Set up your own MTProxy

Russian government pushes me to improve my technical skills. Let’s see how to run an MTProxy for Telegram on a VPS. For this, we need a VPS, Docker Engine, and a domain for Fake TLS.

What do we need?

1. VPS.

Buy the cheapest server. You do not need powerful hardware; the main point is to have no traffic limits. My server specs: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 15 GB SSD.

My server is outside Russia. On Habr, some people write that a server in Russia may work better because traffic inside the country is not inspected. Whether this is true or not, I do not know.

2. Docker Engine.

The proxy will run in Docker, so just install it using the official documentation for your operating system.

3. Domain.

A domain is needed for Fake TLS. Our MTProxy will pretend to be regular HTTPS traffic.

If you already have a domain, great. Just add an A record with your server IP address.

If you do not have a domain, you can register on FreeDNS and get a third-level domain on any free domain you like. I used such domains before for convenient access to my self-hosted apps.

Start the proxy

There are several Docker images for MTProxy. I use nineseconds/mtg:2, because this is the easiest way to run a proxy with Fake TLS. Run everything as follows:

1. Generate a secret from your domain

docker run --rm \
    nineseconds/mtg:2 generate-secret \
    --hex your.domain.com

The result will look like this:

ee...

2. Put the secret into config.toml:

secret = "ee..."
bind-to = "0.0.0.0:443"

3. Create a Docker Compose file

Create a Docker Compose file with the content below and start the proxy with docker compose up -d:

services:
  mtg-proxy:
    image: nineseconds/mtg:2
    container_name: mtg-proxy
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - '443:443/tcp'
    volumes:
      - ./config.toml:/config.toml:ro

Check logs with docker compose logs. If there are no logs, everything is fine.

Now you can make a link in this format:

tg://proxy?server=<your.domain.com>&port=443&secret=<secret>

And share it with your friends and family.

Telegram will add your proxy when they click the link.