How to use special characters in username/password for HTTP proxy?

Question

I am trying to setup an HTTP proxy on a Windows machine. Problem is, the password has a special character (@) in it that is causing the set command to fail.

I have tried both escaping the character (\@) and percent-encoding it with the hex value (%40), to no avail.

For example, with the username Foo and password B@r, I have tried the following commands:

set http_proxy=http://foo:B\@[email protected]:80
set http_proxy=http://foo:B%[email protected]:80

Other than changing the password how can I have the proxy use the password?

Is the set failing or is the tool using the http_proxy environment variable failing due to the @ symbol? — Mike Cornell, Apr 22 '11 at 13:16
Yes. Because the format is username:password@server:port, having @ in the middle of your password causes the right hand side of your password to be considered the hostname, thus the hostname resolution above fails because it thinks the hostname is [email protected]. The "r@" should not be there. — Philluminati, Nov 03 '11 at 16:23
duplicate http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6172719/escape-character-in-git-proxy-password — rofrol, Aug 03 '15 at 11:41

Ravi Parekh · Answer 1 · 2021-11-12T11:35:26.380

49

You have to percent-encode | encode the special characters. E.g. instead of this:

http://foo:B@[email protected]:80

you write this:

http://foo:B%[email protected]:80

So @ gets replaced with %40.

Note: foo = username, b@r = password, http-gateway.domain.org = host proxy to connect

edited Nov 12 '21 at 11:35

answered Jan 11 '13 at 10:48

Ravi Parekh

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encoding is indeed the way to get around this problem (and many others). – HTDutchy Jan 11 '13 at 12:00
i found that i needed to double urlencode some characters – dovidweisz Nov 02 '16 at 17:33
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I suggest simply using javascript `encodeURIComponent()` to this purpose. You can easily use your browser's `DeveloperTools -> Console`. – Mir-Ismaili Nov 26 '18 at 04:39

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 05 '18 at 06:47

For any special characters, in username or password, we can always use UTF-8 encoded strings in its place. For example: ! can be replaced with %21

so the command would be, if password is abc!:

npm config set proxy http://user:abc%[email protected]:8080/

npm config set https-proxy http://user:abc%[email protected]:8080/

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 16 '18 at 06:59

2

Use %Ascii code of the special character in hexadecimal notation for any special character. Suppose My password is AB@12#& then the password should be set as

git config --global http.proxy *http://usernamne:**AB%4012%23%26**@myipadress:portnumber*

Refer to ascii table for knowing the hexadecimal ascii code of any number.

edited Feb 16 '18 at 06:59

Prasanna

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answered Feb 16 '18 at 04:00

Sandeep Choudhary

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score -1 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

-1

Based upon this answer on SO, can you try using ^ to escape the @ symbol?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

1

answered Apr 22 '11 at 13:29

Mike Cornell

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In response to both, the set is successful, it is the tool using the environment variable: `set http_proxy=http://foo:B^@[email protected]:80` `jruby -S gem install rake` ERROR: While executing gem ... (URI::InvalidURIError) the scheme http does not accept registry part: foo:B@[email protected]:80 (or bad hostname?) – pyropenguin Apr 22 '11 at 15:05
This is a Linux based question, not a Windows based question, using ^ doesn't work for me. I still get `wget: unable to resolve host address `[email protected]'` after setting the proxy environmental variable. – Philluminati Nov 03 '11 at 16:19
2

Actually it IS a Windows based question...I know pyropenguin personally. – Mike Cornell Nov 07 '11 at 18:24

How to use special characters in username/password for HTTP proxy?

4 Answers4