Hacklog Volume 1 Anonymity: it security & Ethical Hacking Handbook

proxychains,  Proxycap  can  reroute  all  Internet  communications,  and  is  also
equipped  with  a  GUI.  Unfortunately,  it  is  also  a  paid  app.  Furthermore,  you
should  also  consider  more  alternatives.  Wikipedia
[12]
 is  hosting  a  page  where
you can compare the different proxifiers online.

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Figure 9: screen showing how ProxyCap works
During web navigation
Here,  we  will  cover  the  proxy  configuration  via  browser,  however,  you
should keep in mind that screenshots and menus may slightly vary according to
Operating  Systems  and  Browsers  versions.  In  our  case,  we  will  only  cover  the
main  navigation  Browsers.  System  browsers  (Safari,  Internet  Explorer,  Edge,
etc.) always rely on the system configuration.
Keep  in  mind  that  each  Browser  supports  extensions  as  well,  and  you  can
always  find  a  GUI  to  accelerate  proxy  use.  Go  to  each  Browser  store  and  you
will surely find the best extension for your needs.
Google Chrome / Chromium
From the Google browser, go to Settings using the top  right  button.  On  the
tab  that  appears,  click  “Show  advanced  settings…”,  then  click  “Change  Proxy
Settings”. Thus, you will directly go to the Proxy configuration prompts of your
Operating System.
Mozilla Firefox
From the Firefox browser, select the top right Settings button, then open the
Advanced tab and select the top Network tab. Here, you will find “Connection”
and  the  “Settings”  button  next  to  it.  Once  opened,  you  can  configure  your
browser  with  its  own  proxy  settings,  using  “Proxy  manual  configuration”,  or
relying on the system settings.
Opera Browser

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On Opera, it is a very easy task. Open the menu and select Settings, then go
to  Preferences.  From  the  Advanced  tab,  go  to  Network,  then  click  on  Proxy
server. Now, edit the client settings.
Beware the Blacklists
Proxies may be often included in Blacklists, online databases storing the IP
addresses  used  for  web  abuse,  fraud,  spam  and  so  on.  Such  lists  are  stored  by
free and paid services (the so called Honeypots), to help web portals, Firewalls,
CDNs,  and  whatnot  to  rapidly  search  the  visitor  IP  in  the  harmful  IP  database.
The  most  popular  are  Spamhaus
[13]
 and  Barracuda
[14]
,  but  there  are  more
around. In order to check whether your IP is blacklisted or not, you can use all
the  IP  verification  services  supporting  it,  or  use  the  specific  service  offered  by
WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.
2.4.2.4 How safe are Proxies?
Now, the question we should ask to ourselves is: are proxies really ensuring
full anonymity? In most case, the answer is: not at all. No matter how safe they
may seem, proxy  servers are managed  by external services,  paying to maintain
servers capable to host our Internet requests.
Being  external  services,  we  ignore  who  manages  them;  furthermore,  we
don’t know their business and why they should be such benefactors. Sometimes
we may encounter entities fighting against censorship, or university proxies for
research  purposes;  however,  in  some  cases,  we  may  find  companies  making
money over our navigation (e.g. to run marketing surveys) or, in the worst case
scenario,  honeypots  managed  by  governmental  organizations  like  NSA  or  FBI,
monitoring traffic.
Without mentioning the fact that a proxy server may store almost everything
you  do  (sites  visited,  logins,  operations  done,  etc.)  and  all  the  data  you  release
online (IP address, browser, operating system, etc.), actually making it a double-
edged  sword.  This  doesn’t  mean  that  IP  spoofing  done  via  proxy  is  pointless;
instead, its popularity and ease of use allowed to create lots of libraries for every
programming  languages,  thus  to  define  new  use  cases,  e.g.  many