socks-pivoting

socks-pivoting is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code. It costs 0 tokens per session (4,719 once invoked), scanned B, original, MIT.

A guide to SOCKS proxying, a method for sending network traffic through another computer, using proxychains. In security testing, this can route tools through a compromised system to reach otherwise isolated internal networks.

In plain words
What is it for?
Setting up SOCKS4, SOCKS4a, or SOCKS5 proxies; routing security tools through pivot hosts; chaining proxies; handling internal DNS; and tuning or troubleshooting tunnels.
Why use it?
It explains how to configure and troubleshoot traffic routing across network boundaries, including hostname lookup, speed, authentication, and multiple proxy hops.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code/socks-pivoting
Any agent
npx skills add jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code --skill socks-pivoting
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for socks-pivoting

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code/socks-pivoting.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code/socks-pivoting)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code/socks-pivoting"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code/socks-pivoting.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 0 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 4,719 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 2 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.04719
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.02360
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00944
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00472

Measured 4d ago against content hash f083dacda17d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

socks-pivoting scanned grade B with 2 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

echo "10.10.10.100 dc01.corp.local corp.local" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

### curl / wget
skills/socks-pivoting/SKILL.md · 563 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 563 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

SOCKS Pivoting & Network Tunneling Skill

Overview

SOCKS proxying with proxychains is the standard technique for routing attacker tooling through a compromised pivot host into segmented internal networks. Covers SOCKS protocol fundamentals, proxychains configuration and modes, per-tool usage, multi-hop chaining, DNS resolution, performance tuning, troubleshooting, and OPSEC.

MITRE ATT&CK: T1090 (Proxy), T1090.001 (Internal Proxy), T1090.002 (External Proxy), T1572 (Protocol Tunneling)


1. SOCKS Protocol Fundamentals

SOCKS (Socket Secure) operates at OSI Layer 5 and routes any TCP traffic (and UDP in SOCKS5) through a proxy server, unlike HTTP proxies which are protocol-specific.

Feature SOCKS4 SOCKS4a SOCKS5
TCP Yes Yes Yes
UDP No No Yes
Authentication No No Yes
Remote DNS No Yes Yes
IPv6 No No Yes
Use in pivoting Legacy Common Recommended

SOCKS4: TCP only, no auth, client must resolve hostname.
SOCKS4a: Extension — proxy resolves hostname (remote DNS). Critical when internal DNS is needed.
SOCKS5: TCP + UDP, multiple auth methods, IPv6, remote DNS, better error handling. Always prefer SOCKS5 for pivoting.


2. Proxychains Configuration

Proxychains intercepts network calls via LD_PRELOAD and routes them through configured SOCKS/HTTP proxies.

Config File Locations

/etc/proxychains4.conf          # System-wide
~/.proxychains/proxychains.conf # Per-user
proxychains -f /path/to/custom.conf <cmd>  # Per-engagement (preferred)

Complete Reference Config

# /etc/proxychains4.conf

# Chain mode — uncomment ONE:
strict_chain       # All proxies in order; any failure = connection fails
#dynamic_chain     # Skip dead proxies, use available ones in order
#random_chain      # Random selection (anonymity, not reliable for pivoting)
#round_robin_chain # Round-robin

# DNS — resolve hostnames through the proxy (required for internal names)
proxy_dns

# Fake DNS subnet (must not conflict with actual networks)
remote_dns_subnet 224

# Timeouts (milliseconds)
tcp_read_time_out 15000
tcp_connect_time_out 8000

# Suppress proxychains output (useful for scripting)
#quiet_mode

[ProxyList]
# Protocol   Address        Port   [User Password]
socks5       127.0.0.1      1080
# socks4     127.0.0.1      1080
# http       127.0.0.1      8080   username password

Read the full file on GitHub · 563 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 563 lines · 0 tokens per session scan B f083dacda17d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

socks-pivoting is a skill published in the GitHub repository jessefmoore/offensive-claude-code (2 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 4,719 tokens. A static security scan graded it B with 2 findings (asks for root, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

systematic-debugging

Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes.

obra/superpowers · 21 tokens

brainstorming

You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.

obra/superpowers · 37 tokens

auto-perf-optimize

Run agent-driven VS Code performance or memory investigations. Use when asked to launch Code OSS, automate a VS Code scenario, run the Chat memory smoke runner, capture renderer heap snapshots, take workflow screenshots, compare run summaries, or drive a repeatable scenario before heap-snapshot analysis.

microsoft/vscode · 62 tokens

chat-perf

Run chat perf benchmarks and memory leak checks against the local dev build or any published VS Code version. Use when investigating chat rendering regressions, validating perf-sensitive changes to chat UI, or checking for memory leaks in the chat response pipeline.

microsoft/vscode · 51 tokens

chat-pet-sprite-creation

Use when creating or changing VS Code chat pet sprite art, sprite sheets, state animations, eye treatments, Stable/Insiders variants, or pet transitions under src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/widget/media/chatPet.

microsoft/vscode · 53 tokens

cpu-profile-analysis

Analyze V8/Chrome CPU profiles (.cpuprofile) and DevTools trace files (Trace-.json). Use when: profiling performance, investigating slow functions, comparing code paths, finding bottlenecks, analyzing timeToRequest, understanding call trees from sampling profiler data, analyzing layout/paint/rendering, investigating…

microsoft/vscode · 71 tokens