nat-traverse establishes connections between nodes which are behind NAT gateways, i.e. hosts which do not have public IP addresses. Additionally, you can setup a small VPN by using pppd on top of nat-traverse. nat-traverse does not need an external server on the Internet, and it isn't necessary to reconfigure the involved NAT gateways, either. n…

nat-traverse-0.5.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl
# nat-traverse -- Use of UDP to traverse NAT gateways
# Copyright (C) 2005, 2012 Ingo Blechschmidt <[email protected]>
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
# USA.

use warnings;
use strict;

use v5.6.0;

use IO::Socket::INET;
use Getopt::Long;

# More elegant use constant {...} not available in Perl 5.6.x.
use constant GARBAGE_MAGIC => "nat-traverse-garbage";
use constant ACK_MAGIC     => "nat-traverse-ackacka";
use constant PACKET_SIZE   => 8 * 1024;

sub debug($);

# ARGV parsing.
GetOptions(
  "window=i"           => \(my $WINDOW  = 10),
  "timeout=i"          => \(my $TIMEOUT = 10),
  "quit-after-connect" => \my $QUIT_AFTER_CONNECT,
  "cmd=s"              => \my $CMD,
  "version"            => sub { print "nat-traverse 0.5\n"; exit },
  "help"               => \&usage,
) or usage();
usage() unless @ARGV == 1;
my ($LPORT, $PEER, $RPORT) = split /:/, $ARGV[0];
usage() unless $LPORT =~ /^\d+/ and $RPORT =~ /^\d+/ and $PEER;

# Helper sub to create our socket...
sub sockgen {
  debug "Creating socket localhost:$LPORT <-> $PEER:$RPORT... ";
  my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(
    PeerHost  => $PEER,
    PeerPort  => $RPORT,
    LocalPort => $LPORT,
    Proto     => "udp",
    ReuseAddr => 1,
  ) or die "Couldn't create socket: $!\n";
  debug "done.\n";

  return $sock;
}

# Helper sub to wait for a given string.
sub waitfor {
  my ($sock, $match) = @_;

  while(1) {
    debug ".";
    my $got;
    defined(sysread $sock, $got, length $match) or
      die "Couldn't read from socket: $!\n";
    last if defined $got and $got eq $match;
  }
}

# Initial phase: Sending of initial packets to make the firewalls think the
# packets are replies.
my $sock = sockgen();
debug "Sending $WINDOW initial packets... ";
for(1..$WINDOW) {
  debug ".";
  syswrite $sock, GARBAGE_MAGIC;
  sleep 1;
}
syswrite $sock, ACK_MAGIC;
debug " done.\n";

# Waiting for ACK packet so we see the connection is established.
debug "Waiting for ACK (timeout: $TIMEOUT\Es)... ";
{
  local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die " timeout.\n" };
  alarm $TIMEOUT;
  waitfor($sock, ACK_MAGIC);
  alarm 0;
}
debug " done.\n";

# :)
debug "Connection established.\n";

debug "Exiting.\n" and exit 0 if $QUIT_AFTER_CONNECT;

# Either exec() $CMD or relay STDIN and STDOUT appropriately.
if(defined $CMD) {
  debug "Redirecting STDIN and STDOUT... ";
  open STDOUT, ">&", $sock or die "Couldn't redirect STDOUT: $!\n";
  open STDIN,  "<&", $sock or die "Couldn't redirect STDIN: $!\n";
  debug "done.\n";
  debug "exec()ing \"$CMD\"...\n";
  exec $CMD or die "Couldn't exec() \"$CMD\": $!\n";
} else {
  debug "Type ahead.\n";
  $SIG{CHLD} = "IGNORE";
  my $pid = fork;
  die "Couldn't fork: $!\n" unless defined $pid;

  if($pid) {
    # Parent -- read from STDIN and to the socket.
    my $buf;
    while(1) {
      my $ret = sysread STDIN, $buf, PACKET_SIZE;
      defined $ret or die "Couldn't read from STDIN: $!\n";
      $ret         or last;
      syswrite $sock, $buf or die "Couldn't write to socket: $!\n";
    }

    # Exit on ^D.
    debug "Exiting; sending SIGTERM to child process... ";
    kill 15 => $pid or die "Couldn't send SIGTERM to child process (PID $pid): $!\n";
    debug "done.\n";

  } else {
    # Child -- print what's "in the socket".
    print($_) or die "Couldn't write to STDOUT: $!\n" while
      defined(sysread $sock, $_, PACKET_SIZE) or
        die "Couldn't read from socket: $!\n";
  }

  # Clean up after ourselves.
  close $sock or die "Couldn't close socket: $!\n";
}

# Nice debugging output.
{
  my $fresh;
  sub debug($) {
    my $msg = shift;

    print STDERR "> " and $fresh++ unless $fresh;
    print STDERR $msg;
    $fresh = 0 if substr($msg, -1) eq "\n";
    1;
  }
}

# Display usage info.
sub usage { print STDERR <<'USAGE'; exit }
nat-traverse v0.5 -- Use of UDP to traverse NAT gateways

