sslh/sslh.pod

# I'm just not gonna write troff :-)

=head1 NAME

 sslh - protocol demultiplexer

=head1 SYNOPSIS

sslh [B<-F> I<config file>] [ B<-t> I<num> ] [B<-p> I<listening address> [B<-p> I<listening address> ...] [B<--ssl> I<target address for SSL>] [B<--ssh> I<target address for SSH>] [B<--openvpn> I<target address for OpenVPN>] [B<--http> I<target address for HTTP>] [B<--anyprot> I<default target address>] [B<--on-timeout> I<protocol name>] [B<-u> I<username>] [B<-P> I<pidfile>] [-v] [-i] [-V] [-f] [-n]

=head1 DESCRIPTION

B<sslh> accepts connections on specified ports, and forwards
them further based on tests performed on the first data
packet sent by the remote client.

Probes for HTTP, SSL, SSH, OpenVPN, tinc, XMPP are
implemented, and any other protocol that can be tested using
a regular expression, can be recognised. A typical use case
is to allow serving several services on port 443 (e.g. to
connect to ssh from inside a corporate firewall, which
almost never block port 443) while still serving HTTPS on
that port. 

Hence B<sslh> acts as a protocol demultiplexer, or a
switchboard. Its name comes from its original function to
serve SSH and HTTPS on the same port.

=head2 Libwrap support

One drawback of B<sslh> is that the servers do not see the
original IP address of the client anymore, as the connection
is forwarded through B<sslh>.

For this reason, B<sslh> can be compiled with B<libwrap> to
check accesses defined in F</etc/hosts.allow> and
F</etc/hosts.deny>.  Libwrap services can be defined using
the configuration file.

=head2 Configuration file

A configuration file can be supplied to B<sslh>. Command
line arguments override file settings. B<sslh> uses
B<libconfig> to parse the configuration file, so the general
file format is indicated in
L<http://www.hyperrealm.com/libconfig/libconfig_manual.html>.
Please refer to the example configuration file provided with
B<sslh> for the specific format (Options have the same names
as on the command line, except for the list of listen ports
and the list of protocols).

The configuration file makes it possible to specify
protocols using regular expressions: a list of regular
expressions is given as the I<probe> parameter, and if the
first packet received from the client matches any of these
expressions, B<sslh> connects to that protocol.

Alternatively, the I<probe> parameter can be set to
"builtin", to use the compiled probes which are much faster
than regular expressions.

=head2 Probing protocols

When receiving an incoming connection, B<sslh> will read the
first bytes sent be the connecting client. It will then
probe for the protocol in the order specified on the command
line (or the configuration file). Therefore B<--anyprot>
should alway be used last, as it always succeeds and further
protocols will never be tried.

If no data is sent by the client, B<sslh> will eventually
time out and connect to the protocol specified with
B<--on-timeout>, or I<ssh> if none is specified.

=head1 OPTIONS

=over 4

=item B<-t> I<num>, B<--timeout> I<num>

Timeout before forwarding the connection to the timeout
protocol (which should usually be SSH). Default is 2s.

=item B<--on-timeout> I<protocol name>

Name of the protocol to connect to after the timeout period
is over. Default is 'ssh'.

=item B<-p> I<listening address>, B<--listen> I<listening address>

Interface and port on which to listen, e.g. I<foobar:443>,
where I<foobar> is the name of an interface (typically the
IP address on which the Internet connection ends up).

This can be specified several times to bind B<sslh> to
several addresses.

=item B<--ssl> I<target address>
=item B<--tls> I<target address>

Interface and port on which to forward SSL connection,
typically I<localhost:443>.

Note that you can set B<sslh> to listen on I<ext_ip:443> and
B<httpd> to listen on I<localhost:443>: this allows clients
inside your network to just connect directly to B<httpd>.

Also, B<sslh> probes for SSLv3 (or TLSv1) handshake and will
reject connections from clients requesting SSLv2. This is
compliant to RFC6176 which prohibits the usage of SSLv2. If
you wish to accept SSLv2, use B<--default> instead.

=item B<--ssh> I<target address>

Interface and port on which to forward SSH connections,
typically I<localhost:22>.

=item B<--openvpn> I<target address>

Interface and port on which to forward OpenVPN connections,
typically I<localhost:1194>.

=item B<--xmpp> I<target address>

Interface and port on which to forward XMPP connections,
typically I<localhost:5222>.

=item B<--http> I<target address>

Interface and port on which to forward HTTP connections,
typically I<localhost:80>.

=item B<--tinc> I<target address>

Interface and port on which to forward tinc connections,
typically I<localhost:655>.

This is experimental. If you use this feature, please report
the results (even if it works!)

=item B<--anyprot> I<target address>

Interface and port on which to forward if no other protocol
has been found. Because B<sslh> tries protocols in the order
specified on the command line, this should be specified
last. If no default is specified, B<sslh> will forward
unknown protocols to the first protocol specified.

=item B<-v>, B<--verbose>

Increase verboseness.

=item B<-n>, B<--numeric>

Do not attempt to resolve hostnames: logs will contain IP
addresses. This is mostly useful if the system's DNS is slow
and running the I<sslh-select> variant, as DNS requests will
hang all connections.

=item B<-V>

Prints B<sslh> version.

=item B<-u> I<username>, B<--user> I<username>

Requires to run under the specified username. 

=item B<-P> I<pidfile>, B<--pidfile> I<pidfile>

Specifies a file in which to write the PID of the main
server.

=item B<-i>, B<--inetd>

Runs as an I<inetd> server. Options B<-P> (PID file), B<-p>
(listen address), B<-u> (user) are ignored.

=item B<-f>, B<--foreground>

Runs in foreground. The server will not fork and will remain connected
to the terminal. Messages normally sent to B<syslog> will also be sent
to I<stderr>.

=item B<--background>

Runs in background. This overrides B<foreground> if set in
the configuration file (or on the command line, but there is
no point setting both on the command line unless you have a
personality disorder).

=back

=head1 FILES

=over 4

=item F</etc/init.d/sslh>

Start-up script. The standard actions B<start>, B<stop> and
B<restart> are supported.

=item F</etc/default/sslh>

Server configuration. These are environment variables
loaded by the start-up script and passed to B<sslh> as
command-line arguments. Refer to the OPTIONS section for a
detailed explanation of the variables used by B<sslh>.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

Last version available from
L<http://www.rutschle.net/tech/sslh>, and can be tracked
from L<http://freecode.com/projects/sslh>.

=head1 AUTHOR

Written by Yves Rutschle