- Features
- Install
- Start proxy.py
- Plugin Examples
- End-to-End Encryption
- TLS Interception
- Proxy Over SSH Tunnel
- Embed proxy.py
- Unit testing with proxy.py
- Plugin Developer and Contributor Guide
- Utilities
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Flags
- Changelog
-
Fast & Scalable
-
Scales by using all available cores on the system
-
Threadless executions using coroutine
-
Made to handle
tens-of-thousandsconnections / 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
~5-20MBRAM - No external dependency other than standard Python library
- Uses only
-
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.
- Available at
- Inspect, Monitor, Control and Configure
proxy.pyat runtime. - Extend dashboard using plugins.
- Dashboard is currently in development phase, expect breaking changes.
- Optionally enable bundled dashboard.
-
Secure
- Enable end-to-end encryption between clients and
proxy.pyusing TLS - See End-to-End Encryption
- Enable end-to-end encryption between clients and
-
Man-In-The-Middle
- Can decrypt TLS traffic between clients and upstream servers
- See TLS Interception
-
Supported proxy protocols
http(s)http1http1.1pipeline
http2websockets
-
Optimized for large file uploads and downloads
-
IPv4 and IPv6 support
-
Basic authentication support
-
Can serve a PAC (Proxy Auto-configuration) file
- See
--pac-fileand--pac-file-url-pathflags
- See
Install from PyPi
❯ pip install --upgrade proxy.pyor from GitHub master branch
❯ pip install git+https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py.git@master❯ pip install git+https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py.git@develop❯ docker run -it -p 8899:8899 --rm abhinavsingh/proxy.py:latest❯ 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.
❯ brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py/develop/helper/homebrew/stable/proxy.rb❯ brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py/develop/helper/homebrew/develop/proxy.rbWhen proxy.py is installed using pip,
an executable named proxy is placed under your $PATH.
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 ::1:8899Things to notice from above logs:
-
Loaded plugin-proxy.pywill loadproxy.http.proxy.HttpProxyPluginby default. As name suggests, this core plugin addshttp(s)proxy server capabilities toproxy.py -
Started N workers- Use--num-workersflag to customize number of worker processes. By default,proxy.pywill start as many workers as there are CPU cores on the machine. -
Started server on ::1:8899- By default,proxy.pylistens on IPv6::1, which is equivalent of IPv4127.0.0.1. If you want to accessproxy.pyexternally, use--hostname ::or--hostname 0.0.0.0or bind to any other interface available on your machine. -
Port 8899- Use--portflag to customize default TCP port.
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 ::1:8899As we can see, before starting up:
proxy.pyalso tried to set open file limitulimiton the system.- Default value for
--open-file-limitused is1024. --open-file-limitflag is a no-op onWindowsoperating systems.
See flags for full list of available configuration options.
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.
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
- See plugin module for full code.
- All the bundled plugin examples also works with
httpstraffic- 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.
Add support for short links in your favorite browsers / applications.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy \
--plugins proxy.plugin.ShortLinkPluginNow 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 |
Modifies POST request body before sending request to upstream server.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy \
--plugins proxy.plugin.ModifyPostDataPluginBy 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:
- POST data was modified
"data": "{\"key\": \"modified\"}". Originalcurlcommand data was{"key": "value"}. - Our
curlcommand did not add anyContent-Typeheader, but our plugin did add one"Content-Type": "application/json". Same can also be verified by looking atjsonfield in the output above:"json": { "key": "modified" }, - Our plugin also added a
Content-Lengthheader to match length of modified body.
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.ProposedRestApiPluginVerify 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 byteAccess 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.
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.RedirectToCustomServerPluginVerify 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
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.FilterByUpstreamHostPluginVerify 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 0Above 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 bytesCaches Upstream Server Responses.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy \
--plugins proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPluginVerify 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 intactGet 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.txtVerify 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"
}Modifies upstream server responses.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy \
--plugins proxy.plugin.ManInTheMiddlePluginVerify 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 middleResponse body Hello from man in the middle is sent by our plugin.
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 9001Now, start proxy.py with ProxyPoolPlugin (on default 8899 port):
❯ proxy \
--plugins proxy.plugin.ProxyPoolPluginMake 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.
