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OpenSSH reverse forwarding and Nginx provide self-hosted HTTP tunnels

vincent.bernat.ch 5 min read Editor score 7/10

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The guide combines SSH remote forwarding on an automatically allocated port with an Nginx wildcard host that proxies requests to the forwarded service. It offers a practical self-hosted alternative for exposing local previews without a dedicated tunnel client.

What
OpenSSH reverse forwarding and nginx can expose a local HTTP service through a self-hosted HTTPS tunnel.
How
SSH forwards a server port to localhost; nginx proxies requests for that port, while signed, expiring URLs add access control.
Why it matters
Engineers can share local previews without a commercial tunnel service or a specialized SSH server.
proxies forwards tunnels to nginx remote port OpenSSH localhost:8080
nginx proxies HTTPS requests through an OpenSSH reverse tunnel to a local service. Sketched from the article's own text.

Read on vincent.bernat.ch → Hacker News · 30 commentsLobsters · 6 comments

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