orz

proxycheck is a small program design to (surprise) check for proxies. What’s not so clear, however, is how to use it. The default examples are for mail servers, which I guess was the thing to do back in 2004 when the last version was released. However, I need to adapt it for use with pypsd. Here’s how to check a host for open proxies in an IRC context:

./proxycheck -c "chat::real.irc" -d real.irc.server.here:6667 -aaaa host.to.check

The chat parameter confused me for awhile until I figured out what it was for. proxycheck takes care of scanning ports and connecting to hosts using a number of methods, but once connected, you need some way to verify a real hit. -d tells proxycheck to try connecting to the supplied host:port, and -c chat:: tell it to try sending some text and scanning for watch. If it matches, you have a positive hit.

In the case of IRC, the first thing that happens when you connect to an IRC server is a series of notices from the IRCD (at least in hybrid), so watching for “real.irc” (e.g., replace this with part of your ircd’s hostname) is good enough

If you want more verbose output (checking the data stream), don’t bother with Wireshark. Just add -vvvv to the command.

Enjoy.