Can my traffic be sniffed by middle TOR nodes?

Not under normal circumstances, no, your data cannot be read.

First, TOR encrypts data payload and addressing information separately, and a relay can only decrypt enough of the datagram to tell what relay it came from, and what the next hop relay is. Because the relay is not party to the data payload encryption, it is not able to decrypt it. See a full description of the process here: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/what-is-tor-faq,news-17754.html

Second, it is likely in any lengthy conversation, that many paths may be taken from entry to exit, so no relay is likely to see the entirety of the packets in the connection.

In general TOR does a good job of containing malicious relays, in that while a motivated nation-state adversary may over time pierce your anonymity, they are likely unable to decrypt the packets you sent.

Frank Thomas

Posted 2017-06-27T04:12:25.313

Reputation: 29 039

Also, you should always use a private VPN even when using TOR. – None – 2017-06-27T05:57:25.617

How did you come to that conclusion? Under what circumstances and actually why @Cown? – Seth – 2017-06-27T05:59:23.030

There are some weaknesses in the Tor network, such as the exit and entry points. By definition traffic going to the first hop in the Tor network would not be protected by Tor-type IP address encryption. The exit point has the same issue. You cannot send encrypted traffic to a website that does not except it, except, of course, SSL, but Tor is not SSL. – None – 2017-06-27T06:09:13.540

A further weakness with Tor is that it is possible to track down both ends of Tor communication using correlation. That means using statistics and a very powerful computer to look at internet traffic and match up who is talking to whom based upon the timing of such communications.

What about the actual RSA encryption algorithm used to encrypt the data? Is that secure? This encryption is based on a 2,000 year math problem that no one has solved, which is how to factor a prime number without trial and error guessing. That can take years, if the encryption key is large enough. – None – 2017-06-27T06:09:36.490

With a private and anonymous VPN, you can increase the security by using stronger encryption with newer algorithms and be able to always hide your private IP address. – None – 2017-06-27T06:11:40.987

Assuming something is safe, will get you caught. – None – 2017-06-27T06:20:26.117

Could you please elaborate on the entry point problem. If I use Tor browser where will be the entry point? Only IP is not encrypted? – VladimirLenin – 2017-06-27T07:53:19.873

@VladimirLenin you can read more about the weaknesses of Tor here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)

– None – 2017-06-27T10:47:34.893

@VladimirLenin, I believe what Cown is saying, is that unlike a relay, a malicious entry node CAN read your data, because it is party to the initial changes made to the packet as it is ramped up onto the tor network. Entry and Exit nodes have a greater ability to compromise your flow than Relay nodes do. – Frank Thomas – 2017-06-27T11:53:42.990

Can my traffic be sniffed by middle TOR nodes?

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