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Reverse SSH Tunnel Guide

This brief guide outlines how to establish a reverse SSH tunnel from a local machine, such as a Raspberry Pi, to a remote server. This allows for remote access to api running on the local machine, particularly using celluar network or public Wi-Fi. I have accomplished some IoT projects that required such a thing, and I needed minimal hassle with network configuration. I needed a solution that was easy to implement, and surprisingly, it was indeed straightforward.

Prerequisites (I think it's obvious, but well..)

  • Access to a terminal on the local machine and the remote server.
  • SSH access to the remote server.
  • A service running on the local machine that you wish to access remotely.

1. Obtain Local IP Address

First, find the local IP address of your machine. This is necessary to correctly route the SSH tunnel.

For Linux and macOS:

ip addr show

Or, for a more specific interface, such as Wi-Fi (often wlan0 on Linux or en0 on macOS):

ip addr show wlan0

Or on macOS, in most cases:

ipconfig getifaddr en0

Note: you can check another ip, dependent on your local network type.

2. Establish Reverse SSH Tunnel

Use the SSH command to create a reverse tunnel from the local machine to the server. Replace , , , and @ with your specific details.

ssh -R <RemotePort>:<LocalIP>:<LocalPort> <ServerUser>@<ServerIP>
  • : The port on your local machine you're forwarding.
  • : The local IP address of your machine.
  • : The port on the server to listen on.
  • : Your username on the server.
  • : The IP address or hostname of your server.
  1. Check the Connection

To verify the tunnel is working, you can list these listening ports on the server:

sudo ss -tuln | grep <RemotePort>

Or, if ss is not working:

sudo netstat -tuln | grep <RemotePort>

Note: You should see the server listening on to verify.

  1. Run Server on Local Machine

Ensure your service (e.g., a web server) is running on on your local machine. This service can now be accessed via on your server. Just don't mess up the port.

Closing the SSH Tunnel

To close the tunnel, simply exit the SSH session:

  • If you're in an interactive SSH session, type exit and press Enter.
  • If the SSH command was run in the background, find the process with ps aux | grep ssh and kill it with kill .

That's it.