A Look at WWW Proxies

Created: 20th December 2010

Public Internet proxies are a kids best friend. They basically exist to allow internet users to access websites as if they were from another location. In short, they allow you to bypass local security restrictions, and gain access to normally denied websites.

Hence why they appeal to the younger generation, who normally find themselves barred from websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia (yes, I know one school that actually blocks it!). Web proxies are very popular and easy to find, but can you trust a website to handle these connections? Do you really know what's involved with connecting to these sites?

In its simplest form, let's say you're accessing Facebook from your school network. Here's what happens:

Because the school computers are all located behind the firewall, it would be very hard to bypass. The school can then decide whether the firewall allows the request to Facebook through or not.

Now let's see what happens when you use a Facebook proxy from the Internet:

Your request to www.facebook.com is sent to the Proxy site. Because this site isn't Facebook, the firewall allows the request. The proxy site then contacts Facebook on your behalf, and returns the pages to you. That's the theory of it anyway, most paid for sites will do exactly what you pay for, however the free proxy sites out there have no obligation to perform this action, and may do a few other things on the side.

Finding Proxies

Proxy sites don't usually last long before they are discovered and blocked. They aren't illegal (although Facebook wouldn't condone their use for the reasons mentioned below), but they aren't wise to use either. Most school networks employ content filtering, which is able to dynamically rate sites being visited, and block them as they become known to the filtering software. This is why a proxy site that works one day, may not work the next.

WWW proxies and security

I tested a few free proxy sites out there to see how they handled the Facebook login process. Facebook protect the login with SSL - meaning the only way to login to Facebook is to create a secure connection to the site and encrypt the login process (the part where your username and password are sent to Facebook). The remainder of your time spent on Facebook is unencrypted, which also raises concerns when using proxies, but the login process is crucial.

During my tests, I found only one proxy website that offered to use SSL to connect to Facebook. This is slightly more reassuring, but it's still irresponsible to trust your Facebook details with an unknown third party website. Let's take a look at the login process when using a regular Facebook web proxy:

And the same login process without a web proxy:

You should be able to easily see the problem. The Proxy Website in the first diagram now has your login details. It will also have any updates, comments, pictures etc you post to Facebook for the duration of the session.

The long term solution to bypassing a blocked website is to speak to the person who's blocking it. Make a case and gain support. Convince them otherwise, in other words - use your brain. Technical problems can be solved by technical solutions, but not all social problems can be solved with technology.