Usage:
  user@left  $ nat-traverse [options] port1:natgw-of-right:port2
  user@right $ nat-traverse [options] port2:natgw-of-left:port1
  where
    port1, port2:       Two unused UDP ports
    left, right:        The hosts behind NAT gateways you want to connect
    natgw-of-left,      The addresses of the NAT gateways of left and right
    natgw-of-right:

Available options:
  --window=10           The number of initial garbage packets to send.
  --timeout=10          The number of seconds to wait for an acknowledgement
                        of the connection by the peer.
  --cmd="pppd..."       The command to run with its STDIN and STDOUT bound to
                        the socket.
                        If no command is specified, everything you type is
                        relayed to the other end of the socket, i.e.
                        nat-traverse degrades to netcat.
  --quit-after-connect  Quit nat-traverse after the tunnel was established
                        successfully.
  --version             Display version information.
  --help                This help.

Options may be abbreviated to uniqueness.
Run "perldoc nat-traverse" for more information.
USAGE


=head1 NAME

nat-traverse - Use of UDP to traverse NAT gateways

=head1 SYNOPSIS

To create a simple text-only tunnel, use the commands

  user@left  $ nat-traverse 40000:natgw-of-right:40001
  user@right $ nat-traverse 40001:natgw-of-left:40000

where C<40000> is an unused UDP port on C<left> and C<40001> is an unused port on
C<right>. See L</EXAMPLES> for more.

=head1 VERSION

This document describes nat-traverse v0.5.

=head1 DESCRIPTION

nat-traverse establishes connections between nodes which are behind NAT
gateways, i.e. hosts which do I<not> have public IP addresses. Additionally,
you can setup a small VPN by using pppd on top of nat-traverse (see
L</EXAMPLES>).  nat-traverse does I<not> need an external server on the
Internet, and it isn't necessary to reconfigure the involved NAT gateways,
either. I<nat-traverse works out-of-the-box.>

See L</TECHNIQUE> for how this is achieved.

Limitation: nat-traverse does not work with gateways which change the port
numbers. This is a fundamental problem of nat-traverse's design, as the changed
port numbers are (in general) not predictable.

=head1 OPTIONS

=over

=item C<I<local_port>:I<peer>:I<remote_port>> (required)

Sets the local port to use and the remote address to connect to.

Note that you have to give the IP address or hostname of the I<NAT gateway> of
the host you want to connect to, as the target host doesn't have a public IP
address.

=item C<--cmd="I<pppd...>">

Runs the specified command after establishing the connection.

The command will be run with its STDIN and STDOUT bound to the socket, i.e.
everything the command writes to STDOUT will be forwarded to the peer.

If no command is specified, nat-traverse will relay input from STDIN to the peer
and vice versa, i.e. nat-traverse degrades to netcat.

=item C<--window=I<10>>

Sets the number of initial garbage packets to send. The default, 10, should
work with most firewalls.

=item C<--timeout=I<10>>

Sets the maximum number of seconds to wait for an acknowledgement by the peer.

=item C<--quit-after-connect>

Quits nat-traverse after the tunnel has been established successfully.

nat-traverse returns a non-C<0> statuscode to indicate that it wasn't able to
establish the tunnel.

C<--quit-after-connect> is useful if you want another program to use the
tunnel. For example, you could configure OpenVPN to use the the same ports as
nat-traverse -- thus OpenVPN would be able to cross NAT gateways.

=item C<--version>, C<--help>

=back

=head1 TECHNIQUE

nat-traverse establishes connections between hosts behind NAT gateways without need
for reconfiguration of the involved NAT gateways.

=over

=item 1.

Firstly, nat-traverse on host C<left> sends garbage UDP packets to the NAT gateway
of C<right>. These packets are, of course, discarded by the firewall.

=item 2.

Then C<right>'s nat-traverse sends garbage UDP packets to the NAT gateway of
C<left>. These packets are I<not> discarded, as C<left>'s NAT gateway thinks
these packets are replies to the packets sent in step 1!

=item 3.

C<left>'s nat-traverse continues to send garbage packets to C<right>'s NAT gateway.
These packets are now not dropped either, as the NAT gateway thinks the packets
are replies to the packets sent in step 2.

=item 4.

Finally, both hosts send an acknowledgement packet to signal readiness. When
these packets are received, the connection is established and nat-traverse can
either relay STDIN/STDOUT to the socket or execute a program.

=back

=head1 EXAMPLES

=head2 Setup of a small VPN with PPP

It's easy to setup a VPN (Virtual Private Network) by using the Point-to-Point
Protocol Daemon, C<pppd>:

  root@left # nat-traverse \
      --cmd="pppd updetach noauth passive notty \
             ipparam vpn 10.0.0.1:10.0.0.2"
      40000:natgw-of-right:40001
  root@right # nat-traverse \
      --cmd="pppd nodetach notty noauth"
      40001:natgw-of-left:40000

C<pppd> creates a new interface, typically C<ppp0>.  Using this interface, you
can ping C<10.0.0.1> or C<10.0.0.2>. As you can see, C<pppd> upgrades the
data-only tunnel nat-traverse provides to a full IP tunnel. Thus you can
establish reliable TCP connections over the tunnel, even though the tunnel uses
UDP!  Furthermore, you could even add IPv6 addresses to C<ppp0> by running C<ip
-6 addr add...>!

