The SOCKS protocol is something that all network administrators should be familiar with if they work with private proxies. SOCKS stands for SOCKet Secure and is a method for transmitting packets of data between a client computer and a server, using a proxy server. The main use of SOCKS is to circumvent Internet filters in order to gain access to another website that is blocked for security reasons. In doing so, it creates a secure connection between the client and the site. SOCKS also provides authentication to ensure the site being accessed that the user is authorized to visit it.
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History of SOCKS
When the Internet was first set up, it was based on the http protocol or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. However, HTTP offered insufficient security to web users, who risked exposing their surfing history to anyone using a packet sniffer. In order to solve this problem, a systems engineer named David Koblas decided to create a new protocol, which was SOCKS. The new protocol was originally available only to those who bought a license. However, when MIPS Computer Systems, the company that produced SOCKS, was bought out by SGI, the protocol was publicly released, allowing anyone to use the protocol and even modify it.
The main purpose of the SOCKS protocol is to allow a host computer to access an application computer through the SOCKS server without having to submit an IP address. In order to fulfill this purpose, SOCKS has four major functions: making requests for a connection, creating the proxy circuits, transmitting the application data and as an optional function, authenticating users.
There are actually two versions of the SOCKS protocol: SOCKS4 and SOCKS5. While both have similar features, the SOCKS5 protocol is generally considered the more advanced of the two. For example, SOCKS5 supports user verification, a feature that is not present in SOCKS4. In addition, SOCKS5 supports both the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), while SOCKS4 only supports TCP.
How Does SOCK5 Work?
Both SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 use a so-called ‘handshake’ protocol to tell the proxy server that the client wants to make a connection. When the client uses SOCKS to connect to another computer, the protocol first goes to a SOCKS proxy server. It is the proxy server that connects to the application server on the client’s behalf and transmits his data. After the proxy verifies that the client is authorized to make the connection, SOCKS opens the connection. Generally, the connection is made through a firewall that has been set up to prevent unauthorized users from accessing a network. It should be noted that the SOCKS server effectively becomes the client, which provides the requesting client anonymity. SOCKS also provides access without direct IP-reachability (access provided to all valid IP addresses).
One of the major advantages of using SOCKS5 is that it is application independent, meaning it is compatible with different applications. In addition, to provide added security, SOCKS provides intrinsic NAT and bi-directional support to ensure that it cannot be spoofed by a hacker seeking illegal access to a network.