Repository: theupdateframework/python-tuf (python)

Issue:
urllib3: Handle proxy environment variables
This is filed in anticipation of #2762 getting merged.

urllib3 made a conscious decision to not handle proxy variables -- this is understandable for them but I don't think we can just hand wave the issue away: loads of users are behind dumb corporate proxies and their only way to get software working is proxy variables.

We can implement a small component above urllib3 PoolManager/ProxyManager that handles this. I have a prototype already

Pull request:
Handle proxy variables
This PR handles proxy variables (notably `http_proxy`, `https_proxy`, `no_proxy`, `all_proxy`) when using Urllib3Fetcher:
* `ProxyEnvironment` is used like urllib3 `PoolManager`: it has the same `request()` method (we could easily implement the whole RequestMethods mixin but since we only use the one method, that didn't seem useful)
* Internally `ProxyEnvironment` keeps track of typically 1-3 PoolManagers [non-proxied, http-proxied, https-proxied] and chooses between those based on the requested url and the environment variables
* There's a bunch of tests: they do not test the actual proxied connection, only whether the correct pool managers were created based on the proxy environment variable values

I did not want to implement this as I think this component should be in urllib3 but it's not a lot of code (maybe 50 lines of actual code) so I can live with it. As far as I know this puts python-tuf back to feature parity with v5.1: this was the only feature that I know of that we lost with the move from `requests` to `urllib3` only.   



Fixes #2787 



Patch:
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index a1203eb9..d3ccf453 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,21 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Unreleased
+
+### Changed
+
+This release is API compatible but contains a major internal change in the HTTP handling.
+
+* ngclient: urllib3 is used as the HTTP library by default instead of requests (#2762,
+  #2773, #2789)
+  * This removes dependencies on `requests`, `idna`, `charset-normalizer` and `certifi`
+  * The deprecated RequestsFetcher implementation is available but requires selecting
+    the fetcher at Updater initialization and explicitly depending on requests
+* ngclient: TLS certificate source was changed. Certificates now come from operating
+  system certificate store instead of `certifi` (#2762)
+* Test infrastucture has improved and should now be more usable externally, e.g. in
+  distro test suites (#2749)
+
 ## v5.1.0
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/tuf/ngclient/_internal/proxy.py b/tuf/ngclient/_internal/proxy.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b42ea2f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tuf/ngclient/_internal/proxy.py
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+# Copyright New York University and the TUF contributors
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
+
+"""Proxy environment variable handling with Urllib3"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from typing import Any
+from urllib.request import getproxies
+
+from urllib3 import BaseHTTPResponse, PoolManager, ProxyManager
+from urllib3.util.url import parse_url
+
+
+# TODO: ProxyEnvironment could implement the whole PoolManager.RequestMethods
+# Mixin: We only need request() so nothing else is currently implemented
+class ProxyEnvironment:
+    """A PoolManager manager for automatic proxy handling based on env variables
+
+    Keeps track of PoolManagers for different proxy urls based on proxy
+    environment variables. Use `get_pool_manager()` or `request()` to access
+    the right manager for a scheme/host.
+
+    Supports '*_proxy' variables, with special handling for 'no_proxy' and
+    'all_proxy'.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        **kw_args: Any,  # noqa: ANN401
+    ) -> None:
+        self._pool_managers: dict[str | None, PoolManager] = {}
+        self._kw_args = kw_args
+
+        self._proxies = getproxies()
+        self._all_proxy = self._proxies.pop("all", None)
+        no_proxy = self._proxies.pop("no", None)
+        if no_proxy is None:
+            self._no_proxy_hosts = []
+        else:
+            # split by comma, remove leading periods
+            self._no_proxy_hosts = [
+                h.lstrip(".") for h in no_proxy.replace(" ", "").split(",") if h
+            ]
+
+    def _get_proxy(self, scheme: str | None, host: str | None) -> str | None:
+        """Get a proxy url for scheme and host based on proxy env variables"""
+
+        if host is None:
+            # urllib3 only handles http/https but we can do something reasonable
+            # even for schemes that don't require host (like file)
+            return None
+
+        # does host match any of the "no_proxy" hosts?
+        for no_proxy_host in self._no_proxy_hosts:
+            # wildcard match, exact hostname match, or parent domain match
+            if no_proxy_host in ("*", host) or host.endswith(
+                f".{no_proxy_host}"
+            ):
+                return None
+
+        if scheme in self._proxies:
+            return self._proxies[scheme]
+        if self._all_proxy is not None:
+            return self._all_proxy
+
+        return None
+
+    def get_pool_manager(
+        self, scheme: str | None, host: str | None
+    ) -> PoolManager:
+        """Get a poolmanager for scheme and host.
+
+        Returns a ProxyManager if that is correct based on current proxy env
+        variables, otherwise returns a PoolManager
+        """
+
+        proxy = self._get_proxy(scheme, host)
+        if proxy not in self._pool_managers:
+            if proxy is None:
+                self._pool_managers[proxy] = PoolManager(**self._kw_args)
+            else:
+                self._pool_managers[proxy] = ProxyManager(
+                    proxy,
+                    **self._kw_args,
+                )
+
+        return self._pool_managers[proxy]
+
+    def request(
+        self,
+        method: str,
+        url: str,
+        **request_kw: Any,  # noqa: ANN401
+    ) -> BaseHTTPResponse:
+        """Make a request using a PoolManager chosen based on url and
+        proxy environment variables.
+        """
+        u = parse_url(url)
+        manager = self.get_pool_manager(u.scheme, u.host)
+        return manager.request(method, url, **request_kw)
diff --git a/tuf/ngclient/updater.py b/tuf/ngclient/updater.py
index 8c88a96e..0dfab2a3 100644
--- a/tuf/ngclient/updater.py
+++ b/tuf/ngclient/updater.py
@@ -35,6 +35,19 @@
 A simple example of using the Updater to implement a Python TUF client that
 downloads target files is available in `examples/client
 <https://github.com/theupdateframework/python-tuf/tree/develop/examples/client>`_.
+
+Notes on how Updater uses HTTP by default:
+  * urllib3 is the HTTP library
+  * Typically all requests are retried by urllib3 three times (in cases where
+    this seems useful)
+  * Operating system certificate store is used for TLS, in other words
+    ``certifi`` is not used as the certificate source
+  * Proxy use can be configured with ``https_proxy`` and other similar
+    environment variables
+
+All of the HTTP decisions can be changed with ``fetcher`` argument:
+Custom ``FetcherInterface`` implementations are possible. The alternative
+``RequestsFetcher`` implementation is also provided (although deprecated).
 """
 
