Table of Contents

• Features
• Install
  • Using PIP
    • Stable version
    • Development version
  • Using Docker
    • Stable version
    • Development version
  • Using HomeBrew
    • Stable version
    • Development version
• Start proxy.py
  • From command line when installed using PIP
    • Run it
    • Understanding logs
    • Enable DEBUG logging
  • From command line using repo source
  • Docker Image
    • Customize Startup Flags
• Plugin Examples
  • HTTP Proxy Plugins
    • ShortLink Plugin
    • Modify Post Data Plugin
    • Mock Api Plugin
    • Redirect To Custom Server Plugin
    • Filter By Upstream Host Plugin
    • Cache Responses Plugin
    • Man-In-The-Middle Plugin
    • Proxy Pool Plugin
  • HTTP Web Server Plugins
    • Reverse Proxy
    • Web Server Route
  • Plugin Ordering
• End-to-End Encryption
• TLS Interception
  • TLS Interception With Docker
• Proxy Over SSH Tunnel
  • Proxy Remote Requests Locally
  • Proxy Local Requests Remotely
• Embed proxy.py
  • Blocking Mode
  • Non-blocking Mode
• Unit testing with proxy.py
  • proxy.TestCase
  • Override Startup Flags
  • With unittest.TestCase
• Plugin Developer and Contributor Guide
  • Everything is a plugin
  • Internal Architecture
  • Internal Documentation
  • Development Guide
    • Setup Local Environment
    • Setup pre-commit hook
    • Sending a Pull Request
• Utilities
  • TCP
    • new_socket_connection
    • socket_connection
  • Http
    • build_http_request
    • build_http_response
  • Public Key Infrastructure
    • API Usage
    • CLI Usage
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • Threads vs Threadless
  • SyntaxError: invalid syntax
  • Unable to load plugins
  • Unable to connect with proxy.py from remote host
  • Basic auth not working with a browser
  • Docker image not working on MacOS
  • ValueError: filedescriptor out of range in select
  • None:None in access logs
• Flags
• Changelog
  • v2.x
  • v1.x
  • v0.x

Features

• Fast & Scalable
  • Scales by using all available cores on the system
  • Threadless executions using coroutine
  • Made to handle tens-of-thousands connections / sec

    # On Macbook Pro 2015 / 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
    ❯ hey -n 10000 -c 100 http://localhost:8899/
    
    Summary:
      Total:	0.6157 secs
      Slowest:	0.1049 secs
      Fastest:	0.0007 secs
      Average:	0.0055 secs
      Requests/sec:	16240.5444
    
      Total data:	800000 bytes
      Size/request:	80 bytes
    
    Response time histogram:
      0.001 [1]     |
      0.011 [9565]	|■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
      0.022 [332]	|■
    

• Lightweight
  • Uses only ~5-20MB RAM
  • No external dependency other than standard Python library
• Programmable
  • Optionally enable builtin Web Server
  • Customize proxy and http routing via plugins
  • Enable plugin using command line option e.g. --plugins proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPlugin
  • Plugin API is currently in development phase, expect breaking changes.
• Realtime Dashboard
  • Optionally enable bundled dashboard.
    • Available at http://localhost:8899/dashboard.
  • Inspect, Monitor, Control and Configure proxy.py at runtime.
  • Extend dashboard using plugins.
  • Dashboard is currently in development phase, expect breaking changes.
• Secure
  • Enable end-to-end encryption between clients and proxy.py using TLS
  • See End-to-End Encryption
• Man-In-The-Middle
  • Can decrypt TLS traffic between clients and upstream servers
  • See TLS Interception
• Supported proxy protocols
  • http(s)
    • http1
    • http1.1 pipeline
  • http2
  • websockets
• Optimized for large file uploads and downloads
• IPv4 and IPv6 support
• Basic authentication support
• Can serve a PAC (Proxy Auto-configuration) file
  • See --pac-file and --pac-file-url-path flags

Install

Using PIP

Stable Version with PIP

Install from PyPi

❯ pip install --upgrade proxy.py

or from GitHub master branch

❯ pip install git+https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py.git@master

Development Version with PIP

❯ pip install git+https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py.git@develop

Using Docker

Stable Version from Docker Hub

❯ docker run -it -p 8899:8899 --rm abhinavsingh/proxy.py:latest

Build Development Version Locally

❯ git clone https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py.git
❯ cd proxy.py
❯ make container
❯ docker run -it -p 8899:8899 --rm abhinavsingh/proxy.py:latest

docker image is currently broken on macOS due to incompatibility with vpnkit.

Using HomeBrew

Stable Version with HomeBrew

❯ brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py/develop/helper/homebrew/stable/proxy.rb

Development Version with HomeBrew

❯ brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py/develop/helper/homebrew/develop/proxy.rb

Start proxy.py

From command line when installed using PIP

When proxy.py is installed using pip, an executable named proxy is placed under your $PATH.

Run it

Simply type proxy on command line to start it with default configuration.

