Proxies Question

Ok. I was wondering, how secure is a proxy really? I mean are they like logging everything your doing or are they just there? Is there a way to test out how secure they are and if they are logging the activity? Thanks ahead of time.

Madseel

Proxies are only as secure as the box (or appliance) they are built on. If you really want to know more about this, I suggest that you pick up a book called, "Building Internet Firewalls" by O'Reilly. Trust me, you'll learn a lot about this.

Regards.

To elaborate on the information that has already "come straight from the horses mouth" ;)

Proxies come in many forms. Security and logging are all dependendant on what they do and how they are built. I use proxies at work that run filtering software, as well as log all requested URL's, and who requested them. They also log who has tried to access sites on the "no-no" list and how many times they tried to access them. So, if a user in my network is trying to get to a porn site, or a KKK site, or anything else that could expose my organization to liability, and therefore forbidden, I know about it. I run reports once a week that come with the software. Other proxy boxes might not be so sofisticated (or indeed, even serve the same purpose), others might be far more sophisticated. If you are behind a proxy and want to find out if your getting logged, you could always hit a "bad" site and see who breaks bad on you. There are lots of ways to test the security of a particular box, many of which can be found by doing a search right here on this site, or a google search. I'd start off with "port scanners" as my first search parameter.

Caveat: If your motivation for asking this question is to try to circumvent a proxy (say....at a school, just a guess) then realize you may very well get busted and found to be in violation of your schools/employers acceptable use policy.

I bust users at work all the time. I make examples of them, yet still people try. I've never figured out why.

Ok. I see what your saying thread killer. But im meaning like proxies off the internet. Like ones you find off sites. Im wondering how to know if they are logging the activity and also if they are reliable in keeping my ip and info off of the site im visiting.

Well, for the truly paranoid... you can always look into proxy chaining.

I have had mixed results with these. If you are on dial up, then you'll probably be ok, but on broadband... most of them are too slow. Especially if you are bouncing around the world.

Read about proxy chaining here or search google. There is a lot on them.

Oh, to answer your question. yes, most of the proxies out there do log everything. It has more to do with covering their a$$ when they are confronted by the authorities.
They don't want to be the blame for some script kiddie causing havoc on the net.

They are quick to dump their logs though, as long as they don't get any visits... so if you are looking to do something that is questionable by law... proxies aren't the way to go. If you are looking to do something questionable... you might want to stop and think again. Is it really worth it? I'm not accusing you of looking to get into trouble. I'm posting this more or less for anyone who stumbles on this thread thinking that they're l337 cause they "spoofed" their ip with a proxy and haven't yet been caught...

They help keep you "private" to web sites but don't keep you private from the law. What would u do? Take the fall for some skiddie, or turn them in? You know the answer...

I cannot imagine that any organization offering a legit proxy(anonymizer) server these days is not logging everything. There maybe a few anonymizer type proxy's which do not keep logs, but, I kinda doubt it.

Due diligence means that you really do need to log the activity, even if the logs are only kept for a few days.

Even someone who has misconfigured a server so that it acts like a proxy server should be logging requests to it as a proxy, unless they have turned all logging off for some reason.

This is just my opinion, and I haven't looked at all, but, with the status of laws these days(patriot act anyone?), anyone running a public proxy(on purpose) which does not record logs, is begging for trouble, especially when someone uses their proxy to make an intrusion attempt, successful or not.

My http proxy is running on linux and it logs everything (ip of requesting computer, site requested, date, time...) by default.
So as far as your anonyimity is concerned, with some work and quick action (oh and some co-op from the proxy owners) your original IP adress can can be discovered quite easially. Proxy chaining does make it more difficult but not impossible.

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Ok. I was wondering, how secure is a proxy really? I mean are they like logging everything your doing or are they just there? Is there a way to test out how secure they are and if they are logging the activity? Thanks ahead of time.

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No sysadmin in his right mind runs a proxy without logging. It's cause all the leet kiddies have the tendency to *try* and hack things via proxies. Thankfully there's so many people who use proxies to surf for porn that you're probably safe...for now. If you've ever actually looked at a squid log around 3 in the moring, it's at least 90% porn. But if you're worried about web sites getting your IP, just get an app that chains proxies together and you're pretty safe.

LOL, I guess that I missed the actual meaning of the question. I thought that BadSeel wanted to know how secure a box is that a proxy resides on. I thought that perhaps bastion host cracking was the direction this was going in.

Well, there isn't much more to add to what others have already covered. I still think you should read the O' Reilly book!

If anonymizer or any others dont log your data i can garante that some one out there know's where you have been and what time you where there, My point is every thing is logged i dont like to say it but it is.