I am a beginner who has been stuck while trying to get tor up and running on my MacOS for some time now. I installed tor with homebrew and was able to get it successfully launched in the terminal with brew services start tor (I get the message "Successfully started tor").
However, when I then test to see if I can use tor with the code curl --socks5-hostname localhost:9050 https://check.torproject.org, I get the following error:
curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 9050: Connection refused.
The associated log reads:
Dec 18 11:28:22.810 [notice] Tor 0.4.4.6 running on Darwin with Libevent 2.1.12-stable, OpenSSL 1.1.1i, Zlib 1.2.11, Liblzma N/A, and Libzstd N/A.
Dec 18 11:28:22.810 [notice] Tor can't help you if you use it wrong! Learn how to be safe at https://www.torproject.org/download/download#warning
Dec 18 11:28:22.810 [notice] Read configuration file "/usr/local/etc/tor/torrc".
Dec 18 11:28:22.812 [notice] Opening Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9050
Dec 18 11:28:22.812 [notice] Opened Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9050
Dec 18 11:28:22.812 [warn] Directory /Users/Redacted/.tor cannot be read: Permission denied
Dec 18 11:28:22.812 [notice] Closing partially-constructed Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9050
Dec 18 11:28:22.812 [warn] Failed to parse/validate config: Couldn't create private data directory "/Users/Redacted/.tor"
Dec 18 11:28:22.812 [err] Reading config failed--see warnings above.
So this seems to be a directory permission error, but I'm at a loss on how to fix it. The /Users/Redacted subdirectory does not have any restricted permissions on it; I have gone into that folder and granted read/write permissions to all users. However, I don't know what I don't know, so I am unsure of what I am missing here. Is there something else I should be considering in terms of permissions?
I have included my torrc file below here for reference if relevant:
## Configuration file for a typical Tor user
## Last updated 28 February 2019 for Tor 0.3.5.1-alpha.
## (may or may not work for much older or much newer versions of Tor.)
##
## Lines that begin with "## " try to explain what's going on. Lines
## that begin with just "#" are disabled commands: you can enable them
## by removing the "#" symbol.
##
## See 'man tor', or https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-manual.html,
## for more options you can use in this file.
##
## Tor will look for this file in various places based on your platform:
## https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#torrc
Tor opens a SOCKS proxy on port 9050 by default -- even if you don't
configure one below. Set "SOCKSPort 0" if you plan to run Tor only
as a relay, and not make any local application connections yourself.
#SOCKSPort 9050 # Default: Bind to localhost:9050 for local connections.
#SOCKSPort 192.168.0.1:9100 # Bind to this address:port too.
Entry policies to allow/deny SOCKS requests based on IP address.
First entry that matches wins. If no SOCKSPolicy is set, we accept
all (and only) requests that reach a SOCKSPort. Untrusted users who
can access your SOCKSPort may be able to learn about the connections
you make.
#SOCKSPolicy accept 192.168.0.0/16
#SOCKSPolicy accept6 FC00::/7
#SOCKSPolicy reject *
Logs go to stdout at level "notice" unless redirected by something
else, like one of the below lines. You can have as many Log lines as
you want.
We advise using "notice" in most cases, since anything more verbose
may provide sensitive information to an attacker who obtains the logs.
Send all messages of level 'notice' or higher to /usr/local/var/log/tor/notices.log
#Log notice file /usr/local/var/log/tor/notices.log
Send every possible message to /usr/local/var/log/tor/debug.log
#Log debug file /usr/local/var/log/tor/debug.log
Use the system log instead of Tor's logfiles
#Log notice syslog
To send all messages to stderr:
#Log debug stderr
Uncomment this to start the process in the background... or use
--runasdaemon 1 on the command line. This is ignored on Windows;
see the FAQ entry if you want Tor to run as an NT service.
#RunAsDaemon 1
The directory for keeping all the keys/etc. By default, we store
things in $HOME/.tor on Unix, and in Application Data\tor on Windows.
#DataDirectory /usr/local/var/lib/tor
The port on which Tor will listen for local connections from Tor
controller applications, as documented in control-spec.txt.
