Hi,
Tor Messenger is an instant messaging client currently under development. It is designed to make connections using the Tor network and will therefore be a valuable piece in the privacy-enhancing software toolkit (web: Tor Browser, email: Thunderbird + TorBirdy, chat: Tor Messenger.)
Based on the Instantbird IM client, Tor Messenger:
- sends all traffic over Tor, - enforces Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) for one-on-one conversations by default, - can be used with a wide variety of chat networks, - has an easy-to-use graphical user interface localized into multiple languages.
* Current Status
Today we are releasing the third alpha version with which we hope to gain both usability and security related feedback. There have been two previous alpha releases to the mailling lists that have already helped smooth out some of the rougher edges.
* What's New in Tor Messenger 0.0.6
- Support for Windows and OS X builds (in addition to Linux) - Improved privacy and security with network and application-related enhancements - Improved usability of the Instantbird OTR extension - Private key and known fingerprint management - XMPP in-band account registration support - Build localization support (currently Arabic; Chinese, Spanish, Farsi, and other languages coming soon)
* Bundles
Linux (32-bit): https://people.torproject.org/~sukhbir/tor-messenger-0.0.6/tor-messenger-0.0...
Linux (64-bit): https://people.torproject.org/~sukhbir/tor-messenger-0.0.6/tor-messenger-0.0...
Windows: https://people.torproject.org/~sukhbir/tor-messenger-0.0.6/tor-messenger-0.0...
OS X: https://people.torproject.org/~sukhbir/tor-messenger-0.0.6/tor-messenger-0.0...
sha256sum: https://people.torproject.org/~sukhbir/tor-messenger-0.0.6/sha256sums.txt https://people.torproject.org/~sukhbir/tor-messenger-0.0.6/sha256sums.txt.as...
The bundles are signed with the key 0xB297B391.
* Instructions
- On Linux, extract the bundle and then run: ./start-tor-messenger. - On OS X, copy the Tor Messenger application from the disk image to your local disk before running it.
On all platforms, Tor Messenger sets the profile folder to the installation directory.
* Code
We are doing automated builds of Tor Messenger for all platforms using rbm (Reproducible Build Manager):
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-messenger-build.git
* Arabic Language Pack
https://people.torproject.org/~sukhbir/tor-messenger-0.0.6/tor-messenger-ar....
Install the language pack as an add-on and then set "general.useragent.locale" to "ar".
(Thanks to Sherief Alaa for the translation.)
* Feedback
This is an early release and there may be serious privacy leaks and other issues -- please DO NOT recommend Tor Messenger to end users; this release is only for developers and advanced users who would like to help us with testing but understand the risks involved with using alpha software.
With this release, we invite feedback not limited to anonymity leaks, usability issues, feature requests and suggestions for improvement. Please submit your feedback using the bug tracker (bugs.torproject.org; select the "Tor Messenger" component). You can also talk to us on this mailing list or on IRC.
Thanks,
Arlo Breault, Nicolas Vigier, Sukhbir Singh