Using a SecureCRT® Secure Shell Connection as a SOCKS Proxy

At times the need arises to access a number of devices that reside in a remote network behind a single gateway server. One solution would be to establish an SSH connection to the gateway server, and then issue another SSH connection from that server to each of the devices via the remote shell. This can be problematic and time-consuming, especially if more than two jumps are required. Fortunately, there is a better way: dynamic port forwarding.

SecureCRT provides the ability to create an SSH connection with a dynamic port forwarding configuration that can then be used as a SOCKS proxy to reach all machines within a remote network (behind the gateway). Using an SSH SOCKS proxy, any application that is SOCKS 4 or 5 compatible (including other sessions established with SecureCRT) will be able to have their connections forwarded through this SSH SOCKS proxy and on to the desired destination.

This tip focuses on using SecureCRT's dynamic port forwarding functionality with a "Master" session to create an SSH SOCKS proxy associated with a connection to a gateway server. Additional SecureCRT sessions can then connect through the "Master" session's SSH SOCKS proxy to remote servers that are located behind the gateway server. The graphic below illustrates this concept: