How to Configure Squid 3.x as Transparent Proxy on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

Configure Squid 3.x as Transparent Proxy on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

There are several benefits of using a transparent proxy. First of all, for end users, a transparent proxy can enhance their web browsing performance by caching frequently accessed web content, while introducing minimal configuration overhead for them. For administrators, it can be used to enforce various administrative policies such as content/URL/IP filtering, rate limiting, etc.

A proxy server acts as an intermediary between a client and a destination server. The client sends requests to the proxy server which then evaluates the requests and takes necessary actions. In this tutorial, we will be setting up a web proxy server using Squid, which is a robust, customizable and stable proxy server. Personally, I had administered a Squid server with 400+ client workstations for about a year. Although I had to restart the service about once a month in average, CPU and storage utilization, throughput and client response time were all great.

Squid Installation and Configuration

# yum install squid –y

Edit squid configuration file

Before you edit default configuration file it is highly recommended to keep backup.

# cp /etc/squid/squid.conf /etc/squid/squid.conf.bk-26-05-2016

Open configuration file and add below mentioned parameters

# vi /etc/squid/squid.conf

Add transparent proxy setting and add and allow our network

# vi /etc/squid/squid.conf

# Allow LAN Network
acl our_network src 192.168.2.0/24

# Allow Network ACL Allow/Deny Section#
http_access allow our_network

# Transparent Proxy Parameters
http_port 3128 intercept

visible_hostname pxy.hackthesec.co.in

Save & Exit

Now start squid service and make sure it is added on startup.

# systemctl start squid
# systemctl enable squid

Add necessary iptables rules to setup squid as transparent proxy.

ptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to 192.168.2.100:3128
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128
iptables --t nat -A POSTROUTING --out-interface eth1 -j MASQUERADE

Now you can save your iptable rules by following command:

service iptables save

That’s It, Now squid should work smoothly in transparent proxy mode.

www.hackthesec.co.in