Installing and Configuring Wireproxy

Wireproxy is a WireGuard client that acts as a SOCKS5/HTTP proxy server or tunnel. It is particularly useful when you need to connect to certain websites through a WireGuard peer but do not want or cannot configure a new network interface for various reasons.

In this article, we will cover how to create a SOCKS5 proxy using Wireproxy, as well as how to connect to it via the FoxyProxy extension for the Firefox browser.

Main reasons why Wireproxy might be the preferred choice:

• Using WireGuard as a traffic proxy.
• No need for administrator privileges to modify WireGuard settings.
• Wireproxy provides full isolation from the device’s network interfaces, allowing it to be used without administrative configuration.

Key Features of Wireproxy

• Static TCP routing for both client and server.
• SOCKS5/HTTP proxy support (currently only CONNECT is supported).
• Developers are working on additional features, including UDP support in SOCKS5 and static UDP routing.

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Installing Wireproxy

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Wireproxy supports multiple operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows. There are two main installation methods:

1. Building the project from source using Go.
2. Downloading a precompiled version for your platform.

Building from source ensures the latest code, while a precompiled version offers stability and convenience.

Installing the Precompiled Version (Windows)

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1. Go to the GitHub releases page and download the archive for your operating system. For Windows, download wireproxy_windows_amd64.tar.gz.
2. Extract the archive and place wireproxy.exe in a convenient location, e.g., create a wireproxy folder on your desktop.
3. Open the Windows Command Prompt or PowerShell and navigate to the folder using:

cd Desktop\wireproxy

4. Verify the utility works correctly:

wireproxy.exe -v

Building from Source Using Go (Linux)

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Prerequisites

Ensure Go version 1.20 or higher is installed:

go version

If Go is not installed, use this Ubuntu 22.04 installation guide.

Build process

1. Clone the Wireproxy repository:

git clone https://github.com/octeep/wireproxy
cd wireproxy

2. Run the build process:

make

3. After the build completes, verify:

./wireproxy -v

Configuring Wireproxy

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After installing Wireproxy, the next step is configuring the utility.

• You need a WireGuard configuration file. You can create a new server and set up WireGuard manually, e.g., following this Hostman guide.
• Alternatively, use the Marketplace section when creating a server and select Wireguard-GUI.

A typical WireGuard configuration file looks like this:

[Interface]
PrivateKey = [Your_Private_Key]
Address = 10.0.0.2/32
DNS = 8.8.8.8

[Peer]
PublicKey = [Server_Public_Key]
Endpoint = [Server_IP:Port]
AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0
PersistentKeepalive = 20

Place the WireGuard configuration file in the wireproxy folder you created earlier. In this example, the file is named wg.conf.

Creating the Wireproxy Configuration

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In the wireproxy directory, create wp.conf for the SOCKS5 proxy configuration:

WGConfig = ./wg.conf

[Socks5]
BindAddress = 127.0.0.1:25344
Username = hostman
Password = hostman

• WGConfig specifies the path to your WireGuard config.
• BindAddress defines the local proxy address and port.
• Username and Password are optional login credentials for the proxy.

Testing the Configuration

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Linux:

./wireproxy -c wp.conf -n

Windows:

wireproxy.exe -c wp.conf -n

This checks that the configuration is correct without starting the proxy.

Running Wireproxy

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Linux:

./wireproxy -c wp.conf

Windows:

wireproxy.exe -c wp.conf

For background execution, use the -d flag:

Linux:

./wireproxy -c wp.conf -d

Windows:

wireproxy.exe -c wp.conf -d

Connecting to Wireproxy via Browser Extension

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To use Wireproxy in a browser, specialized proxy management extensions can be used. In this example, we will configure FoxyProxy in Firefox, though similar steps apply to other browsers, e.g., Chrome with Proxy SwitchyOmega.

Installing and Configuring FoxyProxy in Firefox

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1. Install FoxyProxy from FoxyProxy for Firefox.
2. Click the FoxyProxy icon and select Options to open settings.
3. Click Add to create a new proxy configuration.
4. Set Proxy Type to SOCKS5.
5. Enter 127.0.0.1 as Proxy IP and 25344 as Port. If a username and password were set in Wireproxy, enter them in Username and Password.
6. Click Save to store the configuration.
7. Click the FoxyProxy icon again and select the newly created configuration to connect to the proxy.

Visit any IP check service online to confirm that the IP address has changed. This verifies that your traffic is routed through Wireproxy.

FoxyProxy supports patterns to apply proxy usage only to specific sites.

1. Open the FoxyProxy menu and select Options.
2. Click Patterns in your existing connection.
3. Enable patterns by clicking the FoxyProxy icon and selecting Use Enable Proxies By Patterns and Order.

After this, the proxy will only be used for websites specified in your patterns.

Conclusion

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In this article, we covered the installation and configuration of Wireproxy, a tool for creating SOCKS5/HTTP proxies via WireGuard. Wireproxy’s standout feature is its ability to operate in user space, simplifying setup and usage, especially for users without administrative privileges. We also demonstrated integrating Wireproxy with browser extensions for convenient proxy management.