 from __future__ import annotations
diff --git a/tuf/ngclient/urllib3_fetcher.py b/tuf/ngclient/urllib3_fetcher.py
index 5d4bb1cf..88d447bd 100644
--- a/tuf/ngclient/urllib3_fetcher.py
+++ b/tuf/ngclient/urllib3_fetcher.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 import tuf
 from tuf.api import exceptions
+from tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy import ProxyEnvironment
 from tuf.ngclient.fetcher import FetcherInterface
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
@@ -49,7 +50,7 @@ def __init__(
         if app_user_agent is not None:
             ua = f"{app_user_agent} {ua}"
 
-        self._poolManager = urllib3.PoolManager(headers={"User-Agent": ua})
+        self._proxy_env = ProxyEnvironment(headers={"User-Agent": ua})
 
     def _fetch(self, url: str) -> Iterator[bytes]:
         """Fetch the contents of HTTP/HTTPS url from a remote server.
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ def _fetch(self, url: str) -> Iterator[bytes]:
         #  - connect timeout (max delay before first byte is received)
         #  - read (gap) timeout (max delay between bytes received)
         try:
-            response = self._poolManager.request(
+            response = self._proxy_env.request(
                 "GET",
                 url,
                 preload_content=False,


Test patch:
diff --git a/tests/test_proxy_environment.py b/tests/test_proxy_environment.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ade7b350
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_proxy_environment.py
@@ -0,0 +1,217 @@
+# Copyright 2025, the TUF contributors
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
+
+"""Test ngclient ProxyEnvironment"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import sys
+import unittest
+from unittest.mock import Mock, patch
+
+from urllib3 import PoolManager, ProxyManager
+
+from tests import utils
+from tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy import ProxyEnvironment
+
+
+class TestProxyEnvironment(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Test ngclient ProxyEnvironment implementation
+
+    These tests use the ProxyEnvironment.get_pool_manager() endpoint and then
+    look at the ProxyEnvironment._poolmanagers dict keys to decide if the result
+    is correct.
+
+    The test environment is changed via mocking getproxies(): this is a urllib
+    method that returns a dict with the proxy environment variable contents.
+
+    Testing ProxyEnvironment.request() would possibly be better but far more
+    difficult: the current test implementation does not require actually setting up
+    all of the different proxies.
+    """
+
+    def assert_pool_managers(
+        self, env: ProxyEnvironment, expected: list[str | None]
+    ) -> None:
+        # Pool managers have the expected proxy urls
+        self.assertEqual(list(env._pool_managers.keys()), expected)
+
+        # Pool manager types are as expected
+        for proxy_url, pool_manager in env._pool_managers.items():
+            self.assertIsInstance(pool_manager, PoolManager)
+            if proxy_url is not None:
+                self.assertIsInstance(pool_manager, ProxyManager)
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_no_variables(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {}
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "subdomain.example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "differentsite.com")
+
+        # There is a single pool manager (no proxies)
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None])
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_proxy_set(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "https": "http://localhost:8888",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "differentsite.com")
+
+        # There are two pool managers: A plain poolmanager and https proxymanager
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None, "http://localhost:8888"])
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_proxies_set(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "http": "http://localhost:8888",
+            "https": "http://localhost:9999",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "subdomain.example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "differentsite.com")
+
+        # There are two pool managers: A http proxymanager and https proxymanager
+        self.assert_pool_managers(
+            env, ["http://localhost:8888", "http://localhost:9999"]
+        )
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_no_proxy_set(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "http": "http://localhost:8888",
+            "https": "http://localhost:9999",
+            "no": "somesite.com, example.com, another.site.com",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+
+        # There is a single pool manager (no proxies)
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None])
