How to change the Tor exit node programmatically to get a new IP?

Question

I have Tor running on my computer, and I need to change the Tor exit node every five minutes. For example, if I start using Tor via some exit node, then in 5 minutes I want Tor to change to an exit node with a different IP address. How can I do this?

Tor, as far as I know, is listening to port 8051 on localhost.

What commands can I send to this port to make Tor build a new chain, so that I can get another IP address?

Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com · Answer 1 · 2023-07-24T07:08:48.553

Method 1: HUP

sudo killall -HUP tor

Then check that your IP has changed with:

curl --socks5 127.0.0.1:9050 http://checkip.amazonaws.com/

Tested in Ubuntu 17.10 with sudo apt-get install tor version 1.6.0-5.

sudo is needed since the process is started by root by default.

What an HUP signal does exactly to the Tor daemon is documented at: https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/control-spec.txt?id=03aaace9bd9459b0d4bf22a75012acf39d07bcec#n394 and is equivalent to sending some command through the command port.

Browser Bundle 5.0.5 is not affected by this, only daemon ports like the default 9050, which is not used by the TBB. For that use case see: https://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/1071/how-can-a-new-circuit-happen-without-closing-all-tabs

If you are deploying an army of Tor IPs as mentioned here you can selectively send:

kill -HUP $PID

We can select the PID by port as per: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/106561/finding-the-pid-of-the-process-using-a-specific-port E.g. to change IP of the Tor listening in at port 9050:

kill -HUP "$(sudo netstat -nlp | awk '$4~":9050"{ gsub(/\/.*/,"",$7); print $7 }')"

Method 2: control port

Mentioned by kat:

(echo authenticate '""'; echo signal newnym; echo quit) | nc localhost 9051

but for that to work on Ubuntu 17.10 you must first:

enable the control port by uncommenting:
```
ControlPort 9051
```
from /etc/tor/torrc
Set the empty password, otherwise it gives 515 Authentication failed: Wrong length on authentication cookie.. First run:
```
tor --hash-password ''
```
This outputs something like:
```
16:D14CC89AD7848B8C60093105E8284A2D3AB2CF3C20D95FECA0848CFAD2
```
Now on /etc/tor/torrc update the line:
```
HashedControlPassword 16:D14CC89AD7848B8C60093105E8284A2D3AB2CF3C20D95FECA0848CFAD2
```
Restart Tor:
```
sudo service tor restart
```

Related threads

with control port, the nc command displays "250 OK 250 OK 250 closing connection" but my Tor IP address doesn't change, any idea? — baptx, Feb 26 '16 at 12:41
@baptx sorry, I don't know what to do. If you find out, please ping me. — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Feb 26 '16 at 12:43
@UlysseBN signal is slightly easier to do, port would allow more general controls however I think — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Dec 04 '20 at 12:44

score 44 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 06 '12 at 01:00

44

(echo authenticate '""'; echo signal newnym; echo quit) | nc localhost 9051

answered Jul 06 '12 at 01:00

kat

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2

Thanks a lot, very fast way to have a new IP – Dorian Aug 16 '12 at 11:35
5

For that to work, you must first enable the control port like this: http://stackoverflow.com/a/33726166/895245 – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Nov 15 '15 at 23:07
3

Great trick, but note that this doesn't _guarantee_ a new IP - just a change of exit node - which may of course result in the same one again ;) – MatzFan May 11 '16 at 08:49

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

10

This question seems to come up pretty frequently (1, 2) so I just added a FAQ entry for it. As mentioned earlier you can do this via a NEWNYM signal. Here's an example for doing it via stem...

from stem import Signal
from stem.control import Controller

with Controller.from_port(port = 9051) as controller:
  controller.authenticate()
  controller.signal(Signal.NEWNYM)

