SSH Reverse Tunneling
SSH reverse tunneling is a powerful tool that enables secure remote access to systems or services that are behind firewalls or NATs (Network Address Translation). It is often used to provide external access to local systems and services without modifying the network’s security settings. In this detailed guide, we will break down SSH reverse tunneling, explain its applications, highlight security practices, and discuss alternatives. We will then discuss how Pinggy uses SSH reverse tunneling to share applications and services from localhost.
SSH (Secure Shell) reverse tunneling allows an external machine to connect to a local machine, even if that local machine is behind a firewall or doesn’t have a public-facing IP address. Unlike typical SSH port forwarding, where traffic to a port in the local system is forwarded outward to a remote system, reverse tunneling sends traffic from the remote system back to your local machine.
The basic principle of reverse SSH tunneling is to create a connection from a remote machine (which could be a server in the cloud) to your local machine using SSH, forwarding a port from the remote system back to a service running on your local system.
