Can I combine these SSH tunneling commands into one command? - ssh

I have a two step solution to access a certain server via SSH:
Step 1, in bash:
ssh -L 127.0.0.1:5000:server2.com:22 server1.com
Step 2, in a new bash session:
ssh -P 5000 127.0.0.1 # This gets me into server2.com
Q1: Is there any way I can combine these two commands into one ssh command, and...
Q2: can I set up one single host entry in my ~/.ssh/config for this connection (allowing me to just type e.g. ssh my-tunnel)?
I suppose this comes down to chaining the hosts in some way. I am new to this and can't quite figure this out...

I came accross this question and was surprised by the fact that ssh supports jump hosts.
You can use single command to connect to the target server while ssh will take care about intermediate hop.
ssh -J server1.com server2.com
-J [user#]host[:port]
Connect to the target host by first making a ssh connection to the jump host and then establishing a TCP
forwarding to the ultimate destination from there. Multiple jump hops may be specified separated by
comma characters. This is a shortcut to specify a ProxyJump configuration directive
And here is the corresponding jump host configuration for SSH config:
Host jumphost
Hostname server1.com
User $YOUR_USERNAME
Port 22
Host my-tunnel
Hostname server2.com
User $YOUR_USERNAME
Port 22
ProxyJump jumphost
...enabling the command: ssh my-tunnel

Related

GitLab CI runner with SSH ProxyJump

I have the following settings in my /etc/ssh/ssh_config file:
Host serverA
User idA
Host serverB
User idB
ProxyJump serverA
I’ve also copied the public keys, so if I locally run ssh serverB I’m correctly connected to serverB as idB through serverA.
Now, here’s my runner configuration in /etc/gitlab-runner/config.toml:
[[runners]]
name = "ssh-runner-1"
url = "http://my-cicd-server"
token = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
executor = "ssh"
[runners.custom_build_dir]
[runners.cache]
[runners.cache.s3]
[runners.cache.gcs]
[runners.cache.azure]
[runners.ssh]
user = "idB"
host = "serverB"
identity_file = "/home/gitlab-runner/.ssh/id_ed25519"
When I run a CI/CD job on this runner I get a « connection refused » error:
ERROR: Preparation failed: ssh command Connect() error: ssh Dial() error: dial tcp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:22: connect: connection refused
I conclude that the ProxyJump configuration is not applied, and since the machine with the runner can’t directly connect to serverB, I get denied access.
How can I configure the runner to apply the proxy jump configuration?
The GitLab runner uses a Go-based SSH client. It does not respect your system SSH configuration and does not have the same configurability as the standard ssh (usually OpenSSH) packages you typically find installed in operating system distributions or similar packages.
The Go client does not support the ProxyJump configuration.
Your best bet would probably be to configure a tunneled connection where your entrypoint does not require SSH configuration options that are not supported.
Local port forwarding
One way might be to open a local port-forwarding tunnel, then in your GitLab configuration, specify the host as localhost and port as the forwarded port.
For example:
Open the tunnel -- local port 2222 forwards to port 22 on ServerB via ssh connection through ServerA
ssh -L 2222:ServerB:22 -N ServerA
Configure runner to use the tunnel:
...
[runners.ssh]
host = "localhost"
port = 2222
...
With this approach, you may have to write some automation on your server to restore the tunnel connection in the event it is broken. How you might do this depends on your operating system and preferred service manager. Or use a tool like autossh
This is basically how the ProxyJump configuration works under the hood.
IP/Port forwarding system
A similar approach would be to have your jump system automatically forward connections to the desired destination. This might be something like a software firewall rule (e.g. using iptables routing rules). That way the forwarding occurs transparently. Then simply tell the runner to target ServerA and the traffic will be transparently moved to ServerB.
This approach is more reliable, since you won't have to do anything to keep the tunnel alive if it ever drops. However, the configuration is much more complex and requires a static IP for ServerB.
For example, on ServerA, assuming the IP of ServerB is 10.10.10.10 the following iptables configuration could be used:
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 2222 -j DNAT --to-destination 10.10.10.10:22
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE
reference.
Then the GitLab runner configuration:
...
[runners.ssh]
host = "ServerA"
port = 2222
...
Lastly, it may also be useful to know that disable_strict_host_key_checking is an undocumented configuration option for the runner as well, in the event you need this.

ssh through proxy via dynamic port forwarding

I am trying to use dynamic port forwarding to ssh to various servers in my university from home.
I used local port forwarding successfully:
ssh -L 10001:server1:22 my_user#proxy_server
ssh -p 127.0.0.1:10001
but I am using 12 servers, and I'd like to create only one tunnel (dynamic).
Is it possible to configure ssh to use a SOCKS proxy?
You can add the '-L' option several times to have more then one forwarding through one ssh connection.
Like
ssh -L 10001:server_1:22 -L10002:server_2:22 -L ... my_user#proxy_server

SSH tunnel to Database from two level of jump server with different keys

I have database server on AWS and from my PC i have to access that database using ssh tunneling for below scenario.
PC --> Jump1 [x.pem, port:22] --> Jump2 [y.pem, port:443] --> mysqldb:3306
For this kind of scenarios, Config File is the best way to do it.
Run
$ touch ~/.ssh/config
Add host entries in a config file.
Host <Host_Name>
HostName <URL/IP of Jump2>
User <>
Port <>
Identityfile <yyy.pem>
StrictHostKeyChecking no
ProxyCommand ssh -i <xxx.pem> <user>#<IP/DNS of Jump1> nc %h %p 2> /dev/null
and then to create a tunnel
$ ssh <local_port>:DB_URL:<DB PORT> <Host_name>
that's it.
Now you can connect to DB using
localhost:<local_port>
If you already have your public keys in authorized_keys on respective hosts
then you can use -J directive.
like this:
ssh -J user1#host1 user2#host2
If you have more than one jump host you can concatenate it inside of -J directive like this:
ssh -J user1#host1,user2#host2,user(n-1)#host(n-1) userN#hostN
I also using port forwarding so it takes your port data all the way to the last site and then connect to specific site like this:
ssh -L 8080:microsoft.com:80 -J user1#host1 user2#host2
It will create unencrypted connection only from host2 to microsoft.com:80

