Running Proxy.py as a Lightweight HTTP Proxy on EC2

Running Proxy.py on an EC2 instance and reaching it safely through an SSH tunnel, since the proxy has no authentication of its own.

Takahiro Iwasa

2022-08-30

2 min read

Proxy.py is a lightweight HTTP proxy server that runs well on a small EC2 instance for testing or tunneling purposes.

Setting Up

Install Proxy.py:

pip install proxy.py

Start Proxy.py using this command:

proxy --port 8080

To keep Proxy.py running after the SSH session closes, use the following command:

nohup proxy --port 8080 > /dev/null &

After launching, you should see logs similar to this in the terminal:

1
pid:3330 [I] plugins.load:85 - Loaded plugin proxy.http.proxy.HttpProxyPlugin
2
pid:3330 [I] tcp.listen:82 - Listening on 127.0.0.1:8080
3
pid:3330 [I] pool.setup:108 - Started 1 acceptors in threaded mode
4
...

Testing

Establish an SSH tunnel to your EC2 instance:

ssh -L 8080:localhost:8080 -i .ssh/YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY ec2-user@YOUR_HOST

Test the proxy by sending a request to Google:

curl www.google.com -x http://localhost:8080

If the proxy is working correctly, you should receive an HTML response from Google.

Conclusion

Proxy.py and an SSH tunnel provide a lightweight HTTP proxy on an EC2 instance without exposing an unauthenticated proxy port.

proxy --port 8080 starts listening without authentication. The ssh -L 8080:localhost:8080 tunnel provides access without opening port 8080 in the instance’s security group; exposing that port could turn the server into an open proxy.

Running nohup proxy --port 8080 > /dev/null & keeps the process alive after the SSH session ends. Before leaving it unattended, confirm that it is bound to 127.0.0.1 and that the security group has no inbound rule for port 8080.

About the author

Takahiro Iwasa

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This blog shares technical notes from hands-on projects—architecture, implementation, and AWS service integrations.