Squid is a caching and forwarding HTTP web proxy. Squid has a lot of features, and it is used in variety of situations such as speeding up web server by caching repeated requests, caching web and dns lookups, filtering traffic, blocking websites, etc. It is written in C++ and distributed under GNU GPL license.
Squid is considered as the most reliable content control software and has been used by many organizations since last 2 decades.
In this article, we are installing Squid proxy server on CentOS 7. Although, there are too many similar articles already available on the web. But we write this article to include the minor (but important) steps, that are usually overlooked by the other writers.
This article is strongly emphasizes on the installation and initial configuration of the Squid proxy server on CentOS 7. Therefore, if you are willing to configure some advance settings in Squid proxy then we strongly recommend you to purchase Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide by Packt Publishing.
This Article Provides:
Environment Specification:
We have provisioned a CentOS 7 virtual machine with following specification.
- CPU - 3.4 Ghz (1 Core)
- Memory - 1 GB
- Storage - 20 GB
- Operating System - CentOS 7.7
- Hostname - squid-proxy-01.example.com
- IP Address - 192.168.116.214/24
Installing Squid Web Proxy on CentOS 7:
Connect with squid-proxy-01.example.com using ssh as root user.
Squid software package is available in standard yum repositories, therefore, we are installing Squid proxy using yum command.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# yum install -y squid
...
Installed:
squid.x86_64 7:3.5.20-12.el7_6.1
Dependency Installed:
libecap.x86_64 0:1.0.0-1.el7
perl.x86_64 4:5.16.3-294.el7_6
perl-Carp.noarch 0:1.26-244.el7
perl-Compress-Raw-Bzip2.x86_64 0:2.061-3.el7
perl-Compress-Raw-Zlib.x86_64 1:2.061-4.el7
perl-DBI.x86_64 0:1.627-4.el7
perl-Data-Dumper.x86_64 0:2.145-3.el7
perl-Digest.noarch 0:1.17-245.el7
perl-Digest-MD5.x86_64 0:2.52-3.el7
perl-Encode.x86_64 0:2.51-7.el7
perl-Exporter.noarch 0:5.68-3.el7
perl-File-Path.noarch 0:2.09-2.el7
perl-File-Temp.noarch 0:0.23.01-3.el7
perl-Filter.x86_64 0:1.49-3.el7
perl-Getopt-Long.noarch 0:2.40-3.el7
perl-HTTP-Tiny.noarch 0:0.033-3.el7
perl-IO-Compress.noarch 0:2.061-2.el7
perl-Net-Daemon.noarch 0:0.48-5.el7
perl-PathTools.x86_64 0:3.40-5.el7
perl-PlRPC.noarch 0:0.2020-14.el7
perl-Pod-Escapes.noarch 1:1.04-294.el7_6
perl-Pod-Perldoc.noarch 0:3.20-4.el7
perl-Pod-Simple.noarch 1:3.28-4.el7
perl-Pod-Usage.noarch 0:1.63-3.el7
perl-Scalar-List-Utils.x86_64 0:1.27-248.el7
perl-Socket.x86_64 0:2.010-4.el7
perl-Storable.x86_64 0:2.45-3.el7
perl-Text-ParseWords.noarch 0:3.29-4.el7
perl-Time-HiRes.x86_64 4:1.9725-3.el7
perl-Time-Local.noarch 0:1.2300-2.el7
perl-constant.noarch 0:1.27-2.el7
perl-libs.x86_64 4:5.16.3-294.el7_6
perl-macros.x86_64 4:5.16.3-294.el7_6
perl-parent.noarch 1:0.225-244.el7
perl-podlators.noarch 0:2.5.1-3.el7
perl-threads.x86_64 0:1.87-4.el7
perl-threads-shared.x86_64 0:1.43-6.el7
squid-migration-script.x86_64 7:3.5.20-12.el7_6.1
Complete!
Enable and start Squid proxy service.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# systemctl enable --now squid.service
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/squid.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/squid.service.
