Proxychains: An Idiot’s Guide to Not Getting Caught
An Approach to Online Anonymity
Welcome, fellow cybersecurity enthusiasts and ByteBusters in BBX. In this blog post, we are going to explore about Proxychains in Linux.It is a powerful tool that offers enhanced anonymity and secure browsing. While setting up Proxychains may seem straightforward, users often encounter errors, especially during Tor installation. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process step-by-step to ensure a seamless experience.
Setting up Proxychains
- Checking for Tor Service:
— Execute the command:
service tor status
— If you encounter an error, it means Tor service is not installed. Proceed with the following command:
sudo apt-get install tor
In my case it’s already installed.
2. Configuring Proxychains:
— Open the configuration file using your preferred text editor
nano /etc/proxychains.conf
— Make the following changes:
— Remove the comment from ‘Dynamic chain’. Just remove the ‘#’.
— Comment out ‘#Strict chain’ and ‘#Random chain’.
— Remove the comment from ‘proxy DNS’.
— Add ‘socks5 127.0.0.1 9050’ as the last line in the proxy list.
- Save/write the file and exit the file.
In nano 5.4 the saving shortcut is “CTRL+s”. In older version it is “CTRL+w”
3. Starting Proxychains:
— Restart Tor service with:
service tor restart— Launch Proxychains in Firefox for a specific search engine (e.g. bing, dnsleaktest) using:
proxychains firefox www.bing.com
— Ensure no Firefox tabs are open before executing the commands.
Testing Proxychains
1. Language Change Test:
— Verify that Bing loads without any errors, displaying a different language.
2. DNS Leak Test:
— Search for “DNS leak test” and open any website providing the test.
— Observe the change in location from INDIA to other country.
- Note the dynamic IP address changes provided by Proxychains, ensuring optimal anonymity.
3. Additional Results:
— For varied results, close Firefox, clear the terminal, restart Tor service, and relaunch Proxychains.
Troubleshooting Common Errors
- Tor Service Error:
— If Tor service is not found, update your sources repositories:
— Access the documentation for source repositories.
— Copy the regular repository and paste it in “sources.list” with:
nano /etc/apt/sources.list— Update the system with:
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade- This should resolve the ‘Unit tor.service not found’ error.
2. DNS Leaks and Server Not Found:
— Ensure Tor service is restarted and no browser is running.
— Confirm that ‘Dynamic chain’ and ‘proxy DNS’ in the proxy configuration are uncommented.
— -
If you are a Parrot OS user over Kali you didn’t need the proxychains just start the “Anonsurf” for browsing anonymously.
If you’re going for network pentesting use the proxychains.
Enjoy your enhanced online anonymity and secure browsing experience. Happy surfing!
Keep the Bytes all ByteBuster until next post.
BBX signing off.
