Support socks5 proxy

[tiero]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I want to use my tor client that expose a socks5 proxy, to connect to gRPC services exposed trough .onion endpoint

Describe the solution you'd like

Add additional env var here something like socks5_proxy

Describe alternatives you've considered

Using a client written in another language. ie. grpc-go has a custom net dialer you can pass down, so you can customize this.

What I did

I tried doing this

export http_proxy="http://localhost:9150"
export grpc_proxy="http://localhost:9150"
export http_proxy="socks5://localhost:9150"
export http_proxy="socks5h://localhost:9150"

All do not work

[murgatroid99]

I want to note a couple of things. First, the library uses http_proxy and grpc_proxy interchangeably, with the only difference being that grpc_proxy is a higher priority, so adding another environment variable wouldn't change anything. And second, only the http:// protocol is supported, so I would expect an error to be output if you use socks5:// or socks5h://. So, the only way you're going to connect to gRPC services through TOR is by exposing a HTTP CONNECT proxy in your TOR client.

[tiero]

so I would expect an error to be output if you use socks5:// or socks5h://.

Yes indeed, I got errors. Just mentioned for sake of completeness.

So, the only way you're going to connect to gRPC services through TOR is by exposing a HTTP CONNECT proxy in your TOR client.

Ok, so practically, I would need to add HTTPTunnelPort in my torrc file, is that correct?

PS: Any reason why we wouldn't directly support socks5 proxies in grpc-node like we can in grpc-go and others? I see some setup where may be difficult to change tor client configuration

Thanks

[murgatroid99]

I am not familiar with TOR configuration; you'll have to figure that part out for yourself.

My understanding is that grpc-go and other libraries do not actually directly support socks5 proxies. Rather, grpc-go provides an interface to use a custom dialer that can connect through a socks5 proxies, and the other libraries do not even provide that.

[tiero]

grpc-go provides an interface to use a custom dialer that can connect through a socks5 proxies, and the other libraries do not even provide that.

Yes exaclty, I pass down a custom dialer in go. So yes, it's not that simple more how nodejs works vs go inner interfaces mechanics. Thanks, will try to circumnvent this via my tor client.

[CMCDragonkai]

What are the advantages of enabling a socks5 proxy as opposed to using the http proxy?

[tiero]

What are the advantages of enabling a socks5 proxy as opposed to using the http proxy?

This means "tinkering" with the tor client configuration.

I have use case in an app (wich uses grpc-js) where I need users to call an onion hidden service that exposes a grpc sever. If grpc-node only support http-proxy I cannot just say to the users "Hey open a Tor Browser and that's it" now you can use the app (wich is exposing a socks5 proxy on 9*50 port), but rather I need them to do extra instructions.

In go instead I can pass a custom dialer, so I can handle this out of grpc-go hands of course, in grpc-node instead we have this to be done inside.

Not a big deal, just nice to have it.

[red0bear]

grpc have no support then to those things. you cant just listen the thing.