RSelenium: configure firefox remotedriver to use Tor network

Question

I am trying to use RSelenium with firefox using a local proxy (Tor) on a linux machine.

I had no problem in installing Tor following this tuto, and the command line wget -qO - https://api.ipify.org; echo do get me an new IP.

Now I am willing to use firefox with RSelenium going through the Tor localhost on port 9050:

State       Recv-Q Send-Q                                 Local Address:Port                                                Peer Address:Port
LISTEN      0      128                                        127.0.0.1:9050                                                           *:*
LISTEN      0      128                                        127.0.0.1:9051                                                           *:*

I use a standalone selenium java (selenium-server-standalone-2.53.0.jar), which work fine with regular RSelenium: here is an example getting the ip displayed on ipchicken

library(RSelenium)

remDr <- remoteDriver(
  remoteServerAddr = "localhost",
  port = 4444L,
  browserName = "firefox"
)

remDr$open()
remDr$navigate("https://ipchicken.com/")
ip <- remDr$findElements(using = "css", value ='b')
print(ip[[1]]$getElementText())

And I do get my IP. Now I want to see it happen with Tor. I thus try to add the proxy option when connecting the remotedriver with firefox:

eCaps <- list("moz:firefoxOptions" = list(
  args = c('--proxy-server=localhost:9050'
  )))

remDr <- remoteDriver(
  remoteServerAddr = "localhost",
  port = 4444L,
  browserName = "firefox",
  extraCapabilities = eCaps
)

I tried '--proxy-server=localhost:9050', '--proxy-server=http://localhost:9050','--proxy-server=socks5://localhost:9050', '--proxy-server=127.0.0.1:9050', and it did not output any error and gave me my initial IP. So it is not working. The standalone says it does execute with the options: for example

22:59:10.288 INFO - Executing: [new session: Capabilities [{nativeEvents=true, browserName=firefox, javascriptEnabled=true, moz:firefoxOptions={args=--proxy-server= 127.0.0.1:9050}, version=, platform=ANY}]])
22:59:10.297 INFO - Creating a new session for Capabilities [{nativeEvents=true, browserName=firefox, javascriptEnabled=true, moz:firefoxOptions={args=--proxy-server= 127.0.0.1:9050}, version=, platform=ANY}]
22:59:30.323 INFO - Done: [new session: Capabilities [{nativeEvents=true, browserName=firefox, javascriptEnabled=true, moz:firefoxOptions={args=--proxy-server= 127.0.0.1:9050}, version=, platform=ANY}]]

What Am I doing wrong ?

Edit

After user1207289's answer, and after realizing that you could directly create a firefox profile in RSelenium, I tried:

eCaps <- makeFirefoxProfile(list(network.proxy.type = 1,
                                 network.proxy.socks = "127.0.0.1",
                                 network.proxy.socks_port = 9050,
                                 network.proxy.socks_version = 5))

remDr <- remoteDriver(
  remoteServerAddr = "localhost",
  port = 4444L,
  browserName = "firefox",
  extraCapabilities = eCaps 
)

I used integer for network.proxy.socks_port, network.proxy.socks_port and network.proxy.type because of this question, but tried with character also, without any success. I tried with and without network.proxy.socks_version = 5, and it did not work (I am getting my normal ip). I tried network.proxy.socks_port = 9150, but it did not work.

I also tried

eCaps <- list("moz:firefoxOptions" = list(
  args = c('network.proxy.socks=127.0.0.1:9050' ,'network.proxy.type=1' )
)
)

but that did not work either.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 02 '20 at 18:51

2

I could connect to TOR using webdriver and firefox with the below . Just make sure TOR is installed and running. I used it on mac (catalina). You can check port settings according to your OS , in case they are different.

It is in c# but you can pretty much do it for any binding

            FirefoxOptions firefoxOptions = new FirefoxOptions();
            firefoxOptions.SetPreference("network.proxy.type", 1);
            firefoxOptions.SetPreference("network.proxy.socks", "127.0.0.1");
            firefoxOptions.SetPreference("network.proxy.socks_port", 9150);

            FirefoxDriverService service = FirefoxDriverService.CreateDefaultService();

            IWebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(service, firefoxOptions);

When this opens a firefox browser instance , Just visit https://check.torproject.org/ on the same instance to check if it is connected to TOR. And that will confirm you are connected and will show your new ip also

answered Jun 02 '20 at 18:51

user1207289

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Tor is running, see my question (I tested with `wget -qO - https://api.ipify.org; echo` that I get new IP), and the port is `9050` (verified with `ss -nlt`). I tried your solution with different manners, but I did not work with RSelenium, see my edits. – denis Jun 02 '20 at 21:10
Can you try `9150` instead of `9050` as tor browser listens on `9150` as per [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)) . And it is also mentioned somewhere in [this](https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/33279) that `the default SOCKS port used by Tor Browser when it starts tor is 9150, not 9050` . You can search that line in there. – user1207289 Jun 02 '20 at 21:30
I think you should try `9150` . See [this](https://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/7398/connecting-to-torbrowser-socket) and [this](https://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/6939/configure-tor-as-proxy) – user1207289 Jun 02 '20 at 22:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 08 '20 at 07:28

After A lot of searching, I found a way: RSelenium has the getFirefoxProfile function which allows to get a firefox profile.

So I first configured the profile directly from firefox following the same tuto and copied it to my R folder. Using

fprof <- getFirefoxProfile("myprofile.default")

remDr <- remoteDriver(
  remoteServerAddr = "localhost",
  port = 4444L,
  browserName = "firefox",
  extraCapabilities = fprof
)

Did work.

RSelenium: configure firefox remotedriver to use Tor network

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2 Answers2