Man page of SSLH

SSLH

Section: (8)
Updated: 2011-01-16
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NAME

 sslh - ssl/ssh multiplexer

 

SYNOPSIS

sslh [ -t num ] [-p listening address] [-l target address for SSL] [-s target address for SSH] [-u username] [-P pidfile] [-v] [-i] [-V] [-f]  

DESCRIPTION

sslh lets one accept both HTTPS and SSH connections on the same port. It makes it possible to connect to an SSH server on port 443 (e.g. from inside a corporate firewall, which almost never block port 443) while still serving HTTPS on that port.

The idea is to have sslh listen to the external 443 port, accept the incoming connections, work out what type of connection it is, and then fordward to the appropriate server.  

Protocol detection

The protocol detection is made based on a small difference between SSL and SSH: SSH connections start by identifying each other's versions using clear text ``SSH-2.0'' strings (or equivalent version strings). This is defined in RFC4253, 4.2.

Two cases can occur: The client waits for the server to send its version string (``Shy'' client, which is the case of OpenSSH and Putty), or the client sends its version first (``Bold'' client, which is the case of Bitvise Tunnelier and ConnectBot).

sslh waits for some time for the incoming connection to send data. If it stays quiet after the timeout period, it is assumed to be a shy SSH client, and is connected to the SSH server. Otherwise, sslh reads the first packet the client provides, and connects it to the SSH server if it starts with ``SSH-'', or connects it to the SSL server otherwise.  

Libwrap support

One drawback of sslh is that the ssh and httpd servers do not see the original IP address of the client anymore, as the connection is forwarded through sslh. sslh provides enough logging to circumvent that problem. However it is common to limit access to ssh using libwrap or tcpd. For this reason, sslh can be compiled to check SSH accesses against SSH access lists as defined in /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny.  

OPTIONS

-t num
Timeout before a connection is considered to be SSH. Default is 2s.
-p listening address
Interface and port on which to listen, e.g. foobar:443, where foobar is the name of an interface (typically the IP address on which the Internet connection ends up).

Defaults to 0.0.0.0:443 (listen to port 443 on all available interfaces).

-l target address for SSL
Interface and port on which to forward SSL connection, typically localhost:443.

Defaults to localhost:443 (this assumes you would configure your httpd process to listen to port 443).

Note that you can set sslh to listen on ext_ip:443 and httpd to listen on localhost:443: this allows clients inside your network to just connect directly to httpd.

-s target address for SSH
Interface and port on which to forward SSH connection, defaults to localhost:22.
-v
Increase verboseness.
-V
Prints sslh version.
-u username
Requires to run under the specified username. Defaults to nobody (which is not perfect --- ideally sslh should run under its own UID).
-P pidfile
Specifies the file in which to write the PID of the main server. Defaults to /var/run/sslh.pid.
-i
Runs as an inetd server. Options -P (PID file), -p (listen address), -u (user) are ignored.
-f
Runs in foreground. The server will not fork and will remain connected to the terminal. Messages normally sent to syslog will also be sent to stderr.
 

FILES

/etc/init.d/sslh
Start-up script. The standard actions start, stop and restart are supported.
/etc/default/sslh
Server configuration. These are environment variables loaded by the start-up script and passed to sslh as command-line arguments. Refer to the OPTIONS section for a detailed explanation of the variables used by sslh.
 

SEE ALSO

Last version available from <http://www.rutschle.net/tech/sslh>, and can be tracked from <http://freshmeat.net/projects/sslh/>.  

AUTHOR

Written by Yves Rutschle


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
Protocol detection
Libwrap support
OPTIONS
FILES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 07:34:21 GMT, September 13, 2011


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