NAT traversal

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Documentation for this is incomplete. Contributions are happily considered! See this for potential alternatives.

pwnat

Unsupported!

• https://samy.pl/pwnat
• https://github.com/samyk/pwnat

To make the client’s browser access http://127.0.0.1 (port 80) and get your HTTP server behind NAT, here’s the correct setup:

On Your Server (behind NAT, running the HTTP service on port 8080):

sudo ./pwnat -s 0.0.0.0 2222 127.0.0.1:8080

This:

• Listens for pwnat clients on UDP port 2222
• Only allows proxy access to your local port 8080 (your HTTP server)

Make sure your HTTP server is running:

python3 -m http.server 8080

On the Client (behind another NAT, allows browser to connect):

Note: Replace your.server.public.ip with the actual IP address of your server.

sudo ./pwnat -c 0.0.0.0 80 your.server.public.ip 2222 127.0.0.1 8080

This:

• Binds to port 80 on the client (accessible via http://127.0.0.1)
• Proxies requests through your server’s pwnat to its local 8080
• Now, on the client machine, just open:

http://127.0.0.1

Expected result:

Client should see the server’s content.

Actual Result

client:

Listening on TCP 0.0.0.0:80

Then nothing happening.

server:

Listening on UDP 0.0.0.0:2222

Then nothing happening.

Setup:

• server: ISP home router -> notebook -> Qubes -> VM (with direct internet connection)
• client test 1: ISP home router -> notebook -> Qubes -> different VM (with direct internet connection)
• client test 1: ISP home router -> notebook -> Qubes -> different VM (with VPN connection)

Functionality tests:

• HTTP server is functional locally on the server: Yes. Command curl 127.0.0.1:8080 shows HTML output.
• Behind normal NAT according to https://tomchen.github.io/symmetric-nat-test/. (Not behind symmetric NAT.)
• server internet functionality test (visit any website): yes
• client test 1 internet functionality test (visit any website): yes
• client test 2 internet functionality test (visit any website): yes

Debian

• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=930966

See Also

• https://tomchen.github.io/symmetric-nat-test/
• GNUnet's Probabilistic NAT Traversal
• libp2p
  • https://libp2p.io/
• slipstream
  • https://samy.pl/slipstream/
  • https://github.com/samyk/slipstream

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