HTTP Tunnel Servlet (Java)

Question

I am trying to write an HTTP tunnel as we want to be able to connect to a remote machine through our web application. While I am aware of the security risks involved, it's something we would like to do. It's not hosted on the internet, but on private networks, so the risk is considered low.

The basic requirement is to allow the Java Debugging tool to connect through a servlet to a machine. We have some clients that insist on having development boxes their side of the firewall and as the return port on the java debug server is not fixed, we can't simply ask them to open up a specific port.

The code isn't perfect yet. I have simply been trying to get something communicating in a bi-directional manner.

There are a few components. A standalone server which the java debug in Eclipse connects to. This server is configured to know where it's heading based on the port connected to. So if port 1166 is hit, it knows to connect to a servlet on machine x.

i.e. Eclipse Debugger --> Debug Proxy Server --> Application Servlet --> Application JVM

So far for my efforts, I appear to be able to connect, but the streams are not fully functional. Eclipse sends a JDWP-Handshake to the JVM, which is supposed to reply with JDWP-Handshake back. I'm finding that when JDWP-Handshake is sent by Eclipse, it is written to the Debug Proxy Server and then relayed onto the Servlet, but it appears this is then being ignored in the servlet. The logs I am receiving are the following:

[INFO] Started Jetty Server
2012-06-18 10:00:53,356  INFO ProxySocket  - Connection received, forwarding to tidevwls03:1166 via http://localhost:8080/tunnel/debug-proxy
2012-06-18 10:00:53,361  INFO ProxySocket  - Connected to http://localhost:8080/tunnel/debug-proxy
2012-06-18 10:00:53,603  INFO ProxyServlet  - Received incoming http connection, attempting to forward to endpoint tidevwls03:1166
2012-06-18 10:00:53,604  INFO ProxyServlet  - Connecting to endpoint tidevwls03:1166
2012-06-18 10:00:53,613  INFO StreamProxy  - [endpoint-read -> http-write    ] beginning proxy transport.
2012-06-18 10:00:53,613  INFO StreamProxy  - [http-read     -> endpoint-write] beginning proxy transport.
2012-06-18 10:00:53,619  INFO ProxySocket  - Response Header: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
2012-06-18 10:00:53,619  INFO ProxySocket  - Response Header: Content-Length: 0
2012-06-18 10:00:53,623  INFO ProxySocket  - Response Header: Server: Jetty(6.1.22)
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] beginning proxy transport.
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'J'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [servlet-read -> client-write   ] beginning proxy transport.
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'D'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'W'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'P'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] '-'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'H'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'a'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'n'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'd'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 's'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'h'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,624  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'a'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,625  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'k'
2012-06-18 10:00:53,625  INFO StreamProxy  - [client-read  -> servlet-write  ] 'e'

I'm wondering if I need to change my thinking on this so that the streams are broken up into multiple requests and a session based connection is used. One request would become a never ending downstream (i.e. infinite response), then when the client sends to the servlet, it would create a new request each time. Is this the key to getting this working?

Below is the code for the Debug Proxy Server that can either run standalone or I have temporarily configured it to run as a servlet on a Jetty server for quick testing turn around time. (ProxySocket.java)

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.List;

import javax.net.SocketFactory;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;

import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public class ProxySocket extends HttpServlet {
  private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger( ProxySocket.class ); 
  private static final ApplicationContext springContext = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext( "env-spring/applicationContext*.xml" ); 

  @Override
  public void init() throws ServletException {
    List<HttpDebugConfig> configs = ( List<HttpDebugConfig> ) springContext.getBean( "DebugProxyHosts" );
    for ( HttpDebugConfig config : configs ) {
      ProxyServer proxyServer = new ProxyServer( config );
      proxyServer.start();
    }
  }

  class ProxyServer extends Thread {
    private HttpDebugConfig config;

    public ProxyServer( HttpDebugConfig config ) {
      this.config = config;
    }

    public void run() {
      ServerSocket ss = null;
      StreamProxy streamToTunnel = null;
      StreamProxy streamToClient = null;

      try {
        ss = new ServerSocket( config.getLocalPort() );
        Socket inbound = null;
        Socket outbound = null;
        logger.info( String.format( "Listening for connections on port %d. Proxying to %s:%d", config.getLocalPort(), config.getRemoteHost(), config.getRemotePort() ) );
        while ( ( inbound = ss.accept() ) != null ) {
          try {
            logger.info( String.format( "Connection received, forwarding to %s:%d via %s", config.getRemoteHost(), config.getRemotePort(), config.getProxyUrl() ) );