Reject traffic from specific IP addresses. By default this
plugin blocks traffic from 127.0.0.1 and ::1.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy \
--plugins proxy.plugin.FilterByClientIpPluginSend a request using curl -v -x localhost:8899 http://google.com:
... [redacted] ...
> Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive
>
< HTTP/1.1 418 I'm a tea pot
< Connection: close
<
* Closing connection 0Modify plugin to your taste e.g. Allow specific IP addresses only.
This plugin demonstrate how to modify chunked encoded responses. In able to do so, this plugin uses proxy.py core to parse the chunked encoded response. Then we reconstruct the response using custom hardcoded chunks, ignoring original chunks received from upstream server.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy \
--plugins proxy.plugin.ModifyChunkResponsePluginVerify using curl -v -x localhost:8899 http://httpbin.org/stream/5:
... [redacted] ...
modify
chunk
response
plugin
* Connection #0 to host localhost left intact
* Closing connection 0Modify ModifyChunkResponsePlugin to your taste. Example, instead of sending hardcoded chunks, parse and modify the original JSON chunks received from the upstream server.
Extend in-built Web Server to add Reverse Proxy capabilities.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy --enable-web-server \
--plugins proxy.plugin.ReverseProxyPluginWith 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"
}Demonstrates inbuilt web server routing using plugin.
Start proxy.py as:
❯ proxy --enable-web-server \
--plugins proxy.plugin.WebServerPluginVerify using curl -v localhost:8899/http-route-example, should return:
HTTP route responseWhen 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.
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-certificatesStart proxy.py as:
❯ proxy \
--cert-file https-cert.pem \
--key-file https-key.pemVerify 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"
}If you want to avoid passing --proxy-cacert flag, also consider signing generated SSL certificates. Example:
First, generate CA certificates:
make ca-certificatesThen, sign SSL certificate:
make sign-https-certificatesNow restart the server with --cert-file https-signed-cert.pem flag. Note that you must also trust generated ca-cert.pem in your system keychain.
By default, proxy.py will not decrypt https traffic between client and server.
To enable TLS interception first generate root CA certificates:
❯ make ca-certificatesLets 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.
Important notes about TLS Interception with Docker container:
-
Since
v2.2.0,proxy.pydocker container also ships withopenssl. This allowsproxy.pyto generate certificates on the fly for TLS Interception. -
For security reasons,
proxy.pydocker container doesn't ship with CA certificates.
Here is how to start a proxy.py docker container
with TLS Interception:
-
Generate CA certificates on host computer
❯ make ca-certificates
-
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
-
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-certificatesflag mounts our CA certificate directory in container environment--plugins proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPluginenablesCacheResponsesPluginso that we can inspect intercepted traffic--ca-*flags enable TLS Interception.
-
From another terminal, try TLS Interception using
curl. You can omit--cacertflag 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 -
Verify
issuerfield 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.
-
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
-
In another terminal,
catthe 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" }
This is a WIP and may not work as documented
Requires paramiko to work. See requirements-tunnel.txt
|
+------------+ | +----------+
| LOCAL | | | REMOTE |
| HOST | <== SSH ==== :8900 == | SERVER |
+------------+ | +----------+
:8899 proxy.py |
|
FIREWALL
(allow tcp/22)
Proxy HTTP(s) requests made on a remote server through proxy.py server
running on localhost.
- Requested
remoteport is forwarded over the SSH connection. proxy.pyrunning on thelocalhosthandles and responds toremoteproxy requests.
localhostMUST have SSH access to theremoteserverremoteserver MUST be configured to proxy HTTP(s) requests through the forwarded port number e.g.:8900.remoteandlocalhostports CAN be same e.g.:8899.:8900is chosen in ascii art for differentiation purposes.
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 8899Make 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 |
+------------+ | +----------+
| LOCAL | | | REMOTE |
| HOST | === SSH =====> | SERVER |
+------------+ | +----------+
| :8899 proxy.py
|
FIREWALL
(allow tcp/22)
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:
- Calling
mainis simply equivalent to startingproxy.pyfrom command line. mainwill block untilproxy.pyshuts down.
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:
startis similar tomain, exceptstartwon't block.startis a context manager. It will startproxy.pywhen called and will shut it down once scope ends.- Just like
main, startup flags withstartmethod 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).
