Telemt - MTProxy on Rust + Tokio

Telemt is a fast, secure, and feature-rich server written in Rust: it fully implements the official Telegram proxy algo and adds many production-ready improvements such as connection pooling, replay protection, detailed statistics, masking from "prying" eyes

NEWS and EMERGENCY

✈️ Telemt 3 is released!

🇷🇺 RU Драфтинг LTS и текущие улучшения С 21 февраля мы начали подготовку LTS-версии. Мы внимательно анализируем весь доступный фидбек. Наша цель — сделать LTS-кандидаты максимально стабильными, тщательно отлаженными и готовыми к long-run и highload production-сценариям. Улучшения от 23 февраля 23 февраля были внесены улучшения производительности в режимах DC и Middle-End (ME), с акцентом на обратный канал (путь клиент → DC / ME). Дополнительно реализован ряд изменений, направленных на повышение устойчивости системы: Смягчение сетевой нестабильности Повышение устойчивости к десинхронизации криптографии Снижение дрейфа сессий при неблагоприятных условиях Улучшение обработки ошибок в edge-case транспортных сценариях Релиз: 3.0.12 Если у вас есть компетенции в: Асинхронных сетевых приложениях Анализе трафика Реверс-инжиниринге Сетевых расследованиях Мы открыты к архитектурным предложениям, идеям и pull requests

🇬🇧 EN LTS Drafting and Ongoing Improvements Starting February 21, we began drafting the upcoming LTS version. We are carefully reviewing and analyzing all available feedback. The goal is to ensure that LTS candidates are максимально stable, thoroughly debugged, and ready for long-run and high-load production scenarios. February 23 Improvements On February 23, we introduced performance improvements for both DC and Middle-End (ME) modes, specifically optimizing the reverse channel (client → DC / ME data path). Additionally, we implemented a set of robustness enhancements designed to: Mitigate network-related instability Improve resilience against cryptographic desynchronization Reduce session drift under adverse conditions Improve error handling in edge-case transport scenarios Release: 3.0.12 If you have expertise in: Asynchronous network applications Traffic analysis Reverse engineering Network forensics We welcome ideas, architectural feedback, and pull requests.

Features

💥 The configuration structure has changed since version 1.1.0.0. change it in your environment!

⚓ Our implementation of TLS-fronting is one of the most deeply debugged, focused, advanced and almost "behaviorally consistent to real": we are confident we have it right - see evidence on our validation and traces

⚓ Our Middle-End Pool is fastest by design in standard scenarios, compared to other implementations of connecting to the Middle-End Proxy: non dramatically, but usual

GOTO

• Features
• Quick Start Guide
• How to use?
  • Systemd Method
• Configuration
  • Minimal Configuration
  • Advanced
    • Adtag
    • Listening and Announce IPs
    • Upstream Manager
      • IP
      • SOCKS
• FAQ
  • Recognizability for DPI + crawler
  • Telegram Calls
  • DPI
  • Whitelist on Network Level
  • Too many open files
• Build
• Docker
• Why Rust?

Features

• Full support for all official MTProto proxy modes:
  • Classic
  • Secure - with dd prefix
  • Fake TLS - with ee prefix + SNI fronting
• Replay attack protection
• Optional traffic masking: forward unrecognized connections to a real web server, e.g. GitHub 🤪
• Configurable keepalives + timeouts + IPv6 and "Fast Mode"
• Graceful shutdown on Ctrl+C
• Extensive logging via trace and debug with RUST_LOG method

Quick Start Guide

This software is designed for Debian-based OS: in addition to Debian, these are Ubuntu, Mint, Kali, MX and many other Linux

1. Download release

wget -qO- "https://github.com/telemt/telemt/releases/latest/download/telemt-$(uname -m)-linux-$(ldd --version 2>&1 | grep -iq musl && echo musl || echo gnu).tar.gz" | tar -xz

2. Move to Bin Folder

mv telemt /bin

4. Make Executable

chmod +x /bin/telemt

5. Go to How to use? section for for further steps

How to use?

Telemt via Systemd

This instruction "assume" that you:

• logged in as root or executed su - / sudo su
• you already have an assembled and executable telemt in /bin folder as a result of the Quick Start Guide or Build

0. Check port and generate secrets

The port you have selected for use should be MISSING from the list, when:

netstat -lnp

Generate 16 bytes/32 characters HEX with OpenSSL or another way:

openssl rand -hex 16

OR

xxd -l 16 -p /dev/urandom

OR

python3 -c 'import os; print(os.urandom(16).hex())'

1. Place your config to /etc/telemt.toml

Open nano

nano /etc/telemt.toml

paste your config from Configuration section

then Ctrl+X -> Y -> Enter to save

2. Create service on /etc/systemd/system/telemt.service

Open nano

nano /etc/systemd/system/telemt.service

paste this Systemd Module

[Unit]
Description=Telemt
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/bin
ExecStart=/bin/telemt /etc/telemt.toml
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=65536

