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Index/Topics/Tor Guard Nodes

Tor Guard Nodes

The role and functionality of guard nodes in the Tor network, including their impact on user anonymity and the trade-offs involved in their design and operation.

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Jan 8, 2026

Have there been recent high-profile cases where Tor users were identified by authorities (2023–2025)?

Tor remains a designed-to-anonymize network that complicates attribution, but adversaries — states, criminals, and malware authors — have technical means to reduce that anonymity under some conditions...

Jan 8, 2026

How do Tor guard nodes work and what metadata can they expose to observers?

Guard (entry) nodes are the first hop in a Tor circuit and exist to reduce the chance that an adversary will observe both ends of a connection; they are stable, relatively long‑lived relays selected b...