rotating-tor-http-proxy

This Docker image provides one HTTP proxy endpoint with many IP addresses for use scenarios like web crawling.

Behind the scene, it has a HAProxy sitting in front of multiple pairs of Privoxy-Tor. The HAProxy dispatches the incoming requests to the Privoxy instances with a round-robin strategy.

Usage

This image is multi-platform enabled, currently supporting:

• amd64 (x86_64)
• arm64 (aarch64)
• arm/v7 (armhf)
• arm/v6 (armel)

Simple case

docker run --rm -it -p 3128:3128 zhaowde/rotating-tor-http-proxy

At the host, 127.0.0.1:3128 is the HTTP/HTTPS proxy address.

Moreover

docker run --rm -it -p 3128:3128 -p 4444:4444 -e "TOR_INSTANCES=5" -e "TOR_REBUILD_INTERVAL=3600" -e "TOR_EXIT_COUNTRY=de,ch,at" zhaowde/rotating-tor-http-proxy

Port 4444/TCP

Port 4444/TCP can be mapped to the host if HAProxy stats information is needed. With docker run -p 4444:4444, the HAProxy statistics report is available at http://127.0.0.1:4444. An article from the HAProxy official blog explains in detail how to understand this report.

TOR_INSTANCES

Environment variable TOR_INSTANCES can be used to config the number of concurrent Tor clients (as well as the associated Privoxy instances). The default is 10, and the valid value is purposely limited to the range between 1 and 40.

TOR_REBUILD_INTERVAL

Each Tor client attempts to build a new circuit (results in a new outbound IP address) every 30 seconds. Every 30 minutes, this image rebuilds all the circuits. This interval can be changed with environment variable TOR_REBUILD_INTERVAL, the default value is 1800 seconds, while it can be set up any number greater than 600 seconds.

TOR_EXIT_COUNTRY

For some crawling tasks, it requires limiting the IP addresses to a certain country to avoid triggering the unnecessary recaptcha verification. Environment variable TOR_EXIT_COUNTRY can be used to specify a country (or a list of countries). Please note the following remarks:

• Note 1: Modifying the way that Tor creates its circuits is strongly discouraged, overriding the entry/exit nodes can compromise the anonymity.

• Note 2: The tor bridge is configured to strictly respect the exit countries if it is specified. For the countries with too fewer exit nodes (e.g., Switzerland), it would take significantly longer time to build up the circuit.

• Note 3: The environment variable accepts a single country code (e.g., TOR_EXIT_COUNTRY=de) or a comma-separated list (e.g., TOR_EXIT_COUNTRY=de,at,ch)

• Note 4: The acceptable country codes:

