The Ultimate Guide To Locking Down Your Personal Proxy Infrastructure
Running a DIY proxy farm can be a powerful way to route traffic discreetly. But with great power comes great responsibility—above all, when protecting your infrastructure. If your proxy farm is exposed to the internet without proper protections, it becomes a prime target for malicious actors, scraping tools, and botnets looking to compromise insecure services.
Your critical starting point is to assume that all components in your network will be targeted continuously. Begin with network segmentation from your main network. Use a dedicated subnet so that in the event of a single point of failure, attackers won’t reach your home network or internal infrastructure.
Disable all unnecessary services on each proxy machine. Standard deployments come with SSH, FTP, or remote desktop enabled. Only keep open what you absolutely need. For SSH access, block password authentication completely and enforce SSH key pairs. Switch to a non-standard port to avoid common brute-force attacks, but avoid security through obscurity—it’s easily bypassed.
Deploy a host-based firewall read more on hackmd.io every machine. Use Windows Defender Firewall to deny all external connections except from your known locations. If you need to access your proxies remotely, use ZeroTier or Tailscale or leverage a hardened gateway as a only access channel. In this configuration, you avoid direct internet exposure directly to the public internet.
Regularly update all software. Outdated operating systems, proxy software like Squid or Privoxy, or even Python libraries can contain known vulnerabilities. Activate patch automation where possible, or enforce a quarterly hardening cycle.
Monitor your logs daily. Tools like CrowdSec can automatically ban IPs that show repeated failed login attempts. Set up alerts for anomalous connection spikes, such as abnormal data flow.
Use strong, unique passwords for control panels and never reuse credentials across devices. Leverage Bitwarden or 1Password to encrypt and organize login data safely.
If your proxies are hosted on VPS platforms, enable two factor authentication and apply network ACLs. Steer clear of unverified tools from untrusted sources. Choose community-supported licensed codebases with responsive maintainers.
Do not persist confidential information on your proxy servers. Their sole purpose is traffic forwarding, not to host files. If you must store any data, encrypt it with strong encryption and keep the keys separate.
Security fails at the point of least resistance. Assume constant compromise and maintain constant awareness. Hardening is continuous—it’s an lifelong commitment.