iodine - http://code.kryo.se/iodine
This is a piece of software that lets you tunnel IPv4 data through a DNS server. This can be usable in different situations where internet access is firewalled, but DNS queries are allowed.
Iodine has no configure script. There are two optional features for Linux
(SELinux and systemd support) that will be enabled automatically if the
relevant header files are found in /usr/include
.
(See script at ./src/osflags
)
Run make
to compile the server and client binaries.
Run make install
to copy binaries and manpage to the destination directory.
Run make test
to compile and run the unit tests. (Requires the check
library)
Try it out within your own LAN! Follow these simple steps:
- On your server, run:
./iodined -f 10.0.0.1 test.com
. If you already use the10.0.0.0
network, use another internal net like172.16.0.0
. - Enter a password.
- On the client, run:
./iodine -f -r 192.168.0.1 test.com
. Replace192.168.0.1
with your server's ip address. - Enter the same password.
- Now the client has the tunnel ip
10.0.0.2
and the server has10.0.0.1
. - Try pinging each other through the tunnel.
- Done! :)
To actually use it through a relaying nameserver, see below.
Note: server and client are required to speak the exact same protocol. In most cases, this means running the same iodine version. Unfortunately, implementing backward and forward protocol compatibility is usually not feasible.
To use this tunnel, you need control over a real domain (like mydomain.com
),
and a server with a public IP address to run iodined
on. If this server
already runs a DNS program, change its listening port and then use iodined
's
-b
option to let iodined
forward the DNS requests. (Note that this procedure
is not advised in production environments, because iodined
's DNS forwarding
is not completely transparent.)
Then, delegate a subdomain (say, t1.mydomain.com
) to the iodined server.
If you use BIND for your domain, add two lines like these to the zone file:
t1 IN NS t1ns.mydomain.com. ; note the dot!
t1ns IN A 10.15.213.99
The NS
line is all that's needed to route queries for the t1
subdomain
to the t1ns
server. We use a short name for the subdomain, to keep as much
space as possible available for the data traffic. At the end of the NS
line
is the name of your iodined
server. This can be any name, pointing anywhere,
but in this case it's easily kept in the same zone file. It must be a name
(not an IP address), and that name itself must have an A
record
(not a CNAME
).
If your iodined
server has a dynamic IP, use a dynamic DNS provider. Simply
point the NS
line to it, and leave the A
line out:
t1 IN NS myname.mydyndnsprovider.com. ; note the dot!
Then reload or restart your nameserver program. Now any DNS queries for
domains ending in t1.mydomain.com
will be sent to your iodined
server.
Finally start iodined
on your server. The first argument is the IP address
inside the tunnel, which can be from any range that you don't use yet (for
example 192.168.99.1
), and the second argument is the assigned domain (in this
case t1.mydomain.com
). Using the -f
option will keep iodined running in the
foreground, which helps when testing. iodined will open a virtual interface
("tun device"), and will also start listening for DNS queries on UDP port 53.
Either enter a password on the commandline (-P pass
) or after the server has
started. Now everything is ready for the client.
If there is a chance you'll be using an iodine tunnel from unexpected
environments, start iodined
with a -c
option.
Resulting commandline in this example situation:
./iodined -f -c -P secretpassword 192.168.99.1 t1.mydomain.com
All the setup is done, just start iodine
. It takes one or two arguments, the
first is the local relaying DNS server (optional) and the second is the domain
you used (t1.mydomain.com
). If you don't specify the first argument, the
system's current DNS setting will be consulted.
If DNS queries are allowed to any computer, you can directly give the iodined
server's address as first argument (in the example: t1ns.mydomain.com
or
10.15.213.99
). In that case, it may also happen that any traffic is allowed
to the DNS port (53 UDP) of any computer. Iodine will detect this, and switch
to raw UDP tunneling if possible. To force DNS tunneling in any case, use the
-r
option (especially useful when testing within your own network).
The client's tunnel interface will get an IP close to the server's (in this
case 192.168.99.2
or .3
etc.) and a suitable MTU. Enter the same password as
on the server either as commandline option or after the client has started.
Using the -f
option will keep the iodine client running in the foreground.
Resulting commandline in this example situation, adding -r forces DNS tunneling even if raw UDP tunneling would be possible:
./iodine -f -P secretpassword t1.mydomain.com
From either side, you should now be able to ping the IP address on the other
end of the tunnel. In this case, ping 192.168.99.1
from the iodine client, and
192.168.99.2
from the iodine server.
The data inside the tunnel is IPv4 only.
The server listens to both IPv4 and IPv6 for incoming requests by default.
Use options -4
or -6
to only listen on one protocol. Raw mode will be
attempted on the same protocol as used for the login.
The client can use IPv4 or IPv6 nameservers to connect to iodined. The relay
nameservers will translate between protocols automatically if needed. Use
options -4
or -6
to force the client to use a specific IP version for its DNS
queries.
It is possible to route all traffic through the DNS tunnel. To do this, first add a host route to the nameserver used by iodine over the wired/wireless interface with the default gateway as gateway. Then replace the default gateway with the iodined server's IP address inside the DNS tunnel, and configure the server to do NAT.
However, note that the tunneled data traffic is not encrypted at all, and can be read and changed by external parties relatively easily. For maximum security, run a VPN through the DNS tunnel (=double tunneling), or use secure shell (SSH) access, possibly with port forwarding. The latter can also be used for web browsing, when you run a web proxy (for example Privoxy) on your server.
The iodined
server replies to NS
requests sent for subdomains of the tunnel
domain. If your iodined subdomain is t1.mydomain.com
, send a NS
request for
foo123.t1.mydomain.com
to see if the delegation works.
dig
is a good tool for this:
% dig -t NS foo123.t1.mydomain.com
ns.io.citronna.de.
Also, the iodined server will answer requests starting with 'z' for any of the supported request types, for example:
dig -t TXT z456.t1.mydomain.com
dig -t SRV z456.t1.mydomain.com
dig -t CNAME z456.t1.mydomain.com
The reply should look like garbled text in all these cases.
On Mac OS X 10.6 and later, iodine supports the native utun devices built into
the OS - use -d utunX
.