For anyone interested in data security the ability to encrypt network traffic is obviously important-- especially in light of the myriad of recent well publicized reports of private and government electronic snooping. It is also relevant to mention that to date no one has come close to cracking "TwoFish" encryption which can be used by SSH. With this in mind, consider the following tutorial which describes a method for encrypting all 3g, 4g, and Wi-Fi data, thus beefing up phone and personal data security.
Setting up a global SSH Tunnel on Android phones
This tutorial assumes the reader possesses a fully configured SSH server and rooted phone. In lieu of a server, (eg., the reader only has only a Windows-based operating system), research into CYGWIN is recommended. I use CYGWIN to run my SSH server and I have found that it is the most robust option for Windows users; however, setting this up on Windows can be a daunting task.
Setting up global SSH Tunnel on Android
1. Download 2 apps from the Google Playstore: ConnectBot and ProxyDroid
2. Install ConnectBot and ProxyDroid on your phone.
3. In ConnectBot set up Port forwards for your SSH connection. For "Type" field use "Dynamic (SOCKS)." For “Source Port” use 56001 or any local port not being used. The reasoning behind using port 56001 is this: System Ports (0-1023), User Ports (1024-49151), and the Dynamic and/or Private Ports (49152-65535)
4. Open ProxyDroid and configure as follows:
Host: 127.0.0.1
Port: 56001 (or the port you chose to use in step 3)
Proxy Type: SOCKS5
Global Proxy: Check the box
The above procedure accomplishes several things. First, ConnectBot remotely connects to your SSH server. Next, the ConnectBot connection forwards to the local port 56001. ProxyDroid then redirects all network traffic through the localhost on port 56001. Once you are connected through ConnectBot and ProxyDroid is activated all of your data will be tunneled through the encrypted ConnectBot session. This is an excellent way to set up a global proxy because it does not require manual configuration of any applications to connect through the proxy. You can test the functionality of the connection by opening up your phone browser and performing the Google search: What is my IP. If the proxy is functional you will see the WAN IP of the network of your SSH server. Additional and more thorough testing can be done with packet sniffers such as WireShark.
An application called "SSH Tunnel" is an alternative to accomplishing the above. However, I find ConnectBot and ProxyDroid is more elegant and gives better control-- not to mention being more sophisticated/chic. When correctly performed the ConnectBot and ProxyDroid method encrypts all 3g, 4g and Wi-Fi data on your phone. This is obviously useful for phone access of sensitive materials especially using unfamiliar or alien network connections. With the current proliferation of identity theft via electronic snooping on mobile devices I do not advocate using cellular phones for any banking or electronic transactions without setting up a robust and reliable encrypted connection.
I'm having trouble with this exact setup on Android 4.3 with DNS Proxy (proxydroid) enabled in China. When DNS Proxy is enabled, no traffic will come through at all. If I disable DNS Proxy, it works but without proxied DNS requests, I can't get to Youtube/twitter/FB.
Any ideas?
SSHTunnel for 4.2.2 is a much better alternative than running 2 separate apps and I still use it on my 4.2.2 tablet. But I don't want to downgrade my phone to 4.2.2 just for this
Android 4.3?
strifej said:
I'm having trouble with this exact setup on Android 4.3 with DNS Proxy (proxydroid) enabled in China. When DNS Proxy is enabled, no traffic will come through at all. If I disable DNS Proxy, it works but without proxied DNS requests, I can't get to Youtube/twitter/FB.
Any ideas?
SSHTunnel for 4.2.2 is a much better alternative than running 2 separate apps and I still use it on my 4.2.2 tablet. But I don't want to downgrade my phone to 4.2.2 just for this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I have not done any testing with android 4.3 yet so I'm not sure why the dns request wouldn't be proxied. I'll look into it and get back to you.
DNS proxy on android 4.3
strifej said:
I'm having trouble with this exact setup on Android 4.3 with DNS Proxy (proxydroid) enabled in China. When DNS Proxy is enabled, no traffic will come through at all. If I disable DNS Proxy, it works but without proxied DNS requests, I can't get to Youtube/twitter/FB.
Any ideas?
