Secure communication comes in many forms \u2014 from browsers to servers to applications and various other services. A lot of communication across the internet occurs behinds the scenes. In a sense, most\/all of it does. This is where an SSL tunnel or SSH tunnel comes into play.<\/p>\n
We need to ensure that some communication is really secure as it\u2019s used for remote purposes or joining networks together to exchange\/share services or it may secure functionality over users\u2019 data or control what websites actually do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The term tunneling can be interchangeable with connection\/communication. It\u2019s a \u201ctechy\u201d term we (us IT people) use all of the time. When we talk about an SSL tunnel, we may mean something specific like a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel. But it really can mean just a connection to a remote server in general. There is a proxy, or intermediary, between the user client and endpoint. Proxy server (and network) configuration would be needed to listen for the connection and have a route to get to the end service.<\/p>\n
Now, an SSL tunnel is different than an SSH tunnel. SSH, or what\u2019s known as secure shell, calls for a service to be running on the endpoint, often a server, and client machine to call to it over the SSH protocol, with proper authentication to the server in order to get to a shell and take command of the server. It doesn\u2019t explicitly call for the transfer of files, unless a transfer protocol is invoked, such as FTP, SFTP or SCP (which is actually done over the SSH protocol) but rather commands and such to control the PC as if you were in front of it.<\/p>\n
While SSL tunneling and SSH tunneling sound very similar, there are key differences. This is why we\u2019ll now cover the similarities and differences between SSL and SSH<\/a> for tunneling.<\/p>\n Within SSL tunneling, when the connect request is made from client to server, the DNS will have routed it to the proxy server. The client\u2019s connect request is made over the specified port, SSL\/TLS is port 443<\/a> by default, but they could actually utilize a different port, if specified, to connect to the client to the proxy server.<\/p>\n From there, the proxy server would also send a request to connect to the end machine (server) on behalf of the client. It may use the same port, or it may use a different port. It\u2019s also possible for the proxy server to have a persistent connection to the server side, which would often be utilized for higher amounts of traffic (frequency) and all requests from clients would be encapsulated by that tunnel. This minimizes the overhead \u201ccost\u201d of building the connection and then tearing it down for each transaction. It\u2019s all dependent on how the system is set up: who is making the requests, whether client requests are limited to a set of users, etc.<\/p>\n At that point, the proxy would be just that \u2014 a mediator between the client and the server. It\u2019s a passthrough. The client and server would be encrypting\/decrypting to each other with the proxy, as it would be designed, only acting as the mediator without accessibility to the unencrypted data. It\u2019s basically another layer of security to prevent a variety of attacks that range from code injection to distributed denial of service (DDoS) to the server (which may be serving many clients).<\/p>\n SSH tunneling is the orange to the SSL tunneling\u2019s apple; as in, they are both fruit, but the intention and usage is kind of different. The analogies are mixed, but, hopefully, you understand the reference.<\/p>\n SSH is a sort of reworking of the simple Telnet, which is used to create a session to a remote machine \u2014 often a server \u2014 to control, make changes, etc. Telnet, which sends everything in plaintext, should have been long deprecated as SSH is a far more secure and utilized option. Telnet may be okay for use within private networks but even still \u2014 SSH is simple enough to provide the same functionality without creating additional risk.<\/p>\n We offer the best discount on all types of wildcard SSL Certificates with DV and OV validation. We offer wildcard certificates from the leading CAs, including Comodo CA, Sectigo, Thawte, GeoTrust, and RapidSSL starting for as little as $52.95 per year.<\/p>\n Shop Cheap Wildcard SSL Certificates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n SSH is a pretty simple to set up:<\/p>\n Depending on how the remote machine is set up, the client machine should be able to connect via SSH through a public-facing connection (public IP) or a private IP (LAN connection or a VPN may be required).<\/p>\n Once the connection is made, the client machine is in the remote machine\u2019s shell, which can range from bash, ksh, csh, etc. While it\u2019s not a hard-and-fast rule, most people are SSHing into a Linux-based machine though you are able to shell to Windows machines. Most people would just remote, RDP, RealVNC, TeamViewer, etc. into a Windows machine and then just PowerShell\/DOS from there.<\/p>\n Now, one would be able to set up a proxy for SSH that would work very similarly to the previous section. At that point, you\u2019d kind of have your \u201capprange\u201d\/\u201doranpple\u201d \u2014 an apple and orange hybrid \u2014 where those two functions would be kind of next to each other. And, when utilizing SSH with proper port forwarding, it would be possible to encrypt a connection between a client and a server\/service that may have otherwise gone unencrypted.<\/p>\n While the similarities are there for an SSH\/SSL tunneling \u2014 and in a sense, I would say that SSH tunneling is a type of SSL tunneling \u2014 they are still two separate processes and are used for different purposes. However, they both have their place:<\/p>\n Secure tunneling continues to pick up the pace as data breaches, malicious code, people and privatization continue to come to the forefront of data traversing across the internet. Stay safe, weigh all options, and go for best and safest practices \u2014 even if this process calls for extra work.<\/p>\n We offer the best discount on x.509 digital certificates with SSL certificates starting as low as $5.45 per year.<\/p>\n Shop Thawte SSL<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Secure communication comes in many forms \u2014 from browsers to servers to applications and various other services. A lot of communication across the internet occurs behinds the scenes. In a sense, most\/all of it does. This is where an SSL … Continue reading An SSL Tunnel: How It Works<\/h2>\n
An SSH Tunnel: How It Differs from an SSL Tunnel<\/h2>\n
Purchase a Wildcard SSL Certificate & Save Up to 73%!<\/h2>\n
How SSL Tunneling Works<\/h3>\n
\n
Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n
\n
Purchase an SSL Certificate from CheapSSLSecurity & Save Up to 88%!<\/h2>\n