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Jun 16 '13 at 04:10

Damian

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score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 28 '09 at 15:53

yeah, that's 1 (i mean =true =))) that tor does change ip every 10 minutes but! if i restart tor - i'll get a new ip even in this 10minutes interval. so i was thinking about making tor to send this "change_ip" request manually. see this code (written according to http://en.linuxreviews.org/HOWTO_use_the_Internet_anonymously_using_Tor_and_Privoxy)

procedure ChangeIp;
var
  sck:TIdTCPClient;
begin
  sck:=TIdTCPClient.Create(nil);
  try
    sck.Host:='127.0.0.1';
    sck.Port:=10051;
    sck.Connect;
    sck.SendCmd('authenticate','');
    if sck.LastCmdResult.Code='250' then
    begin
      sck.SendCmd('signal newnym','');
    end;
  finally
    sck.Free;
  end;
end;

and accornig to [https://tor-svn.freehaven.net/svn/torctl/trunk/doc/howto.txt] i can write a controler that will change tor's conf on the fly. by default it is not enebled (i mean this ability), but i can make tor client listen to some port for accepting commands using torrc...if i'm not mistaken...again=)

!!! where the hell torrc is on my pc?

In C:\Users\geekman\AppData\Roaming\Tor i could,n fing it i got vista.

By default there IS no torrc, you have to manually create one (and I recommend reading the entire manual first)... unfortunately the console is suppressed in windows without corresponding via python code or using some other means of piping its output into the console. — Darren Ringer, Feb 03 '15 at 23:12

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 29 '14 at 12:50

4

I've made a shell script for myself that also lets you do this remotely (if Tor server is running on another machine).

It's available here: https://gist.github.com/kirelagin/9667900.

answered Mar 29 '14 at 12:50

kirelagin

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 30 '17 at 12:52

3

You can simply type or insert in your bash script:

service tor reload

answered Apr 30 '17 at 12:52

Liam

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 22 '20 at 22:22

If you don't have access to the control port, you could use a different circuit which changes your IP*. This can be done by specifying a different socks username:

$ curl -x "socks5://circuit1@127.0.0.1:9050" "https://ifconfig.io/ip"
109.70.100.34

$ curl -x "socks5://circuit2@127.0.0.1:9050" "https://ifconfig.io/ip"
209.222.101.251

$ curl -x "socks5://circuit3@127.0.0.1:9050" "https://ifconfig.io/ip"
54.37.19.83

If you want to reuse a specific IP at some point you can use the same username you used before to get that IP again.

* The exit node will be random every time and there is a slight chance you'll get the same IP twice in a row.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not a Tor expert, but this works for me.

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 28 '09 at 15:29

2

You have no control over the routing in the tor network (if you had, someone could abuse this feature). But tor already switches the route roughly every 10 minutes (at least according to the German Wikipedia article).

answered Dec 28 '09 at 15:29

Aaron Digulla

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This isn't completely true, for those who stumble upon this thread. You can use the control port and modify some internal tor settings to basically create your own circuits. http://www.thesprawl.org/memdump/?entry=8 can get you started. – chrispr Mar 26 '11 at 00:14

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 25 '14 at 09:11

1

Advtor gives you access over almost all advanced settings which works over tor network.

answered Feb 25 '14 at 09:11

Cyril

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 24 '11 at 08:52

1

I have done something different here... i wrote a PHP program that can communicate with linux shell. The program would restart tor in regular intervals.

So when tor is restarted it gets a new IP.... Yeah.....!!

exec("/etc/init.d/tor restart",$ioOut);
print_r($ioOut); //output from shell after executing the command
sleep(25);

You can also write a shell script to do this.

I am now in search of a windows option to do this. The problem is .. in windows Tor is a service which cannot be restarted.

answered Feb 24 '11 at 08:52

Clain Dsilva

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Sending a command to Tor is much faster and secure than rebooting the whole daemon – Alexander Jul 29 '13 at 11:18
Clain Dsilva , could you give us an example? I am looking for that command and still didn't get it.... – HoNgOuRu Mar 24 '14 at 17:24
@HoNgOuRu the Linux command would be "/etc/init.d/tor restart" – Clain Dsilva Mar 28 '14 at 12:46

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Feb 24 '13 at 12:52

0

I've wrote a library to control Tor with PHP. It is installable with Composer and allows to change the exit node.

Of course it's free software: http://dunglas.fr/2013/02/php-torcontrol-a-library-to-control-tor/

answered Feb 24 '13 at 12:52

Kévin Dunglas

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How to change the Tor exit node programmatically to get a new IP?

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