Aether is a censorship circumvention client that automatically discovers reachable routes, establishes an encrypted tunnel, and exposes a local SOCKS5 proxy for applications on heavily restricted networks.

Stars

589

7-day growth

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Forks

19

Open issues

5

License

AGPL-3.0

Last updated

2026-07-15

Why it is worth attention

It combines automatic endpoint discovery with end-to-end data-plane validation, supports MASQUE (HTTP/3 & HTTP/2 with TLS ClientHello fragmentation), WireGuard, and nested WireGuard, and offers traffic obfuscation for bypassing DPI and protocol fingerprinting.

Who it is for

  • Users in countries with heavy internet censorship
  • Developers and network engineers needing a programmable circumvention tool
  • System administrators managing restricted network environments
  • Privacy-conscious individuals seeking a lightweight proxy

Use cases

  • Bypassing government-imposed internet censorship and firewalls
  • Circumventing Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and protocol blocking
  • Establishing secure connections over UDP-throttled or endpoint-blocked networks
  • Running a local SOCKS5 proxy for applications like browsers or curl

Strengths

  • Automatic endpoint discovery with data-plane validation ensures only truly working gateways are used
  • Supports modern protocols (MASQUE over QUIC/TLS, WireGuard, nested WireGuard) for flexible circumvention
  • Traffic obfuscation and TLS ClientHello fragmentation help evade advanced inspection
  • Cross-platform (Linux, Windows, macOS, Android via Termux) with one-line install script and Docker support

Considerations

  • Requires building from source with Rust, C/C++ compiler, and CMake, and the Quiche library must be placed alongside
  • Only provides a SOCKS5 proxy, not a full VPN or transparent proxy
  • No graphical user interface; configuration is command-line based

README quick start

Usage

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