wtf is proxychains?

ProxyChains is a tool that lets you route any program's internet traffic through one or more proxy servers, even if that program has no built-in proxy settings. Instead of configuring each app individually, you just prefix your command with proxychains and everything flows through the proxies you specify. It works by intercepting the network calls a program makes at a low level and quietly redirecting them through your chosen proxy chain. You can string together multiple proxies in sequence, mix different types (SOCKS and HTTP), and even use random or dynamic ordering to rotate through a list. It handles DNS lookups through the proxy too, so your destination addresses stay hidden. Configuration is flexible: it checks environment variables first, then looks for config files in several standard locations. This is useful in several concrete scenarios. If your corporate LAN only allows outbound traffic through a specific proxy server, you can force tools like telnet or network scanners to use it. If you're behind a restrictive firewall that blocks certain ports, routing through a proxy can get you around that. It's also handy for chaining multiple proxies together for privacy, accessing an intranet from outside, or running tools like Nmap through a proxy so your real IP isn't exposed to the target. There are some limitations worth knowing. It only works with dynamically linked programs, so statically compiled binaries won't be affected. A specific quirk with the IRC client irssi means you can't use Tor .onion addresses with it directly, due to how that program handles DNS lookups across process forks. The project runs on Linux, macOS, and the BSDs, and is installable via package managers like Homebrew or pkgsrc, or compiled from source with a C compiler.