Connecting to a remote server from local machine via ssh-tunnel

I am running Ansible on my machine. And my machine does not have ssh access to the remote machine. Port 22 connection originating from local machine are blocked by the institute firewall. But I have access to a machine (ssh-tunnel), through which I can login to the remote machine. Now is there a way we can run ansible playbook from local machine on remote hosts.
In a way is it possible to make Ansible/ssh connect to the remote machine, via ssh-tunnel. But not exactly login to ssh-tunnel. The connection will pass through the tunnel.
Other way is I can install ansible on ssh-tunnel, but that is not the desired and run plays from there. But that would not be a desired solution.
Please let me know if this is possible.
There are two ways to achieve this without install the Ansible on the ssh-tunnel machine.
Solution#1:
Use these variables in your inventory:
[remote_machine]
remote ansible_ssh_host=127.0.0.1 ansible_ssh_port=2222 ansible_ssh_user='username' ansible_ssh_private_key_file='/home/user/private_key'
hope you understand above parameters, if need help please ask in comments
Solution#2:
Create ~/.ssh/config file and add the following parameters:
####### Access to the Private Server through ssh-tunnel/bastion ########
Host ssh-tunnel-server
HostName x.x.x.x
StrictHostKeyChecking no
User username
ForwardAgent yes
Host private-server
HostName y.y.y.y
StrictHostKeyChecking no
User username
ProxyCommand ssh -q ssh-tunnel-server nc -q0 %h %p
Hope that help you, if you need any help, feel free to ask
No request to install ansible on the jump and remote servers, ansible is ssh service only tool :-)
First make sure you can work it directly with SSH Tunnel.
On local machine (Local_A), you can login to Remote machine (Remote_B) via jump box (Jump_C).
login server Local_A
ssh -f user#remote_B -L 2000:Jump_C:22 -N
The other options are:
-f tells ssh to background itself after it authenticates, so you don't have to sit around running something on the remote server for the tunnel to remain alive.
-N says that you want an SSH connection, but you don't actually want to run any remote commands. If all you're creating is a tunnel, then including this option saves resources.
-L [bind_address:]port:host:hostport
Specifies that the given port on the local (client) host is to be forwarded to the given host and port on the remote side.
There will be a password challenge unless you have set up DSA or RSA keys for a passwordless login.
There are lots of documents teaching you how to do the ssh tunnel.
Then try below ansible command from Local_A:
ansible -vvvv remote_B -m shell -a 'hostname -f' --ssh-extra-args="-L 2000:Jump_C:22"
You should see the remote_B hostname. Let me know the result.
Let's say you can ssh into x.x.x.x from your local machine, and ssh into y.y.y.y from x.x.x.x, while y.y.y.y is the target of your ansible playbook.
inventory:
[target]
y.y.y.y
playbook.yml
---
- hosts: target
tasks: ...
Run:
ansible-playbook --ssh-common-args="-o ProxyCommand='ssh -W %h:%p root#x.x.x.x'" -i inventory playbook.yml

Connecting MySQL to server through another server by SSH

Setup:
My computer (linux / unix) has an arbitrary IP address
I can connect to a central linux server which has a static ip
Remote linux systems are set up so they only respond to central server IP address on port 22
I want to port forward through the central server so I can use MySQLWorkbench and make python scripting connections on port 3306 to the remote systems.
Ideally, I would like the syntax for ssh command to make the port forwarding work;
Suppose I want to forward local port 3307 to 3306 on the remote system. Assume my ip is x.x.x.x, the central server IP is y.y.y.y, and the remote system IP is z.z.z.z;
I think it has something to do with ssh -L but I can only forward to the central server so far. Maybe I need to connect to the central server, set up forwarding there, then set up forwarding on my machine? I think functionality exists to do it with a single command using ssh.
If this is a duplicate, it should not be marked as such because without knowing what magic keyword to search for, you can't find the duplicate;
Clarification: port 3306 is NOT open on the remote server. Only 22
ssh -L :3307:z.z.z.z:3306 user#y.y.y.y -Nf
Works fine
or
ssh -L 3307:z.z.z.z:3306 user#y.y.y.y -Nf
To only bind to x.x.x.x's localhost
The first example binds to all interfaces
edit...
Just seen that z.z.z.z only has port 22 open.
on y.y.y.y you will also need to have a local port open
run on y.y.y.y
ssh -L 3307:localhost:3306 user#z.z.z.z -Nf
then on x.x.x.x
ssh -L 3307:localhost:3307 user#y.y.y.y -Nf
run these commands in a screen for best results
You can actually condense these 2 commands together
ssh -L 3307:localhost:3307 user#y.y.y.y -f 'ssh -L 3307:localhost:3306 user#z.z.z.z -Nf'
ssh -L <local-port-to-listen>:<remote-host>:<remote-port>
The ‘L’ switch indicates that a local port forward is need to be created
Best method is to create the tunnel using putty (ssh client). so you can start the shell, and it will create the ssh tunnel for you. this is a good reference
https://howto.ccs.neu.edu/howto/windows/ssh-port-tunneling-with-putty/