How to run Tor proxy service on WAN?

Question

I know that the default Tor proxy service listens on localhost:9050. I want to connect to this tor service from a remote machine over the internet. I am using port 9100. I edited the torrc file like this:-

SocksListenAddress (Server's internal IP address here)
SocksPort Server's Internal IP: 9100
SocksPolicy accept *

After this step, the tor proxy service will run on LAN. Now how do i access this tor proxy from a remote machine over WAN? Is it as easy as a port forward?(which maps the internal IP to the external WAN interface). Or is there any torrc configuration for it?

Is there any method to add authentication for this proxy so that only authorized users can access it?

Answer 1

You don't need the SocksListenAddress anymore, it's deprecated, you just need SocksPort 1.2.3.4:9100 (where 1.2.3.4 is it's WAN IP) and the SocksPolicy isn't doing anything either, as the manual states:

Any address not matched by some entry in the policy is accepted.

You cannot add authentication. Tor's SocksPort does accept authentication but it accepts all logins as valid and uses it as a circuit isolation mechanism. SocksPolicy would allow you to restrict which IP addresses are allowed to access the SocksPort.

As for how to use it, you need to get whatever client application you have that supports SOCKS to use 1.2.3.4:9100 as it's SOCKS proxy.

N.B. Since SOCKS provides no cryptographic protection, all Tor traffic will traverse the WAN in plaintext. Anyone who can see WAN traffic can see exactly what Tor is being used for.