Allow Squid proxy service in CentOS 7 firewall.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=squid
success
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# firewall-cmd --reload
success
Configure Squid Web Proxy on CentOS 7:
Global configuration file for Squid web proxy is /etc/squid/squid.conf. We can customize it according to our requirement.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# vi /etc/squid/squid.conf
Add following directives therein.
dns_v4_first on
Restart Squid proxy service to load changes.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# systemctl restart squid
Configure Client's Browser to use Squid Proxy:
Start the client browser and add our Squid proxy in its settings.
To do this, open Internet Explorer and go to Internet Options.
Go to Connections Tab and click on LAN settings.
Enter Squid Proxy IP Address and Port in the above dialog box.
Click on OK to exit from Internet options.
Browse https://ahmermansoor.blogspot.com in Internet Explorer.
The above website has been served through our Squid proxy server.
Configure Squid Client Authentication:
We can use HTTP basic authentication to configure user based authentication for Squid proxy server.
Install httpd-tools package using yum command.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# yum install -y httpd-tools
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirrors.ges.net.pk
* extras: mirrors.ges.net.pk
* updates: mirrors.ges.net.pk
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package httpd-tools.x86_64 0:2.4.6-90.el7.centos will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libaprutil-1.so.0()(64bit) for package: httpd-tools-2.4.6-90.el7.centos.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libapr-1.so.0()(64bit) for package: httpd-tools-2.4.6-90.el7.centos.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package apr.x86_64 0:1.4.8-5.el7 will be installed
---> Package apr-util.x86_64 0:1.5.2-6.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
httpd-tools x86_64 2.4.6-90.el7.centos base 91 k
Installing for dependencies:
apr x86_64 1.4.8-5.el7 base 103 k
apr-util x86_64 1.5.2-6.el7 base 92 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package (+2 Dependent packages)
Total download size: 286 k
Installed size: 584 k
Downloading packages:
(1/3): httpd-tools-2.4.6-90.el7.centos.x86_64.rpm | 91 kB 00:00
(2/3): apr-util-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64.rpm | 92 kB 00:01
(3/3): apr-1.4.8-5.el7.x86_64.rpm | 103 kB 00:02
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 96 kB/s | 286 kB 00:02
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Installing : apr-1.4.8-5.el7.x86_64 1/3
Installing : apr-util-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64 2/3
Installing : httpd-tools-2.4.6-90.el7.centos.x86_64 3/3
Verifying : apr-1.4.8-5.el7.x86_64 1/3
Verifying : httpd-tools-2.4.6-90.el7.centos.x86_64 2/3
Verifying : apr-util-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64 3/3
Installed:
httpd-tools.x86_64 0:2.4.6-90.el7.centos
Dependency Installed:
apr.x86_64 0:1.4.8-5.el7 apr-util.x86_64 0:1.5.2-6.el7
Complete!
Create the password file and add squiduser user therein.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# htpasswd -c /etc/squid/passwd squiduser
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user squiduser
Change owner of the passwd file.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# chown squid.squid /etc/squid/passwd
Now, edit Squid configuration file and add Client authentication settings.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# vi /etc/squid/squid.conf
Add following directives after the ports’ ACLs.
auth_param basic program /usr/lib64/squid/basic_ncsa_auth /etc/squid/passwd
auth_param basic children 5
auth_param basic realm Squid Basic Authentication
auth_param basic credentialsttl 2 hours
acl auth_users proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access allow auth_users
Restart Squid proxy service to take changes into effect.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# systemctl restart squid
Open the URL https://ahmermansoor.blogspot.com in the client's browser.
This time, it is prompting for the authentication.
Creating a custom Blacklist to block websites thru Squid Proxy:
Create a blacklist file to block websites.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# vi /etc/squid/blacklist
and add following URLs therein.
.yahoo.com
.facebook.com
Edit Squid proxy configuration file to add blacklist settings.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# vi /etc/squid/squid.conf
add following directives after the ports’ ACLs.
acl bad_urls dstdomain "/etc/squid/blacklist"
http_access deny bad_urls
Restart Squid proxy service to load changes.
[root@squid-proxy-01 ~]# systemctl restart squid
Browse URL http://www.yahoo.com in client's browser.
You can see that the http://www.yahoo.com has been blocked by our Squid proxy server.
We have successfully installed Squid proxy server on CentOS 7.
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