❯ proxy
...[redacted]... - Loaded plugin proxy.http_proxy.HttpProxyPlugin
...[redacted]... - Starting 8 workers
...[redacted]... - Started server on ::1:8899

Understanding logs

Things to notice from above logs:

• Loaded plugin - proxy.py will load proxy.http.proxy.HttpProxyPlugin by default. As name suggests, this core plugin adds http(s) proxy server capabilities to proxy.py

• Started N workers - Use --num-workers flag to customize number of worker processes. By default, proxy.py will start as many workers as there are CPU cores on the machine.

• Started server on ::1:8899 - By default, proxy.py listens on IPv6 ::1, which is equivalent of IPv4 127.0.0.1. If you want to access proxy.py externally, use --hostname :: or --hostname 0.0.0.0 or bind to any other interface available on your machine.

• Port 8899 - Use --port flag to customize default TCP port.

Enable DEBUG logging

All the logs above are INFO level logs, default --log-level for proxy.py.

Lets start proxy.py with DEBUG level logging:

❯ proxy --log-level d
...[redacted]... - Open file descriptor soft limit set to 1024
...[redacted]... - Loaded plugin proxy.http_proxy.HttpProxyPlugin
...[redacted]... - Started 8 workers
...[redacted]... - Started server on ::1:8899

As we can see, before starting up:

• proxy.py also tried to set open file limit ulimit on the system.
• Default value for --open-file-limit used is 1024.
• --open-file-limit flag is a no-op on Windows operating systems.

See flags for full list of available configuration options.

From command line using repo source

If you are trying to run proxy.py from source code, there is no binary file named proxy in the source code.

To start proxy.py from source code follow these instructions:

• Clone repo

  ❯ git clone https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py.git
  ❯ cd proxy.py
  

• Create a Python 3 virtual env

  ❯ python3 -m venv venv
  ❯ source venv/bin/activate
  

• Install deps

  ❯ pip install -r requirements.txt
  ❯ pip install -r requirements-testing.txt
  

• Run tests

  ❯ make
  

• Run proxy.py

  ❯ python -m proxy
  

Also see Plugin Developer and Contributor Guide if you plan to work with proxy.py source code.

Docker image

Customize startup flags

By default docker binary is started with IPv4 networking flags:

--hostname 0.0.0.0 --port 8899

To override input flags, start docker image as follows. For example, to check proxy.py version within Docker image:

❯ docker run -it \
    -p 8899:8899 \
    --rm abhinavsingh/proxy.py:latest \
    -v

Plugin Examples

• See plugin module for full code.
• All the bundled plugin examples also works with https traffic
  • Require additional flags and certificate generation
  • See TLS Interception.
• Plugin examples are also bundled with Docker image.
  • See Customize startup flags to try plugins with Docker image.

HTTP Proxy Plugins

ShortLinkPlugin

Add support for short links in your favorite browsers / applications.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.ShortLinkPlugin

Now you can speed up your daily browsing experience by visiting your favorite website using single character domain names :). This works across all browsers.

Following short links are enabled by default:

Short Link	Destination URL
a/	amazon.com
i/	instagram.com
l/	linkedin.com
f/	facebook.com
g/	google.com
t/	twitter.com
w/	web.whatsapp.com
y/	youtube.com
proxy/	localhost:8899

ModifyPostDataPlugin

Modifies POST request body before sending request to upstream server.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.ModifyPostDataPlugin

By default plugin replaces POST body content with hardcoded b'{"key": "modified"}' and enforced Content-Type: application/json.

Verify the same using curl -x localhost:8899 -d '{"key": "value"}' http://httpbin.org/post

{
  "args": {},
  "data": "{\"key\": \"modified\"}",
  "files": {},
  "form": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Content-Length": "19",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.54.0"
  },
  "json": {
    "key": "modified"
  },
  "origin": "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/post"
}

Note following from the response above:

1. POST data was modified "data": "{\"key\": \"modified\"}". Original curl command data was {"key": "value"}.
2. Our curl command did not add any Content-Type header, but our plugin did add one "Content-Type": "application/json". Same can also be verified by looking at json field in the output above:

   "json": {
    "key": "modified"
   },
   

3. Our plugin also added a Content-Length header to match length of modified body.

MockRestApiPlugin

Mock responses for your server REST API. Use to test and develop client side applications without need of an actual upstream REST API server.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.ProposedRestApiPlugin

Verify mock API response using curl -x localhost:8899 http://api.example.com/v1/users/

{"count": 2, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [{"email": "you@example.com", "groups": [], "url": "api.example.com/v1/users/1/", "username": "admin"}, {"email": "someone@example.com", "groups": [], "url": "api.example.com/v1/users/2/", "username": "admin"}]}

Verify the same by inspecting proxy.py logs:

2019-09-27 12:44:02,212 - INFO - pid:7077 - access_log:1210 - ::1:64792 - GET None:None/v1/users/ - None None - 0 byte

Access log shows None:None as server ip:port. None simply means that the server connection was never made, since response was returned by our plugin.

Now modify ProposedRestApiPlugin to returns REST API mock responses as expected by your clients.

RedirectToCustomServerPlugin

Redirects all incoming http requests to custom web server. By default, it redirects client requests to inbuilt web server, also running on 8899 port.

