Detour v.0.0.1

This script creates an SSH tunnel with local port forwarding for the specified domain entries. It also updates the /etc/hosts file and adds an alias with ifconfig, so that connections to the specified domains are possible.

Tested only on macos.

Example Usage

To get help for detour.py simply run python3 detour.py --help.

In order to get it going, you need 3 things:

SSH access to the machine
An input file, containing the host name and port for each domain.
Sudo access to edit the /etc/hosts file and use ifconfig commands.

1. Prepare Input File

The input file is a newline separted file containing the destination hosts and their ports, for example a file.txt. If no file is given as input, by default the script uses the file.txt in the local directory.

private.server.com:8443
xyz.server.com:8443
ssh.cool.net:9999

2. Using Detour

Issue start to open an SSH tunnel like this:

$ sudo python3 detour.py start -i ./file.txt -s username@myserver.com

The ./file.txt is the Input File with the specified domain entries.

In order to stop the SSH tunnel and clear up the /etc/hosts, use stop:

$ sudo python3 detour.py stop -i ./file.txt -s username@myserver.com

Known issues

You need your public key for the SSH connection at ~/.ssh/id_rsa in order to connect

If you run start twice, you'll have to either reboot or kill the first session:

# Note the PID of the stale SSH session
$ ps aux | grep ssh
$ sudo kill <PID of ssh session>

TODO:

Add --k flag for optionaly specifying public ssh key.
Figure out a way to use sudo only for the commands that require it - editing /etc/hosts/ and calling ifconfig. Might need to refactor code in multiple files.
Handle errors more appropriately - e.g. running start twice shouldn't crash the app.
Store the ssh socket file ssh-control-socket somewhere in /tmp.
Test on Ubuntu.
Port to Windows (add checks for /etc/hosts and ifconfig commands)
Make the stop command not required - e.g. run in interactive mode and kill with CTRL+C.
Add a status command that shows more info for the current SSH session - ssh sockets supports this.
Maybe refactor to use Paramiko?
Use venv and setuptools to package the app like the Click guys suggest, possibly distribute via pip.
Use a proper color formatting scheme.

senart / detour