Proxy protocol validation lab for production traffic

What this lab proves in 30 seconds This lab validates four production-critical properties using direct evidence on the wire rather than dashboards or assumptions: • Traffic routing actually traverses the intended proxy hop • HTTP CONNECT establishes a clean, byte-transparent tunnel • TLS handshakes occur strictly after tunnel establishment • Backend applications receive the true client IP via PROXY protocol The conceptual background is covered in Proxy Protocols: HTTP CONNECT, SOCKS5, and PROXY protocol in production This lab focuses entirely on verification. In practice, these checks are routinely performed when validating production proxy paths built on providers such as MaskProxy. Lab setup assumptions This lab assumes an operator-level environment with direct access to packet capture and application logs. • Client host with curl, openssl, and tcpdump • An HTTP proxy that supports CONNECT • A TCP load balancer capable of injecting PROXY protocol • A backend service configured to acc