Start proxy.py and enable inbuilt web server:

❯ proxy \
    --enable-web-server \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.RedirectToCustomServerPlugin

Verify using curl -v -x localhost:8899 http://google.com

... [redacted] ...
< HTTP/1.1 404 NOT FOUND
< Server: proxy.py v1.0.0
< Connection: Close
<
* Closing connection 0

Above 404 response was returned from proxy.py web server.

Verify the same by inspecting the logs for proxy.py. Along with the proxy request log, you must also see a http web server request log.

2019-09-24 19:09:33,602 - INFO - pid:49996 - access_log:1241 - ::1:49525 - GET /
2019-09-24 19:09:33,603 - INFO - pid:49995 - access_log:1157 - ::1:49524 - GET localhost:8899/ - 404 NOT FOUND - 70 bytes

FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin

Drops traffic by inspecting upstream host. By default, plugin drops traffic for google.com and www.google.com.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin

Verify using curl -v -x localhost:8899 http://google.com:

... [redacted] ...
< HTTP/1.1 418 I'm a tea pot
< Proxy-agent: proxy.py v1.0.0
* no chunk, no close, no size. Assume close to signal end
<
* Closing connection 0

Above 418 I'm a tea pot is sent by our plugin.

Verify the same by inspecting logs for proxy.py:

2019-09-24 19:21:37,893 - ERROR - pid:50074 - handle_readables:1347 - HttpProtocolException type raised
Traceback (most recent call last):
... [redacted] ...
2019-09-24 19:21:37,897 - INFO - pid:50074 - access_log:1157 - ::1:49911 - GET None:None/ - None None - 0 bytes

CacheResponsesPlugin

Caches Upstream Server Responses.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPlugin

Verify using curl -v -x localhost:8899 http://httpbin.org/get:

... [redacted] ...
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
< Content-Type: application/json
< Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:24:25 GMT
< Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgrade
< Server: nginx
< X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
< X-Frame-Options: DENY
< X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
< Content-Length: 202
< Connection: keep-alive
<
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.54.0"
  },
  "origin": "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}
* Connection #0 to host localhost left intact

Get path to the cache file from proxy.py logs:

... [redacted] ... - GET httpbin.org:80/get - 200 OK - 556 bytes
... [redacted] ... - Cached response at /var/folders/k9/x93q0_xn1ls9zy76m2mf2k_00000gn/T/httpbin.org-1569378301.407512.txt

Verify contents of the cache file cat /path/to/your/cache/httpbin.org.txt

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:24:25 GMT
Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgrade
Server: nginx
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Content-Length: 202
Connection: keep-alive

{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.54.0"
  },
  "origin": "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}

ManInTheMiddlePlugin

Modifies upstream server responses.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.ManInTheMiddlePlugin

Verify using curl -v -x localhost:8899 http://google.com:

... [redacted] ...
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Content-Length: 28
<
* Connection #0 to host localhost left intact
Hello from man in the middle

Response body Hello from man in the middle is sent by our plugin.

ProxyPoolPlugin

Forward incoming proxy requests to a set of upstream proxy servers.

By default, ProxyPoolPlugin is hard-coded to use localhost:9000 and localhost:9001 as upstream proxy server.

Let's start upstream proxies first.

Start proxy.py on port 9000 and 9001

❯ proxy --port 9000

❯ proxy --port 9001

Now, start proxy.py with ProxyPoolPlugin (on default 8899 port):

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.ProxyPoolPlugin

Make a curl request via 8899 proxy:

curl -v -x localhost:8899 http://httpbin.org/get

Verify that 8899 proxy forwards requests to upstream proxies by checking respective logs.

HTTP Web Server Plugins

Reverse Proxy

Extend in-built Web Server to add Reverse Proxy capabilities.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy --enable-web-server \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.ReverseProxyPlugin

With default configuration, ReverseProxyPlugin plugin is equivalent to following Nginx config:

location /get {
    proxy_pass http://httpbin.org/get
}

Verify using curl -v localhost:8899/get:

{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "localhost",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.64.1"
  },
  "origin": "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8",
  "url": "https://localhost/get"
}

Web Server Route

Demonstrates inbuilt web server routing using plugin.

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy --enable-web-server \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.WebServerPlugin

Verify using curl -v localhost:8899/http-route-example, should return:

HTTP route response

Plugin Ordering

When using multiple plugins, depending upon plugin functionality, it might be worth considering the order in which plugins are passed on the command line.

Plugins are called in the same order as they are passed. Example, say we are using both FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin and RedirectToCustomServerPlugin. Idea is to drop all incoming http requests for google.com and www.google.com and redirect other http requests to our inbuilt web server.

Hence, in this scenario it is important to use FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin before RedirectToCustomServerPlugin. If we enable RedirectToCustomServerPlugin before FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin, google requests will also get redirected to inbuilt web server, instead of being dropped.

