proxy_connect

This module provides support for the CONNECT HTTP method after Tengine version 2.3.0.
This method is mainly used to tunnel SSL requests through proxy servers.

Example

Configuration Example

server {
    listen                         3128;

    # dns resolver used by forward proxying
    resolver                       8.8.8.8;

    # forward proxy for CONNECT request
    proxy_connect;
    proxy_connect_allow            443 563;
    proxy_connect_connect_timeout  10s;
    proxy_connect_read_timeout     10s;
    proxy_connect_send_timeout     10s;

    # forward proxy for non-CONNECT request
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://$host;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }
}

Example for curl

With above configuration, you can get any https website via HTTP CONNECT tunnel.
A simple test with command curl is as following:

$ curl https://github.com/ -v -x 127.0.0.1:3128
*   Trying 127.0.0.1...                                           -.
* Connected to 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) port 3128 (#0)                | curl creates TCP connection with nginx (with proxy_connect module).
* Establish HTTP proxy tunnel to github.com:443                   -'
> CONNECT github.com:443 HTTP/1.1                                 -.
> Host: github.com:443                                         (1) | curl sends CONNECT request to create tunnel.
> User-Agent: curl/7.43.0                                          |
> Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive                                    -'
>
< HTTP/1.0 200 Connection Established                             .- nginx replies 200 that tunnel is established.
< Proxy-agent: nginx                                           (2)|  (The client is now being proxied to the remote host. Any data sent
<                                                                 '-  to nginx is now forwarded, unmodified, to the remote host)

* Proxy replied OK to CONNECT request
* TLS 1.2 connection using TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256  -.
* Server certificate: github.com                                   |
* Server certificate: DigiCert SHA2 Extended Validation Server CA  | curl sends "https://github.com" request via tunnel,
* Server certificate: DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA           | proxy_connect module will proxy data to remote host (github.com).
> GET / HTTP/1.1                                                   |
> Host: github.com                                             (3) |
> User-Agent: curl/7.43.0                                          |
> Accept: */*                                                     -'
>
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK                                                 .-
< Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2017 04:13:57 GMT                             |
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8                          |  Any data received from remote host will be sent to client
< Transfer-Encoding: chunked                                      |  by proxy_connect module.
< Server: GitHub.com                                           (4)|
< Status: 200 OK                                                  |
< Cache-Control: no-cache                                         |
< Vary: X-PJAX                                                    |
...                                                               |
... <other response headers & response body> ...                  |
...                                                               '-

The sequence diagram of above example is as following:

  curl                     nginx (proxy_connect)            github.com
    |                             |                          |
(1) |-- CONNECT github.com:443 -->|                          |
    |                             |                          |
    |                             |----[ TCP connection ]--->|
    |                             |                          |
(2) |<- HTTP/1.1 200           ---|                          |
    |   Connection Established    |                          |
    |                             |                          |
    |                                                        |
    ========= CONNECT tunnel has been establesied. ===========
    |                                                        |
    |                             |                          |
    |                             |                          |
    |   [ SSL stream       ]      |                          |
(3) |---[ GET / HTTP/1.1   ]----->|   [ SSL stream       ]   |
    |   [ Host: github.com ]      |---[ GET / HTTP/1.1   ]-->.
    |                             |   [ Host: github.com ]   |
    |                             |                          |
    |                             |                          |
    |                             |                          |
    |                             |   [ SSL stream       ]   |
    |   [ SSL stream       ]      |<--[ HTTP/1.1 200 OK  ]---'
(4) |<--[ HTTP/1.1 200 OK  ]------|   [ < html page >    ]   |
    |   [ < html page >    ]      |                          |
    |                             |                          |

Install

  • Build Tengine with this module from source:
$ ./configure --add-module=./modules/ngx_http_proxy_connect_module
$ make && make install

Directive

proxy_connect

Syntax: proxy_connect
Default: none
Context: server

Enable "CONNECT" HTTP method support.

proxy_connect_allow

Syntax: proxy_connect_allow all | [port ...] | [port-range ...]
Default: 443 563
Context: server

This directive specifies a list of port numbers or ranges to which the proxy CONNECT method may connect.
By default, only the default https port (443) and the default snews port (563) are enabled.
Using this directive will override this default and allow connections to the listed ports only.

The value all will allow all ports to proxy.

The value port will allow specified port to proxy.

The value port-range will allow specified range of port to proxy, for example:

proxy_connect_allow 1000-2000 3000-4000; # allow range of port from 1000 to 2000, from 3000 to 4000.

proxy_connect_connect_timeout

Syntax: proxy_connect_connect_timeout time
Default: none
Context: server

Defines a timeout for establishing a connection with a proxied server.

proxy_connect_read_timeout

Syntax: proxy_connect_read_timeout time
Default: 60s
Context: server

Defines a timeout for reading a response from the proxied server.
The timeout is set only between two successive read operations, not for the transmission of the whole response.
If the proxied server does not transmit anything within this time, the connection is closed.

proxy_connect_send_timeout

Syntax: proxy_connect_send_timeout time
Default: 60s
Context: server

Sets a timeout for transmitting a request to the proxied server.
The timeout is set only between two successive write operations, not for the transmission of the whole request.
If the proxied server does not receive anything within this time, the connection is closed.

proxy_connect_address

Syntax: proxy_connect_address address | off
Default: none
Context: server

Specifiy an IP address of the proxied server. The address can contain variables.
The special value off is equal to none, which uses the IP address resolved from host name of CONNECT request line.

proxy_connect_bind

Syntax: proxy_connect_bind address [transparent] | off
Default: none
Context: server

Makes outgoing connections to a proxied server originate from the specified local IP address with an optional port.
Parameter value can contain variables. The special value off is equal to none, which allows the system to auto-assign the local IP address and port.

The transparent parameter allows outgoing connections to a proxied server originate from a non-local IP address, for example, from a real IP address of a client:

proxy_connect_bind $remote_addr transparent;

In order for this parameter to work, it is usually necessary to run nginx worker processes with the superuser privileges. On Linux it is not required (1.13.8) as if the transparent parameter is specified, worker processes inherit the CAP_NET_RAW capability from the master process. It is also necessary to configure kernel routing table to intercept network traffic from the proxied server.

Variables

$connect_host

host name from CONNECT request line.

$connect_port

port from CONNECT request line.

$connect_addr

IP address and port of the remote host, e.g. "192.168.1.5:12345".
IP address is resolved from host name of CONNECT request line.

$proxy_connect_connect_timeout

Get or set timeout of proxy_connect_connect_timeout directive.

For example:

# Set default value

proxy_connect_connect_timeout   10s;
proxy_connect_read_timeout      10s;
proxy_connect_send_timeout      10s;

# Overlap default value

if ($host = "test.com") {
    set $proxy_connect_connect_timeout  "10ms";
    set $proxy_connect_read_timeout     "10ms";
    set $proxy_connect_send_timeout     "10ms";
}

$proxy_connect_read_timeout

Get or set a timeout of proxy_connect_read_timeout directive.

$proxy_connect_send_timeout

Get or set a timeout of proxy_connect_send_timeout directive.

Known Issues

  • In HTTP/2, the CONNECT method is not supported. It only supports the CONNECT method request in HTTP/1.x and HTTPS.
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