Project Report: Proxy Server with HTTP Request Handling
1. Introduction
In the digital age, internet traffic management and security have become crucial. Proxy servers play an
essential role by acting as intermediaries between clients and the internet. This project involves designing
and implementing a basic HTTP proxy server that can forward HTTP requests and responses between a
client and target server.
2. Objectives
- To understand the working mechanism of HTTP proxy servers.
- To build a lightweight proxy server capable of handling HTTP GET requests.
- To implement request forwarding and response relaying.
- To analyze the performance and security implications of proxy servers.
3. System Design
3.1 Architecture Overview
- Client sends a request to the proxy.
- Proxy Server intercepts the request, forwards it to the target server, and relays the response back.
- Target Server processes the forwarded request and sends the response.
3.2 Technologies Used
- Language: Python 3
- Libraries: http.server, urllib.request, socketserver
- Platform: Cross-platform (Linux, Windows, macOS)
4. Implementation
4.1 Code Snippet
Project Report: Proxy Server with HTTP Request Handling
from http.server import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer
import urllib.request
class SimpleProxy(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
def do_GET(self):
try:
url = self.path
print(f"Forwarding request to: {url}")
response = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
content = response.read()
self.send_response(200)
self.send_header('Content-type', 'text/html')
self.end_headers()
self.wfile.write(content)
except Exception as e:
self.send_error(500, f"Internal Server Error: {str(e)}")
if __name__ == "__main__":
server_address = ('', 8080)
httpd = HTTPServer(server_address, SimpleProxy)
print("Proxy server is running on port 8080...")
httpd.serve_forever()
4.2 Features
Project Report: Proxy Server with HTTP Request Handling
- Intercepts and logs HTTP GET requests.
- Forwards requests to external servers.
- Relays responses back to the client.
- Basic error handling for unreachable URLs.
5. Testing
- Tested using a web browser and Python requests library.
- Confirmed successful forwarding of various websites.
- Handled malformed URLs with appropriate error messages.
6. Limitations and Future Work
Limitations:
- Supports only HTTP GET requests.
- No HTTPS (SSL) support.
- Lacks authentication and logging mechanisms.
Future Enhancements:
- Add support for HTTPS and POST methods.
- Implement caching to improve performance.
- Add user authentication and access control.
- Log and analyze request/response headers.
7. Conclusion
This project successfully demonstrates the fundamental operation of an HTTP proxy server. It serves as a
foundation for more complex proxy systems with enhanced features like security filtering, caching, and SSL
Project Report: Proxy Server with HTTP Request Handling
handling.