SSHTunnel for 4.2.2 is a much better alternative than running 2 separate apps and I still use it on my 4.2.2 tablet. But I don't want to downgrade my phone to 4.2.2 just for this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I finally had a chance to upgrade to 4.3 this week. I tested the dns proxy with proxydroid and it seems to be working fine. What rom are you using? I'm on Sacs rom and I would highly recommend it. Heres the link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2512983
4.4
Dr.Tautology said:
So I finally had a chance to upgrade to 4.3 this week. I tested the dns proxy with proxydroid and it seems to be working fine. What rom are you using? I'm on Sacs rom and I would highly recommend it. Heres the link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2512983
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tested on kitkat and is working fine. Ssh tunnel app not working however.
Dr.Tautology said:
So I finally had a chance to upgrade to 4.3 this week. I tested the dns proxy with proxydroid and it seems to be working fine. What rom are you using? I'm on Sacs rom and I would highly recommend it. Heres the link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2512983
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use pacman rom on nexus 4.
thank you for this tutorial!
I have been looking for a new way to setup SSH tunneling since the app "ssh tunnel" from the Google Play store stopped working with Android 4.2+
I can't wait to try this out..
I have two phones both SGS4's one running CM 10.2 and the other stock on 4.3 so i will try both of them out and report back here how it works out.
Thanks again for the tutorial!
-droidshadow
Thank you Dr.Tautology
Thank you Dr.Tautology
I was searching a big time for the solution you gave me.
First I was using SSHtunnel app from google play and it worked on my note 3 SM-N9005 (rooted) with jb 4.3. After upgrade to 4.4.2 kitkat (rooted) I could connect but there was no changing to my home ip in the browsers that I use with surfing by example to whatmyip . I also have a tablet "nexus 7" 2012 version upgraded also to 4.4.2 and on this device SSHTunnel is functional and the ip is changing??? I did not understand. Now I was searching for alternatives for my galaxy note 3 and I've found ssh connectbot and proxydroid. After I added the settings that I always used with dyn socks5 port 11723 on both programs.... -> connection to my DD-WRT router (with connectbot) was also possible. I also booted proxydroid and again after running chrome or firefox I still had the same ip so it didn't work.... Now I've found your post and read that the socks5 port must be above 49152. I changed the ports on both programs to 56001 in ('connectbot and proxydroid) and BAM! Connected with my home IP from outside my home :laugh:
The weird thing is that it worked on JB 4.3 with socks5 port 11723.
Now my woking SSH tunnel config -> Host = home-ip:7500 (default port = 22 in DDWRT)
user to connect to DD-WRT router = Root
password = Router password
dyn proxy socks5 port = 56001 as you suggest.
I have an app from my isp that I only can use with my home ip so I had to be home and connect by wifi. Now it's possible again with tunneling
Now the only thing that I have to do is thank you. :victory:
Never thought that the port number should be the problem.
Best regards DWroadrunner
I managed to set this up using SSH Tunnel for android. However I would like to use SSH Autotunnel as it's supposed to handle network changes better and is also more light weight. Does anybody know what type of private key this programm accepts? I have had no luck using putty keygen and the id_rsa I created in ubuntu does not seem to work either.
Glad to help!
DWroadrunner said:
Thank you Dr.Tautology
I was searching a big time for the solution you gave me.
First I was using SSHtunnel app from google play and it worked on my note 3 SM-N9005 (rooted) with jb 4.3. After upgrade to 4.4.2 kitkat (rooted) I could connect but there was no changing to my home ip in the browsers that I use with surfing by example to whatmyip . I also have a tablet "nexus 7" 2012 version upgraded also to 4.4.2 and on this device SSHTunnel is functional and the ip is changing??? I did not understand. Now I was searching for alternatives for my galaxy note 3 and I've found ssh connectbot and proxydroid. After I added the settings that I always used with dyn socks5 port 11723 on both programs.... -> connection to my DD-WRT router (with connectbot) was also possible. I also booted proxydroid and again after running chrome or firefox I still had the same ip so it didn't work.... Now I've found your post and read that the socks5 port must be above 49152. I changed the ports on both programs to 56001 in ('connectbot and proxydroid) and BAM! Connected with my home IP from outside my home :laugh:
The weird thing is that it worked on JB 4.3 with socks5 port 11723.
Now my woking SSH tunnel config -> Host = home-ip:7500 (default port = 22 in DDWRT)
user to connect to DD-WRT router = Root
password = Router password
dyn proxy socks5 port = 56001 as you suggest.
I have an app from my isp that I only can use with my home ip so I had to be home and connect by wifi. Now it's possible again with tunneling
Now the only thing that I have to do is thank you. :victory:
Never thought that the port number should be the problem.
