Tails, or The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a security-focused Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at preserving privacy and anonymity. All its incoming and outgoing connections are forced to go through Tor, and any non-anonymous connections are blocked. The system is designed to be booted as a live DVD or live USB, and will leave no digital footprint on the machine unless explicitly told to do so. The Tor Project has provided financial support for its development in the beginnings of the project. According to the Whonix Project, in comparison with other anonymity-focused software or platforms, "Tails is better suited for high-risk users who face aggressive, targeted surveillance." As of the latest version, Tails comes with Secure Boot.
Keyringer, a command line tool to encrypt secrets shared through Git
Paperkey, a command line tool to back up OpenPGP secret keys on paper
Users can install any other software which is present in Debian GNU/Linux, either through APT or dpkg. One may choose among a large number of languages and keyboard layouts when the system is booted.
Persistency
Tails is by design amnesic. It lives in RAM and does not write to any other drive unless strictly specified. However, it is possible to set up an encrypted persistence volume to save user data. It is also possible to instruct Tails to automatically install some additional software from the persistence drive, to load bookmarks for the Tor Browser, keep GPG keys or to keep configurations data for other applications. It is important to note that the encrypted space could be detected by forensic analysis and is not hidden like in the case of VeraCrypt which offers plausible deniability and therefore should not be distinguishable from random data.
Security
During the shutdown process, Tails will overwrite most of the used RAM to avoid a cold boot attack. An emergency shutdown can be triggered by physically removing the medium where Tails is installed: a watchdog monitors the status of the boot medium, and if removed then the memory erasing process will begin immediately. This should however only be used in an emergency situation because it could break the file system of the persistence volume, if set up.
On 3 July 2014, German public television channelDas Erste reported that the NSA's XKeyscore surveillance system contains definitions that match persons who search for Tails using a search engine or visit the Tails website. A comment in XKeyscore's source code calls Tails "a comsec mechanism advocated by extremists on extremist forums". On 28 December 2014, Der Spiegel published slides from an internal NSA presentation dating to June 2012 in which the NSA deemed Tails on its own as a "major threat" to its mission, and when used in conjunction with other privacy tools such as OTR, Cspace, RedPhone, and TrueCrypt was ranked as "catastrophic," leading to a "near-total loss/lack of insight to target communications, presence..." On 10 June 2020, Motherboard reported that Facebook in cooperation with FBI used a 0-day vulnerability in Tails built-in video player to track and identify a sexual abuser in social network.
Tails partners
Organizations, companies and individuals that provide financial support to Tails through grants or donations are recognized as "partners", and have included:
