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In my particular network environment the Google chrome executable can access via an authenticated outgoing proxy server external web sites. Other executables however (when pointing to that outgoing proxy) are not able to do so.

I now have the idea to use Chrome itself as a local proxy for other executables like git or pip. - Is this possible, say, with a Chrome extension or with a tool that uses Chrome in a headless mode to connect to the Internet?

To clarify, I am not asking how to configure the proxy settings inside Chrome - I have successfully done this. I am asking how I can set up Chrome to receive HTTP(S) requests from other local programs and pass the requests on as an intermediate proxy (to the outgoing proxy specified in Chrome's settings).

halloleo
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  • Sure, this is possible, and actually trivial if you can build a browser extension. I'm really curious what mechanism though is only allowing Chrome to use this upstream proxy. There's probably an easier way around this. – Brad Oct 28 '18 at 03:58
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    Do you know of any existing extension doing this? To your question: I think the firewall system allows only some executables to establish connections to the outgoing proxy - and Googe Chrome is one of them. – halloleo Oct 28 '18 at 06:22
  • Sorry @Brad, I forgot to mention you in my last comment. So here again: Do you know of any existing extension doing this? – halloleo Oct 28 '18 at 09:39
  • @Brad do you have some more details on what API should someone use to build such an extension ? – Daniel S Nov 19 '18 at 09:33
  • Hi, did you find any solution? – Vladimir Gorbenko Feb 04 '19 at 04:43
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    @VladimirGorbenko No, I didn't find any existing extension or other add-on doing this, but I am still keen on a solution! – halloleo Feb 05 '19 at 05:49
  • Looking for the same thing. In my company, we have smartcard certificate authentication to access Jira. I want to connect IntelliJ to Jira as well, but no luck. So, a Chrome exposed proxy entpoint would be great. – R.A Oct 22 '19 at 07:21
  • @waldalla could you find solution/extentions for this? I am looking for exact same thing in 2021! lol – Libertarian Jul 24 '21 at 23:20
  • Hi @Libertarian, no, I haven't found a solution yet. Sorry. – halloleo Jul 26 '21 at 05:34

1 Answers1

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On its own, no: Chrome will not open a port that other software can connect to. Even WebRTC requires an intermediate server to begin a peer to peer connection between browsers.

However Chrome supports Native Messaging, which means it will execute a specific native application that already exists on the system.

With this set up you can have:

  • a native application that accepts incoming connections and forwards data to the extension.
  • the extension listens to messages from the application and sends them via Chrome elsewhere on the internet.
fregante
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