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secure-socket-funneling

1.0.0 open-source

Forwards TCPTCPA network protocol that delivers a reliable, ordered stream of bytes between two endpoints. It detects lost data and retransmits it./UDPUDPA network protocol that sends individual messages without guaranteeing delivery or order. Applications trade built-in reliability for less overhead and can add their own recovery. sockets through a single secure TLS tunnel between client and server across platforms.

Summary

secure-socket-funneling is an open-source network tool that forwards TCP and UDP sockets, SOCKSSOCKSA proxy protocol that relays TCP (and optionally UDP) connections through an intermediary server, letting cyber tools route traffic through a pivot host or anonymizing layer without needing raw network access. proxy traffic, shells, and file copies through a single encrypted TLS tunnel between a client and a remote server, and it is free to use. It runs as standalone command-line executables on Windows, Linux, and macOS, with client and server sides configured via flags or a JSON config file, which makes it a fit for system administrators and network engineers who need to reach services behind a single relay point rather than opening multiple connections. It sits in the secure-access and port-forwarding space alongside other tunneling utilities, bundling proxying, remote shell access, and file transfer into one binary rather than separate tools. Started in 2015 and now at 12 tracked releases with a small, three-person contributor base, it has seen no commits in the past year, so anyone evaluating it should check whether that pace of maintenance suits their needs.

Forwards TCP/UDP sockets through a single secure TLS tunnel between client and server across platforms.

How secure-socket-funneling helps

How do I reach a service on a machine that only allows one inbound connection point?

opens local or remote TCP and UDP forwards that ride inside a single TLS tunnel to the relay, so each service reaches the far side without its own open port

How do I get a shell on a machine sitting behind a relay I don't otherwise have direct access to?

pipes shell input and output over the same tunnel connection, spawning a new process on the far end for each connection made

How do I move files to or from a host without setting up a separate transfer channel?

copies files, including whole directories and piped input, across the existing tunnel rather than opening a new connection for the transfer

How do I browse or proxy traffic into a network I only have one relay point into?

runs a SOCKS proxy on either end of the tunnel, so local or remote traffic gets routed through the one encrypted link

Can a client recover on its own after the tunnel drops mid-session?

the client retries the connection a set number of times with a configurable delay between attempts, rather than requiring the session to be restarted by hand

Is my traffic exposed to whoever operates the network between client and server?

every forwarded socket, shell, and file transfer travels inside one TLS connection negotiated with the strongest available cipher suites, so nothing rides in the clear outside that tunnel

all 4 features, with the evidence for each →

Languages

Not documented

Features

4 capabilities

Built from secure-socket-funneling's releases, docs, README and our own runs. “Seen” marks the month we first spotted a release the vendor didn't date. Group names and tags are our labels.

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What secure-socket-funneling offers you

  • Command-line interface1
All capabilities 4 capabilities
Remote File Transfer shipped Recursively copy directories or individual files from the local machine to a remote filesystem. 5 releases · 5 other sources · first seen Nov 2017

Also counts toward: Command-line interface

release

  • Introduces ssfcp, a new command for copying files between the ssf client and server 1.1.0 · Feb 2018 · source · release history
  • Adds --max-connect-attemps, --reconnect-delay, and --no-reconnect for automatic client reconnection logic 3.0.0 · Nov 2017 · source · release history
  • Introduces --resume, -r, --max-transfers, and --check-integrity options to the refactored ssfcp file transfer commands 3.0.0 · Nov 2017 · source · release history
  • Adds http_proxy.user_agent, tls.ca_cert_buffer, tls.cert_buffer, tls.key_buffer, tls.dh_buffer, circuit, and arguments configuration keys 3.0.0 · Nov 2017 · source · release history
  • The -b client command line option is removed; use the circuit configuration file key instead 3.0.0 · Nov 2017 · source · release history

example

  • Transfer a file from the client to the server via the secure tunnel. ssfcp -s ssfs:port /local/path remote:/remote/path 1.1.0 · Feb 2018 · source
  • Resume a broken file transfer with integrity checking ./ssfcp --resume -r --check-integrity source/ dest/ 3.0.0 · Nov 2017 · source
  • Configure automatic reconnection with limits and delay ./ssf --max-connect-attemps 5 --reconnect-delay 10 3.0.0 · Nov 2017 · source
  • Recursively copy directory to remote ssfcp [-c config_file] [-p port] -r path/to/dir host@absolute/path/directory_destination
  • Copy local file to remote filesystem ssfcp [-c config_file] [-p port] path/to/file host@absolute/path/directory_destination
Network Tunneling and Proxy shipped Forward TCP/UDP sockets over a secure TLS tunnel or act as a SOCKS proxy for network traffic. 7 releases · 2 other sources · first seen Aug 2016

