diff --git a/src/app/fetchurl/README b/src/app/fetchurl/README
index e231f89..740bcf8 100644
--- a/src/app/fetchurl/README
+++ b/src/app/fetchurl/README
@@ -11,3 +11,8 @@ Configuration
 ! </libc>
 ! <fetch url="http://genode.org/about/LICENSE" path="LICENSE"/>
 !</config>
+
+Optionally, you can use a proxy:
+
+! <fetch url="http://genode.org/about/LICENSE" path="LICENSE"
+!        proxy="sock5://10.0.0.1:9050 />
diff --git a/src/app/fetchurl/component.cc b/src/app/fetchurl/component.cc
index 07db3f0..53b2c25 100644
--- a/src/app/fetchurl/component.cc
+++ b/src/app/fetchurl/component.cc
@@ -135,6 +135,13 @@ void Component::construct(Genode::Env &env)
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0L);
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0L);
 
+		/* check for optional proxy configuration */
+		try {
+			Genode::String<256> proxy;
+			node.attribute("proxy").value(&proxy);
+			curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PROXY, proxy.string());
+		} catch (...) { }
+
 		res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
 		close(fd);
 		if (res != CURLE_OK)