SOCKS Proxy Server - Metasploit


This page contains detailed information about how to use the auxiliary/server/socks_proxy metasploit module. For list of all metasploit modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.

Table Of Contents
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Module Overview

Name: SOCKS Proxy Server
Module: auxiliary/server/socks_proxy
Source code: modules/auxiliary/server/socks_proxy.rb
Disclosure date: -
Last modification time: 2022-03-22 09:23:09 +0000
Supported architecture(s): -
Supported platform(s): -
Target service / protocol: -
Target network port(s): -
List of CVEs: -

This module provides a SOCKS proxy server that uses the builtin Metasploit routing to relay connections.

Module Ranking and Traits

Module Ranking:

  • normal: The exploit is otherwise reliable, but depends on a specific version and can't (or doesn't) reliably autodetect. More information about ranking can be found here.

Basic Usage

msf > use auxiliary/server/socks_proxy
msf auxiliary(socks_proxy) > show targets
    ... a list of targets ...
msf auxiliary(socks_proxy) > set TARGET target-id
msf auxiliary(socks_proxy) > show options
    ... show and set options ...
msf auxiliary(socks_proxy) > exploit

Knowledge Base

Verification Steps

  1. Start msfconsole
  2. Do: use auxiliary/server/socks_proxy
  3. Do: run
  4. Do: curl --proxy socks5://localhost:1080 https://github.com
  5. You should see the source for the GitHub homepage

Options

SRVHOST

The local IP address to bind the proxy server to. The default value of 0.0.0.0 will expose the proxy to everything on the attacker's network.

SRVPORT

The local port to bind the proxy to. The default value is 1080, the standard port for a SOCKS proxy.

Scenarios

This module is great when pivoting across a network. Suppose we have two machines:

  1. Attacker's machine, on the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet.
  2. Victim machine with two network interfaces, one attached to the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet and the other attached to the non-routable 10.0.0.0/24 subnet.

We'll begin by starting the SOCKS proxy:

msf6 auxiliary(server/socks_proxy) > show options

Module options (auxiliary/server/socks_proxy):

   Name      Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----      ---------------  --------  -----------
   PASSWORD                   no        Proxy password for SOCKS5 listener
   SRVHOST   0.0.0.0          yes       The address to listen on
   SRVPORT   1080             yes       The port to listen on
   USERNAME                   no        Proxy username for SOCKS5 listener
   VERSION   5                yes       The SOCKS version to use (Accepted: 4a, 5)


Auxiliary action:

   Name   Description
   ----   -----------
   Proxy  Run a SOCKS proxy server


msf6 auxiliary(server/socks_proxy) > run
[*] Auxiliary module execution completed
[*] Starting the SOCKS proxy server
msf6 auxiliary(socks_proxy) >

Preparing to pivot across a network requires us to first establish a Meterpreter session on the victim machine. From there, we can use the autoroute script to enable access to the non-routable subnet:

meterpreter > run autoroute -s 10.0.0.0/24

The autoroute module will enable our local SOCKS proxy to direct all traffic to the 10.0.0.0/24 subnet through our Meterpreter session, causing it to emerge from the victim's machine and thus giving us access to the non-routable subnet. We can now use curl to connect to a machine on the non-routable subnet via the SOCKS proxy:

curl --proxy socks5://localhost:1080 http://10.0.0.15:8080/robots.txt

We can take this a step further and use proxychains to enable other tools that don't have built-in support for proxies to access the non-routable subnet. The short-and-sweet guide to installing and configuring proxychains looks something like this:

# apt-get install proxychains
# cp /etc/proxychains.conf /etc/proxychains.conf.backup
# echo "socks5 127.0.0.1 8080" > /etc/proxychains.conf

From there, we can use our other tools by simply prefixing them with proxychains:

# proxychains curl http://10.0.0.15:8080/robots.txt
# proxychains nmap -sT -Pn -n -p 22 10.0.0.15
# proxychains firefox

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Msfconsole Usage

Here is how the server/socks_proxy auxiliary module looks in the msfconsole:

msf6 > use auxiliary/server/socks_proxy

msf6 auxiliary(server/socks_proxy) > show info

       Name: SOCKS Proxy Server
     Module: auxiliary/server/socks_proxy
    License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
       Rank: Normal

Provided by:
  sf <[email protected]>
  Spencer McIntyre
  surefire

Available actions:
  Name   Description
  ----   -----------
  Proxy  Run a SOCKS proxy server

Check supported:
  No

Basic options:
  Name      Current Setting  Required  Description
  ----      ---------------  --------  -----------
  PASSWORD                   no        Proxy password for SOCKS5 listener
  SRVHOST   0.0.0.0          yes       The address to listen on
  SRVPORT   1080             yes       The port to listen on
  USERNAME                   no        Proxy username for SOCKS5 listener
  VERSION   5                yes       The SOCKS version to use (Accepted: 4a, 5)

Description:
  This module provides a SOCKS proxy server that uses the builtin 
  Metasploit routing to relay connections.

Module Options

This is a complete list of options available in the server/socks_proxy auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(server/socks_proxy) > show options

Module options (auxiliary/server/socks_proxy):

   Name      Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----      ---------------  --------  -----------
   PASSWORD                   no        Proxy password for SOCKS5 listener
   SRVHOST   0.0.0.0          yes       The address to listen on
   SRVPORT   1080             yes       The port to listen on
   USERNAME                   no        Proxy username for SOCKS5 listener
   VERSION   5                yes       The SOCKS version to use (Accepted: 4a, 5)

Auxiliary action:

   Name   Description
   ----   -----------
   Proxy  Run a SOCKS proxy server

Advanced Options

Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the server/socks_proxy auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(server/socks_proxy) > show advanced

Module advanced options (auxiliary/server/socks_proxy):

   Name       Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----       ---------------  --------  -----------
   VERBOSE    false            no        Enable detailed status messages
   WORKSPACE                   no        Specify the workspace for this module

Auxiliary Actions

This is a list of all auxiliary actions that the server/socks_proxy module can do:

msf6 auxiliary(server/socks_proxy) > show actions

Auxiliary actions:

   Name   Description
   ----   -----------
   Proxy  Run a SOCKS proxy server

Evasion Options

Here is the full list of possible evasion options supported by the server/socks_proxy auxiliary module in order to evade defenses (e.g. Antivirus, EDR, Firewall, NIDS etc.):

msf6 auxiliary(server/socks_proxy) > show evasion

Module evasion options:

   Name  Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----  ---------------  --------  -----------

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See Also

Check also the following modules related to this module:

Authors

  • sf
  • Spencer McIntyre
  • surefire

Version

This page has been produced using Metasploit Framework version 6.2.23-dev. For more modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.

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