Many people use the proxy server to overcome the
limitation of Local network, or geographical boundaries. Proxy is acting like middle
man who let you browse on your computer, how to trust this middle man? Is he
good or rogue? Let’s discuss.
Proxy server are
some servers which takes the request from your side, ask for the page on your
behalf and sends it back to you, your local network may have blocked the direct
accessing of that site but using proxy, that site can be brought to your
browser.
He is in the
position of Man in the Middle, is it possible that proxy can steal
your information? Can it be cause of Man
in the Middle Attack? Or it
is safe and how honest are they so not to see what goes from their system.
I launched a
Discussion on our Facebookpage about this, most people replied in positive way that it’s possible
that proxy server will sniff your data and able to. Though I couldn’t find the
perfect answer there, so I decided to dig this for you all and for those Facebook
fans. Here we go with A-Z detail about the proxy servers.
Before we know the
Cons and Pros of the proxy servers, let’s know what kind of proxies are there.
1. HTTP proxy
2. Web Proxy
How Proxy server works?
When you ask Proxy
server I want to visit http://Example.com/page.html, it contacts the
example.com and ask for the required page and returns it back to you, during
this process, all the page data passes through it can be seen by proxy servers,
because it is in HTTP mode.
In case you’ve
asked for HTTPS of any website like Https://Facebook.com/
it will contact facebook.com and request to setup connection by HTTPS, i.e.
port number 443, in fact SSL connection.
This connection
will be made established between your browser and original web server (facebook.com
in this case).
Since data is going
through SSL, no
one else will see the content. Your Proxy server will be seeing how much data
is being transferred but not what transferred. (SSL not hides the
size of data).
How Proxy can sniff even of SSL is there?
Is that all, well
thinking this is not all. What if the server or someone will install the rough
CA certificate to your system? It is also possible that they can break your SSL and re-SSL the
content and those fake certificates won’t prompt anything to you, and your data
will be compromised.
Keeping your System
protected from unknown login and applying some restriction may help you to stay
safe.
Recommended for you
HTTP Proxy
HTTP Proxy is some
silent machine which just protect your IP address and site’s IP address for
being on light, it just can send you data in plain text in HTTP mode and can
send encrypted data in case of HTTPs mode.
But HTTPS is
established after connecting to HTTP and site should use 301 redirect to new
secure port of 443, but proxy servers can protect this.
So make sure to see
HTTPS and Green lock icon on your browser to make sure you are using SSL and
kind of safe.
Suggested for you
Web Proxy
Web proxies are
basically sites which allow you to browse anything from it, you can Google Web
proxy like HideMyAss AWebProxy, ZendProxy,
and you’ll find many sites but this is dangerous.
How?
These sites are
basically not transferring data to you from server; instead it browses in their
own system and sends you just an instant of that screen just like remote
desktop. You can imagine its straight forward Man in the Middle. It sees
everything and even don’t know if they are sending you correct pages or not.
IC recommends never
use such site for specially accessing your private data Mails, Facebook etc.
Alternatively you
can configure your system with proper proxy to browse by HTTP proxy.
What at the end of the Discussion
In this discussion I
didn’t dig too deep inside but made following points clear to you.
How proxy works,
how it can see and can’t see your data, what types of proxies are there. I would
conclude and suggest you not to use the web proxy just use the HTTP proxy for
best safety and keep your eye on HTTPs to be smart and safe.
Leave your comment
how you feel about the safety using proxies.
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