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Proxy glossary

What is a DNS leak?

A DNS leak is when hostname lookups go to your own resolver instead of through the proxy or VPN, so someone can see which sites you visit.

DNS leak explained

Also called DNS leakage.

Before connecting, a client turns a hostname into an IP address. If that lookup runs on your machine and goes to your ISP or a public resolver, the resolver sees every site name even though the traffic itself leaves through the proxy. The site sees the proxy IP, while your network sees the lookups.

It also breaks consistency. A site that serves per-country answers gets a resolver in one country and a request from an exit in another.

With an HTTP proxy the risk is low: for HTTPS your client sends CONNECT host:port and the proxy resolves the name. With SOCKS5 it depends on the scheme. socks5:// resolves locally and leaks; socks5h:// resolves at the proxy. Some tools have a setting of their own for this, so check rather than assume.

Test it by opening a DNS leak test page through the proxy. If the resolvers listed belong to your ISP rather than the proxy side, lookups are leaving outside the tunnel. Browsers with DNS over HTTPS enabled can send lookups to their own resolver whatever the proxy says.

For example

You set a SOCKS5 proxy in a script and the exit IP looks right, yet your office resolver logs show the shop name. The URL said socks5://. Changing it to socks5h:// moves the lookup to the proxy.

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