MacSurf
Deploy

Running the Go proxy

Stand up the TLS-stripping Go proxy that lets the browser reach HTTPS sites from inside Mac OS 9.

MacSurf Proxy is a single binary. It listens for plain HTTP proxy requests, fetches upstream via HTTPS, and returns plain HTTP. No config files, no dependencies.

macsurf-proxy [--port 8765] [--auth user:password]

Default port is 8765. Auth is optional — if set, clients must send Proxy-Authorization: Basic headers.

1. Local Network (No Install)

Build and run directly. Your Mac connects over LAN.

cd proxy/
go build -o macsurf-proxy .
./macsurf-proxy --port 8765

Or with auth:

./macsurf-proxy --port 8765 --auth myuser:mypassword

Find your machine's LAN IP (ip addr or ifconfig). On the Mac, configure the proxy as http://<your-lan-ip>:8765. That's it.

If you have a firewall, open port 8765:

sudo ufw allow 8765/tcp

2. VPS with systemd (Ubuntu/Debian)

Build the binary

cd proxy/
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o macsurf-proxy .

Create the user

sudo useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin macsurf

Install the binary

sudo cp macsurf-proxy /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/macsurf-proxy

Write the environment file

sudo mkdir -p /etc/macsurf-proxy
sudo tee /etc/macsurf-proxy/env > /dev/null <<'EOF'
MACSURF_PROXY_ARGS=--port 8765 --auth myuser:mypassword
EOF
sudo chmod 600 /etc/macsurf-proxy/env

Change myuser:mypassword to real credentials. If you don't want auth, use:

MACSURF_PROXY_ARGS=--port 8765

Install the service

sudo cp macsurf-proxy.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now macsurf-proxy

Verify

sudo systemctl status macsurf-proxy
journalctl -u macsurf-proxy -f
curl -x http://myuser:mypassword@localhost:8765 http://example.com

Firewall

sudo ufw allow 8765/tcp

For production, put this behind a VPN or restrict source IPs. An open proxy on the internet will get abused.

3. Docker

Build

cd proxy/
docker build -t macsurf-proxy .

Run

docker run -d --name macsurf-proxy -p 8765:8765 macsurf-proxy --port 8765 --auth myuser:mypassword

Without auth:

docker run -d --name macsurf-proxy -p 8765:8765 macsurf-proxy

Verify

curl -x http://myuser:mypassword@localhost:8765 http://example.com

Logs

docker logs -f macsurf-proxy

4. Classilla Configuration (Mac OS 9)

Classilla is a maintained Mozilla fork for Mac OS 9 that supports HTTP proxies. Use it today to validate MacSurf Proxy before MacSurf Browser exists.

Step by step

  1. Open Classilla
  2. Go to Edit > Preferences
  3. In the left sidebar, expand Advanced and select Proxies
  4. Select Manual proxy configuration
  5. In the HTTP Proxy field, enter your proxy machine's IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.50)
  6. In the Port field next to it, enter 8765
  7. Check Use this proxy server for all protocols
  8. Leave No Proxy for set to localhost, 127.0.0.1
  9. Click OK

If you enabled auth on the proxy

Classilla supports HTTP Basic proxy auth. On first request, it will prompt for username and password. Enter the credentials you passed to --auth. Check "remember" if offered.

Testing

Browse to http://example.com — this goes through the proxy as plain HTTP and should load immediately.

Browse to https://macintoshgarden.org — Classilla sends a CONNECT request, the proxy tunnels TLS end-to-end. The page should load normally with the lock icon.

If pages don't load, verify: