Proxies play a significant role in transferring information and enhancing network security. But have you ever wondered how proxies identify the user? One of the ways to do this is through the headers named `Proxy-Authentication-Info`. In this article, I will simply and clearly explain how this process works and why it is important.
First, you should know that a proxy is a middleware service between you and the destination server. To ensure that proxies confirm you are a real and authorized user, they can utilize mechanisms based on standards like RFC 9110. You might ask yourself how these standards work; let's review them together.
The main concept in proxy authentication is providing a set of information that allows the proxy server to verify your identity and credibility. If the information provided is correct, you will be granted access; otherwise, your request will be rejected.
Using `Proxy-Authentication-Info` is a useful method for verifying identity that can include data such as tokens or password keys. In this way, throughout each stage of the connection, a higher level of security and data protection is maintained.
Now that you are familiar with the basics of this concept, let's review a sample code to understand better.
GET /resource HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuc2VzYW1l
Proxy-Authentication-Info: nextnonce="dcd98b7102dd2f0e8b11d0f600bfb0c093"
Line-by-line analysis of the code:
GET /resource HTTP/1.1
This line indicates an HTTP request to access a resource on the server.
Host: example.com
This is the destination server's domain name where the request will be sent.
Proxy-Authorization: Basic YWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuc2VzYW1l
This is the base64 encoded credentials sent to the proxy server for user authentication.
Proxy-Authentication-Info: nextnonce="dcd98b7102dd2f0e8b11d0f600bfb0c093"
This is a tag or token used for verifying the identity of the user during the connection process.