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

then Ctrl+X -> Y -> Enter to save

3. In Shell type systemctl start telemt - it must start with zero exit-code

4. In Shell type systemctl status telemt - there you can reach info about current MTProxy status

5. In Shell type systemctl enable telemt - then telemt will start with system startup, after the network is up

Configuration

Minimal Configuration for First Start

# === General Settings ===
[general]
# ad_tag = "00000000000000000000000000000000"

[general.modes]
classic = false
secure = false
tls = true

# === Anti-Censorship & Masking ===
[censorship]
tls_domain = "petrovich.ru"

[access.users]
# format: "username" = "32_hex_chars_secret"
hello = "00000000000000000000000000000000"

Advanced

Adtag

To use channel advertising and usage statistics from Telegram, get Adtag from @mtproxybot, add this parameter to section [General]

ad_tag = "00000000000000000000000000000000" # Replace zeros to your adtag from @mtproxybot

Listening and Announce IPs

To specify listening address and/or address in links, add to section [[server.listeners]] of config.toml:

[[server.listeners]]
ip = "0.0.0.0"          # 0.0.0.0 = all IPs; your IP = specific listening
announce_ip = "1.2.3.4" # IP in links; comment with # if not used

Upstream Manager

To specify upstream, add to section [[upstreams]] of config.toml:

Bind on IP

[[upstreams]]
type = "direct"
weight = 1
enabled = true
interface = "192.168.1.100" # Change to your outgoing IP

SOCKS4/5 as Upstream

• Without Auth:

[[upstreams]]
type = "socks5"            # Specify SOCKS4 or SOCKS5
address = "1.2.3.4:1234"   # SOCKS-server Address
weight = 1                 # Set Weight for Scenarios
enabled = true

• With Auth:

[[upstreams]]
type = "socks5"            # Specify SOCKS4 or SOCKS5
address = "1.2.3.4:1234"   # SOCKS-server Address
username = "user"          # Username for Auth on SOCKS-server
password = "pass"          # Password for Auth on SOCKS-server
weight = 1                 # Set Weight for Scenarios
enabled = true

FAQ

Recognizability for DPI and crawler

Since version 1.1.0.0, we have debugged masking perfectly: for all clients without "presenting" a key, we transparently direct traffic to the target host!

• We consider this a breakthrough aspect, which has no stable analogues today

• Based on this: if telemt configured correctly, TLS mode is completely identical to real-life handshake + communication with a specified host

• Here is our evidence:

  • 212.220.88.77 - "dummy" host, running telemt
  • petrovich.ru - tls + masking host, in HEX: 706574726f766963682e7275
  • No MITM + No Fake Certificates/Crypto = pure transparent TCP Splice to "best" upstream: MTProxy or tls/mask-host:
    • DPI see legitimate HTTPS to tls_host, including valid chain-of-trust and entropy
    • Crawlers completely satisfied receiving responses from mask_host

  Client WITH secret-key accesses the MTProxy resource:

  

  Client WITHOUT secret-key gets transparent access to the specified resource:

  • with trusted certificate
  • with original handshake
  • with full request-response way
  • with low-latency overhead

root@debian:~/telemt# curl -v -I --resolve petrovich.ru:443:212.220.88.77 https://petrovich.ru/
* Added petrovich.ru:443:212.220.88.77 to DNS cache
* Hostname petrovich.ru was found in DNS cache
*   Trying 212.220.88.77:443...
* Connected to petrovich.ru (212.220.88.77) port 443 (#0)
* ALPN: offers h2,http/1.1
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
*  CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
*  CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Encrypted Extensions (8):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
* ALPN: server did not agree on a protocol. Uses default.
* Server certificate:
*  subject: C=RU; ST=Saint Petersburg; L=Saint Petersburg; O=STD Petrovich; CN=*.petrovich.ru
*  start date: Jan 28 11:21:01 2025 GMT
*  expire date: Mar  1 11:21:00 2026 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "petrovich.ru" matched cert's "petrovich.ru"
*  issuer: C=BE; O=GlobalSign nv-sa; CN=GlobalSign RSA OV SSL CA 2018
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
* using HTTP/1.x
> HEAD / HTTP/1.1
> Host: petrovich.ru
> User-Agent: curl/7.88.1
> Accept: */*
> 
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* old SSL session ID is stale, removing
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Server: Variti/0.9.3a
Server: Variti/0.9.3a
< Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:0000 GMT
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:0000 GMT
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
< Content-Type: text/html
Content-Type: text/html
< Cache-Control: no-store
Cache-Control: no-store
< Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:0000 GMT
Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:0000 GMT
< Pragma: no-cache
Pragma: no-cache
< Set-Cookie: ipp_uid=XXXXX/XXXXX/XXXXX==; Expires=Tue, 31 Dec 2040 23:59:59 GMT; Domain=.petrovich.ru; Path=/
Set-Cookie: ipp_uid=XXXXX/XXXXX/XXXXX==; Expires=Tue, 31 Dec 2040 23:59:59 GMT; Domain=.petrovich.ru; Path=/
< Content-Type: text/html
Content-Type: text/html
< Content-Length: 31253
Content-Length: 31253
< Connection: keep-alive
Connection: keep-alive
< Keep-Alive: timeout=60
Keep-Alive: timeout=60

