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author | Maximilian Hils <git@maximilianhils.com> | 2014-09-07 00:42:25 +0200 |
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committer | Maximilian Hils <git@maximilianhils.com> | 2014-09-07 00:42:25 +0200 |
commit | 78a44c5199d81bc46038b5d680638124f613b871 (patch) | |
tree | cf6361d77aeed7a3fd453744778b443885ffa65d /doc-src/modes.html | |
parent | df129736c3a621847f7916d40edd909fe9fb0b8e (diff) | |
download | mitmproxy-78a44c5199d81bc46038b5d680638124f613b871.tar.gz mitmproxy-78a44c5199d81bc46038b5d680638124f613b871.tar.bz2 mitmproxy-78a44c5199d81bc46038b5d680638124f613b871.zip |
add docs on proxy modes
Diffstat (limited to 'doc-src/modes.html')
-rw-r--r-- | doc-src/modes.html | 210 |
1 files changed, 210 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc-src/modes.html b/doc-src/modes.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..77bd1b05 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc-src/modes.html @@ -0,0 +1,210 @@ +Mitmproxy comes with several modes of operation, which allow you to use mitmproxy in a variety of scenarios. +This documents briefly explains each mode and possible setups. +<hr> +Mitmproxy has four modes of operation: +<ul> + <li>Regular Mode (this is what you get by default)</li> + <li>Transparent Mode</li> + <li>Reverse Proxy Mode</li> + <li>Upstream Proxy Mode</li> +</ul> + +<p>Now, which one should you pick? Use this flow chart: +</p> + +<img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-flowchart.png')!@"><br><br> + +<div class="page-header"> + <h1>Regular Proxy</h1> +</div> + +Mitmproxy's regular mode it the most simple one and the easiest to set up. + +<ol> + <li>Start mitmproxy.</li> + <li>Configure your client to use mitmproxy. This means that you either adjust the proxy setting of your local browser + or point an external device to your proxy (which should look like + <a href="@!urlTo('screenshots/ios-manual.png')!@">this</a>).</li> + <li>Quick Check: You can already visit an unencrypted HTTP site over the proxy.</li> + <li>Open the magic domain <strong>mitm.it</strong> and install the certificate for your device.</li> +</ol> + +<div class="well"> + <strong>Heads Up:</strong> Unfortunately, some applications prefer to bypass the HTTP proxy settings of the system - + Android applications are a common example. In these cases, you need to use mitmproxy's transparent mode. +</div> + +<p>If you are proxying an external device, your network will probably look like this:</p> +<img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-regular.png')!@"> +<br><br> +<p>The square brackets signify the source and destination IP addresses. Your client explicitly connects + to mitmproxy and mitmproxy explicitly connects to the target server. +</p> + +<div class="page-header"> + <h1>Transparent Proxy</h1> +</div> + +When a transparent proxy is used, traffic is redirected into a proxy at the network layer, without any client +configuration being required. This makes transparent proxying ideal for those situations where you can't change client +behaviour. The basic principle is that mitmproxy sits somewhere on the line from the client to the internet and +transparently intercepts the request. In the graphic below, a machine running mitmproxy has been inserted between +the router and the internet: + +<a href="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-1.png')!@"> + <img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-1.png')!@"></a> +<p>The square brackets signify the source and destination IP addresses. Round brackets mark the next + hop on the <strong>Ethernet</strong>/data link layer. This distinction is important to make: When the packet arrives + at the mitmproxy machine, it must still be addressed to the target server. In other words: A simple IP redirect on + the router does not work - this would remove the target information, leaving mitmproxy unable to + determine the real destination. +</p> +<a href="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-wrong.png')!@"> + <img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-wrong.png')!@"></a> + +<h2>Common Configurations</h2> + +The first graphic is a little bit idealistic: Usually, you'll have your local wireless lan network and no +machines between your router and the internet. Fortunately, there are other ways to configure your network: +(a) Configuring the client to use a custom gateway/router/"next hop", (b) Implementing custom routing on the router +or (c) setting up a separate wireless network router which gets proxied. +There are of course other options, but we'll look at these three. In most cases, setting (a) is recommended due to its +ease of use. + +<h3>(a) Custom Gateway</h3> + +<p>Looking at your local home network, it's clear what happens if you enter "example.com" into your address bar: After you +press enter, your OS sends a packet to your router, which then sends this to your ISP, which then sends it to some +Tier-1 carrier, which then sends it... I think you get the idea. The important part for us is the first step here: +Your machine is configured to use your router as the next hop. Your router certainly doesn't host example.com, but your +machine knows that your router will forward it upstream. On the technical level, your router probably provides a DHCP +server, which instructs all clients to use his address as the <em>Default Gateway</em> for connections that leave the +current subnet (your local network).</p> +<p> +How does this help us? Here comes our trick: By configuring the client to use our machine as its Gateway, all traffic +will be sent to our machine, which then forwards it to the router. This provides us with the scenario we'd like to have, +namely packets on our doorstep that are addressed for someone else: +</p> +<a href="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-2.png')!@"> + <img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-2.png')!@"></a> + +Given this concept, we can set up mitmproxy: +<ol> + <li>Configure your proxy machine for transparent mode.<br>You can find instructions + in the <em>Transparent Proxying</em> section of the mitmproxy docs.