Note though that although this VPN I<is> arguably a private network, it is I<not>
secured in any way. You may want to use SSH to encrypt the connection.

=head2 Port Forwarding with netcat

You can use C<netcat> to forward one of your local UDP or TCP ports to an
arbitrary UDP or TCP port of the remote host, similar to C<ssh -L> or C<ssh
-R>:

  user@left  $ nat-traverse 10001:natgw-of-right:10002 \
        --cmd="nc -vlp 20000"
  user@right $ nat-traverse 10002:natgw-of-left:10001 \
        --cmd="nc -vlp 22"

As soon as the tunnel is established (using UDP ports C<10001> and C<10002>),
C<left>'s TCP port C<20000> is forwarded to C<right>'s SSH Daemon (TCP port
C<22>):

  user@some-other-host $ ssh -p 20000 user@left
  # Will connect to right's SSH daemon!

But do note that you lose the reliability of TCP in this example, as the actual
data is transported via UDP; so this is only a toy example. If you want
reliable streams, use PPP on top of nat-traverse, as described above.

=head2 Setup of a VPN with OpenVPN

You can use L<OpenVPN|http://openvpn.net/> over nat-traverse if you want to
have a I<secure> VPN.

Using OpenVPN over nat-traverse requires only one change to OpenVPN's
configuration file, presuming that you don't want to use OpenVPN's multi-client
mode: You have to adjust the C<code> and C<lport> options
accordingly, for example:

  # Options to add to left's and right's OpenVPN config:
  port  60001
  lport 60001

  # Command to execute on left resp. right:
  root@left  # until \
                 nat-traverse --quit-after-connect 60001:right:60001 \
               do \
                 sleep 5 \
               done; \
               openvpn [...]
  root@right # until \
                 nat-traverse --quit-after-connect 60001:left:60001 \
               do \
                 sleep 5 \
               done; \
               openvpn [...]<!--

The C<until> loop ensures that OpenVPN will not be started before
nat-traverse was able to establish the connection. Michael Kugele
(C<michael (at) kugele.net>) also reported a way to still be able to
use OpenVPN's multi-client mode with nat-traverse: As all instances of
nat-traverse have to use unique ports (because a connection is identified by
the source/destination port combination), you've to use redirection rules to
redirect the ports used by nat-traverse to the port the OpenVPN daemon listens
on:

  iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p udp \
    --dport $LPORT -j DNAT --to $HOST:$PORT
  iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p udp \
    --dport $PORT -j REDIRECT --to-port $LPORT

C<$LPORT> specifies the source port nat-traverse uses on the server
side, and C<$HOST:$PORT> is the address of the OpenVPN server.)

=head1 LIMITATIONS

Only IPv4 is supported, nat-traverse won't work with IPv6 addresses. Drop me a
note if you do need IPv6 support.

nat-traverse does not work with gateways which change the port numbers. This
is a fundamental problem of nat-traverse's design, as the changed port numbers
are (in general) not predictable.

=head1 SEE ALSO

=over

=item L<RFC 1631 at
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1631.txt|http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1631.txt>

The IP Network Address Translator (NAT). K. Egevang, P. Francis.  May 1994.
(Obsoleted by RFC3022) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

=item L<RFC 3022 at
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3022.txt|http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3022.txt>

Traditional IP Network Address Translator (Traditional NAT). P.  Srisuresh,
K. Egevang. January 2001.  (Obsoletes RFC1631) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

=item L<RFC 1661 at
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1661.txt|http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1661.txt>

The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). W. Simpson, Ed.. July 1994.  (Obsoletes
RFC1548) (Updated by RFC2153) (Also STD0051) (Status: STANDARD)

=item L<http://ppp.samba.org/>

Website of Paul's PPP Package (open source implementation of the
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) on Linux and Solaris)

=item L<German talk about nat-traverse at
http://linide.sourceforge.net/nat-traverse/nat-traverse-talk.pdf|http://linide.sourceforge.net/nat-traverse/nat-traverse-talk.pdf>

Dieser Vortrag zeigt, wie man einen Tunnel zwischen zwei Computern, die
beide hinter NAT-Gateways sitzen, hinbekommt. Dazu wird ein neues Programm
vorgestellt, welches sowohl einfache Tastendrücke an die Gegenseite
weiterleiten, als auch beliebige Programme mit Verbindungen zur Gegenseite
starten kann. Damit ist ein einfaches VPN schnell aufgebaut.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 2005, 2012 Ingo Blechschmidt, E<lt>[email protected]<gt>.

You may want to visit nat-traverse's Freecode project page,
L<http://freecode.com/projects/nat-traverse/>.

=head1 LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin
Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.