Cloudflare has open-sourced pvcli, a privacy proxy CLI designed to simplify testing of complex privacy protocols like OHTTP (Oblivious HTTP). The tool mimics the familiarity of curl while handling the multi-layered encryption and proxy routing inherent in OHTTP, making it easier for developers to experiment with and debug privacy-preserving architectures.
Key changes and features:
pvcliis a curl-like CLI that sends requests through a privacy proxy using OHTTP, simplifying what would otherwise require manual cryptographic steps.- It supports three main commands:
pvcli proxy(run a proxy),pvcli send(send a request via OHTTP), andpvcli receive(receive responses). - The tool uses HPKE (Hybrid Public Key Encryption) to encrypt requests, ensuring that even the proxy cannot see the content or destination.
- Developers can test with local or remote relay and target servers, making it ideal for integration testing and debugging.
pvcliis written in Rust and built on top of theohttpcrate, ensuring performance and safety.- The source code is available on GitHub under a BSD 3-Clause license, encouraging community contributions.
For developers, pvcli removes the friction of implementing OHTTP from scratch just to test privacy features. Whether you're building a VPN, a privacy-focused CDN, or simply want to validate that your services respect user anonymity, pvcli provides a straightforward way to simulate and verify OHTTP flows. This open-sourcing aligns with Cloudflare's commitment to making privacy tools more accessible and transparent.
By lowering the barrier to testing OHTTP, pvcli helps developers adopt privacy-by-design patterns more rapidly, ultimately leading to a more secure and private web.
Source: https://blog.cloudflare.com/open-sourcing-our-privacy-proxy-cli/