Lunarpunk resources and tools

This is a thread for LunarDAO community to share resources.ie. books, video, audio,articles, open source tools, crypto privacy projects, or programs you developed that might be useful for the community. is is the community archive. Discussions can happen in other sub categories in #Liberatory tech.

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List of privacy tools

As efforts on decentralization, privacy and zero-knowledge cryptography constantly develop, we should not see privacy and distribution as a goal in a distant future. LunarDAO aims to see what tools and possibilities are there here and now. As a community of Lunarpunks we have the ability to compile a solid pool of resources, links, manuals which constantly evolves.

Online video sharing platforms

FreeTube:

A private YouTube client.

Invidious:

Invidious is an open-source alternative to YouTube and is intended as a privacy alternative to the official YouTube website.

Messaging apps/clients

For all the private messaging options it is necessary to use an application to hide your IP address, such as ProtonVPN, RiseupVPN or TOR. If used on phone - do not use a sim-card and set up an automatic reset of the mac address on every re-connection.

ircd:

Ircd is a fully anonymous peer-to-peer communication tool developed by DarkFi which can be used encrypted or unencrypted, supports DM and group chats. Works with clients like Weechat directly in terminal. No need to create an account, no captchas, no bloated app with extra empty screen space. Fully distributed, runs on tor.

Session:

Session is an open source messenger that supports private and anonymous communications; DM, group chats, and voice calls.

Signal:

Signal is a free, end-to-end private messenger for DM, group chats and calls. At present, to set up Signal you need a phone number.

Molly:

Molly is an independent Signal fork for Android. Molly is compatible with Signal user but also has a few more unique features, including SOCKS proxy and Tor support.

Element:

End-to-end encrypted messenger for DM and group chats, and video. Bridges to other chat app, even commercial/centralized an not private ones, such as Whatsapp and Telegram.

XMPP with Jabber or Pidgin:

XMPP is a set of open technologies for instant messaging, group chat, voice and video calls. It is decentralized and open source.

Simplex chat:

End-to-end encrypted messaging for chat, audio and video with no identifiers assigned to the users.

Virtual machines and Tails

Tails:

Tails is a portable operating system which protects against surveillance. The entire OS is on a USB without accessing or storing data in the computer (only using RAM). No metadata stored after shut down. MAc adress spoofing and tor network to connect to internet by default. Data on USB encrypted. Based on a minimalistic version of Debian - Gnome. GPG encryption, email client, onion file share, pidgin, wiping option, keepass, metadata cleaner etc by default. Tails has a function which shuts down the computer immediatly after USB removal.

Whonix:

Whonix is a virtual machine that runs like a process (an app) inside the OS, to help user stay anonymous on internet by for example randomizing IP address and using TOR. When shut down, no data is stored.

Qubes:

Works on a model of secure compartmentalization through virtualization, isolating both hardware and virtual machines (qubes) from each other. Creating not only a technical solution under the assumption that a user will suffer exploits, but also a mindset and praxis how to protect the user and limit the damage when events such as opening malicious links or files happen, by doing so in a disposable virtual machine.

File encryption

OpenPGP:

OpenPGP is end-to-end encryption protocol used for email communication.

Rage:

Rage is a rust implementation of age. It features small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability. Runs in terminal.

Email clients

Tutanota

Protonmail

Riseup

Systemli

Disk encryption

VeraCrypt:

VeraCrypt is a free open source disk encryption software for creating encrypted storage; hidden or visible partitions or devices.

LUKS

LUKS is a feature in linux distributions as well as on Tails. It is used for encryption of particitions, such as USB or disk.

VPN and TOR

ProtonVPN

RiseupVPN

TOR browser

MAC address randomization

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet connections all use MAC addresses. MAC addresses are always a 12 digit hexadecimal number, with the numbers separated every two digits by a colon or hyphen. MAC addresses are used to identify which device is which on users local network. Because theyā€™re unique, MAC addresses can be used to track a user. When walking around, a smartphone scans for nearby Wi-Fi networks and broadcasts its MAC address. For better privacy it is good to learn how to change the MAC address. Here are three pages which addresses this issue.