  Country	Code	Country	Code	Country	Code	Country	Code	Country	Code	Country	Code
  ASCENSION ISLAND	ac	AFGHANISTAN	af	ALAND	ax	ALBANIA	al	ALGERIA	dz	ANDORRA	ad
  ANGOLA	ao	ANGUILLA	ai	ANTARCTICA	aq	ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA	ag	ARGENTINA REPUBLIC	ar	ARMENIA	am
  ARUBA	aw	AUSTRALIA	au	AUSTRIA	at	AZERBAIJAN	az	BAHAMAS	bs	BAHRAIN	bh
  BANGLADESH	bd	BARBADOS	bb	BELARUS	by	BELGIUM	be	BELIZE	bz	BENIN	bj
  BERMUDA	bm	BHUTAN	bt	BOLIVIA	bo	BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA	ba	BOTSWANA	bw	BOUVET ISLAND	bv
  BRAZIL	br	BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERR	io	BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS	vg	BRUNEI DARUSSALAM	bn	BULGARIA	bg	BURKINA FASO	bf
  BURUNDI	bi	CAMBODIA	kh	CAMEROON	cm	CANADA	ca	CAPE VERDE	cv	CAYMAN ISLANDS	ky
  CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC	cf	CHAD	td	CHILE	cl	PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA	cn	CHRISTMAS ISLANDS	cx	COCOS ISLANDS	cc
  COLOMBIA	co	COMORAS	km	CONGO	cg	CONGO (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC)	cd	COOK ISLANDS	ck	COSTA RICA	cr
  COTE D IVOIRE	ci	CROATIA	hr	CUBA	cu	CYPRUS	cy	CZECH REPUBLIC	cz	DENMARK	dk
  DJIBOUTI	dj	DOMINICA	dm	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	do	EAST TIMOR	tp	ECUADOR	ec EGYPT	eg
  EL SALVADOR	sv	EQUATORIAL GUINEA	gq	ESTONIA	ee	ETHIOPIA	et	FALKLAND ISLANDS	fk	FAROE ISLANDS	fo
  FIJI	fj	FINLAND	fi	FRANCE	fr	FRANCE METROPOLITAN	fx	FRENCH GUIANA	gf	FRENCH POLYNESIA	pf
  FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES	tf	GABON	ga	GAMBIA	gm	GEORGIA	ge	GERMANY	de	GHANA	gh
  GIBRALTER	gi	GREECE	gr	GREENLAND	gl	GRENADA	gd	GUADELOUPE	gp	GUAM	gu
  GUATEMALA	gt	GUINEA	gn	GUINEA-BISSAU	gw	GUYANA	gy	HAITI	ht	HEARD & MCDONALD ISLAND	hm
  HONDURAS	hn	HONG KONG	hk	HUNGARY	hu	ICELAND	is	INDIA	in	INDONESIA	id
  IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF	ir	IRAQ	iq	IRELAND	ie	ISLE OF MAN	im	ISRAEL	il	ITALY	it
  JAMAICA	jm	JAPAN	jp	JORDAN	jo	KAZAKHSTAN	kz	KENYA	ke	KIRIBATI	ki
  KOREA, DEM. PEOPLES REP OF	kp	KOREA, REPUBLIC OF	kr	KUWAIT	kw	KYRGYZSTAN	kg	LAO PEOPLE'S DEM. REPUBLIC	la	LATVIA	lv
  LEBANON	lb	LESOTHO	ls	LIBERIA	lr	LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA	ly	LIECHTENSTEIN	li	LITHUANIA	lt
  LUXEMBOURG	lu	MACAO	mo	MACEDONIA	mk	MADAGASCAR	mg	MALAWI	mw	MALAYSIA	my
  MALDIVES	mv	MALI	ml	MALTA	mt	MARSHALL ISLANDS	mh	MARTINIQUE	mq	MAURITANIA	mr
  MAURITIUS	mu	MAYOTTE	yt	MEXICO	mx	MICRONESIA	fm	MOLDAVA REPUBLIC OF	md	MONACO	mc
  MONGOLIA	mn	MONTENEGRO	me	MONTSERRAT	ms	MOROCCO	ma	MOZAMBIQUE	mz	MYANMAR	mm
  NAMIBIA	na	NAURU	nr	NEPAL	np	NETHERLANDS ANTILLES	an	NETHERLANDS, THE	nl	NEW CALEDONIA	nc
  NEW ZEALAND	nz	NICARAGUA	ni	NIGER	ne	NIGERIA	ng	NIUE	nu	NORFOLK ISLAND	nf
  NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS	mp	NORWAY	no	OMAN	om	PAKISTAN	pk	PALAU	pw	PALESTINE	ps
  PANAMA	pa	PAPUA NEW GUINEA	pg	PARAGUAY	py	PERU	pe	PHILIPPINES (REPUBLIC OF THE)	ph	PITCAIRN	pn
  POLAND	pl	PORTUGAL	pt	PUERTO RICO	pr	QATAR	qa	REUNION	re	ROMANIA	ro
  RUSSIAN FEDERATION	ru	RWANDA	rw	SAMOA	ws	SAN MARINO	sm	SAO TOME/PRINCIPE	st	SAUDI ARABIA	sa
  SCOTLAND	uk	SENEGAL	sn	SERBIA	rs	SEYCHELLES	sc	SIERRA LEONE	sl	SINGAPORE	sg
  SLOVAKIA	sk	SLOVENIA	si	SOLOMON ISLANDS	sb	SOMALIA	so	SOMOA,GILBERT,ELLICE ISLANDS	as	SOUTH AFRICA	za
  SOUTH GEORGIA, SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS	gs	SOVIET UNION	su	SPAIN	es	SRI LANKA	lk	ST. HELENA	sh	ST. KITTS AND NEVIS	kn
  ST. LUCIA	lc	ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON	pm	ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES	vc	SUDAN	sd	SURINAME	sr	SVALBARD AND JAN MAYEN	sj
  SWAZILAND	sz	SWEDEN	se	SWITZERLAND	ch	SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC	sy	TAIWAN	tw	TAJIKISTAN	tj
  TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF	tz	THAILAND	th	TOGO	tg	TOKELAU	tk	TONGA	to	TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO	tt
  TUNISIA	tn	TURKEY	tr	TURKMENISTAN	tm	TURKS AND CALCOS ISLANDS	tc	TUVALU	tv	UGANDA	ug
  UKRAINE	ua	UNITED ARAB EMIRATES	ae	UNITED KINGDOM (no new registrations)	gb	UNITED KINGDOM	uk	UNITED STATES	us	UNITED STATES MINOR OUTL.IS.	um
  URUGUAY	uy	UZBEKISTAN	uz	VANUATU	vu	VATICAN CITY STATE	va	VENEZUELA	ve	VIET NAM	vn
  VIRGIN ISLANDS (USA)	vi	WALLIS AND FUTUNA ISLANDS	wf	WESTERN SAHARA	eh	YEMEN	ye	ZAMBIA	zm	ZIMBABWE	zw

Test the proxy

while :; do curl -sx localhost:3128 ifconfig.io; echo ""; sleep 2; done

Credit

At GitHub, there are many repos build Docker images to provide HTTP proxy connects to the Tor network. The project is reinventing the wheels based on many of them. Remarkably:

• y4ns0l0/docker-multi-tor creates a setup with multiple pairs of Privoxy-Tor. Having no HAProxy-like dispatcher, each Privoxy expose itself to the host as a different TCP port.
• mattes/rotating-proxy does exactly the same job as this project. However,
  1. it utilizes Polipo as the HTTP-SOCKS proxy adapter. Polipo ceased to be maintained on 6 November 2016
  2. the base image is Ubuntu 14.04, which it too heavy for this case, and out-of-maintenance as well
  3. the main control logic is written in Ruby

Bill-of-Material

• alpine-3.21.2
• bash-5.2.37
• curl-8.11.1
• haproxy-3.0.7
• privoxy-3.0.34
• sed-4.9
• tor-0.4.8.13