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I tried connecting to tor in TBB 3.5.1, OS X 10.8.5 using telnet localhost 9151 but since CookieAuthentication is set it requires authentication.

From the manual

CookieAuthentication 0|1 If this option is set to 1, allow connections on the control port when the connecting process knows the contents of a file named "control_auth_cookie", which Tor will create in its data directory. This authentication method should only be used on systems with good filesystem security. (Default: 0)

I checked RFCs and other sources for TELNET/telnet but I couldn't find any information on this matter.

How can I authenticate using the cookie?

1.61803
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1 Answers1

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  1. Locate the file control_auth_cookie
  2. Enter hexdump -e '32/1 "%02x""\n"' $COOKIEFILE where $COOKIEFILE is the location of the file from step 1.
  3. Copy the output
  4. Open a shell and enter telnet 127.0.0.1 9151. If you can't get a connection check if Tor listens on that port. Other versions listens on port 9050.
  5. When you see a prompt enter AUTHENTICATE $OUTPUTFROM2 where $OUTPUTFROM2 is the output you copied from step 2.
  6. Tor prints 250 OK and you're done.

If you like to put the steps above in a program, I'd suggest a shell script plus expect. In the answer to 'New tor bundle how to change identity programmatically?' I described how to do it for NEWNYM. You just need to insert the line send -- "getinfo circuit-status" at the correct line.

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Jens Kubieziel
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  • Great, it works. Before accepting it, how would you script the whole thing to just get the fingerprint of the exit relay node with getinfo circuit-status? S. http://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/1422/how-can-i-get-a-relays-fingerprint – 1.61803 Feb 04 '14 at 20:46
  • I checked getinfo info/names but there's no direct way to get the fingerprint of the exit. Do you know how to get and parse it in expect_out? – 1.61803 Feb 08 '14 at 14:51
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    Hi Jens, thanks! This answer inspired me to add a FAQ entry discussing each of tor's connection and authentication scenarios: https://stem.torproject.org/faq.html#can-i-interact-with-tors-controller-interface-directly – Damian Mar 22 '14 at 19:19