Socks5 Proxy Server For the Lazy

In a rush?

If you find yourself in need of a Socks 5 Proxy Server for various purposes such as gaming or bypassing region locks, and you happen to have a Linux VPS, this tiny guide will give you two methods to swiftly set it up. I mean, like, RIGHT NOW!

Method 1. Very Unsafe, but works.

ssh -N -D 0.0.0.0:1080 localhost

and bang, you have a working proxy server. But beware, no authentication, nothing, anyone will be able to use it.

If that's good enough for you, you can go stealth mode and run it as a daemon in the background:

ssh -f -N -D 0.0.0.0:1080 localhost

Method 2 - Using 3proxy.

Now, if you want Authentication but you're as lazy as a cat on a sunny windowsill, or just in a hurry, you can try this second solution.

Setting up 3proxy is not so straightforward if you're not used to it, so I wrote this small bash script that does the job for you in a single line.

curl -o 3proxy-install.sh -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/layer07/3proxy-lazy/main/3proxy-install.sh
chmod +x 3proxy-install.sh
./3proxy-install.sh

Go!

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Select an option:
1) Install 3proxy
2) Add New User
3) Completely Remove 3proxy
4) Change SOCKS5 Listening Port
5) Exit

This will get you immediately hooked up with a working copy of 3proxy, with username and password auth, running as a service and everything. It'll be listening on port 1080 by default, you can change the port by running the script again. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility... and possibly a few more command line arguments.

This setup is not intended for production use; it's more of a quick-and-dirty hack to get a socks5 proxy server up and running on a disposable VM, such as AWS or Alibaba Cloud. Everything is quite unsafe there, plaintext passwords, etc... But if you have a firewall, you're almost good to go. And if someone can actually go and grab your plaintext passwords (a file in your Linux System) - then I think the least thing you should be concerned is someone using your proxy.