Monitoring Your Darknet Infrastructure: Uptime, Security, and Alerts

Running a darknet service requires continuous monitoring — but traditional monitoring tools leak information. Here's how to monitor your .onion infrastructure safely.

Uptime Monitoring

Run monitoring from a separate Tor-connected server — never from the same machine hosting your service. Use a simple script that accesses your .onion URL through Tor and checks for expected content. Alert via XMPP or anonymous email if the check fails. Monitor from multiple independent locations for reliability.

Security Monitoring

Monitor access logs for unusual patterns: brute-force attempts, directory traversal, SQL injection probes, and vulnerability scanning. Set up fail2ban for repeated failed login attempts. Monitor file integrity with AIDE or Tripwire — alert on any unexpected file changes. Check for new processes with abnormal network connections.

Performance Metrics

Track response times, error rates, CPU/memory usage, and disk space. Unexpected performance changes can indicate compromise (cryptominer), DDoS, or traffic surges. Store metrics locally in encrypted databases — never send to external monitoring services. Review metrics through an authenticated .onion admin panel.