# proxy-packer | Sponsored by [ppl](https://ppl.family) | "The M-PROXY Protocol" for node.js A strategy for packing and unpacking multiplexed streams. Where you have distinct clients on one side trying to reach distinct servers on the other. ``` Browser <--\ /--> Device Browser <---- M-PROXY Service ----> Device Browser <--/ \--> Device ``` It's the kind of thing you'd use to build a poor man's VPN, or port-forward router. The M-PROXY Protocol =================== This is similar to "The PROXY Protocol" (a la HAProxy), but desgined for multiplexed tls, http, tcp, and udp tunneled over arbitrary streams (such as WebSockets). It also has a backchannel for communicating with the proxy itself. Each message has a header with a socket identifier (family, addr, port), and may have additional information. ``` ,
,,,,, ``` ``` <254><45>IPv4,127.0.1.1,4321,199,https,443,example.com ``` ``` version (8 bits) 254 is version 1 header length (8 bits) the remaining length of the header before data begins These values are used to identify a specific client among many socket family (string) the IPv4 or IPv6 connection from a client socket address (string) the x.x.x.x remote address of the client socket port (string) the 1-65536 source port of the remote client data length (string) the number of bytes in the wrapped packet, in case the network re-chunks the packet These optional values can be very useful at the start of a new connection service name (string) Either a standard service name (port + protocol), such as 'https' as listed in /etc/services, otherwise 'tls', 'tcp', or 'udp' for generics Also 'control' and 'error' are used for messages with the proxy (i.e. authentication) service port (string) The listening port, such as 443. Useful for non-standard or dynamic services. host or server name (string) Useful for services that can be routed by name, such as http, https, smtp, and dns. ``` v1 is text-based. Future versions may be binary. API === ```js var Packer = require('proxy-packer'); ``` ```js unpacker = Packer.create(handlers); // Create a state machine for unpacking handlers.oncontrol = function (tun) { } // for communicating with the proxy // tun.data is an array // '[ -1, "[Error] bad hello" ]' // '[ 0, "[Error] out-of-band error message" ]' // '[ 1, "hello", 254, [ "add_token", "delete_token" ] ]' // '[ 1, "add_token" ]' // '[ 1, "delete_token" ]' handlers.onmessage = function (tun) { } // a client has sent a message // tun = { family, address, port, data // , service, serviceport, name }; handlers.onpause = function (tun) { } // proxy requests to pause upload to a client // tun = { family, address, port }; handlers.onresume = function (tun) { } // proxy requests to resume upload to a client // tun = { family, address, port }; handlers.onend = function (tun) { } // proxy requests to close a client's socket // tun = { family, address, port }; handlers.onerror = function (err) { } // proxy is relaying a client's error // err = { message, family, address, port }; ``` ```js var chunk = Packer.pack(tun, data); // Add M-PROXY header to data // tun = { family, address, port // , service, serviceport, name } var addr = Packer.socketToAddr(socket); // Probe raw, raw socket for address info var id = Packer.addrToId(address); // Turn M-PROXY address info into a deterministic id var id = Packer.socketToId(socket); // Turn raw, raw socket info into a deterministic id ``` ## API Helpers ```js var socket = Packer.Stream.wrapSocket(socketOrStream); // workaround for https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/8854 // which was just closed recently, but probably still needs // something more like this (below) to work as intended // https://github.com/findhit/proxywrap/blob/master/lib/proxywrap.js ``` ```js var myTransform = Packer.Transform.create({ address: { family: '...' , address: '...' , port: '...' } // hint at the service to be used , service: 'https' }); ``` # Testing an implementation If you want to write a compatible packer, just make sure that for any given input you get the same output as the packer does. ```bash node test/pack.js input.json output.bin hexdump output.bin ``` Where `input.json` looks something like this: `input.json`: ``` { "version": 1 , "address": { "family": "IPv4" , "address": "127.0.1.1" , "port": 4321 , "service": "foo" , "serviceport": 443 , "name": 'example.com' } , "filepath": "./sni.tcp.bin" } ``` Raw TCP SNI Packet ------------------ and `sni.tcp.bin` is any captured tcp packet, such as this one with a tls hello: `sni.tcp.bin`: ``` 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D D F 0000000 16 03 01 00 c2 01 00 00 be 03 03 57 e3 76 50 66 0000010 03 df 99 76 24 c8 31 e6 e8 08 34 6b b4 7b bb 2c 0000020 f3 17 aa 5c ec 09 da da 83 5a b2 00 00 56 00 ff 0000030 c0 24 c0 23 c0 0a c0 09 c0 08 c0 28 c0 27 c0 14 0000040 c0 13 c0 12 c0 26 c0 25 c0 05 c0 04 c0 03 c0 2a 0000050 c0 29 c0 0f c0 0e c0 0d 00 6b 00 67 00 39 00 33 0000060 00 16 00 3d 00 3c 00 35 00 2f 00 0a c0 07 c0 11 0000070 c0 02 c0 0c 00 05 00 04 00 af 00 ae 00 8d 00 8c 0000080 00 8a 00 8b 01 00 00 3f 00 00 00 19 00 17 00 00 0000090 14 70 6f 6b 65 6d 61 70 2e 68 65 6c 6c 61 62 69 00000a0 74 2e 63 6f 6d 00 0a 00 08 00 06 00 17 00 18 00 00000b0 19 00 0b 00 02 01 00 00 0d 00 0c 00 0a 05 01 04 00000c0 01 02 01 04 03 02 03 00000c7 ``` Tunneled TCP SNI Packet ----------------------- You should see that the result is simply all of the original packet with a leading header. Note that `16 03 01 00` starts at the 29th byte (at index 28 or 0x1C) instead of at index 0: ``` 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D D F 0000000 fe 1a 49 50 76 34 2c 31 32 37 2e 30 2e 31 2e 31 <-- 0xfe = v1, 0x1a = 26 more bytes for header 0000010 2c 34 34 33 2c 31 39 39 2c 66 6f 6f 16 03 01 00 <-- first 4 bytes of tcp packet 0000020 c2 01 00 00 be 03 03 57 e3 76 50 66 03 df 99 76 0000030 24 c8 31 e6 e8 08 34 6b b4 7b bb 2c f3 17 aa 5c 0000040 ec 09 da da 83 5a b2 00 00 56 00 ff c0 24 c0 23 0000050 c0 0a c0 09 c0 08 c0 28 c0 27 c0 14 c0 13 c0 12 0000060 c0 26 c0 25 c0 05 c0 04 c0 03 c0 2a c0 29 c0 0f 0000070 c0 0e c0 0d 00 6b 00 67 00 39 00 33 00 16 00 3d 0000080 00 3c 00 35 00 2f 00 0a c0 07 c0 11 c0 02 c0 0c 0000090 00 05 00 04 00 af 00 ae 00 8d 00 8c 00 8a 00 8b 00000a0 01 00 00 3f 00 00 00 19 00 17 00 00 14 70 6f 6b 00000b0 65 6d 61 70 2e 68 65 6c 6c 61 62 69 74 2e 63 6f 00000c0 6d 00 0a 00 08 00 06 00 17 00 18 00 19 00 0b 00 00000d0 02 01 00 00 0d 00 0c 00 0a 05 01 04 01 02 01 04 00000e0 03 02 03 00000e3 ```