PHP cURL with Proxy ( Not SOCKS5 ) - php

Question

I had working code that used my VPN (NordVPN) credentials through their SOCKS5 protocol.
Recently, they have dropped support for SOCKS5 so I have to use their other protocols, however I am unable to get any to work.
All of their available protocols can be seen here
https://nordvpn.com/servers/tools/
- IKEv2/IPSec
- OpenVPN
- Wireguard
- HTTP Proxy (SSL)
Here is my code, attempting to use their "HTTP Proxy (SSL)" protocol
$cookie_file = tempnam("/tmp", "CURLCOOKIE");;
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_ENCODING, "");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 120); // in seconds
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 120);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 10);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $agent);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, 'HTTP');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYPORT, "443");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, "au643.nordvpn.com");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, $proxyUser . ":" . $proxyPass);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIESESSION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookie_file);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookie_file);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $Url);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
The error I get is
curl_exec(): supplied resource is not a valid cURL handle resource in ...
I don't really care what protocol it is, just need it to work.
Thanks.

Answer 1

After facing the same issue, I have worked out a solution
$PROXY_HOST = "xxx.xxxxxx.com";
$PROXY_PORT = "89";
$PROXY_USER = "yourproxyusername";
$PROXY_PASS = "yourproxypassword";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, "$PROXY_USER:$PROXY_PASS");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, "https://$PROXY_HOST:$PROXY_PORT");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response= curl_exec($ch);
$error = curl_error($ch);
echo $error;
echo $response;
curl_close($ch);
One thing to note is that for NordVPN you have to use the port 89 for HTTP Proxy (SSL) and the username and password is not your account username and password, but your proxy specific credentials that you can find on your account page.
Also dont quote me on this, but I think you need to use PHP 7.3+ for this to work.

Answer 2

we can use it with protonvpn or vpnbook ?