Mullvad's SOCKS proxies are only accessible if you've got the VPN active; they're an additional layer, not an alternative.

What do you mean by that? Mullvad doesn't have a generally accessible socks proxy like PIA does, that works with or without having the VPN on. The proxy is a localhost one for the most part so you can prevent an app from going online without having your vpn client on first.

Do you have a source for this? Every page on Mullvad I've seen says you need to have the VPN active: https://mullvad.net/en/help/socks5-proxy/

> If you configure your browser, for example, to use the SOCKS5 proxy, it will direct all of your internet access via the proxy which is only accessible through Mullvad. So if you haven't turned on the app, your browser will prevent all internet access and therefore won't leak any information.

You just route 10.64.0.1/24 with wireguard, or 10.124.0.1/24 to access socks proxies on other locations. Then you have socks only mullvad.

if you are routing via wireguard, the VPN is active. Note, people are not talking about the mullvad app here (which is not required at all)

The OP post also needs the "VPN active" (ie: an active connection to the VPN server). Having the VPN active does not mean it's routing all your traffic through it, what traffic is routed through it is controlled by your wireguard config/routing table. Having

  AllowedIPs = 10.64.0.1/32

in your wireguard config will only forward traffic bound to 10.64.0.1 (the IP Mullvad uses for their SOCKS5 proxies on wireguard connections) to the VPN server, which more or less achieves the same result as the OP post. You can access the SOCKS proxy without having your whole internet routed through the VPN.

An active connection but not an active system-wide network interface. The point of these tools is that the wireguard client is encapsulated together with the proxy in a simple user-mode process, with no integration into the host network stack.