+
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "differentsite.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "differentsite.com")
+
+        # There are three pool managers: plain poolmanager for no_proxy domains,
+        # http proxymanager and https proxymanager
+        self.assert_pool_managers(
+            env, [None, "http://localhost:8888", "http://localhost:9999"]
+        )
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_no_proxy_subdomain_match(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "https": "http://localhost:9999",
+            "no": "somesite.com, example.com, another.site.com",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+
+        # this should match example.com in no_proxy
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "subdomain.example.com")
+
+        # There is a single pool manager (no proxies)
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None])
+
+        # this should not match example.com in no_proxy
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "xexample.com")
+
+        # There are two pool managers: plain poolmanager for no_proxy domains,
+        # and a https proxymanager
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None, "http://localhost:9999"])
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_no_proxy_wildcard(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "https": "http://localhost:8888",
+            "no": "*",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "differentsite.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "subdomain.example.com")
+
+        # There is a single pool manager, no proxies
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None])
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_no_proxy_leading_dot(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "https": "http://localhost:8888",
+            "no": ".example.com",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "subdomain.example.com")
+
+        # There is a single pool manager, no proxies
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None])
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_all_proxy_set(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "all": "http://localhost:8888",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "subdomain.example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "differentsite.com")
+
+        # There is a single proxy manager
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, ["http://localhost:8888"])
+
+        # This urllib3 currently only handles http and https but let's test anyway
+        env.get_pool_manager("file", None)
+
+        # proxy manager and a plain pool manager
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, ["http://localhost:8888", None])
+
+    @patch("tuf.ngclient._internal.proxy.getproxies")
+    def test_all_proxy_and_no_proxy_set(self, mock_getproxies: Mock) -> None:
+        mock_getproxies.return_value = {
+            "all": "http://localhost:8888",
+            "no": "somesite.com, example.com, another.site.com",
+        }
+
+        env = ProxyEnvironment()
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "example.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "subdomain.example.com")
+
+        # There is a single pool manager (no proxies)
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None])
+
+        env.get_pool_manager("http", "differentsite.com")
+        env.get_pool_manager("https", "differentsite.com")
+
+        # There are two pool managers: plain poolmanager for no_proxy domains and
+        # one proxymanager
+        self.assert_pool_managers(env, [None, "http://localhost:8888"])
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    utils.configure_test_logging(sys.argv)
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/tests/test_updater_ng.py b/tests/test_updater_ng.py
index 9a89c1de..f65dced1 100644
--- a/tests/test_updater_ng.py
+++ b/tests/test_updater_ng.py
@@ -330,8 +330,10 @@ def test_non_existing_target_file(self) -> None:
     def test_user_agent(self) -> None:
         # test default
         self.updater.refresh()
-        session = self.updater._fetcher._poolManager
-        ua = session.headers["User-Agent"]
+        poolmgr = self.updater._fetcher._proxy_env.get_pool_manager(
+            "http", "localhost"
+        )
+        ua = poolmgr.headers["User-Agent"]
         self.assertEqual(ua[:11], "python-tuf/")
 
         # test custom UA
@@ -343,8 +345,10 @@ def test_user_agent(self) -> None:
             config=UpdaterConfig(app_user_agent="MyApp/1.2.3"),
         )
         updater.refresh()
-        session = updater._fetcher._poolManager
-        ua = session.headers["User-Agent"]
+        poolmgr = updater._fetcher._proxy_env.get_pool_manager(
+            "http", "localhost"
+        )
+        ua = poolmgr.headers["User-Agent"]
 
         self.assertEqual(ua[:23], "MyApp/1.2.3 python-tuf/")