The Tor Project has released Tor Browser 11.0 with a new user interface design and the removal of support for V2 onion services.
The Tor Browser is a customized version of Firefox ESR that allows users to browse the web anonymously and access special .onion domains only accessible via Tor.
You can download the Tor Browser from the Tor Project site, and if you are an existing user, you can upgrade to the latest version by going to the Tor Menu > Help > About Tor Browser.
What’s new in Tor 11
Tor Browser 11 uses Firefox ESR 91, which brings an updated user interface containing new icons, a new toolbar, streamlined menus, dialogs, and an updated tabs interface.
However, the most significant change is the deprecation of V2 onion services, meaning TOR URLs using short 16 character hostnames domains are no longer supported.
When attempting to open a V2 onion service, Tor Browser will show users an “Invalid Onionsite Address” with an error code of 0xF6.
“At long last, that day has finally come. Since updating to Tor 0.4.6.8 v2 onion services are no longer reachable in Tor Browser, and users will receive an “Invalid Onion Site Address” error instead.”
With this change, Tor sites using V2 onion services will no longer be reachable, but admins can upgrade to a V3 onion service by adding the following lines to the torrc file.