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NAME

       ptunnel  - tunnel TCP connections over ICMP echo request/reply packets.

SYNOPSIS

       ptunnel -p proxy_address -lp listen_port  -da  destination_address  -dp
       dest_port [-c network_device] [-v verbosity] [-f file] [-udp] [-syslog]

       ptunnel [-c network_device] [-v verbosity] [-f file]  [-udp]  [-syslog]
       [-daemon file]

       ptunnel [-u] [-x password] [-setuid user] [-setgid group] [-chroot dir]
       [-setcon context]

       ptunnel -h

DESCRIPTION

       ptunnel is an application  that  allows  you  to  reliably  tunnel  TCP
       connections to a remote host using ICMP echo request and reply packets,
       commonly known as ping requests and  replies.  At  first  glance,  this
       might  seem like a rather useless thing to do, but it can actually come
       in handy in some cases. The  following  example  illustrates  the  main
       motivation in creating ptunnel:

       Setting: You’re on the go, and stumble across an open wireless network.
       The network gives you an IP address, but won’t let you send TCP or  UDP
       packets  out  to  the  rest of the internet, for instance to check your
       mail. What to do? By chance, you discover that the network  will  allow
       you to ping any computer on the rest of the internet. With ptunnel, you
       can utilize this feature to check your mail, or do  other  things  that
       require TCP.

OPTIONS

       Client options:

       -p proxy_address
              Specify the host on which the proxy is running.

       -lp listen_port
              Specifies  the port on which the client will listen for incoming
              TCP connections.

       -da destination_addr
              Specifies the address to which you want  your  packets  tunneled
              after  reaching  the proxy when in client mode, or restricts the
              destination packets can be forwarded to when in server mode.

       -dp destination_port
              Specifies/restrict the port that the proxy should tunnel the TCP
              connection to.

       Shared options:

       -c network_device
              Specify the network interface to capture packets from. Note that
              packet capturing isn’t always necessary, but you should try this
              if you experience problems with ptunnel.

       -v verbosity
              Controls  the  verbosity  level. -1 is no output, 0 shows errors
              only, 1 shows info messages, 2 gives  more  output,  3  provides
              even  more  output,  level  4  displays  debug  info and level 5
              displays absolutely everything, including the nasty  details  of
              sends and receives.

       -udp   Enables  tunneling over UDP port 53 (DNS) instead of using ICMP.
              This will only work if your proxy can accept incoming traffic on
              port  53,  and  the  client is able to send data to the proxy on
              port 53. Note that this option does not wrap ptunnel’s  data  in
              DNS-compliant  packets.  This  option  must be given on both the
              proxy and client side for things to work correctly.

       -syslog (Not available on Windows.)
              Changes logging to use the built-in syslog fascility.

       -daemon file (Not available on Windows.)
              Run in background, writing PID in file.

       -u     Attempts to run ptunnel without privileges. This doesn’t usually
              work!  On UNIX systems please consider using the following three
              options instead:

       -setuid user (Not available on Windows.)
              When started in privileged mode, drop down to user’s  rights  as
              soon as possible.

       -setgid group (Not available on Windows.)
              When  started in privileged mode, drop down to group’s rights as
              soon as possible.

       -chroot dir (Not available on Windows.)
              When started in privileged mode, restrict  file  access  to  the
              specified directory.

       -setcon context (Not available on Windows.)
              Set SELinux context when all there is left to do are network I/O
              operations.  In order to be able to  combine  with  -chroot  you
              will have to ‘mount --bind /proc /chrootdir/proc‘

       -x password
              Specifies  a  password or passphrase to use. This will allow you
              to protect the proxy from use  by  others  who  don’t  know  the
              password. It needs to be specified on both proxy and client.

       -f file
              Specifies  a  log file. If you specify -syslog, syslog is always
              used instead.

       -h     Displays brief usage information.

EXAMPLES

       The following assumes that ptunnel is run as root, both  on  the  proxy
       and  client.  To  tunnel  ssh connections from the client machine via a
       proxy running on proxy.pingtunnel.com to the computer login.domain.com,
       the following command line would be used:

       ptunnel -p proxy.pingtunnel.com -lp 8000 -da login.domain.com -dp 22

       An  ssh  connection  to  login.domain.com  can  now  be  established as
       follows:

       ssh -p 8000 localhost

       If ssh complains  about  potential  man-in-the-middle  attacks,  simply
       remove  the  offending key from the known_hosts file. The warning/error
       is expected if you have previously ssh’d to your local computer  (i.e.,
       ssh  localhost), or you have used ptunnel to forward ssh connections to
       different hosts.

       Of course, for all of this to work, you need to start the proxy on your
       proxy-computer (proxy.pingtunnel.com). Doing this is very simple:

       ptunnel

       If  you  find  that  the  proxy  isn’t working, you will need to enable
       packet capturing on the main network device. Currently this  device  is
       assumed  to  be an ethernet-device (i.e., ethernet or wireless). Packet
       capturing is enabled by giving the -c switch, and supplying the  device
       name  to  capture  packets on (for instance eth0 or en1). The same goes
       for the client. On Mac OS X, packet capturing must  always  be  enabled
       (both  for  proxy  and  client),  as  resent  packets won’t be received
       otherwise.

       To protect yourself from others  using  your  proxy,  you  can  protect
       access to it with a password using the <tt>-x</tt> switch. The password
       is never sent in the clear, but keep in mind that  it  may  be  visible
       from  tools  like top or ps, which can display the command line used to
       start an application.

EXIT STATUS

       ptunnel does not exit until forced to do so by an interrupt (Ctrl-C) or
       if it crashes.

BUGS

       ptunnel   currently   does  not  handle  packet  capturing  on  network
       interfaces other than ethernet or wireless correctly.

AUTHORS

       Daniel Stoedle (daniels@cs.uit.no)

       Mike Miller (mike@mikeage.net)

       Sebastien Raveau (sebastien.raveau@epita.fr)

LICENSE

       ptunnel is licensed under the BSD License.

AVAILABILITY

       The ptunnel homepage is currently located here:
              http://www.cs.uit.no/~daniels/PingTunnel/

       The freshmeat project page is located here:
              http://freshmeat.net/projects/ptunnel/

       Please take the time to rate ptunnel if you find it useful. Thanks!