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I'd like to know whether there is a way to assign a default ssh gateway to a hostname such that, whenever you attempt to ssh to the hostname it uses the gateway to reach the host. Ideally this should be done in the ssh_config

e.g.: client C attempts to reach target T by

ssh T

The only way this connection can be established is through gateway GW

ssh -tA GW ssh T

EDIT: I neglected to mention that one may have various gateways which will reach different hosts

EDIT: I tried using the ssh config:

Host my-target-host ProxyCommand ssh -tA GW ssh %h

But then I get "Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a terminal"

EDIT: Okay so I figured it out :-) The correct config looks like this:

Host my-target-host ProxyCommand ssh my-gateway-host exec nc %h %p

Not entirely sure why this works though...

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  • If you found a solution to your question, please post it as an answer and accept it as the correct solution later. Thanks :) Commented May 26, 2012 at 14:39
  • I would love to know why it works... How does netcat know to use my forwarded ssh-agent? What about all the particulars about the ssh protocol, how does netcat know this? Commented May 26, 2012 at 14:45
  • That might already be a new question. In that case, ask a new question and add a link to this one. Commented May 26, 2012 at 14:56
  • superuser.com/questions/107679/… Commented Dec 5, 2024 at 14:25

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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After some tinkering and searching, I found that this works (for reasons that are beyond me):

In your ssh_config:

Host my-target-host ProxyCommand ssh my-gateway-host exec nc %h %p
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  • 2
    This command causes your local SSH client to establish two SSH sessions. The first is to the gateway host where it starts netcat to serve as a dumb proxy to the target host. The second is via the netcat proxy to the target host. Because it is a proxy, your local ssh-agent (not the gateway) serves the key. Commented May 26, 2012 at 15:22

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