diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index 436b3f0afe..185d694b2e 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -2118,13 +2118,20 @@ S: Odd Fixes
 W: https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/9p
 F: hw/9pfs/
 X: hw/9pfs/xen-9p*
+X: hw/9pfs/9p-proxy*
 F: fsdev/
+X: fsdev/virtfs-proxy-helper.c
 F: docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst
 F: tests/qtest/virtio-9p-test.c
 F: tests/qtest/libqos/virtio-9p*
 T: git https://gitlab.com/gkurz/qemu.git 9p-next
 T: git https://github.com/cschoenebeck/qemu.git 9p.next
 
+virtio-9p-proxy
+F: hw/9pfs/9p-proxy*
+F: fsdev/virtfs-proxy-helper.c
+S: Obsolete
+
 virtio-blk
 M: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
 L: qemu-block@nongnu.org
diff --git a/docs/about/deprecated.rst b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
index 0743459862..9b2c780365 100644
--- a/docs/about/deprecated.rst
+++ b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
@@ -343,6 +343,23 @@ the addition of volatile memory support, it is now necessary to distinguish
 between persistent and volatile memory backends.  As such, memdev is deprecated
 in favor of persistent-memdev.
 
+``-fsdev proxy`` and ``-virtfs proxy`` (since 8.1)
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The 9p ``proxy`` filesystem backend driver has been deprecated and will be
+removed in a future version of QEMU. Please use ``-fsdev local`` or
+``-virtfs local`` for using the ``local`` 9p filesystem backend instead.
+
+The 9p ``proxy`` backend was originally developed as an alternative to the 9p
+``local`` backend. The idea was to enhance security by dispatching actual low
+level filesystem operations from 9p server (QEMU process) over to a separate
+process (the virtfs-proxy-helper binary). However this alternative never gained
+momentum. The proxy backend is much slower than the local backend, hasn't seen
+any development in years, and showed to be less secure, especially due to the
+fact that its helper daemon must be run as root, whereas with the local backend
+QEMU is typically run as unprivileged user and allows to tighten behaviour by
+mapping permissions et al.
+
 
 Block device options
 ''''''''''''''''''''
diff --git a/fsdev/qemu-fsdev.c b/fsdev/qemu-fsdev.c
index 3da64e9f72..242f54ab49 100644
--- a/fsdev/qemu-fsdev.c
+++ b/fsdev/qemu-fsdev.c
@@ -133,6 +133,11 @@ int qemu_fsdev_add(QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
     }
 
     if (fsdriver) {
+        if (strncmp(fsdriver, "proxy", 5) == 0) {
+            warn_report("'-fsdev proxy' is deprecated, use '-fsdev local' "
+                        "instead");
+        }
+
         for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(FsDrivers); i++) {
             if (strcmp(FsDrivers[i].name, fsdriver) == 0) {
                 break;
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 34306a6205..05c01b72bb 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -4170,7 +4170,7 @@ if have_block
   summary_info += {'Block whitelist (ro)': get_option('block_drv_ro_whitelist')}
   summary_info += {'Use block whitelist in tools': get_option('block_drv_whitelist_in_tools')}
   summary_info += {'VirtFS (9P) support':    have_virtfs}
-  summary_info += {'VirtFS (9P) Proxy Helper support': have_virtfs_proxy_helper}
+  summary_info += {'VirtFS (9P) Proxy Helper support (deprecated)': have_virtfs_proxy_helper}
   summary_info += {'Live block migration': config_host_data.get('CONFIG_LIVE_BLOCK_MIGRATION')}
   summary_info += {'replication support': config_host_data.get('CONFIG_REPLICATION')}
   summary_info += {'bochs support':     get_option('bochs').allowed()}
diff --git a/softmmu/vl.c b/softmmu/vl.c
index b0b96f67fa..e60648b591 100644
--- a/softmmu/vl.c
+++ b/softmmu/vl.c
@@ -3102,6 +3102,11 @@ void qemu_init(int argc, char **argv)
                     error_report("Usage: -virtfs fsdriver,mount_tag=tag");
                     exit(1);
                 }
+                if (strncmp(qemu_opt_get(opts, "fsdriver"), "proxy", 5) == 0) {
+                    warn_report("'-virtfs proxy' is deprecated, use "
+                                "'-virtfs local' instead");
+                }
+
                 fsdev = qemu_opts_create(qemu_find_opts("fsdev"),
                                          qemu_opts_id(opts) ?:
                                          qemu_opt_get(opts, "mount_tag"),