< 
* Connection #0 to host petrovich.ru left intact

• We challenged ourselves, we kept trying and we didn't only beat the air: now, we have something to show you
  • Do not just take our word for it? - This is great and we respect that: you can build your own telemt or download a build and check it right now

Telegram Calls via MTProxy

• Telegram architecture does NOT allow calls via MTProxy, but only via SOCKS5, which cannot be obfuscated

How does DPI see MTProxy TLS?

• DPI sees MTProxy in Fake TLS (ee) mode as TLS 1.3
• the SNI you specify sends both the client and the server;
• ALPN is similar to HTTP 1.1/2;
• high entropy, which is normal for AES-encrypted traffic;

Whitelist on IP

• MTProxy cannot work when there is:
  • no IP connectivity to the target host: Russian Whitelist on Mobile Networks - "Белый список"
  • OR all TCP traffic is blocked
  • OR high entropy/encrypted traffic is blocked: content filters at universities and critical infrastructure
  • OR all TLS traffic is blocked
  • OR specified port is blocked: use 443 to make it "like real"
  • OR provided SNI is blocked: use "officially approved"/innocuous name
• like most protocols on the Internet;
• these situations are observed:
  • in China behind the Great Firewall
  • in Russia on mobile networks, less in wired networks
  • in Iran during "activity"

Too many open files

• On a fresh Linux install the default open file limit is low; under load telemt may fail with Accept error: Too many open files
• Systemd: add LimitNOFILE=65536 to the [Service] section (already included in the example above)
• Docker: add --ulimit nofile=65536:65536 to your docker run command, or in docker-compose.yml:

ulimits:
  nofile:
    soft: 65536
    hard: 65536

• System-wide (optional): add to /etc/security/limits.conf:

*       soft    nofile  1048576
*       hard    nofile  1048576
root    soft    nofile  1048576
root    hard    nofile  1048576

Build

# Cloning repo
git clone https://github.com/telemt/telemt 
# Changing Directory to telemt
cd telemt
# Starting Release Build
cargo build --release
# Move to /bin
mv ./target/release/telemt /bin
# Make executable
chmod +x /bin/telemt
# Lets go!
telemt config.toml

Docker

Quick start (Docker Compose)

1. Edit config.toml in repo root (at least: port, users secrets, tls_domain)
2. Start container:

docker compose up -d --build

3. Check logs:

docker compose logs -f telemt

4. Stop:

docker compose down

Notes

• docker-compose.yml maps ./config.toml to /app/config.toml (read-only)
• By default it publishes 443:443 and runs with dropped capabilities (only NET_BIND_SERVICE is added)
• If you really need host networking (usually only for some IPv6 setups) uncomment network_mode: host

Run without Compose

docker build -t telemt:local .
docker run --name telemt --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 443:443 \
  -e RUST_LOG=info \
  -v "$PWD/config.toml:/app/config.toml:ro" \
  --read-only \
  --cap-drop ALL --cap-add NET_BIND_SERVICE \
  --ulimit nofile=65536:65536 \
  telemt:local

Why Rust?

• Long-running reliability and idempotent behavior
• Rust's deterministic resource management - RAII
• No garbage collector
• Memory safety and reduced attack surface
• Tokio's asynchronous architecture

Issues

• ✅ SOCKS5 as Upstream -> added Upstream Management
• ✅ iOS - Media Upload Hanging-in-Loop

Roadmap

• Public IP in links
• Config Reload-on-fly
• Bind to device or IP for outbound/inbound connections
• Adtag Support per SNI / Secret
• Fail-fast on start + Fail-soft on runtime (only WARN/ERROR)
• Zero-copy, minimal allocs on hotpath
• DC Healthchecks + global fallback
• No global mutable state
• Client isolation + Fair Bandwidth
• Backpressure-aware IO
• "Secret Policy" - SNI / Secret Routing :D
• Multi-upstream Balancer and Failover
• Strict FSM per handshake
• Session-based Antireplay with Sliding window, non-broking reconnects
• Web Control: statistic, state of health, latency, client experience...