Routing plex traffic through an SSH tunnel

autossh-plex-tunnel.service

[Unit]
Description=AutoSSH tunnel service Plex on local port 32400
After=network.target

[Service]
Environment="AUTOSSH_GATETIME=0"

ExecStart=/usr/bin/autossh -M 40584 -o "compression=no" -o "[email protected]" -o "ServerAliveInterval 30" -o "ServerAliveCountMax 3" -NR 32400:localhost:32400 root@TUNNELIP
User=root
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Plex Routing thru SSH Tunnel

#Routing plex traffic through an SSH tunnel

This guide creates a reverse SSH tunnel to route all Plex server traffic through it.

Step 2 is done on the tunnel, all other steps are done on the plex server.

#1. Setup SSH keys (if you already have key based authenthication setup skip to step 2)

On plex server: 
  
  1a. Create SSH key

    root@ubuntu:~# ssh-keygen -t rsa
    Generating public/private rsa key pair.
    Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):
    Created directory '/root/.ssh'.
    Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
    Enter same passphrase again:
    Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.
    Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

  Passaphrase must be empy for autossh to work!

  1b. Copy SSH key

    root@ubuntu:~# ssh-copy-id root@TUNNELIP
    /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
    /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
    root@TUNNELIP's password:

    Number of key(s) added: 1

    Now try logging into the machine, with:   "ssh 'root@TUNNELIP'"
    and check to make sure that only the key(s) you wanted were added.
  1c. Connect to tunnel

    root@ubuntu:~$ ssh root@TUNNELIP
    Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.9.7-x86_64-linode80 x86_64)
    Last login: Wed Feb 22 03:49:58 2017
    root@ubuntu:~#
  You should not be promted for a password

#2. Edit tunnel's SSH server configuration

  2a. Add "Gatewayports yes" to sshd_config

    root@ubuntu:~# nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  Change:

    ...
    Port 22
    ...
  To:

    ...
    Port 22
    GatewayPorts yes
    ...
    
  2b.  restart sshd
  
    sudo service ssh restart
    
#3. Install autossh and create systemd service:
  3a. Install autossh
    
    sudo apt install autossh
  3b. Create systemd service file
  
    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/autossh-plex-tunnel.service
  Contents:
  
  
    [Unit]
    Description=AutoSSH tunnel service Plex on local port 32400
    After=network.target

    [Service]
    Environment="AUTOSSH_GATETIME=0"

    ExecStart=/usr/bin/autossh -M 40584 -o "compression=no" -o "[email protected]" -o "ServerAliveInterval 30" -o   "ServerAliveCountMax 3" -NR 32400:localhost:32400 root@TUNNELIP
    User=changeme
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
#4. Enable and start service
    sudo systemctl enable autossh-plex-tunnel
    sudo systemctl start autossh-plex-tunnel
  4b. Check SSH tunnel
  
    sudo systemctl status autossh-plex-tunnel
    
  If tunnel was created successfully output should look something like this:
  
    autossh-plex-tunnel.service - AutoSSH tunnel service Plex on local port 32400
       Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/autossh-plex-tunnel.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
       Active: active (running) since Mon 2017-02-20 03:11:14 CET; 2 days ago
     Main PID: 32570 (autossh)
       CGroup: /system.slice/autossh-plex-tunnel.service
               ├─32570 /usr/lib/autossh/autossh -M 40584 -o compression=no -o [email protected] -o ServerAliveInterval 30 -o ServerAliveCountMax 3 -NR 32400:localhost:32400 root@TUNNELIP
               └─32574 /usr/bin/ssh -L 40584:127.0.0.1:40584 -R 40584:127.0.0.1:40585 -o compression=no -o [email protected] -o ServerAliveInterval 30 -o ServerAliveCountMax 3 -NR 32400:localhost:32400 root@TUNNELIP

    Feb 20 03:11:14 Hetzner systemd[1]: Started AutoSSH tunnel service Plex on local port 32400.
    Feb 20 03:11:14 Hetzner autossh[32570]: starting ssh (count 1)
    Feb 20 03:11:14 Hetzner autossh[32570]: ssh child pid is 32574
    
go to http://TUNNELIP:32400 on your browser, if it does not load the tunnel was not setup correctly

#5. Point plex.tv to correct ip

  Plex.TV Web App > Settings > Server > Network > Custom server access URLs

    https://TUNNELIP:32400,http://TUNNELIP:32400
#6. Only allow local connections to port 32400

    sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s localhost --dport 32400 -j ACCEPT
    sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 32400 -j DROP
    sudo iptables-save > /etc/iptables.rules
#7. Make iptables rules apply at startup

edit /etc/network/interfaces

Change

    auto  eth0
    iface eth0 inet static
      address   xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
To:

    auto  eth0
    iface eth0 inet static
     pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.rules
      address   xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx