SSH As Ad Hoc VPN

• June 15, 2025
• openbsd  
• openssh  
• ssh  
• security  
• vpn  
• linux  

OpenSSH is an amazing piece of software that continually surprises me.

Did you know that you can run a SOCKS proxy with just a single command?

ssh -D 9090 example.com

To configure your browser (I'm using Firefox as an example):

• Go to Settings ▶ Network Settings ▶ Manual Proxy Configuration
• Set the browser's proxy to SOCKS v5 localhost:9090
• Enable Proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5

Then, you can visit:

• What Is My IP
• DNS Leak Test

This is a software monopoly but at least it was written by people who care about security, so it's not like Microsoft's monopoly.

– Theo de Raadt, speaking about OpenSSH