Working With ToR In Python

I bet I'm not the first one who ever needed to write a script that downloads something via ToR.

Apparently, there isn't much information regarding how to request a new identity or how to use the ToR proxy in Python. So here's a gift from me to the world.

First, while not necessary, I always use a new ToR identity prior to download something through the ToR network. The code looks like:

import socket

def renewTorIdentity():

success = False

s = socket.socket()

s.connect(('localhost', 9051))

s.send("AUTHENTICATE\r\n")

resp = s.recv(1024)

if resp.startswith('250'):

s.send("signal NEWNYM\r\n")

resp2 = s.recv(1024)

if resp.startswith('250'):

success = True

return success

That would work assuming "authentication" is set to none in the Vidalia control panel.

After having a new identity, downloading a file is really simple, as Vidalia comes bundled with privoxy configured on port 8118. Here's a sample code for downloading something:

import urllib2

url = "http://something-to-download"

proxy_support = urllib2.ProxyHandler({"http" : "127.0.0.1:8118"})

opener = urllib2.build_opener(proxy_support)

opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/5.0')]

response = opener.open(url).read()

That's it. Simple.