PROXYCHAINS4(1)

📦 version 4.17, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ PROXYCHAINS4 — the manual page, bestie edition ✨

okay so. you opened the manual for proxychains4, and you want it in a language you actually speak? say less. this is the General Commands Manual page for proxychains4, and by the end of it you're gonna know exactly what's going on. pull up a chair 🫶

💖 NAME 💖

proxychains4 — redirect connections through proxy servers

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

the shape of the thing, no cap:

proxychains4 --help
proxychains4 [ -f configfile.conf ] <program>

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically: this program forces any tcp connection made by any given tcp client to go through a proxy (or a whole proxy chain). it's a kind of proxifier. that's the whole personality.

it acts like sockscap / premeo / eborder driver — as in, it intercepts TCP calls. sneaky. iconic. we love her.

this version (v4) supports SOCKS4, SOCKS5 and HTTP CONNECT proxy servers. auth-types? listen: socks gets "user/pass", http gets "basic". that's the tea.

🌸 When to use it? 🌸

  1. when the only way to get "outside" from your LAN is through a proxy server.
  2. when you're behind a restrictive firewall that's filtering outgoing connections to some ports. rude of it tbh.
  3. when you want to use two (or more) proxies in chain, like: your_host <--> proxy1 <--> proxy2 <--> target_host
  4. when you want to "proxify" some programs that have no proxy support built-in (like telnet). no built-in support? doesn't matter, we got you.
  5. when you don't want to pay for eBorder / premeo socks driver :) 💅

👑 Some cool features 👑

  • this program can mix different proxy types in the same chain. for instance:
your_host <-->socks5 <--> http <--> socks4 <--> http <--> target_host
  • different chaining options are supported. for instance:
    • take random proxy from the list
    • chain proxies in exact order
    • chain proxies in dynamic order (smart exclude dead proxies from chain)
  • you can use it with any TCP client application, even network scanners. yes, yes — you can make portscan via proxy (or chained proxies) for example with Nmap scanner by fyodor (www.insecure.org/nmap). go off 🔥
proxychains nmap -sT -PO -p 80 -iR  (find some webservers through proxy)
⚠️ NOTE: to run suid/sgid programs (like ssh) through proxychains you have to be root. not optional, not vibes — you literally need root.

📁 FILES 📁

proxychains looks for config file in following order, bestie, in this order, no skipping:

  • file listed in environment variable PROXYCHAINS_CONF_FILE or provided as a -f argument to proxychains script or binary.
  • ./proxychains.conf
  • $(HOME)/.proxychains/proxychains.conf
  • /etc/proxychains.conf
  • /etc/proxychains4.conf

more information is provided in /etc/proxychains4.conf file. go read her 💜

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

to run this program the standard way type:

proxychains telnet targethost.com

in this example, it will run telnet through proxy (or chained proxies) specified by proxychains.conf.

to run this program with custom configuration file:

proxychains -f /etc/proxychains-other.conf telnet targethost2.com

in this example, it will use a different configuration file as specified to connect to targethost2.com host. different config, different era ✨

🌈 COPYING 🌈

proxychains is distributed under the GNU General Public License. (GPL 2.0 or greater).

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

the original author is:

Net Creature, Proxy Labs <http://proxychains.sourceforge.net>

this manual page was updated by Boyuan Yang for the Debian Project (and may be used by others).

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was the proxychains-ng manual, dated 2019-07-11 — you're welcome, go proxy something iconic 😭👑

📦 where this page comes from