How to use Proxy Chaining in Kali Linux.

Proxychains is a Linux-based tool that enables anonymous and secure web browsing using various proxy protocols, such as socks4, socks5, HTTP, and https. Although proxychains is easy to set up, it may cause some errors for some users. For instance, some users may face issues with tor installation or DNS leaks. To prevent these errors, users need to follow certain steps to configure proxychains properly.

How to setup Proxychains?

The first step to set up our proxychain is to update and upgrade our Linux machine.

Command: sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

FIGURE-1: Updating and Upgrading Linux.

To setup proxychains you need to setup the tor service in your machine, most of the time the service is preinstalled. To check if there is tor service available or not just use this command.

Command: service tor status

FIGURE-2: Tor service status.

If you get any error after using "service tor status" command, then it means tor service is not available in your operating system, to install tor service use the following command.

Command: sudo apt-get install

FIGURE-3: Installing Tor service.

Since I have already installed tor service, you may have to modify some settings to run proxychains smoothly. If you face any error during this process, please check the steps provided later in this article. Once you have installed tor service, the next step is to install configure proxychains. You can use this command to install that.

Command: sudo apt-get install proxychains

FIGURE-4: Installing proxychains.

You have the option to select any editor that you like. For this example, we are using nano, but there are other alternatives such as vim, gedit, leafpad, or sublime.

Command: nano /etc/proxychains.conf

FIGURE-5: Using nano text editor.

FIGURE-6: Using nano for editing.

The configuration file has “#” symbols, which mark comments in bash language. To edit the file, you can use the arrow keys to navigate and make these changes:

1- Remove the “#” symbol from the line that says `dynamic_chain`.
2- Add the “#” symbol to the lines that say `strict_chain` and `random_chain`.
3- Remove the “#” symbol from the line that says `proxy_dns`.
4- Append the line `socks5 127.0.0.1 9050` to the proxy list.

FIGURE-7: nano Editor.

FIGURE-8: Editing socks5 using nano.

After saving the `proxychains.conf` configuration file, you need to open the `proxychains4.conf` file, which is located in the /etc directory. You can use this command to do so:

Command: nano /etc/proxychains4.conf

You have the option to select any editor that you like. For this example, we are using nano, but there are other alternatives such as vim, gedit, leafpad, or sublime.

FIGURE-9: Editing proxychains4.conf file.

FIGURE-10: Using nano for editing.

The configuration file has “#” symbols, which mark comments in bash language. To edit the file, you can use the arrow keys to navigate and make these changes:

1- Remove the “#” symbol from the line that says `dynamic_chain`.
2- Add the “#” symbol to the lines that say `strict_chain` and `random_chain`.
3- Remove the “#” symbol from the line that says `proxy_dns`.
4- Append the line `socks5 127.0.0.1 9050` to the proxy list.

FIGURE-11: nano Editor.

FIGURE-12: nano editor.

After saving the configuration file, you can exit the terminal and finish the proxychains setup. The next step is to restart the tor service.

I have initiated the Tor service by executing the command `service tor start`. To verify that the Tor service is running, I have used the command `service tor status`.

Command: service tor restart

Command: service tor status

FIGURE-13: Tor service.

The following commands will launch `Firefox` and load `www.bing.com`. The commands should run without any errors and Bing should load successfully. Please close all Firefox tabs before executing the commands.

Command: proxychain firefox www.bing.com

FIGURE-14: Start proxychains.

FIGURE-15: Bing open.

As you can see, after executing the proxychains command. Now, let's perform a DNS leak test by searching for "DNS leak test" and opening any website that offers this service.

FIGURE-16: DNS leak test.

As you can see, my location has changed from India to New York, United States and the proxychains tool dynamically changes my IP address to provide better anonymity.