ABC Proxy

ABC Proxy for Android is a proxy application for managing SOCKS5 and HTTP(S) connections to make the internet more secure and private by routing your connection through different servers. If you want to use several social media accounts from a single device or visit websites blocked by your internet provider, the app promises to let users set up and connect to different proxy servers with just one click.

The technical toolkit breakdown

The app supports SOCKS5 and HTTP(S) proxying and provides the ability to import proxies, save connection profiles, and test download speeds so users can better manage their servers. The GUI offers a few other configuration features: connection statuses, ping testing, and multiple proxy presets.

The app is marketed as being one for handling multiple social media accounts, meaning it's likely to attract those who want to bypass geo-location restrictions or business users with a presence across territories. The latest version is 1.1.1. The app needs Android permissions for network access and internet access to work as a proxy. 

The concerning security landscape

Here's the part that gets nebulous: security scanners detected the software as possibly malicious or unwanted bundled software (those detections are said to possibly be false positives courtesy of overzealous detection signatures). This is a big problem for people who need to trust their privacy software. The app is available, for the most part not in the Google Play store but directly via third-party sites that offer it as an APK download. And here some serious security risk arises.

Due to policy limitations, some legal apps have been distributed this way, and in cases where it is extremely difficult to verify, users risk being infected with malware. ABCProxy's wider ecosystem is a commercial proxy service business, though the connection between its core residential proxy business and this Android app is less than transparent. The primary ABCProxy service currently has 66 consumer reviews on Trustpilot, but the mobile app seems like a separate offering and is listed with different developers. 

The reality of narrow use cases 

Cross-region multi-account social media managers may find some uses in the quick-switching (if they can trust the app's security by their own means, though). Average end users desiring some privacy protection would be better off using a well-established VPN service which has seen full security audits and is available from a reputable app store. Business users juggling online personas or undertaking market research across a variety of locations may find the functionality useful, however, only after it has been thoroughly security tested and ideally within sandboxed device environments.

It's good for filling a particular niche of the proxy tool space, but there are some security caveats here that will make it inappropriate for users who want verified privacy tools. The absence of official distribution sources and conflicting security scan reports indicate that users should proceed with utmost caution, especially for sensitive applications.