What's a good SSH tunneling client for OS X?

Question

I've been using SSH Tunnel manager to easily set up and stop port tunneling over SSH to various servers at my company. That saved me the pain of opening up a new terminal window which will hang out there just for the sake of having a tunnel open.

This worked great (well , sort of) but SSH Tunnel Manager is a PowerPC application. With Lion, it is not supported any more.

What is a good replacement?

score 59 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 06 '15 at 10:14

59

Why not just use an SSH Tunnel via OSX's built in Terminal?...

Launch an SSH tunnel

To initiate your SSH tunnel, simply open Mac OSX Terminal.app and connect to your remote server via SSH with the following flags:

ssh -D 8080 -C -N username@example.com

This will launch our SSH tunnel on port 8080 and route all traffic (securely) through the server at example.com.

Browse the Web

Now, let’s start browsing the web using with your new SSH Tunnel (Chrome):

Open Google Chrome
Select ‘Chrome’ up the top left
Select ‘Preferences’
Select ‘Show advanced settings…’
Select ‘Change proxy settings…’
Select ‘SOCKS Proxy’
Enter ’127.0.0.1′
Enter port ’8080′
Save changes by selecting ‘OK’

edited Nov 06 '15 at 10:14

klanomath

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answered Nov 28 '14 at 23:32

jtrag

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14

The question is specifically how to avoid doing all that, because it's annoying when you have to do it frequently. – Nick Matteo Oct 07 '15 at 15:38
5

Not really, since you can launch the terminal and run the command in the background, meaning you can just close the terminal. Can be set up as a script as well, instead of using a 3rd party app. – Efren Jun 06 '17 at 06:16
1

doing through the command line is ok when you have 1 tunnel to run. When people is looking for a manager, they are planing to run several tunnels at the same time. Which is better to have something that will have all your tunnels set up and indications whether they are open or not – Jose Areas Jan 24 '21 at 21:12

score 25 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 12 '15 at 20:22

25

Try Secure Pipes: http://www.opoet.com It's free software and I'm looking to get more people using it.

edited Jan 12 '15 at 20:22

jherran

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answered Jul 28 '14 at 13:51

Secure Pipes

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Welcome to Ask Different! Please see the help center regarding self-promotion. – grg Jul 28 '14 at 13:53
Secure Pipes worked for me after creating ssh symlink in a place it was trying to use - sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/ssh /usr/bin/ssh. I'm on OS X 10.9.5. Good thing is ability to edit UUID.ssh_config file in ~/Library/Application Support/Secure Pipes directory. I was able to enable Kerberos auth this way. The only thing I wish the config would not be overwritten each time I restart the program (worked around by sudo chown root UUID.ssh_config). – Mike Nov 27 '14 at 00:33
1

Secure Pipes works well (At least for local forwards) in El Capitan. – Ranhiru Jude Cooray Apr 19 '16 at 15:39
1

Cool utility! Works flawless on macOS Sierra. – Nirmal Oct 19 '16 at 03:29
1

Can this create multiple tunnels over the same SSH connection? UI doesn't look like it can – antak Aug 03 '18 at 07:04
1

@antak Yeah, it cannot which is I am now uninstalling it. – vikas027 Sep 25 '18 at 22:28
+100 single connection worked for me very easily (y). Thanks a lot – IsmailS Jun 20 '19 at 19:39
Works perfectly for me on Catalina 10.15.4. tried some others and would recommend this one! – solaire May 03 '20 at 11:41

Ian C. · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-19T17:40:01.483

25

SSHTunnel is a free, cocoa-based UI for SSH tunnel management. Works on 10.5 and up. It hasn't been updated in a while but the code that's there is reasonably stable. It's worked well for me in the past.

SSHTunnel

edited Jul 19 '16 at 17:40

answered Jul 05 '11 at 14:47

Ian C.

45,969

Has this been tested under Lion? – dustmachine Aug 12 '11 at 20:44
I haven't tried it yet. – Ian C. Aug 12 '11 at 21:05
Had a chance to try it today. Yes, it still works for me in Lion (10.6.0). – Ian C. Aug 18 '11 at 16:43
@Ian 10.6.0 isn't Lion - it's Snow Leopard. – Cajunluke Oct 04 '11 at 01:13
@CajunLuke Typo. Caught too late to edit the comment. 10.7.0 was what I used. – Ian C. Oct 04 '11 at 03:12
@Ian I see - my apologies. – Cajunluke Oct 04 '11 at 05:01
7

It doesn't work on OS X 10.8.x – bogdan Jan 07 '13 at 17:56
@bogdan - Check out "SSH Tunnel" on the Mac App Store. It's a paid App, but I just bought it and love it (see related answer in this thread) – clearlight Apr 23 '17 at 14:05

score 17 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 24 '23 at 17:00

17

Core Tunnel baked by Codinn is a tunnel manager that intuitive and easy to use:

Support local, remote and dynamic port forwarding
Compatible with OpenSSH
Integrated with macOS Keychain
Automatic reconnect
Advanced config editor
Status icon in menu bar
Custom tags
Importing and exporting

edited Dec 24 '23 at 17:00

Blaise

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answered Nov 05 '15 at 07:15

