Usage#

Note

For information on usage with Windows, see the Microsoft Windows section. For information on using the TProxy method, see the TPROXY section.

Forward all traffic:

sshuttle -r username@sshserver 0.0.0.0/0
  • Use the sshuttle -r parameter to specify a remote server. On some systems, you may also need to use the sshuttle -x parameter to exclude sshserver or sshserver:22 so that your local machine can communicate directly to sshserver without it being redirected by sshuttle.

  • By default sshuttle will automatically choose a method to use. Override with the sshuttle --method parameter.

  • There is a shortcut for 0.0.0.0/0 for those that value their wrists:

    sshuttle -r username@sshserver 0/0
    
  • For ‘My VPN broke and need a temporary solution FAST to access local IPv4 addresses’:

    sshuttle --dns -NHr username@sshserver 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/12 192.168.0.0/16
    

If you would also like your DNS queries to be proxied through the DNS server of the server you are connect to:

sshuttle --dns -r username@sshserver 0/0

The above is probably what you want to use to prevent local network attacks such as Firesheep and friends. See the documentation for the sshuttle --dns parameter.

(You may be prompted for one or more passwords; first, the local password to become root using sudo, and then the remote ssh password. Or you might have sudo and ssh set up to not require passwords, in which case you won’t be prompted at all.)

Usage Notes#

That’s it! Now your local machine can access the remote network as if you were right there. And if your “client” machine is a router, everyone on your local network can make connections to your remote network.

You don’t need to install sshuttle on the remote server; the remote server just needs to have python available. sshuttle will automatically upload and run its source code to the remote python interpreter.

This creates a transparent proxy server on your local machine for all IP addresses that match 0.0.0.0/0. (You can use more specific IP addresses if you want; use any number of IP addresses or subnets to change which addresses get proxied. Using 0.0.0.0/0 proxies everything, which is interesting if you don’t trust the people on your local network.)

Any TCP session you initiate to one of the proxied IP addresses will be captured by sshuttle and sent over an ssh session to the remote copy of sshuttle, which will then regenerate the connection on that end, and funnel the data back and forth through ssh.

Fun, right? A poor man’s instant VPN, and you don’t even have to have admin access on the server.

Sudoers File#

sshuttle can generate a sudoers.d file for Linux and MacOS. This allows one or more users to run sshuttle without entering the local sudo password. WARNING: This option is insecure because, with some cleverness, it also allows these users to run any command (via the –ssh-cmd option) as root without a password.

To print a sudo configuration file and see a suggested way to install it, run:

sshuttle --sudoers-no-modify

A custom user or group can be set with the sshuttle --sudoers-no-modify --sudoers-user {user_descriptor} option. Valid values for this vary based on how your system is configured. Values such as usernames, groups prepended with % and sudoers user aliases will work. See the sudoers manual for more information on valid user-specified actions. The option must be used with –sudoers-no-modify:

sshuttle --sudoers-no-modify --sudoers-user mike
sshuttle --sudoers-no-modify --sudoers-user %sudo