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I've set up a proxy server on AWS in the US in order to allow me to browse the american internet from the UK, however I would like to hide this so that the reverse end cannot detect I am using squid. Is this possible, and if so, how?

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  • 3
    BTW - the fact you're using squid shouldn't matter. Lots of offices will have traffic routes through a squid server where ever they are in the world. I can't think of a site which has ever blocked me due to using a proxy. Perhaps your guilty conscience is making you feel a little paranoid :-)
    – Coops
    Mar 1, 2011 at 21:54
  • This is good to know! The main purpose is to get websites that are showing content based on geolocation to show me American content (rather than UK content, where I am based). So far though, with these settings, it appears to be working!
    – chrism2671
    Mar 3, 2011 at 13:25

5 Answers 5

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You can inhibit X-Forwarded-For with

header_access X-Forwarded-For deny all

in squid.conf

this is all I've required but further headers you may wish to deny are at http://www.christianschenk.org/blog/enhancing-your-privacy-using-squid-and-privoxy/

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    and also it's good to add "via off"
    – luchaninov
    Dec 19, 2014 at 12:42
  • 8
    Since squid3 you need to use request_header_access instead of header_access (it's deprecated)
    – kazy
    Aug 18, 2015 at 15:56
  • The via header leaks through with this setting. The extended settings in the link include the deny to clean that up
    – Matt
    Sep 14, 2021 at 5:53
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This is straight from my squid.conf:

#Privacy Things
via off
forwarded_for off
follow_x_forwarded_for deny all

Since version 3.0 you need to build squid from source for these limitations to work with some special flag for './configure'. This is how I build mine:

./configure --enable-http-violations --prefix=/usr --includedir=/usr/include \
  --datadir=/usr/share --bindir=/usr/sbin --libexecdir=/usr/lib/squid        \
  --localstatedir=/var --sysconfdir=/etc/squid --enable-auth="ntlm,basic"    \
  --enable-follow-x-forwarded-for

(CentOS 5.5)

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    (note from Seanp2k: on my system, Ubuntu 11.04, Squid3 was able to do this without recompiling)
    – user9517
    Jul 30, 2011 at 19:55
  • Possible. Depends on the version in the repositories. Jul 30, 2011 at 21:53
  • 4
    I prefer "forwarded_for delete" instead of "off" Mar 1, 2013 at 17:47
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this is my config, now my squid proxy not detected anymore.

#Anonymizing traffic
forwarded_for off
#request_header_access Allow allow all
#request_header_access All allow all

request_header_access X-Forwarded-For deny all
request_header_access Via  deny all
2

Have you considered setting up a VPN to the AWS instance instead of setting up Squid? Then route traffic through the AWS instance, which would avoid squid and be undetectable. Just throwing it out there. That's exactly how a friend of mine set up a VPS in the UK to access the BBC.

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Turn Squid3 headers off

via off
forwarded_for off

request_header_access From deny all
request_header_access Server deny all
request_header_access WWW-Authenticate deny all
request_header_access Link deny all
request_header_access Cache-Control deny all
request_header_access Proxy-Connection deny all
request_header_access X-Cache deny all
request_header_access X-Cache-Lookup deny all
request_header_access Via deny all
request_header_access X-Forwarded-For deny all
request_header_access Pragma deny all
request_header_access Keep-Alive deny all

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