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Forward Proxy Advanced

Kong Enterprise only: This plugin is only available with a Kong Enterprise subscription. Please inquire about Kong Enterprise by contacting us, or start a free trial today.

The Forward Proxy plugin allows Kong to connect to intermediary transparent HTTP proxies, instead of directly to the upstream_url, when forwarding requests upstream. This is useful in environments where Kong sits in an organization’s internal network, the upstream API is available via the public internet, and the organization proxies all outbound traffic through a forward proxy server.

Configuration Reference

You can configure this plugin using the Kong Admin API or through declarative configuration, which involves directly editing the Kong configuration file.

Enabling the plugin on a Service

Kong Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Service by making the following request:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/services/<service>/plugins \
    --data "name=forward-proxy"  \
    --data "config.proxy_host=example.com" \
    --data "config.proxy_port=80"

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <forward-proxy-example>
config: 
  proxy_host: example.com
  proxy_port: 80
plugin: forward-proxy

Next, apply the KongPlugin resource to a Service by annotating the Service as follows:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: <service>
  labels:
    app: <service>
  annotations:
    plugins.konghq.com: <forward-proxy-example>
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 80
    protocol: TCP
    name: <service>
  selector:
    app: <service>
Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any Service, Consumer, or Route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a Service by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: forward-proxy
  service: <service>
  config: 
    proxy_host: example.com
    proxy_port: 80

<service> is the id or name of the Service that this plugin configuration will target.

Note: The legacy API entity has been deprecated in favor of Services since CE 0.13.0 and EE 0.32.

Enabling the plugin on a Route

Kong Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Route with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/routes/<route>/plugins \
    --data "name=forward-proxy"  \
    --data "config.proxy_host=example.com" \
    --data "config.proxy_port=80"

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <forward-proxy-example>
config: 
  proxy_host: example.com
  proxy_port: 80
plugin: forward-proxy

Then, apply it to an ingress (Route or Routes) by annotating the ingress as follows:

apiVersion: networking/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: <route>
  annotations:
    plugins.konghq.com: <forward-proxy-example>
spec:
  rules:
  - host: examplehostname.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /bar
        backend:
          serviceName: echo
          servicePort: 80
Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any Service, Consumer, or Route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a Route by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: forward-proxy
  route: <route>
  config: 
    proxy_host: example.com
    proxy_port: 80

<route> is the id or name of the Route that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin on a Consumer

Kong Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Consumer with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/consumers/<consumer>/plugins \
    --data "name=forward-proxy"  \
    --data "config.proxy_host=example.com" \
    --data "config.proxy_port=80"

You can combine consumer.id, service.id, or route.id in the same request, to further narrow the scope of the plugin.

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <forward-proxy-example>
config: 
  proxy_host: example.com
  proxy_port: 80
plugin: forward-proxy

Then, apply it to a Consumer by annotating the KongConsumer resource as follows:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongConsumer
metadata:
  name: <consumer>
  annotations:
    plugins.konghq.com: <forward-proxy-example>
Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any Service, Consumer, or Route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a Consumer by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: forward-proxy
  consumer: <consumer>
  config: 
    proxy_host: example.com
    proxy_port: 80

<consumer> is the id or username of the Consumer that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin globally

A plugin which is not associated to any Service, Route, or Consumer is considered global, and will be run on every request. Read the Plugin Reference and the Plugin Precedence sections for more information.

Kong Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin globally with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/plugins/ \
    --data "name=forward-proxy"  \
    --data "config.proxy_host=example.com" \
    --data "config.proxy_port=80"

Create a KongClusterPlugin resource and label it as global:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongClusterPlugin
metadata:
  name: <global-forward-proxy>
  labels:
    global: \"true\"
config: 
  proxy_host: example.com
  proxy_port: 80
plugin: forward-proxy

For example, configure this plugin using the plugins: entry in the declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: forward-proxy
  config: 
    proxy_host: example.com
    proxy_port: 80

Parameters

Here's a list of all the parameters which can be used in this plugin's configuration:

Form ParameterDescription
nameThe name of the plugin to use, in this case forward-proxy.
service.idThe ID of the Service the plugin targets.
route.idThe ID of the Route the plugin targets.
consumer.idThe ID of the Consumer the plugin targets.
enabled

default value: true		Whether this plugin will be applied.
api_idThe ID of the API the plugin targets.

Note: The API Entity is deprecated in favor of Services since CE 0.13.0 and EE 0.32.
config.proxy_host
required

The hostname or IP address of the forward proxy to which to connect
config.proxy_port
required

The TCP port of the forward proxy to which to connect
config.proxy_scheme

default value:

http

The proxy scheme to use when connecting. Currently only http is supported

Notes

The plugin attempts to transparently replace upstream connections made by Kong core, sending the request instead to an intermediary forward proxy. Currently only transparent HTTP proxies are supported; TLS connections (via CONNECT) are not yet supported.