You can, of course, list plugins to load in the input arguments list of proxy.main, proxy.start or the Proxy constructor. Use the --plugins flag as when starting from command line:
import proxy
if __name__ == '__main__':
proxy.main([
'--plugins', 'proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPlugin',
])However, for simplicity you can pass the list of plugins to load as a keyword argument to proxy.main, proxy.start or the Proxy constructor:
import proxy
from proxy.plugin import FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin
if __name__ == '__main__':
proxy.main([], plugins=[
b'proxy.plugin.CacheResponsesPlugin',
FilterByUpstreamHostPlugin,
])Note that it supports:
- The fully-qualified name of a class as
bytes - Any
typeinstance for a Proxy.py plugin class. This is espacially useful for custom plugins defined locally.
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:
proxy.TestCaseoverridesunittest.TestCase.run()method to setup and teardownproxy.py.proxy.pyserver will listen on a random available port on the system. This random port is available asself.PROXY_PORTwithin your test cases.- Only a single worker is started by default (
--num-workers 1) for faster setup and teardown. - Most importantly,
proxy.TestCasealso ensuresproxy.pyserver is up and running before proceeding with execution of tests. By default,proxy.TestCasewill wait for10 secondsforproxy.pyserver to start, upon failure aTimeoutErrorexception will be raised.
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.
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.
As you might have guessed by now, in proxy.py everything is a plugin.
-
We enabled proxy server plugins using
--pluginsflag. All the plugin examples were implementingHttpProxyBasePlugin. See documentation of HttpProxyBasePlugin for available lifecycle hooks. UseHttpProxyBasePluginto 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 implementsHttpProtocolHandlerPluginplugin. See documentation of HttpProtocolHandlerPlugin for available lifecycle hooks. UseHttpProtocolHandlerPluginto add new features for http(s) clients. Example, HttpWebServerPlugin. -
There also is a
--disable-http-proxyflag. It disables inbuilt proxy server. Use this flag with--enable-web-serverflag to runproxy.pyas a programmable http(s) server. HttpProxyPlugin also implementsHttpProtocolHandlerPlugin.
-
HttpProtocolHandler thread is started with the accepted TcpClientConnection.
HttpProtocolHandleris responsible for parsing incoming client request and invokingHttpProtocolHandlerPluginlifecycle hooks. -
HttpProxyPluginwhich implementsHttpProtocolHandlerPluginalso has its own plugin mechanism. Its responsibility is to establish connection between client and upstream TcpServerConnection and invokeHttpProxyBasePluginlifecycle hooks. -
HttpProtocolHandlerthreads are started by Acceptor processes. -
--num-workersAcceptorprocesses are started by AcceptorPool on start-up. -
AcceptorPoollistens on server socket and pass the handler toAcceptorprocesses. Workers are responsible for accepting new client connections and startingHttpProtocolHandlerthread.
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.
Pre-commit hook ensures lint checking and tests execution.
cd /path/to/proxy.pyln -s $(PWD)/git-pre-commit .git/hooks/pre-commit
Every pull request is tested using GitHub actions.
See GitHub workflow for list of tests.
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 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 ] ...>>> build_http_request(b'GET', b'/')
b'GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n\r\n'
>>>>>> build_http_request(b'GET', b'/',
headers={b'Connection': b'close'})
b'GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n'
>>>>>> 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(
status_code: int,
protocol_version: bytes = HTTP_1_1,
reason: Optional[bytes] = None,
headers: Optional[Dict[bytes, bytes]] = None,
body: Optional[bytes] = None) -> bytesgen_private_key(
key_path: str,
password: str,
bits: int = 2048,
timeout: int = 10) -> boolgen_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) -> boolremove_passphrase(
key_in_path: str,
password: str,
key_out_path: str,
timeout: int = 10) -> boolgen_csr(
csr_path: str,
key_path: str,
password: str,
crt_path: str,
timeout: int = 10) -> boolsign_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) -> boolSee pki.py and test_pki.py for usage examples.
Use proxy.common.pki module for:
- Generation of public and private keys
- Generating CSR requests
- 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.comBrowse 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__.pyPre 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.
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.
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.proxyPluginOR, simply pass fully-qualified path as parameter, e.g.
proxy --plugins /path/to/my/app/my_app.proxyPlugin
Make sure proxy.py is listening on correct network interface.
