.  And  when  a  VM  is
closed, all the temporary data it generated is erased.
10.2.1.2 Network and Storage Domains

---

As  we  noticed,  the  Network  environment  is  the  most  harmful  for  user
wishing to protect their anonymity.
Qubes  OS  provides  a  virtualization  system  called  Network  Domain:
essentially, the VM concept is also applied to the network, which is virtualized in
an environment controlled by a pseudo-user without root privileges and isolated
from the rest of the Operating System. Consequently, it’s like all the networking
operations (website linking, downloads, chat and so on) are managed by another
Virtual Machine, which is not able to impact the primary machine, ensuring an
unprecedented  security,  since  the  users  won’t  be  exposed  to  network-level
attacks.
The  same  applies  to  data  storage,  here  defined  as  Storage  Domain:
workspaces  must  have  their  own  disk  space,  obviously,  in  order  to  memorize
software, data and whatnot. All the pseudo-partition share the same file system
in  read-only  mode,  thus  avoiding  compromises,  and  centralizing  updates  at  the
same time. By default, the entire file system comes already encrypted during the
first installation.
10.2.1.3 Why use Qubes and not Tails OS?
As  usual,  let’s  assume  that  everyone  will  choose  their  preferred  solution:
users  who  prefer  Tails  will  be  probably  looking  for  a  scenario  that’s  totally
different than their usual, day-by-day tasks; Tails, in fact, allows to have a safe
environment, applicable to the most common anonymous navigation operations;
usability, however, is both its intrinsic limitation and main strength. Like many
other  Live  distros,  Tails  OS  is  designed  for  hit-and-run  operations  that  are  not
always ideal for your typical tasks.
An expert GNU/Linux user may need the security offered by Tails (as far as
possible) together with the possibility of relying on a convenient environment, in
order to work without having to reboot the Operation System every time. Qubes
OS  is  the  answer  to  such  need,  ensuring  both  isolated  workspaces  and  the
convenience  of  a  standalone  Operating  System.  Since  it’s  all  about  individual
choices, comparing features and electing the best solution would be pointless.
The bottom line is: both the Operating Systems are good for their purposes.
-
     
Tails  is  designed  to  stay  anonymous.  When  launched  in  a  computer,  it
works so that no traces are left in it, changing the network adapter Mac Address

---

and redirecting all the traffic to TOR.
-
     
Qubes  is  designed  for  everyday  use.  The  final  goal  is  to  protect  the  user
against  any  type  of  cyber  attacks.  It  comes  without  any  anonymity  tools  by
default (except the Whonix integration), so it has to be customized by the final
user.

---

10.2.2 Qubes OS + Tais
I  guess  you  got  disappointed  when  I  said  that  Qubes  is  not  an  anonymity-
designed  Operating  System,  and  you  wondered:  “so,  why  are  you  mentioning
it?”.  But,  then,  reading  the  title  of  this  chapter  you  may  have  got  excited,  or
(more  probably)  looked  back  to  my  statement:  “hey,  don’t  use  Tails  on  Virtual
Machines!”, therefore I have to give you a reply.
It’s  true  that  Tails  should  not  be  used  in  VMs,  and  I  already  explained  the
reasons  why,  the  same  stated  by  the  developers:  the  most  important  is  the
persistence – or, better, reminiscence – of Operating System data, which remain
stored  in  the  disk.  As  we  saw,  however,  Qubes  uses  a  para-virtualization  logic
that  completely  destroys  the  stored  data,  thus  facilitating  the  drive  sanitation
tasks. Consequently, the Qubes OS environment is fit for Tails virtualization, and
the  related  steps  are  quite  easy  to  follow
[147]
.  This  way,  you  can  leverage  the
power of Qubes OS together with Tails OS – as they say, killing two birds with
one stone!
10.2.3 Qubes OS + Whonix
Using  Tails  in  Qubes  allowed  us  to  understand  how  to  virtualize  a  full
Operating  System  within  a  Xen  para-virtualized  system;  this,  however,  can  be
considered as a limit, becoming reality when you want to use the tools in Qubes
instead of the ones virtualized in Tails.
Furthermore, only the Tails environment ensures enough security to maintain
your Anonymity. Then, we need to create a further level (just like we saw with
the Network and Storage Domains), allowing us to redirect traffic to a safe and
anonymous communication channel. Whonix is another GNU/Linux distro based
on  Debian  and  Tor  that  leverages  two  Virtual  Machines:  a  Gateway  and  a