</li> + <li>Configure your client to use your proxy machine's IP as the default gateway. This setting is usually called + <em>Standard Gateway, Router</em> or something along these lines + (<a href="@!urlTo('screenshots/ios-gateway.png')!@">iOS screenshot</a>).</li> + <li>Quick Check: You can already visit an unencrypted HTTP site over the proxy.</li> + <li>Open the magic domain <strong>mitm.it</strong> and install the certificate for your device.</li> +</ol> + +<div class="well"> + <strong style="text-align: center; display: block">Troubleshooting Transparent Mode</strong> + <p>Wrong transparent mode configurations are a frequent source of + error. If it doesn't work for you, try the following things:</p> + <ul> + <li>Open mitmproxy's event log (press `e`) - can you spot clientconnect messages? + If not, the packets are not arriving at the proxy. A common source is the occurence of ICMP redirects, + which means that your machine is telling the client that there's a faster way to the internet by contacting + your router directly (see the <em>Transparent Proxying</em> section on how to disable them). If in doubt, + <a href="https://wireshark.org/">Wireshark</a> may help you to see whether something arrives at your machine + or not. + </li> + <li> + Have you explicitly configured an HTTP proxy on your device? You do not need mitmproxy's transparent mode + then, just start mitmproxy normally. Explicitly setting a proxy and transparent mode contradict each other, + settle for one. Do not explicitly redirect traffic to mitmproxy anywhere except for the Gateway setting. + </li> + <li> + Re-check the instructions in the <em>Transparent Proxying</em> section. Anything you missed? + </li> + </ul> + If you encounter any other pitfalls that should be listed here, please let us know! +</div> + +<h3>(b) Custom Routing</h3> + +Custom routing is a fairly advanced setup which we'll only document briefly here. +First and foremost, it usually requires root on your router. The basic idea is to teach your router a custom routing +table that says "for requests from ip X, the proxy machine is the next gateway". + +<a href="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-3.png')!@"> + <img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-transparent-3.png')!@"></a> + +For this setup, we expect you to have a basic understanding of networking in general. In short, you should get started +with <a href="@!urlTo('custom-routing.txt')!@">these routing commands</a>. The Troubleshooting part directly above this +section might be helpful for you as well. + +<h3>(c) Separate Network</h3> + +Setting up a separate network using a cheap router might be a viable option, too. Such a configuration mostly resembles +the idealistic graphic from the beginning (Variant 1). Take a look at the +<a href="@!urlTo('tutorials/transparent-dhcp.html')!@">Transparently proxify virtual machines</a> tutorial to see how +such a network could be implemented. The troubleshooting section for custom gateways may be helpful for you, too. + + +<div class="page-header"> + <h1>Reverse Proxy</h1> +</div> + +Mitmproxy is usually used with a client that uses the proxy to access the Internet. Using reverse proxy mode, you can +use mitmproxy to represent a server: + +<a href="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-reverse.png')!@"> + <img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-reverse.png')!@"></a> + +There are various use-cases: +<ul> +<li> + Say you have an internal API running at http://example.local/. You could now setup mitmproxy in + reverse proxy mode at http://debug.example.local/ and dynamically point clients to this new API endpoint, + which provides clients with the same data and you with debug information. Similarly, you could move your real server + to a different ip/port and setup mitmproxy at the original place to debug all sessions. +</li> +<li> + Say you're a web developer working on example.com (with a development version running on localhost:8000). + You can modify your hosts file so that example.com points to 127.0.0.1 and then run mitmproxy in reverse proxy + mode on port 80. You can test your app on the example.com domain and get all requests recorded in mitmproxy. +</li> +<li> + Say you have some toy project that should get SSL support. Simply setup mitmproxy with SSL termination and you're + done (<code>mitmdump -p 443 -R https2http://localhost:80/</code>). There are better tools for this specific task (we don't + have C performance obviously), but it's definitely a nice and very quick way to setup an SSL-speaking server. +</li> +<li> + Want to add a non-SSL-capable compression proxy in front of your server? You could even spawn a mitmproxy instance + that terminates SSL (https2http://...), point it to the compression proxy and let the compression proxy point + to a SSL-initiating mitmproxy (http2https://...), which then points to the real server. As you see, it's a fairly + flexible thing. +</li> +</ul> + +<p> +Please note that cloning Google by using <code>mitmproxy -R http://google.com/</code> does <em>not</em> really work +(as in <a href="@!urlTo('screenshots/ios-reverse.png')!@">this screenshot</a>). +This may work for the first request, but the HTML remains unchanged: As soon as the user clicks on an non-relative URL +(or downloads a non-relative image resource), they speak with Google directly again. +</p> +<p> + On another note, mitmproxy either supports an HTTP or an HTTPS upstream server, not both at the same time. You can + simply work around this by spawning a second mitmproxy instance. Each instance listens to one port and talks to one + port. +</p> + +<div class="page-header"> + <h1>Upstream Proxy</h1> +</div> + +<p> +If you want to add mitmproxy in front of a different proxy appliance, you can use mitmproxy's upstream mode. +In upstream mode, all requests are unconditionally transferred to an upstream proxy or your choice. +</p> + +<a href="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-upstream.png')!@"> + <img src="@!urlTo('schematics/proxy-modes-upstream.png')!@"></a> + +<p> +mitmproxy supports both explicit HTTP and explicit HTTPS in upstream proxy mode. You could in theory chain multiple +mitmproxy instances in a row, but that doesn't make any sense in practice (i.e. outside of our tests). +</p>
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