Anonymity with ProxyChains
Leaking Everywhere
To make sure that I am not leaking any DNS lookups to third parties, I'll use a clever site called DNSleaktest.com [15].
Visit the site in Firefox (with proxying enabled), and then run the Standard test (Figure 9). If you are connected to a VPN and some servers displayed aren't associated with that VPN service, then you have a DNS leak.
Figure 9: Wow, a clear connection – without DNS leakage.
Conclusion
ProxyChains is an anonymity tool that can operate with or without the Tor network. If you get stuck, a top troubleshooting tip is to make sure your laptop's system clock is precisely set. The simplest way to set the system clock is to just install the ntpdate package and manually run the update command. The following example shows a global NTP server pool, but you can adjust the command to your region if needed:
$ apt install -y ntpdate $ ntpdate -v pool.ntp.org
I hope that you have been suitably impressed with the undeniably sophisticated ProxyChains and the remarkable Tor network. Setting up ProxyChains is simple and painless, with a useful outcome that other software struggles to get close to.
There are many applications that you can push through a proxy chain using TCP-based traffic or via the Tor network. I'd suggest practicing with a variety of packages.
As a reminder, you should use your newly found knowledge ethically and wisely.
Infos
- ProxyChains: https://github.com/haad/proxychains
- TryHackMe: https://tryhackme.com
- "How Does ProxyChains Avoid DNS Leaks?": https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/224394/how-does-proxychains-avoid-dns-leaks
- ProxyScrape: https://www.proxyscrape.com/free-proxy-list
- PROXY-List on GitHub: https://github.com/TheSpeedX/PROXY-List
- Free Proxy List: https://free-proxy-list.net
- "What is SOCKS5 and Why Should I Use It": https://securityintelligence.com/posts/socks-proxy-primer-what-is-socks5-and-why-should-you-use-it
- Scanme at nmap.org: http://scanme.nmap.org
- The Tor Project: https://www.torproject.org
- FoxyProxy: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxyproxy-standard
- Burp Suite: https://portswigger.net/burp
- What's My IP: https://whatsmyip.com
- Nmap network scanner: https://nmap.org
- Nmap scanning options: https://nmap.org/book/port-scanning-options.html
- DNS Leak Test: https://www.dnsleaktest.com
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