Merged Into MassBrowser
CacheBrowser has been merged into our new censorship circumvention tool called MassBrowser. Please visit the MassBrowser project's website and its git repository.
CacheBrowser
The current CacheBrowser software is a research prototype implementation, and is not yet ready for end-users. If you are a researcher or developer check it out and give us feedback, otherwise please be patient while we work on an end-user version of the code. Thanks for your understanding and support!
Installation
pip install cachebrowser
Running CacheBrowser
To run the CacheBrowser process simply enter the cachebrowser command
cachebrowser
You can then use CacheBrowser by using the CacheBrowser plugin for your browser or by setting the HTTP and HTTPS proxy on your browser to localhost:8080
Bootstrapping
In order to be able to browse a page using CacheBrowser, the page must first be bootstrapped. What this means is that CacheBrowser must first find out what CDN the page is hosted on and also obtain some edge server addresses for that CDN.
CacheBrowser supports local and remote bootstrapping sources. Local bootstrapping sources are files in YAML format which provide bootstrapping information for hosts and CDNs. Remote bootstrapping sources are RESTful services which provide bootstrapping information through HTTP requests.
Configuring Bootstrapping Sources
Any number of local or remote bootstrapping sources may be defined in the CacheBrowser configuration file. When bootstrapping a host or host, CacheBrowser will go through the provided sources in the specified order until the information is found.
Bootstrapping sources can be specified in the configuration file using the bootstrapper_sources key, for example:
boostrapper_sources:
- type: local
path: local_bootstrapper.yaml
- type: remote
url: https://bootstrap.cachebrowser.net/api
Local Boostrapping Files
A local bootstrapping file is a YAML file containing a list of Host or CDN information.
For example:
- type: cdn
id: akamai
name: Akamai
edge_servers:
- 23.208.91.198
- 23.218.210.7
- type: host
name: www.nbc.com
ssl: false
cdn: akamai
- type: host
name: www.bloomberg.com
ssl: false
cdn: akamai
For each CDN provided in the bootstrapping file the following information should be provided:
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| type | cdn |
| id | A unique ID to be used for the CDN |
| name | The CDN Name |
| edge_servers | List of edge server addresses for the CDN |
For each Host provided in the bootstrapping file the following information should be provided:
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| type | host |
| name | The hostname |
| cdn | The ID of the CDN which provides this host |
| ssl | Whether the pages supports HTTPS connections or not |
CacheBrowser Commands
You could also run a command with CacheBrowser:
cachebrowser <command>
These are the valid commands you could give:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| bootstrap | Bootstrap |
get url [target] |
Retrieve url using CacheBrowser. If target is specified CacheBrowser uses the given target. If not, CacheBrowser uses the bootstrapped target if the host has been bootstrapped or makes a normal request to the host if not. |
| host list | Lists the bootstrapped hosts |
| host add | Add host info |
| cdn list | Lists the bootstrapped CDNs |
| cdn add | Add host info |
Example
cachebrowser bootstrap www.nbc.com
cachebrowser get http://www.nbc.com
cachebrowser get https://www.istockphoto.com 69.31.76.91