Android developers
GrapheneOS
Cyberithub

IMEI randomization

Banana phone

IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. It is a unique numeric identifier of GSM, or 3GPP and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones.

IMEI randomization: Nokia ā€œBananaā€ phone (NOkia 8110) has different ways to be hacked for IMEI randomization. The simpliest way is to install Wallace Toolbox

Random IMEI generator

  • Installing Gerda OS on Nokia 8110 for improved usability.

Secure android phones

Google pixel (yes strangely enough) with Graphene OS

Shred/Wipe files

Shred files on linux:

The shred command helps to overwrite the data of a file or disk several times. This makes it harder for third party software and hardware probing to recover the data, which is supporting users privacy.

bleachbit

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This is of course only a beginning. There are different groups and communities with programmers, hacker labs, linux OGā€™s and more who have a lot of experiences and knowledge to share. the points above need to be developed, better guides on how to install or use them is always helpful. Any initiative is appreciated :slight_smile:

two more great resources

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Another great resource is the book ā€˜Cryptocurrencies - Hack your way into a better lifeā€™ by Juraj Bednar. It covers a remarkable variety of topics, and itā€™s an amazing book to start with, as he keeps a simple, straightforward language.

Hereā€™s a chapter, so you can have a look, and further below Jurajā€™s blog.

Cool, Iā€™ll check it out. There are so many tools (but also perspectives on how to approach privacy) already existing.

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Here we go!!!

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@Revelation I wanted to ask a bit more about Obscuro. One of the challenges for projects seem to be network privacy. How is Obscuro approaching that? Is there a built in solution or the advice is to use VPN or Tor browser? if I missed this info on your web page, you can also just share a link whatever works.

Zk Voting

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It a whole maze what is the preferred approach for privacy. Somethings like Qubes seems like it is a choice for those valuing privacy and at the same time itā€™s not so user friendly, or it requires a lot of practice to be able to use. Whonix on virtualbox in an alternative to Tails if one is mostly working on a regular OS (ie. debian). I found Firejail and an interesting option to all of these, which sandboxes applications - decide what they have access to and what not. I see it a bit like Graphene OS on android. Graphene allows the user to be detailed about permissions. if an application doesnā€™t need i.e network access, or sensor access, or access to every folder it should be possible to disable this. I need to learn about Firejail customization, but this guide helped set up the basics.

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I checked the info on Firejail on the wiki, itā€™s super interesting :fire:

yes, it was great! Before this guide was shared I had tried to set it up myself for days, but nothing worked for me. Iā€™m grateful for the development of such an elegant solution.

Hey guys, someone replied to our VeraCrypt privacy tip tweet with this other file encryption tool:

Itā€™s an open source, terminal based encryption tool that seems to be focused on hidden / secret files.
I havenā€™t tried it myself yet, but I read their webpage and from their quotes we seem to have quite a similar point of view :metal:

Did you know this already? Could it be an addition to our wiki?

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Definitely a good resource. The dyne team is a natural ally!

Here is the source code of it:

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Do you guys know about Impervious Browser?
We explain what itā€™s about here:

In short. Impervious is a collection of Peer-to-Peer solutions for payments, data transfer, and communications that are built right into the web browser. End-to-end encryption is used for all features, which are based on a decentralized communication network. You can connect a Lightning Node to leverage the Bitcoin Lightning Network as an application signaling layer, routing all application messaging through the network for maximum privacy and control, with P2P payments built in.

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how is this solution approaching cookies and metadata?

Found this private chat app on TW:

Anyone has ever heard of it or tried it?
Seems cool.

Yeah i used it for quite a while. But tbh i prefer Session or Signal. Nevertheless, it is a great messenger app and highly secure.

Iā€™ll try it out. there are so many end-to-end encrypted messengers so sometimes difficult to know which one to use. I use signal simply because most people I know use it and itā€™s working well. I donā€™t like that a phone number is needed but I understood that they are removing this part soon. Mostly Iā€™m wondering what the difference is when new messengers are developed, what they add that didnā€™t already exist or if itā€™s to have own service and revenue.

Because you like Signal i guess you like Session. Session is a Signal fork. Big difference is that no phone number is required. I explain Session in more detail on my website:

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