Tunneling SSH over PageKite
SSH can be tunneled over PageKite, allowing your SSH server to be reachable from anywhere, even if behind NAT or a strict firewall. This is very handy for remote administration, automated backups or simply copying files back and forth.
Contents:
Configuring the SSH server
If you have installed PageKite with the DebianPackage or RpmPackage, follow the instructions on ConfigureYourSystem.
Assuming you already have an SSH server running on port 22 on your local machine, and the machine has an active PageKite connection named user.pagekite.me, run the following command to add it to your configuration file:
$ pagekite.py --add 22 ssh:user.pagekite.me
Alternately, you can edit the configuration file yourself, adding a line like so:
service_on=raw/22:user.pagekite.me:localhost:22:SECRET
Restart pagekite.py, and the SSH server should be accessible.
Making sure you connect to the right server
If you want to verify later that you are indeed connecting to the correct server, you can display the server's public SSH key fingerprints using commands like so:
ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
Exactly which of the above commands apply on your system may vary (and you may need to tweak the paths slightly), but one of the listed fingerprints should be displayed by your ssh client the first time you connect.
Configuring the SSH client
If your SSH client supports it, simply configure it to use user.pagekite.me:443 as the HTTP proxy and connect to user.pagekite.me on the standard port, 22.
Note: The Windows SSHAndTunnels page describes in more detail how to configure PuTTY for use with PageKite.
Configuring openssh for HTTP Proxying
The popular OpenSSH client allows you to permanently configure specific options on a host-by-host basis, by adding sections to the file ~/.ssh/config. Note: On some systems, including OSX, ~/.ssh/config might not exist and you will have to create it.
Assuming you have the OpenBSD version of netcat installed (openssh will use it to handle the HTTP proxy connection), you can add the following three lines to your SSH configuration to permanently enable SSH-over-PageKite for the host named user.pagekite.me:
Host *.pagekite.me
CheckHostIP no
ProxyCommand /bin/nc -X connect -x %h:443 %h %p
(Watch out for fake line-breaks, the above should be exactly 3 lines.)
Note for OSX users: netcat is located at /usr/bin/nc instead of /bin/nc -- change the above lines accordingly
Note for Android Termux users: The OpenBSD netcat package is named "netcat-openbsd" and is located at /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/nc instead of /bin/nc -- change the above lines accordingly
After making this change, you should be able to use ssh, scp and any other ssh-based commands to connect to user.pagekite.me without any special arguments:
ssh user.pagekite.me # That's all folks!
Note: Outdated instructions have been moved: HttpBeforeSsh
Configuring ConnectBot for HTTP Proxying (Android)
The official ConnectBot Android SSH client does not support HTTP proxying. However, we have submitted a patch to the developers, which will hopefully be included in a future release.
In the meantime, our patched .apk can be downloaded from:
This adds a "Use HTTP Proxy" to the "Edit host" settings. To connect over PageKite, change this setting to: user.pagekite.me:443
Troubleshooting
Here are a few common error messages you may encounter, along with the explanations and solutions we are aware of at the moment.
/bin/nc: invalid option -- 'X'
If you see the error above, or a similar one, then you are using the wrong version of netcat - you need the OpenBSD version, or some other version which has support for HTTP proxies. Another alternative which is known to work instead of netcat, is corkscrew. Then the SSH configuration is:
Host *.pagekite.me
CheckHostIP no
ProxyCommand corkscrew %h 443 %h %p
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host
This error can mean many things - but it usually does not mean there is a problem with passwords or ssh keys!
One possible cause of this, is if you have not configured netcat or an alternative correctly for the domain name you are connecting to. Check for typos in your configuration file.
In other cases, this error may be preceded by an error from netcat or your connection tool, which will give hints about what the real problem is.
nc: getaddrinfo: nodename nor servname provided
This error means netcat was unable to look up the requested host in DNS. Usually this means you either have a typo somewhere, or your the pagekite.py connector on the SSH server side is not running properly.
nc: Proxy error: "HTTP/1.0 503 Unavailable"
This error generally means pagekite.py is not running on the SSH server or has failed to connect to the front-end relay server.
The Beanstalks Project ehf.
Comments
Get:
/bin/nc: invalid option -- 'X'
when I try to connect.
nc -h shows no x-option!
