mtg/contrib/sni-router

SNI-routing deployment for mtg

A turnkey docker compose setup that puts an SNI-aware TCP router (HAProxy) in front of mtg and a real web server (Caddy with automatic HTTPS).

Why

Modern DPI systems actively probe suspected proxies. If the server closes the connection or returns something unexpected, the IP gets flagged. With this setup:

• Telegram clients connect to port 443, HAProxy sees the configured SNI and routes them to mtg (FakeTLS).
• Everything else (browsers, DPI probes, scanners) is routed to Caddy, which responds with a real Let’s Encrypt certificate and serves genuine web content.

Because your domain’s DNS points to this server, the SNI/IP match is natural and passive DPI has nothing to flag.

Quick start

# 1. Point your domain's DNS A/AAAA record to this server's IP.

# 2. Generate an mtg secret:
docker run --rm nineseconds/mtg:2 generate-secret --hex YOUR_DOMAIN

# 3. Configure:
#    - .env (or export)  →  DOMAIN=your.domain   # used by HAProxy + Caddy
#    - render mtg-config.toml from the tracked template
#      (the rendered file is gitignored — secret stays out of git):
export MTG_SECRET=...    # paste the hex secret from step 2
envsubst < mtg-config.toml.example > mtg-config.toml
#      (Or `cp mtg-config.toml.example mtg-config.toml` and edit ${MTG_SECRET}
#      by hand if you don't have envsubst.)

# 4. (Optional) put your site content into www/

# 5. Start:
docker compose up -d

# 6. Verify:
#    - Open https://YOUR_DOMAIN in a browser → you should see the web page
#    - Configure Telegram with the proxy link from:
docker compose exec mtg mtg access /config/config.toml

Real client IPs (PROXY protocol)

HAProxy forwards TCP connections to mtg and Caddy with a PROXY protocol v2 header so both backends see the real client IP instead of HAProxy’s container address. Caddy also receives PROXY v2 from mtg on the fronting path (see “Fronting loop” below), so all four pieces below must stay in sync:

• haproxy.cfg — send-proxy-v2 on the mtg and web backend server lines
• mtg-config.toml — proxy-protocol-listener = true (HAProxy → mtg)
• mtg-config.toml — [domain-fronting].proxy-protocol = true (mtg → Caddy on fronting)
• Caddyfile — listener_wrappers { proxy_protocol { ... } tls } on :8443

If you disable one, disable all four, otherwise the backend will fail to parse the connection.

Why HAProxy uses network_mode: host

A published port on a bridge network rewrites the source IP of inbound connections to the bridge gateway before HAProxy sees it (Docker’s docker-proxy, Podman’s slirp4netns/pasta), so the PROXY v2 header HAProxy forwards downstream carries that gateway address, not the real client. Host-mode HAProxy binds in the host netns directly, no NAT in the path, and the rewrite never happens. mtg and Caddy stay on the compose bridge and are published on 127.0.0.1 only — HAProxy reaches them over host loopback. mtg-config.toml does not need to change; fronting still uses host = "web" over compose-network DNS.

Trade-offs.

• HAProxy owns the host’s :443 and :80 — don’t run anything else on those ports.
• Linux host only. On Docker Desktop (macOS/Windows), “host” means the Linux VM, not the user’s machine, so external clients can’t reach the proxy.
• If you run Docker with userns-remap, the in-container “root” loses the privilege to bind <1024 on the host; either disable userns-remap for this stack or lower net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start on the host.

Fronting loop (why [domain-fronting] is set explicitly)

When mtg sees TLS that isn’t valid Telegram (a probe or a browser hitting the domain on :443), it forwards that connection to a real web server — “domain fronting”. By default mtg uses the secret’s hostname as the fronting target and resolves it via DNS, which in this setup points back to this server: the fronting dial lands on HAProxy, SNI matches the secret, HAProxy routes the connection back to mtg → loop.

The trigger is DNS, not name equality: any time the secret’s hostname resolves to this host, the loop reproduces. In an SNI-router deployment the secret’s hostname has to point here for clients to reach mtg in the first place, so the loop is the default state unless mtg is steered away from HAProxy.

mtg-config.toml therefore pins the fronting target to the Caddy container directly:

[domain-fronting]
host = "web"
port = 8443
proxy-protocol = true

host = "web" resolves through compose-network DNS to the web service (Caddy), bypassing HAProxy. proxy-protocol = true matches Caddy’s :8443 listener wrapper so the real client IP still propagates to Caddy’s logs.

Requires mtg ≥ 2.4 — hostname acceptance for the fronting target was added in #480.

ACME (Let’s Encrypt) notes

HAProxy passes /.well-known/acme-challenge/ requests on :80 to Caddy so that HTTP-01 validation works out of the box. Make sure your domain’s DNS A/AAAA record points to this server before starting.

Architecture

              ┌──────────────────┐
 :443  ──────>│    HAProxy       │
              │  (TCP, SNI peek) │
              └──┬───────────┬───┘
    SNI match    │           │  default
                 v           v
           ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐
           │   mtg   │  │  Caddy  │
           │ :3128   │  │ :8443   │
           │ FakeTLS │  │ real TLS│
           └─────────┘  └─────────┘

OpenWrt + podman-compose

OpenWrt’s firewall zones are bound to interface names. With bare podman you pin the static podman0 bridge into a zone and you’re done — but podman-compose up creates a project-scoped network, and netavark spawns a new bridge for it (podman1, podman2, …) that has no firewall rules, so containers lose outbound access.

Reuse the pre-configured podman0 by adding to this compose file:

networks:
  default:
    external: true
    name: podman

That tells compose to attach to the router-managed network instead of spinning up a new one. Background: discussion #513 and the OpenWrt forum thread.

Files

File	Purpose
docker-compose.yml	Service definitions
haproxy.cfg	SNI routing rules (reads $DOMAIN from the environment)
mtg-config.toml.example	mtg proxy config template — render with envsubst or copy + edit
mtg-config.toml	Rendered mtg proxy config (gitignored, contains your secret)
Caddyfile	Web server config (auto-HTTPS)
www/	Static site content served by Caddy