How To Authenticate Socks 5 Proxies Inside PAC (Proxy Auto Config) Files

Question

How can you setup PAC files to use SOCKS proxies with authentication?

Using this simple PAC file as an example:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) { return "SOCKS 69.123.133.75:7257;"; }

How would you connect to that socks proxy using a username and password?

Answer 1

Since firefox and msie do not support socks 5 authentication, it is impossible to specify the username and password in a PAC file without first modifying your browser of choice.

Answer 2

You need to open ssh tunnel to your destination that opens your SOCKS server locally (you can authenticate while doing that). Than connect your firefox to your local side of tunnel safely without authentication.

Example command to do that on Linux:

ssh -D 1337 -q -C -N -f -p 2150 [email protected]

You can set it in putty if you are using Windows.