Best regards DWroadrunner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey DWroadrunner,
That's great news! I'm very happy that my post helped you, as my intention was to provide all the necessary information to do this in one place. It's not always the case that a user port wont work, but unless you are big on port level security it's not easy to determine if/when the port is being used. This is probably why 11723 did work for you, however it's always better to go with a dynamic/private port range. Also, if you want a simple way to improve the security of your ssh server change the default port from 22 to something else. You'd be surprised how many attempts to connect will be made by attackers on a daily basis.
Regards,
DocTaut
droidshadow said:
I have been looking for a new way to setup SSH tunneling since the app "ssh tunnel" from the Google Play store stopped working with Android 4.2+
I can't wait to try this out..
I have two phones both SGS4's one running CM 10.2 and the other stock on 4.3 so i will try both of them out and report back here how it works out.
Thanks again for the tutorial!
-droidshadow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me know if this is working on CM. I have tested on stock 4.3 with no issues.
Any luck yet?
rintinfinn said:
I managed to set this up using SSH Tunnel for android. However I would like to use SSH Autotunnel as it's supposed to handle network changes better and is also more light weight. Does anybody know what type of private key this programm accepts? I have had no luck using putty keygen and the id_rsa I created in ubuntu does not seem to work either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
I've used auto tunnel a handful of times. Just wanted to check to see if you figured out what key it accepts. I will test it out when I get a chance.
Dr.Tautology said:
Hello,
I've used auto tunnel a handful of times. Just wanted to check to see if you figured out what key it accepts. I will test it out when I get a chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, the developer send me a mail saying that autotunnel should accept both private key types. None of them worked for me, though. He also suggested to try and paste the content of the private key into the bracket. I might give that a try. Edit: I can confirm copying and pasting the private key works. But it does not seem to transfer traffic via the the server, at least not the 3g traffic while using chrome. Edit 2: Turns out SSH Autotunnel does not use a socks proxy. Therefore secure browsing is not an option. The app is for secure pop3/ftp-server/smtp-server connections only. Thanks go to Matej for his kind support.
I've been using OpenVPN but I'd prefer to use ssh, as I have several ssh servers around the world, plus their pipes are bigger than my home line I have openvpn running on.
I have yet to get SSH Tunnel (apk) to work reliably; it randomly stops working and it's just a dead connection.
Using ProxyDroid unfortunately requires me to launch ConnectBot, connect ssh, then start the proxy. It'd be nice if ConnectBot could bring up the connection automatically, or ProxyDroid could do it. What I do right now is VPN unknown wifi connections and I can automate that with Tasker. I might look to see if I can automate connecting with ConnectBot then enable the ProxyDroid connection.
You can use ssh tunnels also with Drony if some proxy with authentication is involved. Works also on non rooted devices.
Automation
khaytsus said:
I've been using OpenVPN but I'd prefer to use ssh, as I have several ssh servers around the world, plus their pipes are bigger than my home line I have openvpn running on.
I have yet to get SSH Tunnel (apk) to work reliably; it randomly stops working and it's just a dead connection.
Using ProxyDroid unfortunately requires me to launch ConnectBot, connect ssh, then start the proxy. It'd be nice if ConnectBot could bring up the connection automatically, or ProxyDroid could do it. What I do right now is VPN unknown wifi connections and I can automate that with Tasker. I might look to see if I can automate connecting with ConnectBot then enable the ProxyDroid connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think a simple bash script could be used to automate this task. I'm going to look into it; seems like an interesting/useful project.
Dr.Tautology said:
I think a simple bash script could be used to automate this task. I'm going to look into it; seems like an interesting/useful project.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so, it's just firewall settings etc.. Unfortunately for me, I need stuff that doesn't support SOCKS so I've gone back to looking into a faster OpenVPN service.
But this is good for browsing and things that use http etc.
Dr.Tautology said:
I think a simple bash script could be used to automate this task. I'm going to look into it; seems like an interesting/useful project.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi have you figured out an automated script for this task via tasker, iv tried to create something but ended up no where lol.
