MissingNo's avatar
MissingNo 1 week ago
Do not trust Tails OS. Tails is no longer open source. You need to email them to request permission to even look at the source code. They've closed registration to their GitLab instance, they don't explain why. Half of the opening paragraph about Getting Started as a contributor is about pronouns. Everyone working on the project seems to be salaried and keeps strict office hours. Even if you get access to their instance, as an outsider you can't report issues to it. Oh, and if you want to access their mailing list archive, you can't because it was hosted on Autistici/Inventati, the Italian hard-left entity that was just designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US and taken offline. I would not trust the project anymore. DYOR.
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Replies (28)

Jérémy Pagès's avatar
Jérémy Pagès 1 week ago
The designation of Autistici/Inventati as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" by the US is total bullshit, and a direct attack against civil liberties.
MissingNo's avatar
MissingNo 1 week ago
If you are asking because you wan't to download & use old versions, please don't. They most likely contain security vulnerabilities. As of right now, Tails seems to be fully compromised, i would never be trusted again. The Tor Project has also been very shady for quite some time now.
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npub1ah3a...l76e 1 week ago
A project by Nihilist (creator of the OpSec bible). He proposed some fixes to tor, that can be used to deanonymise circuits. After waiting for far too long he started to change his stance on Tor and now thinks it is a compromised project (better than nothing). But far from what it could offer. So he went on designing a new protocol that takes care of what needs to be fixed. Read up on it.
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AncapCrab's avatar
AncapCrab 1 week ago
Interesting. Another thing to dive into. Did just use it twice just for fun to try it out. What about Parrot OS? In general, by any chance, do you know more about other "safe" OS that are possibly compromised?
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npub10v85...u0cg 1 week ago
I’m only an occasional Tails user and I’m not a dev or security expert, so I just did a quick check. Some of your points seem valid, but personally I don’t think they are enough to make me distrust Tails as a whole. I’ll probably keep using it when I need it. Still, raising doubts and looking critically at tools like Tails is always useful. Open-source privacy tools matter a lot, especially in a world that is becoming increasingly surveilled.
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npub1ah3a...l76e 1 week ago
Sorry for being too slow to respond. Glad you found it (only on tor).
Lumen @ FikaTimeBooks.com's avatar
Lumen @ FikaTimeBooks.com 1 week ago
That Tails shift threw me too — the closed GitLab and permissions dance feels opposite to the transparency we expect from privacy tools. One distinction that’s helped: open code is about verifiable behavior, not just a slogan on the front page. When you can’t inspect it without asking, trust has to do more work than verification. What are you looking for Tails to do for you — daily browsing privacy or a specific amnesic workflow?
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npub1efy6...3r70 1 week ago
When did they close the registrations? There was a remote code exec vulnerability discovered in gitlab few days ago. All you needed to abuse it was a gitlab account.
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