End-to-End Encryption

By default, proxy.py uses http protocol for communication with clients e.g. curl, browser. For enabling end-to-end encrypting using tls / https first generate certificates:

make https-certificates

Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --cert-file https-cert.pem \
    --key-file https-key.pem

Verify using curl -x https://localhost:8899 --proxy-cacert https-cert.pem https://httpbin.org/get:

{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.54.0"
  },
  "origin": "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}

TLS Interception

By default, proxy.py will not decrypt https traffic between client and server. To enable TLS interception first generate root CA certificates:

❯ make ca-certificates

Lets also enable CacheResponsePlugin so that we can verify decrypted response from the server. Start proxy.py as:

❯ proxy \
    --plugins proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPlugin \
    --ca-key-file ca-key.pem \
    --ca-cert-file ca-cert.pem \
    --ca-signing-key-file ca-signing-key.pem

Also provide explicit CA bundle path needed for validation of peer certificates. See --ca-file flag.

Verify TLS interception using curl

❯ curl -v -x localhost:8899 --cacert ca-cert.pem https://httpbin.org/get

*  issuer: C=US; ST=CA; L=SanFrancisco; O=proxy.py; OU=CA; CN=Proxy PY CA; emailAddress=proxyca@mailserver.com
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
> GET /get HTTP/1.1
... [redacted] ...
< Connection: keep-alive
<
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.54.0"
  },
  "origin": "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}

The issuer line confirms that response was intercepted.

Also verify the contents of cached response file. Get path to the cache file from proxy.py logs.

❯ cat /path/to/your/tmp/directory/httpbin.org-1569452863.924174.txt

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 23:07:05 GMT
Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgrade
Server: nginx
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Content-Length: 202
Connection: keep-alive

{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.54.0"
  },
  "origin": "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}

Viola!!! If you remove CA flags, encrypted data will be found in the cached file instead of plain text.

Now use CA flags with other plugin examples to see them work with https traffic.

TLS Interception With Docker

Important notes about TLS Interception with Docker container:

• Since v2.2.0, proxy.py docker container also ships with openssl. This allows proxy.py to generate certificates on the fly for TLS Interception.

• For security reasons, proxy.py docker container doesn't ship with CA certificates.

Here is how to start a proxy.py docker container with TLS Interception:

1. Generate CA certificates on host computer

   ❯ make ca-certificates
   

2. Copy all generated certificates into a separate directory. We'll later mount this directory into our docker container

   ❯ mkdir /tmp/ca-certificates
   ❯ cp ca-cert.pem ca-key.pem ca-signing-key.pem /tmp/ca-certificates
   

3. Start docker container

   ❯ docker run -it --rm \
       -v /tmp/ca-certificates:/tmp/ca-certificates \
       -p 8899:8899 \
       abhinavsingh/proxy.py:latest \
       --hostname 0.0.0.0 \
       --plugins proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPlugin \
       --ca-key-file /tmp/ca-certificates/ca-key.pem \
       --ca-cert-file /tmp/ca-certificates/ca-cert.pem \
       --ca-signing-key /tmp/ca-certificates/ca-signing-key.pem
   

   • -v /tmp/ca-certificates:/tmp/ca-certificates flag mounts our CA certificate directory in container environment
   • --plugins proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPlugin enables CacheResponsesPlugin so that we can inspect intercepted traffic
   • --ca-* flags enable TLS Interception.

4. From another terminal, try TLS Interception using curl. You can omit --cacert flag if CA certificate is already trusted by the system.

   ❯ curl -v \
       --cacert ca-cert.pem \
       -x 127.0.0.1:8899 \
       https://httpbin.org/get
   

5. Verify issuer field from response headers.

   * Server certificate:
   *  subject: CN=httpbin.org; C=NA; ST=Unavailable; L=Unavailable; O=Unavailable; OU=Unavailable
   *  start date: Jun 17 09:26:57 2020 GMT
   *  expire date: Jun 17 09:26:57 2022 GMT
   *  subjectAltName: host "httpbin.org" matched cert's "httpbin.org"
   *  issuer: CN=example.com
   *  SSL certificate verify ok.
   

6. Back on docker terminal, copy response dump path logs.

   ...[redacted]... [I] access_log:338 - 172.17.0.1:56498 - CONNECT httpbin.org:443 - 1031 bytes - 1216.70 ms
   ...[redacted]... [I] close:49 - Cached response at /tmp/httpbin.org-ae1a927d064e4ab386ea319eb38fe251.txt
   

7. In another terminal, cat the response dump:

   ❯ docker exec -it $(docker ps | grep proxy.py | awk '{ print $1 }') cat /tmp/httpbin.org-ae1a927d064e4ab386ea319eb38fe251.txt
   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   ...[redacted]...
   {
     ...[redacted]...,
     "url": "http://httpbin.org/get"
   }
   

Proxy Over SSH Tunnel

This is a WIP and may not work as documented

Requires paramiko to work. See requirements-tunnel.txt

Proxy Remote Requests Locally

                        |
+------------+          |            +----------+
|   LOCAL    |          |            |  REMOTE  |
|   HOST     | <== SSH ==== :8900 == |  SERVER  |
+------------+          |            +----------+
:8899 proxy.py          |
                        |
                     FIREWALL
                  (allow tcp/22)

What

Proxy HTTP(s) requests made on a remote server through proxy.py server running on localhost.

