Critics accuse makers of popular Tor router of scam

The makers of the Anonabox, a network device that routes data traffic via Tor and is promoted on Kickstarter, are said to be scammers, according to several critics on Reddit. The makers would not have developed the hardware design themselves and the box would be unsafe.

According to one of the critics, the developers of the Anonabox falsely suggested that they had developed their own hardware design, while the parts could be found ready-made in Chinese online stores. In his message, he sums up the extensive criticism of an earlier posting on Wednesday. In an interview with Wired, August Germar, one of the founders of the Anonabox, admits that the design came from a Chinese OEM, while he kept a different story on Kickstarter.

In addition to disagreements about the hardware design, the Anonabox developers would also lie with the claim that the device is completely open source. It is feared that backdoors have been installed in the Chinese network chips, although there is no hard evidence for this.

There is also criticism in the software area: the Anonabox is said to be unsafe because, among other things, an ssh daemon runs on it, so that the firmware can in theory be adjusted by third parties. An open Wi-Fi network is also offered and the root password could also be a back door.

The criticism comes at a time when the Anonabox is having a lot of success on Kickstarter and in the media. The makers aimed for a revenue of 7,500 dollars, but more than 600,000 dollars, converted 470,000 euros, has been raised.

The project is very similar to the Portal project revealed in mid-August at the Def Con security show, which includes a software image for the small and inexpensive router GL.iNet to anonymize Internet traffic via Tor by default. The Anonabox would also use this Tor package.