Awesome Tunneling

Stella Sebastian
Posted by Stella Sebastian February 26, 2022

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Tunneling

List of ngrok alternatives and other ngrok-like tunneling software and services. Focus on self-hosting.

The purpose of this list is to track and compare tunneling solutions. This is primarily targeted toward self-hosters and developers who want to do things like exposing a local webserver via a public domain name, with automatic HTTPS, even if behind a NAT or other restricted network.

The dream

I started this list because I’m looking for a simple tool/service that does the following:

  • Allows me to register a domain name and automatically points the records at the server running the tunnels.
  • Automatically sets up and manages HTTPS certificates (apex and subdomains) for the domain.
  • Provides a client tool that tunnels HTTP/TCP connections through the server without requiring root on the client.
  • Provides a simple GUI interface to allow me to map X domain/subdomain to Y port on Z client, and proxy all connections to that domain.

So far I haven’t found a tool that does all of this. In particular, while some of them can do automatic certs through Lets’s Encrypt, none of them integrate the domain registration and DNS management.

UPDATE: Since starting this list I found most of the other solutions to be either too complicated or making different tradeoffs than I would want. I have two of my own projects in this space:

  1. SirTunnel is I believe the minimal way of getting auto-HTTPS tunneled through to a private network. It’s just a 50-line Python script that leverages Caddy and OpenSSH, but you need to understand how it works to use it. This one is good for developers.
  2. boringproxy is my take on a comprehensive tunnel proxy solution. It’s in beta but currently solves almost everything I want except auto DNS management, and that’s planned. Once the server is running this is a very easy tool to use, and is targeted at non-developers.

Open source (at least with a reasonably permissive license)

  • frp  – Comprehensive open alternative to ngrok. Supports UDP, and has a P2P mode. I believe it uses a custom TCP protocol for multiplexing, which can either run over a single TCP connection or a connection pool.
  • ngrok 1.0  – Original version of ngrok. No longer developed in favor of the commercial 2.0 version.
  • localtunnel  – Written in node. Popular suggestion.
  • Teleport  – Comprehesive control plane tool, but also supports accessing apps behind NATs. Written in Go.
  • Nebula –  Peer-to-peer overlay network. Developed and used internally by Slack. Similar to Tailscale but completely open source. Doesn’t use WireGuard. Written in Go.
  • ZeroTier –  Layer 2 overlay network. They take decentralization seriously, and like to say “decentralize until it hurts, then centralize until it works.” Written in C++.
  • sshuttle  – Open source project originally from one of the founders of Tailscale. Server doesn’t require root; client does. Explicitly designed to avoid TCP-over-TCP issues.
  • chisel  – SSH under the hood, but still uses a custom client binary. Supports auto certs from LetsEncrypt. Written in Go.
  • expose  – ngrok alternative written in PHP.
  • Pritunl  – Seems quite comprehensive and complicated. OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IPSec support.
  • rathole  – Similar to frp, including the config format, but with improved performance. Low resource consumption. Hot reload. Written in Rust.
  • go-http-tunnel  – Uses a single HTTP/2 connection for muxing. Need to manually generate certs for server and clients.
  • sish  – Open source ngrok/serveo alternative. SSH-based but uses a custom server written in Go. Supports WebSocket tunneling.
  • tunnelto  – Open source (MIT). Written in Rust.
  • wstunnel  – Proxies over WebSockets. Focus on proxying from behind networks that block certain protocols. Written in Haskell with executables provided.
  • PageKite  – Comprehensive open source solution with hosted options.
  • Crowbar  – Tunnels TCP connections over HTTP GET and POST requests.
  • boringproxy  – Designed to be very easy to use. No config files. Clients can be remote-controlled through a simple WebUI and/or REST API on the server.
  • tunneller  – Open source. Written in Go.
  • jprq  – Proxies over WebSockets. Written in Python.
  • tunnel  – This one is a Golang library, not a program you can just run. However, it looks easy to use for creating custom solutions. Uses a single TCP socket, and yamux for multiplexing.
  • pgrok  – Fork of ngrok 1.0, with more recent commits.
  • SirTunnel  – Minimal, self-hosted, 0-config alternative to ngrok. Similar to sish but leverages Caddy+OpenSSH rather than custom server code.
  • docker-tunnel  – Simple Docker-based nginx+SSH solution.
  • remotemoe  – SSH-based, with custom golang server. Does some cool unique things. Instead of just plain tunnels, it drops you into a basic CLI UI that offers several useful commands interactively, such as adding a custom hostname. Also allows end-to-end encryption for both HTTPS and upstream SSH. Doesn’t appear to offer non-e2e HTTPS, ie no auto Let’s Encrypt support.
  • holepunch.io  – Has nice hosted solution. Uses SSH for muxing.
  • StaqLab Tunnel  – SSH-based. Client is open source. Server doesn’t appear to be.
  • tnnlink  – SSH-based. Golang. Not maintained.
  • Telebit – Written in JS. Code.
  • SSH-J.com – Public SSH Jump & Port Forwarding server. No software, no registration, just an anonymous SSH server for forwarding. Users are encouraged to use it for SSH exposure only, to preserve end-to-end encryption. No public ports, only in-SSH connectivity. Run ssh ssh-j.com and it will display usage information.
  • Ngrok-operator – Ngrok but integrated with Kubernetes, allows developers on private kubernetes to easily access their services via Ngrok.

Commercial/Closed source

  • ngrok 2.0 – Probably the gold standard and most popular. Closed source. Lots of features, including TLS and TCP tunnels. Doesn’t require root to run client.
  • CloudFlare Tunnel – Excellent free option. Nicely integrates tunneling with the rest of Cloudflare’s products, which include DNS and auto HTTPS. Client source code is Apache 2.0 licensed and written in Golang.
  • Tailscale  – Built on WireGuard. Easy to use. Doesn’t include an HTTPS proxy on the public side, but could be combined with nginx/Caddy/etc. Client code available with a BSD3 license + separate patents file.
  • Loophole – Offers end-to-end TLS encryption with the client automatically getting certs from Let’s Encrypt. QR codes for URL sharing. Client is open source. Can serve a local directory over WebDAV. MIT License. Written in Go.
  • localhost.run – Simple hosted SSH option. Supports custom domains for a cost.
  • Packetriot – Comprehensive alternative to ngrok. HTTP Inspector, Let’s Encrypt integration, doesn’t require root and Linux repos for apt, yum and dnf. Enterprise licenses and self-hosted option.
  • Hoppy – WireGuard-based. Provides static IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for your machines, which is a simple and useful level of abstraction. Targeted towards self-hosters and people behind NATs.
  • gw.run – Specifically focusing on securely exposing internal web apps to a group of people; not for publicly facing apps. Share access via email address then allow users to log in with common login providers like Google.
  • SSHReach.me – Paid SSH-based option. Uses a simple python script.
  • KubeSail – Company offering tunneling, dynamic DNS, and other services for self-hosting with Kubernetes.
  • inlets – Used to be open source; now focused on a polished commercial offering. Designed to work well with Kubernetes.
  • LocalToNet – Supports UDP. Free for a single tunnel. Paid supports custom domains.

Reference

Discussions

The Awesome Tunneling is a github repository by Anders Pitman

Source from
AWS S3 Bucket Weakness Discovery
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