How

• Requested remote port is forwarded over the SSH connection.
• proxy.py running on the localhost handles and responds to remote proxy requests.

Requirements

1. localhost MUST have SSH access to the remote server
2. remote server MUST be configured to proxy HTTP(s) requests through the forwarded port number e.g. :8900.
   • remote and localhost ports CAN be same e.g. :8899.
   • :8900 is chosen in ascii art for differentiation purposes.

Try it

Start proxy.py as:

❯ # On localhost
❯ proxy --enable-tunnel \
    --tunnel-username username \
    --tunnel-hostname ip.address.or.domain.name \
    --tunnel-port 22 \
    --tunnel-remote-host 127.0.0.1
    --tunnel-remote-port 8899

Make a HTTP proxy request on remote server and verify that response contains public IP address of localhost as origin:

❯ # On remote
❯ curl -x 127.0.0.1:8899 http://httpbin.org/get
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "User-Agent": "curl/7.54.0"
  },
  "origin": "x.x.x.x, y.y.y.y",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}

Also, verify that proxy.py logs on localhost contains remote IP as client IP.

access_log:328 - remote:52067 - GET httpbin.org:80

Proxy Local Requests Remotely

                        |
+------------+          |     +----------+
|   LOCAL    |          |     |  REMOTE  |
|   HOST     | === SSH =====> |  SERVER  |
+------------+          |     +----------+
                        |     :8899 proxy.py
                        |
                    FIREWALL
                 (allow tcp/22)

Embed proxy.py

Blocking Mode

Start proxy.py in embedded mode with default configuration by using proxy.main method. Example:

import proxy

if __name__ == '__main__':
  proxy.main()

Customize startup flags by passing list of input arguments:

import proxy

if __name__ == '__main__':
  proxy.main([
    '--hostname', '::1',
    '--port', '8899'
  ])

or, customize startup flags by passing them as kwargs:

import ipaddress
import proxy

if __name__ == '__main__':
  proxy.main(
    hostname=ipaddress.IPv6Address('::1'),
    port=8899
  )

Note that:

1. Calling main is simply equivalent to starting proxy.py from command line.
2. main will block until proxy.py shuts down.

Non-blocking Mode

Start proxy.py in non-blocking embedded mode with default configuration by using start method: Example:

import proxy

if __name__ == '__main__':
  with proxy.start([]):
    # ... your logic here ...

Note that:

1. start is similar to main, except start won't block.
2. start is a context manager. It will start proxy.py when called and will shut it down once scope ends.
3. Just like main, startup flags with start method can be customized by either passing flags as list of input arguments e.g. start(['--port', '8899']) or by using passing flags as kwargs e.g. start(port=8899).

Unit testing with proxy.py

proxy.TestCase

To setup and teardown proxy.py for your Python unittest classes, simply use proxy.TestCase instead of unittest.TestCase. Example:

import proxy


class TestProxyPyEmbedded(proxy.TestCase):

    def test_my_application_with_proxy(self) -> None:
        self.assertTrue(True)

Note that:

1. proxy.TestCase overrides unittest.TestCase.run() method to setup and teardown proxy.py.
2. proxy.py server will listen on a random available port on the system. This random port is available as self.PROXY_PORT within your test cases.
3. Only a single worker is started by default (--num-workers 1) for faster setup and teardown.
4. Most importantly, proxy.TestCase also ensures proxy.py server is up and running before proceeding with execution of tests. By default, proxy.TestCase will wait for 10 seconds for proxy.py server to start, upon failure a TimeoutError exception will be raised.

Override startup flags

To override default startup flags, define a PROXY_PY_STARTUP_FLAGS variable in your test class. Example:

class TestProxyPyEmbedded(TestCase):

    PROXY_PY_STARTUP_FLAGS = [
        '--num-workers', '1',
        '--enable-web-server',
    ]

    def test_my_application_with_proxy(self) -> None:
        self.assertTrue(True)

See test_embed.py for full working example.

With unittest.TestCase

If for some reasons you are unable to directly use proxy.TestCase, then simply override unittest.TestCase.run yourself to setup and teardown proxy.py. Example:

import unittest
import proxy


class TestProxyPyEmbedded(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_my_application_with_proxy(self) -> None:
        self.assertTrue(True)

    def run(self, result: Optional[unittest.TestResult] = None) -> Any:
        with proxy.start([
                '--num-workers', '1',
                '--port', '... random port ...']):
            super().run(result)

or simply setup / teardown proxy.py within setUpClass and teardownClass class methods.

Plugin Developer and Contributor Guide

Everything is a plugin

As you might have guessed by now, in proxy.py everything is a plugin.

• We enabled proxy server plugins using --plugins flag. All the plugin examples were implementing HttpProxyBasePlugin. See documentation of HttpProxyBasePlugin for available lifecycle hooks. Use HttpProxyBasePlugin to modify behavior of http(s) proxy protocol between client and upstream server. Example, FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin.