Yang.Y

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Thanks for that trial. ps aux | grep ssh has nothing. How didi you start the tunnel? – hbrls Dec 30 '15 at 10:08
@hbrls Since SSH Tunnel is based on an excellent SSH library - libssh :) BTW, we also have open-sourced our core component SSHKitCore, which is based on libssh. – Yang.Y Dec 30 '15 at 12:35
1

Just bought this paid app and love it. 63 5-star reviews (counting all versions of the app) on the Apple Mac App Store. It gorgeous and intuitive, very Mac-specific solution, and a good way to manage tunnels so I don't have to keep track of scripts and ensure they run at boot, etc... And BTW, using this. I was able to create a tunnel to get around CyberDuck's frustration limitation (as recent as April 2017) in that it doesn't seem to support ~/.ssh/config ProxyCommand option. Technically speaking no app is required for that workaround but it sure makes it convenient! – clearlight Apr 23 '17 at 14:00

score 13 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 18 '11 at 01:19

13

SSH Tunnel Manager is now in the Mac App Store! So, you can run it on Lion.

edited Aug 18 '11 at 01:19

bmike

235,889

answered Aug 17 '11 at 23:25

Jesse

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Unreliable on 10.8, works only sometimes. – sorin Jan 12 '13 at 16:08
It doesn't support local redirection for ports < 1024 because that requires root privileges and the app doesn't support that yet :( – Ian Dunn May 24 '13 at 22:59
2

Not available in the Australian app store $#%! – oden Jun 28 '16 at 14:36
2

I get "Not available in the US store" (OS X 10.11.5) – Ian C. Jul 19 '16 at 17:39

score 6 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 01 '19 at 14:34

6

I strongly recommend using sshuttle. It's very handy.

edited Oct 01 '19 at 14:34

anki

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answered Jun 04 '17 at 07:22

Bat

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The last commit was made 17 days ago! The project is transferred, check here: https://github.com/sshuttle/sshuttle @JonathanCross – Bat Oct 01 '19 at 02:11

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 01 '19 at 12:11

On the terminal:

$ ssh -N -L SOURCE-PORT:127.0.0.1:DESTINATION-PORT USER@SERVER-IP

If you use ssh with a private key just type:

$ ssh -N -L SOURCE-PORT:127.0.0.1:DESTINATION-PORT -i KEYFILE USER@SERVER-IP

e.g.

$ ssh -N -L 8888:127.0.0.1:80 -i Documents/default.pem root@123.123.123.123

After that, you can browse using the tunnel. e.g. on the browser: http://127.0.0.1:8888

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 15 '15 at 17:00

5

I found Coccinellida, it works on Lion but it's new and a bit buggy : /

edited Mar 15 '15 at 17:00

Ian C.

45,969

answered Mar 19 '13 at 03:30

Indolering

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 18 '11 at 07:38

3

You could also check out Meerkat.

answered Aug 18 '11 at 07:38

jtbandes

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Meerkat is giving me problems under Lion. – Oct 04 '11 at 01:04
2

Commercial and broken. – bogdan Jan 07 '13 at 18:03

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 09 '15 at 18:28

2

SSH Tunnel Manager is still alive and supported.

Sorry about the delay though, it is not compatible with El Capitan.

http://projects.tynsoe.org/stm/

answered Nov 09 '15 at 18:28

Yann Bizeul

174

score 2 · Answer 11 · edited Oct 04 '11 at 05:24

2

I am using iSSH in Lion, which is a front-end application to the command line application “ssh”. It provides a quick and easy way to start an SSH connection to a remote computer.

edited Oct 04 '11 at 05:24

Jason Salaz

24,471

answered Aug 18 '11 at 05:26

kukoo

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3

iSSH aleays asks for a password so it doesn't work with SSH keys. – bogdan Jan 07 '13 at 17:52

Dean · Answer 12 · 2021-10-21T03:41:03.277

I have an open-source and secure solution with XBar.

Install XBar:

https://xbarapp.com

Install this ssh-tunnelling plugin:

https://github.com/matryer/xbar-plugins/blob/main/Network/ssh-tunnel.1s.sh

You do need to edit the configuration for one time, but it's not that complicated:

Configure your ssh-tunnel config in your ~/.ssh/config (I use something like below):

 Host *
   AddKeysToAgent yes
   UseKeychain yes
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
   IdentitiesOnly yes
 Host some_name
   Hostname host_ip_or_url_etc
   Port 22
   User your_username
   LocalForward 5999 127.0.0.1:5900

Don't forget to auto-start the ssh-agent:

$ ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 22 '22 at 02:44

SSH Proxy on Mac App Store. It's simple, and it has the option to switch between Use Proxy for All Sites and Direct Internet Connection while SSH Tunneling is still connected. That way I don't have to clear the socks proxy from the browser whenever I need direct internet access.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 27 '13 at 14:28

0

iSSH can not remember my password. Coccinellida can save password. But it freezed my Mountain Lion sometimes ...

Shimo is good, but it IS commercial.

answered Mar 27 '13 at 14:28

flyingme

1

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 21 '13 at 18:11

TunnelerX is simple and easy to use, focused on SSH SOCKS proxy. It doesn't exactly cover the requirement to manage several servers, as you can only add one server, although, it's usually enough for people looking to use an external box as proxy. It works fine under Mountain Lion.

What's a good SSH tunneling client for OS X?

15 Answers15

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