Hi my collage wifi connection is proxy based
Whenever i surfed internet on that connection only some basic application are connected through that connection
But many 3rd party apps doses't connect by that connection like games
Any solution like connection tunnel apps or else
I don't want to root my device
Thanks
sam.jaat said:
Hi my collage wifi connection is proxy based
Whenever i surfed internet on that connection only some basic application are connected through that connection
But many 3rd party apps doses't connect by that connection like games
Any solution like connection tunnel apps or else
I don't want to root my device
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have to login to the proxy or is it an open proxy? If it's open, you could see if you can find a OpenVPN server that listens on 80 or 443. Then use any OpenVPN client on Android and you can add/update config to match the directions here: https://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/howto.html#http
I have a rooted ATT Galaxy s4 and looking to change the 4g dns servers. I run my own server to help block ads and such. I would love to be able to use this on the go and block 99% of bs crap in apps/sites while on 4g but I cannot find any info on how to do it reliably. I am running 4.4.2 atm also.
You'd need to set up a VPN I would think in order to do what you want. Especially as there isn't a way I know of to change the DNS on a mobile device. A much simpler method is to root and install Adaway from fdroid.org. I find it blocks virtually all ad traffic, including ads within apps.
Hello
Since the latest PFGEUXM 11.0.6.0 update it happens that all DNS based adblock apps including DNS based VPNs with adblock features, do not work. Apps like Blockada, AdGuard etc completely block internet access due to unresolved hosts, VPNs only provide IP spoofing while they let ads popping up on web pages and apps. I submitted the problem to my VPN customer service and after their analysis looks like the device doesn't allow connections to different DNS servers other than that set by system firmware.
This has started since latest update release. PFGEUXM 11.0.6.0. No problem with former 11.0.4.0.
It's there a way to fix it without rooting the device? I'm using several banking apps that do not work on rooted devices.
Thanks
I've rooted my first android device yesterday (Samsung J530f) for the purpose of system wide proxyfication through a local network socks proxy. In other words, I have a socks5 client running on my PC to which I connect from my android device using a local IP in Socksdroid. The traffic coming from the android device is then proxified through the socks set in the client on my PC.
I have however huge issues with android getting the DNS server remotely, based on the proxy IP. I've tried different DNS related apps including Override DNS and DNS forwarder, but I get some very strange results. In the same browser on different checkers I get DNS servers from different countries, yet none of them are the servers that I manually set in either Override DNS and DNS forwarder. I've tried 3-4 different apps and none of them seem to work in the way intended and give inconsistent and glitchy results, so I start to suspect that there's something that prevents these apps from functioning properly.
The only way that I managed to get DNS to function like intended is to set network.proxy.socks_remote_dns to true in firefox nightly, but then again, it only uses the right DNS in one browser, and not the entire system.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do to get DNS working consistently and properly?
Thx.
Hello...
I have a Mi Box S device. It has the lastest updates.
Basically - what I am trying to do is when my VPN is up, an app is allowed to run (so do nothing). When the VPN is down, block the app.
I do not have ROOT.
I have tried various firewalls on the device that do not need ROOT and blocks apps - but they work by creating a separate VPN connection for the device. When I switch on my VPN, the firewall stops working. When I switch my VPN off, the firewall needs to be manually started.
If I had ROOT, I would edit IPTABLES to block everything except the IP \ PORTS needed for my VPN to work, and that would solve the issue. No apps would have Internet access until my VPN was active.
Ideas welcome. I am not against rooting the device - however - for the newest versions of the Android TV boxes, it seems to cause many more issues and does not seem to be worth the risk.
THANK YOU!
I do NOT know the answer to your question and I don't have Android TV, so ignore this if it doesn't help...
On the PC there are various VPN killswitch batch files that simply remove the LAN gateway, which works PERFECTLY to do what you ask on a PC:
Start VPN and then start the VPN killswitch
If the VPN is on, the LAN and WAN are accessed
The instant the VPN drops, the WAN is dropped
But the LAN remains intact
Maybe something like that is available for Android?
Googling, we get a lot of hits for Android VPN-specific killswitches.
Each Android public VPN server seems to have their own killswitch.
For example, here's one for private vpn on Android.
But there should be a killswitch for Android WITHOUT having to use any given VPN public server.
This hit implies it's a part of the Android settings.
But unfortunately my Android 12 doesn't have those VPN killswitch settings.
Does yours?
Solved. Admittedly - this solution works for me but might not work for others.
I host my own VPN server 'in the cloud' and, as part of that server, it's own DNS server.
Manually set the IP and DNS on the Mi Box S. Set the DNS to an INTERNAL DNS address that is only available when the VPN is running.
The app in question needs DNS to function. When the VPN is down, no functioning DNS, app does not function.
When the VPN is up, DNS functions, the app functions.
Good enough for me...