• We also enabled inbuilt web server using --enable-web-server. Inbuilt web server implements HttpProtocolHandlerPlugin plugin. See documentation of HttpProtocolHandlerPlugin for available lifecycle hooks. Use HttpProtocolHandlerPlugin to add new features for http(s) clients. Example, HttpWebServerPlugin.

• There also is a --disable-http-proxy flag. It disables inbuilt proxy server. Use this flag with --enable-web-server flag to run proxy.py as a programmable http(s) server. HttpProxyPlugin also implements HttpProtocolHandlerPlugin.

Internal Architecture

• HttpProtocolHandler thread is started with the accepted TcpClientConnection. HttpProtocolHandler is responsible for parsing incoming client request and invoking HttpProtocolHandlerPlugin lifecycle hooks.

• HttpProxyPlugin which implements HttpProtocolHandlerPlugin also has its own plugin mechanism. Its responsibility is to establish connection between client and upstream TcpServerConnection and invoke HttpProxyBasePlugin lifecycle hooks.

• HttpProtocolHandler threads are started by Acceptor processes.

• --num-workers Acceptor processes are started by AcceptorPool on start-up.

• AcceptorPool listens on server socket and pass the handler to Acceptor processes. Workers are responsible for accepting new client connections and starting HttpProtocolHandler thread.

Development Guide

Setup Local Environment

Contributors must start proxy.py from source to verify and develop new features / fixes.

See Run proxy.py from command line using repo source for details.

Setup pre-commit hook

Pre-commit hook ensures lint checking and tests execution.

1. cd /path/to/proxy.py
2. ln -s $(PWD)/git-pre-commit .git/hooks/pre-commit

Sending a Pull Request

Every pull request is tested using GitHub actions.

See GitHub workflow for list of tests.

Utilities

TCP Sockets

new_socket_connection

Attempts to create an IPv4 connection, then IPv6 and finally a dual stack connection to provided address.

>>> conn = new_socket_connection(('httpbin.org', 80))
>>> ...[ use connection ]...
>>> conn.close()

socket_connection

socket_connection is a convenient decorator + context manager around new_socket_connection which ensures conn.close is implicit.

As a context manager:

>>> with socket_connection(('httpbin.org', 80)) as conn:
>>>   ... [ use connection ] ...

As a decorator:

>>> @socket_connection(('httpbin.org', 80))
>>> def my_api_call(conn, *args, **kwargs):
>>>   ... [ use connection ] ...

Http Client

build_http_request

Generate HTTP GET request

>>> build_http_request(b'GET', b'/')
b'GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n\r\n'
>>>

Generate HTTP GET request with headers

>>> build_http_request(b'GET', b'/',
        headers={b'Connection': b'close'})
b'GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n'
>>>

Generate HTTP POST request with headers and body

>>> import json
>>> build_http_request(b'POST', b'/form',
        headers={b'Content-type': b'application/json'},
        body=proxy.bytes_(json.dumps({'email': 'hello@world.com'})))
    b'POST /form HTTP/1.1\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n{"email": "hello@world.com"}'

build_http_response

build_http_response(
    status_code: int,
    protocol_version: bytes = HTTP_1_1,
    reason: Optional[bytes] = None,
    headers: Optional[Dict[bytes, bytes]] = None,
    body: Optional[bytes] = None) -> bytes

PKI

API Usage

gen_private_key

gen_private_key(
    key_path: str,
    password: str,
    bits: int = 2048,
    timeout: int = 10) -> bool

gen_public_key

gen_public_key(
    public_key_path: str,
    private_key_path: str,
    private_key_password: str,
    subject: str,
    alt_subj_names: Optional[List[str]] = None,
    extended_key_usage: Optional[str] = None,
    validity_in_days: int = 365,
    timeout: int = 10) -> bool

remove_passphrase

remove_passphrase(
    key_in_path: str,
    password: str,
    key_out_path: str,
    timeout: int = 10) -> bool

gen_csr

gen_csr(
    csr_path: str,
    key_path: str,
    password: str,
    crt_path: str,
    timeout: int = 10) -> bool

sign_csr

sign_csr(
    csr_path: str,
    crt_path: str,
    ca_key_path: str,
    ca_key_password: str,
    ca_crt_path: str,
    serial: str,
    alt_subj_names: Optional[List[str]] = None,
    extended_key_usage: Optional[str] = None,
    validity_in_days: int = 365,
    timeout: int = 10) -> bool

See pki.py and test_pki.py for usage examples.

