SSH Reverse Tunnel and SOCKS Proxy Tools

Tools for creating and managing SSH reverse tunnels and SOCKS proxies

Modern SSH Reverse Tunnel using systemd.
SOCKS5 Proxy tools.

For the old outdated wrapper to autossh, read on. But this is most likely NOT what you want!

Old wrapper using Autossh and Desktop Indicator

A wrapper to `autossh` with a handy desktop indicator

Installing

git clone 'https://github.com/MestreLion/ssh-reverse-tunnel.git'
ssh-reverse-tunnel/install

This will:

Install autossh on Debian/Ubuntu systems, if needed. (will use sudo and prompt for password)
Symlink executables to XDG_BIN_HOME, by default ~/.local/bin
Install menu entry (.desktop file) and desktop icons for the indicator
Set the indicator to start automatically on desktop login.
Create a blank config file if it's missing, by default at ~/.config/ssh-reverse-tunnel.conf

Usage

Initial configuration

Before fist run, edit your config file at ~/.config/ssh-reverse-tunnel.conf and fill in your connection details.
On first run, ssh-reverse-tunnel will create a password-less SSH key pair at ~/.ssh/id_rsa.ssh-reverse-tunnel.nopassword, (with its comment set as ${USER}.ssh-reverse-tunnel.nopassword@${HOSTNAME}), and upload the public key to the configured server. This is the recommended way of running autossh, it creates permanent tunnels non-interactively, otherwise it would kind of defeat the whole point of this.

Command-line

Run:

$ ssh-reverse-tunnel  # implicit --start

That's it, simple as that. Once configured it just works.

It reads the config file and invoke autossh, setting its pid file to ~/.ssh/ssh-reverse-tunnel.pid so its process can be managed / queried / killed. It's also silent on success, like well-behaved *nix tools are (or should be). Does not block, as once connected autossh is configured to set itself as a daemon and runs on the background.

Running it again will close existing connections and re-connect. Useful after editing config.

Query status:

$ ssh-reverse-tunnel --status   # -s works too
31642 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/lib/autossh/autossh --
-N -T -i /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.ssh-reverse-tunnel.nopassword server
-R 10022:localhost:22
-R 10080:localhost:80
-R 10443:localhost:443

Looks familiar? Yes, this is the output of ps. Lame but handy. Line breaks not included, sorry. If not connected it will have no output and set a non-zero exit status.

Close:

$ ssh-reverse-tunnel --close   # or -c, --stop, --quit. So many options!

Need help?

$ ssh-reverse-tunnel --help
Create or close multiple SSH reverse tunnels
 Usage: ssh-reverse-tunnel [--close|--status]

Not very useful, I know. Patches for a man page are welcome!

Indicator app

It comes with a sweet indicator app with gorgeous icons!

Familiar again, huh?

^{Yes, this is a fake example, I wasn't really connected to user@example.com.
But the conveniently placed line breaks are for real now.}

FAQ

What the hell are "SSH reverse tunnels", and why would I need them?
- A very good question! That, unfortunately will be unanswered by now. But take a look at some nice tutorials, or google it like I just did.
What is this autossh you mention all over the place?
- You really don't like Google, do you? You can always use DuckDuckGo if you want. Or, for the lazy ones: autossh website
What about the config file? What is the format, syntax and options?
- Yeah. that one does deserve some documentation. Now I am the lazy one. Maybe next commit perhaps. But it's a plain key=value text that is sourced by bash, I'm sure you can figure it out.
I don't want it to create a new, password-less SSH keypair to connect to my server, that is a huge security vulnerability! I want to use my own keys!
- I totally agree! Well, just set keyfile in the config file to your favorite keypair prior to running ssh-reverse-tunnel for the first time. Or set it to an empty string and it will use your default keypair (or the one configured in ~/.ssh/config, if you did so). But unless you have an SSH Agent, and even if so, you might have trouble with the indicator app and/or the daemonized autossh. It will also prevent you from creating your tunnels non-interactively, for instance on boot time, with cron, etc.

Contributing

Patches are welcome! Fork, hack, request pull!

If you find a bug or have any enhancement request, please open a new issue

Author

Rodrigo Silva (MestreLion) linux@rodrigosilva.com

License and Copyright

Copyright (C) 2019 Rodrigo Silva (MestreLion) <linux@rodrigosilva.com>.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

MestreLion/ssh-reverse-tunnel