Basically anything which will let you connect via. an HTTP proxy will work, you simply treat your PageKite hostname as the name of an HTTP proxy on port 443.
ProxyCommand /usr/bin/corkscrew %h 443 %h %p
nc: Proxy error: "HTTP/1.1 400 Bad request"
When I changed pagekite to listen on port 22, it worked.
Note that there are two port settings that matter. One is the port setting on your local computer, where the ssh daemon is listening. Usually that is 22, but sometimes people move it. The other is the "virtual port" which is sent in the HTTP CONNECT request to PageKite - that can be anything.
For example:
# If sshd listens on port 23 instead of 22
# SSH clients connect to foo.pagekite.me:22
pagekite localhost:23 raw://foo.pagekite.me
# config file: backend=raw-22:foo.pagekite.me:localhost:23:SECRET
# If sshd listens on the standard port 22
# SSH clients connect to foo.pagekite.me:23
pagekite localhost:22 raw://foo.pagekite.me:23
# config file: backend=raw-23:foo.pagekite.me:localhost:22:SECRET
Hope this helps!
Indeed it worked now, using your examples as references. I must have screwed up somewhere.
Thanks for your help!
I see no mention of this limitation, how can I avoid it?
I have seen this when pagekite is installed on a Linux host as well as a Mac host.
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host
ProxyCommand /bin/nc --proxy-type http --proxy %h:443 %h %p
When I follow the guide and do a:
$ pagekite.py --add 22 ssh:user.pagekite.me
on the server, I can connect with:
$ ssh user.pagekite.me
from my Linux client. Nothing more necessary. No port or anything on the client to specify.
Don't know if it is mentioned here. Couldn't gather that from the guide so I wrote it down for anybody having trouble to connect.
ssh://foo.pagekite.me:2222
does seem to do what I need when specified on the command line.
$ pagekite.py --add 22 ssh:user.pagekite.me
$ pagekite.py user.pagekite.me
>>> Hello! This is pagekite.py v0.5.6a. [CTRL+C = Stop]
Connecting to front-end 173.230.155.164:443 ...
- Protocols: http http2 http3 https websocket irc finger httpfinger raw
- Protocols: minecraft
- Ports: 79 80 443 843 2222 3000 4545 5222 5223 5269 5670 6667 8000 8080
- Ports: 8081 9292 25565
- Raw ports: 22 virtual
Quota: You have 17458.23 MB, 13 days and 6 connections left.
~<> Flying localhost:22 as ssh://user.pagekite.me:22/ (HTTP proxied)
<< pagekite.py [flying] Kites are flying and all is well.
$ ssh user.pagekite.me
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host
Of course i changed the user.pagekite.me with my own kite.
Question is how to connect with the client behind a (squid) proxy server..
ssh to a normal host through squid is also working (with corkscrew).
I can connect to the pagekite host from the proxy server, but can't figure out how to chain the PorxyCommand. Aslo tried tunneling with nc with no success.
thanks,
Bob
What am I doing wrong?
Connecting to foo.pagekite.me:22 via ssh
Connecting via proxy: foo.pagekite.me:443
Connection Lost
Failed to connect to HTTP Proxy.
Could you explain to me where I should set up a password(and user?) for kite when I connecting via ssh?
Can't figure out this.
Thank you in advance !
-----
Sashas-MacBook-Pro:~ Swift$ ssh foo.pagekite.me
Swift@foo.pagekite.me's password: "What is the password?"
Permission denied, please try again.
SSH worked flawlessly the first time, but we restarted the system and consistently get:
nc: Proxy error: "HTTP/1.0 503 Unavailable"
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host
the system claims to connect successfully to the front-end at 173.230.155.164:443
We can't figure out why it won't connect. any assistance would be great!
thanks,
Mathew
sshd[27863]: Unable to negotiate with 127.0.0.1 port 54484: no matching key exchange method found. Their offer: diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 [preauth]
is there any solution on the way?
Thanks, Michael
Looks like the ConnectBot solution doesn't work anymore.
Can't install it on Android 14 (Samsung Galaxy S23) because it's built for an older version of Android.
The patch submitted on gcode is gone, and that solution is 11 years old by now.
Is there a way to use the mosy recent version of ConnectBot?
Or does anyone have an alternative solution to SSH into pagekite using an Android phone?