CLI Usage

Use proxy.common.pki module for:

1. Generation of public and private keys
2. Generating CSR requests
3. Signing CSR requests using custom CA.

python -m proxy.common.pki -h
usage: pki.py [-h] [--password PASSWORD] [--private-key-path PRIVATE_KEY_PATH]
              [--public-key-path PUBLIC_KEY_PATH] [--subject SUBJECT]
              action

proxy.py v2.2.0 : PKI Utility

positional arguments:
  action                Valid actions: remove_passphrase, gen_private_key,
                        gen_public_key, gen_csr, sign_csr

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --password PASSWORD   Password to use for encryption. Default: proxy.py
  --private-key-path PRIVATE_KEY_PATH
                        Private key path
  --public-key-path PUBLIC_KEY_PATH
                        Public key path
  --subject SUBJECT     Subject to use for public key generation. Default:
                        /CN=example.com

Internal Documentation

Browse through internal class hierarchy and documentation using pydoc3. Example:

❯ pydoc3 proxy

PACKAGE CONTENTS
    __main__
    common (package)
    core (package)
    http (package)
    main

FILE
    /Users/abhinav/Dev/proxy.py/proxy/__init__.py

Frequently Asked Questions

Threads vs Threadless

Pre v2.x, proxy.py used to spawn new threads for handling client requests.

Starting v2.x, proxy.py added support for threadless execution of client requests using asyncio.

In future, threadless execution will be the default mode.

Till then if you are interested in trying it out, start proxy.py with --threadless flag.

SyntaxError: invalid syntax

proxy.py is strictly typed and uses Python typing annotations. Example:

>>> my_strings : List[str] = []
>>> #############^^^^^^^^^#####

Hence a Python version that understands typing annotations is required. Make sure you are using Python 3.6+.

Verify the version before running proxy.py:

❯ python --version

All typing annotations can be replaced with comment-only annotations. Example:

>>> my_strings = [] # List[str]
>>> ################^^^^^^^^^^^

It will enable proxy.py to run on Python pre-3.6, even on 2.7. However, as all future versions of Python will support typing annotations, this has not been considered.

Unable to load plugins

Make sure plugin modules are discoverable by adding them to PYTHONPATH. Example:

PYTHONPATH=/path/to/my/app proxy --plugins my_app.proxyPlugin

...[redacted]... - Loaded plugin proxy.HttpProxyPlugin
...[redacted]... - Loaded plugin my_app.proxyPlugin

OR, simply pass fully-qualified path as parameter, e.g.

proxy --plugins /path/to/my/app/my_app.proxyPlugin

Unable to connect with proxy.py from remote host

Make sure proxy.py is listening on correct network interface. Try following flags:

• For IPv6 --hostname ::
• For IPv4 --hostname 0.0.0.0

Basic auth not working with a browser

Most likely it's a browser integration issue with system keychain.

• First verify that basic auth is working using curl

  curl -v -x username:password@localhost:8899 https://httpbin.org/get

• See this thread for further details.

Docker image not working on macOS

It's a compatibility issue with vpnkit.

See moby/vpnkit exhausts docker resources and Connection refused: The proxy could not connect for some background.

GCE log viewer integration for proxy.py

A starter fluentd.conf template is available.

1. Copy this configuration file as proxy.py.conf under /etc/google-fluentd/config.d/

2. Update path field to log file path as used with --log-file flag. By default /tmp/proxy.log path is tailed.

3. Reload google-fluentd:

   sudo service google-fluentd restart

Now proxy.py logs can be browsed using GCE log viewer.

ValueError: filedescriptor out of range in select

proxy.py is made to handle thousands of connections per second without any socket leaks.

1. Make use of --open-file-limit flag to customize ulimit -n.
2. Make sure to adjust --backlog flag for higher concurrency.

If nothing helps, open an issue with requests per second sent and output of following debug script:

❯ ./helper/monitor_open_files.sh <proxy-py-pid>

None:None in access logs

Sometimes you may see None:None in access logs. It simply means that an upstream server connection was never established i.e. upstream_host=None, upstream_port=None.

There can be several reasons for no upstream connection, few obvious ones include:

1. Client established a connection but never completed the request.
2. A plugin returned a response prematurely, avoiding connection to upstream server.

Flags

❯ proxy -h
usage: proxy [-h] [--backlog BACKLOG] [--basic-auth BASIC_AUTH]
             [--ca-key-file CA_KEY_FILE] [--ca-cert-dir CA_CERT_DIR]
             [--ca-cert-file CA_CERT_FILE]
             [--ca-signing-key-file CA_SIGNING_KEY_FILE]
             [--cert-file CERT_FILE]
             [--client-recvbuf-size CLIENT_RECVBUF_SIZE]
             [--devtools-ws-path DEVTOOLS_WS_PATH]
             [--disable-headers DISABLE_HEADERS] [--disable-http-proxy]
             [--enable-dashboard] [--enable-devtools] [--enable-events]
             [--enable-static-server] [--enable-web-server]
             [--hostname HOSTNAME] [--key-file KEY_FILE]
             [--log-level LOG_LEVEL] [--log-file LOG_FILE]
             [--log-format LOG_FORMAT] [--num-workers NUM_WORKERS]
             [--open-file-limit OPEN_FILE_LIMIT] [--pac-file PAC_FILE]
             [--pac-file-url-path PAC_FILE_URL_PATH]
             [--pid-file PID_FILE] [--plugins PLUGINS] [--port PORT]
             [--server-recvbuf-size SERVER_RECVBUF_SIZE]
             [--static-server-dir STATIC_SERVER_DIR] [--threadless]
             [--timeout TIMEOUT] [--version]

