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How do i check to see if my server is running an open proxy?

Posted on April 22, 2014

If you have access to the nmap tool, you can check to see if your server is running an open, unsecured HTTP proxy by running the following from a remote location:<br><br><pre>sudo nmap -sS -sV -p 8080 --script http-open-proxy.nse X.X.X.X</pre> where X.X.X.X is the IP of your server.<br><br>Example:<br><br><pre><code><br><br># sudo nmap -sS -sV -p 8080 --script http-open-proxy.nse X.X.X.X<br><br>Starting Nmap 6.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2014-04-22 17:05 UTC<br><br>Nmap scan report for host.domain.com (X.X.X.X)<br><br>Host is up (0.078s latency).<br><br>PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION<br><br>8080/tcp open http Apache httpd<br><br>| http-open-proxy: Potentially OPEN proxy.<br><br>|_Methods supported: CONNECTION</code></pre><br><br>If the script returns “Potentially OPEN proxy.” you can then check to see if it is a open proxy that does not require authentication with:<br><br><pre><code>http_proxy=http://X.X.X.X:8080/ curl -4 -s http://nyc2.mirrors.digitalocean.com/tools/open_proxy_check.txt</code></pre><br><br>where X.X.X.X is your server’s IP address<br><br>If you see a message saying “If you are seeing this while running the open proxy text, your server is an open proxy.” then you are running an open proxy that anyone in the world can use to connect to any website. This is not a good situation, as it means that cybercriminals and other malicious entities can hide their activities and make it seem like their web connections are originating from your server, and you should secure it right away.If you are running squid, a method of securing your proxy is by using the “acl” feature:<br><br>http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/config/acl/<br><br>If you are running Apache, this article may help:<br><br>http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/ProxyAbuse<br><br>If you have any questions, log into the DigitalOcean control panel, click on “Support” and open a support ticket!



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@tostring: <br> <br>We’d need to know some more information to help you. What is the output of the command shown above (remember to obscure your IP address)?

Hi thanks very much for your response. I can’t seem to find Tinyproxy installed anywhere. Could this have been done maliciously? <br> <br>Do you guys offer support in removing this if this is the case? What would be the charge to remove it for me? <br> <br>Thanks again <br>Chris

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