release 7 total

  • Adds -D and -F flags for local and remote SOCKS server support 1.0.0 · Feb 2018 · source · release history
  • Adds -L and -R flags for local and remote TCP port forwarding 1.0.0 · Feb 2018 · source · release history
  • Adds -U and -V flags for local and remote UDP port forwarding 1.0.0 · Feb 2018 · source · release history
  • http_proxy.credentials.reuse_ntlm and http_proxy.credentials.reuse_kerb values change from string to boolean in the configuration file 2.2.0 · Sep 2016 · source · release history
  • Adds TLS layer over the existing circuit layer for encrypted transport 2.1.0 · Aug 2016 · source · release history
  • Adds HTTP proxy support via the CONNECT method for tunneling through proxies 2.1.0 · Aug 2016 · source · release history

docs

  • Forwards TCP/UDP sockets through a single secure TLS tunnel between client and server across platforms.

example

  • Run SOCKS proxy forwarded to server ssf -D 9000 -c config.json -p 8000 192.168.0.1
Server Configuration shipped Start a server on default or specific address and port bindings. 3 releases · 4 other sources · first seen Aug 2016

release

  • Adds -R command line option to run the server as a relay only 2.2.0 · Sep 2016 · source · release history
  • Adds gateway_ports configuration option to control network listening interface for client features 2.2.0 · Sep 2016 · source · release history
  • Adds server network interface option to bind the listening socket to a specific interface 2.1.0 · Aug 2016 · source · release history

example

  • Run the server strictly as a relay without acting as a full gateway ssf -s -R 2.2.0 · Sep 2016 · source
  • Listen on a specific interface for client tunnels ssf -c <server> -g 0.0.0.0:1080 2.2.0 · Sep 2016 · source
  • Bind server to specific address and port ssfd -p 9000 -l 192.168.0.1
  • Start server on default port ssfd
Remote Data Ingestion shipped Pipe local standard input directly to a file on the remote filesystem. 1 release · 1 other source · first seen Aug 2016

release

  • Adds -X and -Y options to provide a basic shell through the socket connection 2.1.0 · Aug 2016 · source · release history

example

  • Pipe stdin to remote file data_in_stdin | ssfcp [-c config_file] [-p port] -t host@path/to/destination/file_destination

Lines in monospace are the tool's own words: help text parsed from its source, or an endpoint from its API document. Under release, a line is our summary of a dated release. Under docs, it is quoted from the tool's own documentation or website. Each links back to the source it came from.

Score card

  1. Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
  2. Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
  3. Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
  4. Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
  5. Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface
  6. Community health
  7. Contributor trend distinct committers, this year against last
  8. Maintainer concentration bus factor now against a year ago
  9. Issue backlog trend issues closed per issue opened, 12 months
  10. Responsiveness median time to a maintainer’s first reply

Nine scores for secure-socket-funneling, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.

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Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.

How this is scored
  • Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
  • Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
  • Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
  • Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
  • Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
  • Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
  • Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
  • Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.

Release-note detail over time

See how much detail secure-socket-funneling puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.

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Releases

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5 entries

  1. February 20182
  2. November 20171
  3. September 20161
  4. August 20161
    Show

    5 entries

    Project health

    Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in securesocketfunneling/ssf, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.

    1. Contributors not measured distinct committers, last 12 months
    2. Maintainers not measured core set, last 12 months
    3. Bus factor not measured committers behind half the commits
    4. Community-filed not measured of issues opened, last 12 months
    5. Median time to close not measured issues closed, last 12 months
    6. Open backlog 69 of 105 issues ever filed
    1. Issues opened / month 0 · 0 communitymaintainers
    2. Open backlog 69
    3. Contributors / month not measured
    4. Commits / month not measured
    5. Stars 1,669
    Issue themes, last 12 months not measured

    Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this

    Libraries its release ships

    What its latest release locks, checked against known advisories.

    None of its release's images build from a lockfile we can read.

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