proxy.py v2.2.0

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --backlog BACKLOG     Default: 100. Maximum number of pending connections to
                        proxy server
  --basic-auth BASIC_AUTH
                        Default: No authentication. Specify colon separated
                        user:password to enable basic authentication.
  --ca-key-file CA_KEY_FILE
                        Default: None. CA key to use for signing dynamically
                        generated HTTPS certificates. If used, must also pass
                        --ca-cert-file and --ca-signing-key-file
  --ca-cert-dir CA_CERT_DIR
                        Default: ~/.proxy.py. Directory to store dynamically
                        generated certificates. Also see --ca-key-file, --ca-
                        cert-file and --ca-signing-key-file
  --ca-cert-file CA_CERT_FILE
                        Default: None. Signing certificate to use for signing
                        dynamically generated HTTPS certificates. If used,
                        must also pass --ca-key-file and --ca-signing-key-file
  --ca-file CA_FILE     Default: None. Provide path to custom CA file for peer
                        certificate validation. Specially useful on MacOS.
  --ca-signing-key-file CA_SIGNING_KEY_FILE
                        Default: None. CA signing key to use for dynamic
                        generation of HTTPS certificates. If used, must also
                        pass --ca-key-file and --ca-cert-file
  --cert-file CERT_FILE
                        Default: None. Server certificate to enable end-to-end
                        TLS encryption with clients. If used, must also pass
                        --key-file.
  --client-recvbuf-size CLIENT_RECVBUF_SIZE
                        Default: 1 MB. Maximum amount of data received from
                        the client in a single recv() operation. Bump this
                        value for faster uploads at the expense of increased
                        RAM.
  --devtools-ws-path DEVTOOLS_WS_PATH
                        Default: /devtools. Only applicable if --enable-
                        devtools is used.
  --disable-headers DISABLE_HEADERS
                        Default: None. Comma separated list of headers to
                        remove before dispatching client request to upstream
                        server.
  --disable-http-proxy  Default: False. Whether to disable
                        proxy.HttpProxyPlugin.
  --enable-dashboard    Default: False. Enables proxy.py dashboard.
  --enable-devtools     Default: False. Enables integration with Chrome
                        Devtool Frontend. Also see --devtools-ws-path.
  --enable-events       Default: False. Enables core to dispatch lifecycle
                        events. Plugins can be used to subscribe for core
                        events.
  --enable-static-server
                        Default: False. Enable inbuilt static file server.
                        Optionally, also use --static-server-dir to serve
                        static content from custom directory. By default,
                        static file server serves out of installed proxy.py
                        python module folder.
  --enable-web-server   Default: False. Whether to enable
                        proxy.HttpWebServerPlugin.
  --hostname HOSTNAME   Default: ::1. Server IP address.
  --key-file KEY_FILE   Default: None. Server key file to enable end-to-end
                        TLS encryption with clients. If used, must also pass
                        --cert-file.
  --log-level LOG_LEVEL
                        Valid options: DEBUG, INFO (default), WARNING, ERROR,
                        CRITICAL. Both upper and lowercase values are allowed.
                        You may also simply use the leading character e.g.
                        --log-level d
  --log-file LOG_FILE   Default: sys.stdout. Log file destination.
  --log-format LOG_FORMAT
                        Log format for Python logger.
  --num-workers NUM_WORKERS
                        Defaults to number of CPU cores.
  --open-file-limit OPEN_FILE_LIMIT
                        Default: 1024. Maximum number of files (TCP
                        connections) that proxy.py can open concurrently.
  --pac-file PAC_FILE   A file (Proxy Auto Configuration) or string to serve
                        when the server receives a direct file request. Using
                        this option enables proxy.HttpWebServerPlugin.
  --pac-file-url-path PAC_FILE_URL_PATH
                        Default: /. Web server path to serve the PAC file.
  --pid-file PID_FILE   Default: None. Save parent process ID to a file.
  --plugins PLUGINS     Comma separated plugins
  --port PORT           Default: 8899. Server port.
  --server-recvbuf-size SERVER_RECVBUF_SIZE
                        Default: 1 MB. Maximum amount of data received from
                        the server in a single recv() operation. Bump this
                        value for faster downloads at the expense of increased
                        RAM.
  --static-server-dir STATIC_SERVER_DIR
                        Default: "public" folder in directory where proxy.py
                        is placed. This option is only applicable when static
                        server is also enabled. See --enable-static-server.
  --threadless          Default: False. When disabled a new thread is spawned
                        to handle each client connection.
  --timeout TIMEOUT     Default: 10. Number of seconds after which an inactive
                        connection must be dropped. Inactivity is defined by
                        no data sent or received by the client.
  --version, -v         Prints proxy.py version.

Proxy.py not working? Report at:
https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py/issues/new

Changelog

v2.x

• No longer a single file module.
• Added support for threadless execution.
• Added dashboard app.
• Added support for unit testing.

v1.x

• Python3 only.
  • Deprecated support for Python 2.x.
• Added support multi core accept.
• Added plugin support.

v0.x

• Single file.
• Single threaded server.

For detailed changelog refer to release PRs or commit history.