Try following flags:
- For IPv6
--hostname :: - For IPv4
--hostname 0.0.0.0
Most likely it's a browser integration issue with system keychain.
-
First verify that basic auth is working using
curlcurl -v -x username:password@localhost:8899 https://httpbin.org/get -
See this thread for further details.
It's a compatibility issue with vpnkit.
See moby/vpnkit exhausts docker resources and Connection refused: The proxy could not connect for some background.
A starter fluentd.conf template is available.
-
Copy this configuration file as
proxy.py.confunder/etc/google-fluentd/config.d/ -
Update
pathfield to log file path as used with--log-fileflag. By default/tmp/proxy.logpath is tailed. -
Reload
google-fluentd:sudo service google-fluentd restart
Now proxy.py logs can be browsed using
GCE log viewer.
proxy.py is made to handle thousands of connections per second
without any socket leaks.
- Make use of
--open-file-limitflag to customizeulimit -n. - Make sure to adjust
--backlogflag 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>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:
- Client established a connection but never completed the request.
- A plugin returned a response prematurely, avoiding connection to upstream server.
❯ proxy -h
usage: proxy [-h] [--threadless] [--backlog BACKLOG] [--enable-events]
[--hostname HOSTNAME] [--port PORT] [--num-workers NUM_WORKERS]
[--client-recvbuf-size CLIENT_RECVBUF_SIZE] [--key-file KEY_FILE]
[--timeout TIMEOUT] [--pid-file PID_FILE] [--version]
[--disable-http-proxy] [--enable-dashboard] [--enable-devtools]
[--enable-static-server] [--enable-web-server]
[--log-level LOG_LEVEL] [--log-file LOG_FILE]
[--log-format LOG_FORMAT] [--open-file-limit OPEN_FILE_LIMIT]
[--plugins PLUGINS] [--ca-key-file CA_KEY_FILE]
[--ca-cert-dir CA_CERT_DIR] [--ca-cert-file CA_CERT_FILE]
[--ca-file CA_FILE] [--ca-signing-key-file CA_SIGNING_KEY_FILE]
[--cert-file CERT_FILE] [--disable-headers DISABLE_HEADERS]
[--server-recvbuf-size SERVER_RECVBUF_SIZE]
[--basic-auth BASIC_AUTH] [--cache-dir CACHE_DIR]
[--static-server-dir STATIC_SERVER_DIR] [--pac-file PAC_FILE]
[--pac-file-url-path PAC_FILE_URL_PATH]
[--filtered-client-ips FILTERED_CLIENT_IPS]
proxy.py v2.3.1
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--threadless Default: False. When disabled a new thread is spawned
to handle each client connection.
--backlog BACKLOG Default: 100. Maximum number of pending connections to
proxy server
--enable-events Default: False. Enables core to dispatch lifecycle
events. Plugins can be used to subscribe for core
events.
--hostname HOSTNAME Default: ::1. Server IP address.
--port PORT Default: 8899. Server port.
--num-workers NUM_WORKERS
Defaults to number of CPU cores.
--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.
--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.
--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.
--pid-file PID_FILE Default: None. Save parent process ID to a file.
--version, -v Prints proxy.py version.
--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-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.
--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.
--open-file-limit OPEN_FILE_LIMIT
Default: 1024. Maximum number of files (TCP
connections) that proxy.py can open concurrently.
--plugins PLUGINS Comma separated plugins
--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.
--disable-headers DISABLE_HEADERS
Default: None. Comma separated list of headers to
remove before dispatching client request to upstream
server.
--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.
--basic-auth BASIC_AUTH
Default: No authentication. Specify colon separated
user:password to enable basic authentication.
--cache-dir CACHE_DIR
Default: A temporary directory. Flag only applicable
when cache plugin is used with on-disk storage.
--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.
--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.
--filtered-client-ips FILTERED_CLIENT_IPS
Default: 127.0.0.1,::1. Comma separated list of IPv4
and IPv6 addresses.
Proxy.py not working? Report at:
https://github.com/abhinavsingh/proxy.py/issues/new- No longer
a single file module. - Added support for threadless execution.
- Added dashboard app.
- Added support for unit testing.
Python3only.- Deprecated support for
Python 2.x.
- Deprecated support for
- Added support multi core accept.
- Added plugin support.
- Single file.
- Single threaded server.
For detailed changelog refer to release PRs or commit history.