#ControlPort 9051
If you enable the controlport, be sure to enable one of these
authentication methods, to prevent attackers from accessing it.
#HashedControlPassword 16:872860B76453A77D60CA2BB8C1A7042072093276A3D701AD684053EC4C
#CookieAuthentication 1
############### This section is just for location-hidden services ###
Once you have configured a hidden service, you can look at the
contents of the file ".../hidden_service/hostname" for the address
to tell people.
HiddenServicePort x y:z says to redirect requests on port x to the
address y:z.
#HiddenServiceDir /usr/local/var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80
#HiddenServiceDir /usr/local/var/lib/tor/other_hidden_service/
#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80
#HiddenServicePort 22 127.0.0.1:22
################ This section is just for relays #####################
See https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-relay for details.
Required: what port to advertise for incoming Tor connections.
#ORPort 9001
If you want to listen on a port other than the one advertised in
ORPort (e.g. to advertise 443 but bind to 9090), you can do it as
follows. You'll need to do ipchains or other port forwarding
yourself to make this work.
#ORPort 443 NoListen
#ORPort 127.0.0.1:9090 NoAdvertise
If you want to listen on IPv6 your numeric address must be explictly
between square brackets as follows. You must also listen on IPv4.
#ORPort [2001:DB8::1]:9050
The IP address or full DNS name for incoming connections to your
relay. Leave commented out and Tor will guess.
#Address noname.example.com
If you have multiple network interfaces, you can specify one for
outgoing traffic to use.
OutboundBindAddressExit will be used for all exit traffic, while
OutboundBindAddressOR will be used for all OR and Dir connections
(DNS connections ignore OutboundBindAddress).
If you do not wish to differentiate, use OutboundBindAddress to
specify the same address for both in a single line.
#OutboundBindAddressExit 10.0.0.4
#OutboundBindAddressOR 10.0.0.5
A handle for your relay, so people don't have to refer to it by key.
Nicknames must be between 1 and 19 characters inclusive, and must
contain only the characters [a-zA-Z0-9].
If not set, "Unnamed" will be used.
#Nickname ididnteditheconfig
Define these to limit how much relayed traffic you will allow. Your
own traffic is still unthrottled. Note that RelayBandwidthRate must
be at least 75 kilobytes per second.
Note that units for these config options are bytes (per second), not
bits (per second), and that prefixes are binary prefixes, i.e. 2^10,
2^20, etc.
#RelayBandwidthRate 100 KBytes # Throttle traffic to 100KB/s (800Kbps)
#RelayBandwidthBurst 200 KBytes # But allow bursts up to 200KB (1600Kb)
Use these to restrict the maximum traffic per day, week, or month.
Note that this threshold applies separately to sent and received bytes,
not to their sum: setting "40 GB" may allow up to 80 GB total before
hibernating.
Set a maximum of 40 gigabytes each way per period.
#AccountingMax 40 GBytes
Each period starts daily at midnight (AccountingMax is per day)
#AccountingStart day 00:00
Each period starts on the 3rd of the month at 15:00 (AccountingMax
is per month)
#AccountingStart month 3 15:00
Administrative contact information for this relay or bridge. This line
can be used to contact you if your relay or bridge is misconfigured or
something else goes wrong. Note that we archive and publish all
descriptors containing these lines and that Google indexes them, so
spammers might also collect them. You may want to obscure the fact that
it's an email address and/or generate a new address for this purpose.
If you are running multiple relays, you MUST set this option.
#ContactInfo Random Person <nobody AT example dot com>
You might also include your PGP or GPG fingerprint if you have one:
#ContactInfo 0xFFFFFFFF Random Person <nobody AT example dot com>
Uncomment this to mirror directory information for others. Please do
if you have enough bandwidth.
#DirPort 9030 # what port to advertise for directory connections
If you want to listen on a port other than the one advertised in
DirPort (e.g. to advertise 80 but bind to 9091), you can do it as
follows. below too. You'll need to do ipchains or other port
forwarding yourself to make this work.
