TORKSOCKS(8)

NAME
torksocks - Library for intercepting outgoing network connections and redirecting them through a SOCKS server.

SYNOPSIS
Set LD_PRELOAD to load the library then use applications as normal The syntax to force preload of the library for different shells is specified below:

Bash, Ksh and Bourne shell - export LD_PRELOAD=/lib/libtorksocks.so C Shell - setenv LD_PRELOAD=/lib/libtorksocks.so This process can be automated (for Bash, Bourne and Korn shell users) for a single command or for all commands in a shell session by using the torksocks(1) script You can also setup torksocks in such a way that all processes automatically use it, a very useful configuration. For more information on this configuration see the CAVEATS section of this manual page.

DESCRIPTION
torksocks is a library to allow transparent SOCKS proxying. It wraps the normal connect() function. When a connection is attempted, it consults the configuration file (which is defined at configure time but defaults to /etc/torksocks.conf) and determines if the IP address specified is local. If it is not, the library redirects the connection to a SOCKS server specified in the configuration file. It then negotiates that connection with the SOCKS server and passes the connection back to the calling program. torksocks is designed for use in machines which are firewalled from then internet. It avoids the need to recompile applications like lynx or telnet so they can use SOCKS to reach the internet. It behaves much like the SOCKSified TCP/IP stacks seen on other platforms.

  ARGUMENTS
Most arguments to torksocks are provided in the configuration file (the location of which is defined at configure time by the --with-conf=<file> argument but defaults to /etc/torksocks.conf). The structure of this file is documented in torksocks.conf(8) Some configuration options can be specified at run time using environment variables as follows:

TORKSOCKS_CONFFILE
    This environment variable overrides the default location of the torksocks configuration file. This variable is not honored if the program torksocks is embedded in is setuid. In addition this environment variable can be compiled out of torksocks with the --disable-envconf argument to configure at build time

TORKSOCKS_DEBUG
    This environment variable sets the level of debug output that should be generated by torksocks (debug output is generated in the form of output to standard error). If this variable is not present by default the logging level is set to 0 which indicates that only error messages should be output. Setting it to higher values will cause torksocks to generate more messages describing what it is doing. If set to -1 torksocks will output absolutely no error or debugging messages. This is only needed if torksocks output interferes with a program it is embedded in. Message output can be permanently compiled out of torksocks by specifying the --disable-debug option to configure at build time

TORKSOCKS_DEBUG_FILE
    This option can be used to redirect the torksocks output (which would normally be sent to standard error) to a file. This variable is not honored if the program torksocks is embedded in is setuid. For programs where torksocks output interferes with normal operation this option is generally better than disabling messages (with TORKSOCKS_DEBUG = -1)

TORKSOCKS_USERNAME
    This environment variable can be used to specify the username to be used when version 5 SOCKS servers request username/password authentication. This overrides the default username that can be specified in the configuration file using 'default_user', see torksocks.conf(8) for more information. This variable is ignored for version 4 SOCKS servers.

TORKSOCKS_PASSWORD
    This environment variable can be used to specify the password to be used when version 5 SOCKS servers request username/password authentication. This overrides the default password that can be specified in the configuration file using 'default_pass', see torksocks.conf(8) for more information. This variable is ignored for version 4 SOCKS servers.

  DNS ISSUES
torksocks will normally not be able to send DNS queries through a SOCKS server since SOCKS V4 works on TCP and DNS normally uses UDP. Version 1.5 and up do however provide a method to force DNS lookups to use TCP, which then makes them proxyable. This option can only enabled at compile time, please consult the INSTALL file for more information.

  ERRORS
torksocks will generate error messages and print them to stderr when there are problems with the configuration file or the SOCKS negotiation with the server if the TORKSOCKS_DEBUG environment variable is not set to -1 or and --disable-debug was not specified at compile time. This output may cause some problems with programs that redirect standard error.

  CAVEATS
torksocks will not in the above configuration be able to provide SOCKS proxying to setuid applications or applications that are not run from a shell. You can force all applications to LD_PRELOAD the library by placing the path to libtorksocks in /etc/ld.so.preload. Please make sure you correctly enter the full path to the library in this file if you do this. If you get it wrong, you will be UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING with the machine and will have to boot it with a rescue disk and remove the file (or try the saveme program, see the INSTALL file for more info). THIS IS A ***WARNING***, please be careful. Also be sure the library is in the root filesystem as all hell will break loose if the directory it is in is not available at boot time.

BUGS
torksocks can only proxy outgoing TCP connections torksocks does NOT work correctly with asynchronous sockets (though it does work with non blocking sockets). This bug would be very difficult to fix and there appears to be no demand for it (I know of no major application that uses asynchronous sockets) torksocks is NOT fully RFC compliant in its implementation of version 5 of SOCKS, it only supports the 'username and password' or 'no authentication' authentication methods. The RFC specifies GSSAPI must be supported by any compliant implementation. I haven't done this, anyone want to help? torksocks can force the libc resolver to use TCP for name queries, if it does this it does it regardless of whether or not the DNS to be queried is local or not. This introduces overhead and should only be used when needed. torksocks uses ELF dynamic loader features to intercept dynamic function calls from programs in which it is embedded. As a result, it cannot trace the actions of statically linked executables, non-ELF executables, or executables that make system calls directly with the system call trap or through the syscall() routine.

FILES
/etc/torksocks.conf - default torksocks configuration file

SEE ALSO
torksocks.conf(5) torksocks(1)

AUTHOR
Shaun Clowes (delius@progsoc.uts.edu.au)

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2000 Shaun Clowes Renamed for use by Tork to avoid conflict with tsocks by Robert Hogan. torksocks and its documentation may be freely copied under the terms and conditions of version 2 of the GNU General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation (Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America). This documentation is based on the documentation for logwrites, another shared library interceptor. One line of code from it was used in torksocks and a lot of the documentation :) logwrites is by adam@yggdrasil.com (Adam J. Richter) and can be had from ftp.yggdrasil.com pub/dist/pkg