#DirPort 80 NoListen
#DirPort 127.0.0.1:9091 NoAdvertise
Uncomment to return an arbitrary blob of html on your DirPort. Now you
can explain what Tor is if anybody wonders why your IP address is
contacting them. See contrib/tor-exit-notice.html in Tor's source
distribution for a sample.
#DirPortFrontPage /usr/local/etc/tor/tor-exit-notice.html
Uncomment this if you run more than one Tor relay, and add the identity
key fingerprint of each Tor relay you control, even if they're on
different networks. You declare it here so Tor clients can avoid
using more than one of your relays in a single circuit. See
https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#MultipleRelays
However, you should never include a bridge's fingerprint here, as it would
break its concealability and potentially reveal its IP/TCP address.
If you are running multiple relays, you MUST set this option.
Note: do not use MyFamily on bridge relays.
#MyFamily $keyid,$keyid,...
Uncomment this if you want your relay to be an exit, with the default
exit policy (or whatever exit policy you set below).
(If ReducedExitPolicy, ExitPolicy, or IPv6Exit are set, relays are exits.
If none of these options are set, relays are non-exits.)
#ExitRelay 1
Uncomment this if you want your relay to allow IPv6 exit traffic.
(Relays do not allow any exit traffic by default.)
#IPv6Exit 1
Uncomment this if you want your relay to be an exit, with a reduced set
of exit ports.
#ReducedExitPolicy 1
Uncomment these lines if you want your relay to be an exit, with the
specified set of exit IPs and ports.
A comma-separated list of exit policies. They're considered first
to last, and the first match wins.
If you want to allow the same ports on IPv4 and IPv6, write your rules
using accept/reject *. If you want to allow different ports on IPv4 and
IPv6, write your IPv6 rules using accept6/reject6 *6, and your IPv4 rules
using accept/reject *4.
If you want to replace the default exit policy, end this with either a
reject : or an accept :. Otherwise, you're augmenting (prepending to)
the default exit policy. Leave commented to just use the default, which is
described in the man page or at
https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html
Look at https://www.torproject.org/faq-abuse.html#TypicalAbuses
for issues you might encounter if you use the default exit policy.
If certain IPs and ports are blocked externally, e.g. by your firewall,
you should update your exit policy to reflect this -- otherwise Tor
users will be told that those destinations are down.
For security, by default Tor rejects connections to private (local)
networks, including to the configured primary public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses,
and any public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses on any interface on the relay.
See the man page entry for ExitPolicyRejectPrivate if you want to allow
"exit enclaving".
#ExitPolicy accept :6660-6667,reject :* # allow irc ports on IPv4 and IPv6 but no more
#ExitPolicy accept :119 # accept nntp ports on IPv4 and IPv6 as well as default exit policy
#ExitPolicy accept 4:119 # accept nntp ports on IPv4 only as well as default exit policy
#ExitPolicy accept6 6:119 # accept nntp ports on IPv6 only as well as default exit policy
#ExitPolicy reject :* # no exits allowed
Bridge relays (or "bridges") are Tor relays that aren't listed in the
main directory. Since there is no complete public list of them, even an
ISP that filters connections to all the known Tor relays probably
won't be able to block all the bridges. Also, websites won't treat you
differently because they won't know you're running Tor. If you can
be a real relay, please do; but if not, be a bridge!
Warning: when running your Tor as a bridge, make sure than MyFamily is
NOT configured.
#BridgeRelay 1
By default, Tor will advertise your bridge to users through various
mechanisms like https://bridges.torproject.org/. If you want to run
a private bridge, for example because you'll give out your bridge
address manually to your friends, uncomment this line:
#PublishServerDescriptor 0
Configuration options can be imported from files or folders using the %include
option with the value being a path. If the path is a file, the options from the
file will be parsed as if they were written where the %include option is. If
the path is a folder, all files on that folder will be parsed following lexical
order. Files starting with a dot are ignored. Files on subfolders are ignored.
The %include option can be used recursively.
#%include /etc/torrc.d/
#%include /etc/torrc.custom
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