            URL proxy = new URL( config.getProxyUrl() );

            outbound = SocketFactory.getDefault().createSocket( proxy.getHost(), proxy.getPort() );
            logger.info( String.format( "Connected to %s", config.getProxyUrl() ) );

            OutputStream out = outbound.getOutputStream();
            BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( outbound.getInputStream() ) );

            writeLine( out, String.format( "POST %s HTTP/1.1", config.getProxyUrl() ) );
            writeLine( out, String.format( "Host: http://%s:%s", proxy.getHost(), proxy.getPort() ) );
            writeLine( out, "Connection: keep-alive" );
            writeLine( out, String.format( "tunnel_host: %s", config.getRemoteHost() ) );
            writeLine( out, String.format( "tunnel_port: %s", String.valueOf( config.getRemotePort() ) ) );
            writeLine( out, "" );

            // read the http response and then we can start tunnelling.
            for ( String line = ""; StringUtils.isNotBlank( line = in.readLine() ); ) {
              logger.info( String.format( "Response Header: %s", line ) );
            }

            streamToTunnel = new StreamProxy( "[client-read  -> servlet-write  ]", inbound.getInputStream(), outbound.getOutputStream() );
            streamToClient = new StreamProxy( "[servlet-read -> client-write   ]", outbound.getInputStream(), inbound.getOutputStream() );
            streamToTunnel.start();
            streamToClient.start();

            while ( streamToClient.isAlive() || streamToTunnel.isAlive() ) {
              try { Thread.sleep( 100 ); } catch ( InterruptedException e ) { }
            }

            logger.info( String.format( "Shutting down socket-to-%s.", config.getProxyUrl() ) );
          } finally {
            IOUtils.closeQuietly( inbound );
            IOUtils.closeQuietly( outbound );
          }
        }
      } catch ( IOException e ) {
        logger.error( String.format( "No longer listening for connections on port %d. Proxying to %s:%d", config.getLocalPort(), config.getRemoteHost(), config.getRemotePort() ), e );
      } finally {
        if ( ss != null ) {
          try { ss.close(); } catch ( Exception e ) { }
        }
      }
    }

    private void writeLine( OutputStream out, String msg ) throws IOException {
      out.write( String.format( "%s\n", StringUtils.defaultString( msg ) ).getBytes() );
    }
  }
}

The next section of code is the spring configuration (/env-spring/applicationContext.xml).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-3.1.xsd
    ">
    <util:list id="DebugProxyHosts" list-class="java.util.ArrayList">
        <bean class="HttpDebugConfig">
            <property name="localPort" value="1166" />
            <property name="proxyUrl" value="http://localhost:8080/tunnel/debug-proxy" />
            <property name="remoteHost" value="tidevwls03" />
            <property name="remotePort" value="1166" />
        </bean> 
    </util:list>
</beans>

The configuration bean (HttpDebugConfig.java).

public class HttpDebugConfig {
  private int localPort;
  private String remoteHost;
  private int remotePort;
  private String proxyUrl;

  public int getLocalPort() {
    return localPort;
  }

  public void setLocalPort( int localPort ) {
    this.localPort = localPort;
  }

  public String getRemoteHost() {
    return remoteHost;
  }

  public void setRemoteHost( String remoteHost ) {
    this.remoteHost = remoteHost;
  }

  public int getRemotePort() {
    return remotePort;
  }

  public void setRemotePort( int remotePort ) {
    this.remotePort = remotePort;
  }

  public String getProxyUrl() {
    return proxyUrl;
  }

  public void setProxyUrl( String proxyUrl ) {
    this.proxyUrl = proxyUrl;
  }
}

The input stream to output stream copier (StreamProxy.java)

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

public class StreamProxy extends Thread {
  private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger( StreamProxy.class );

  private InputStream in;
  private OutputStream out;

  private boolean kill = false;

  public StreamProxy( String name, InputStream in, OutputStream out ) {
    this.in = in;
    this.out = out;
    setName( name );
  }

  @Override
  public void interrupt() {
    this.kill = true;
    super.interrupt();
  }

  @Override
  public void run() {
    try {
      logger.info( String.format( "%s beginning proxy transport.", getName() ) );
      do {
        int n = 0;
        while ( -1 != ( n = in.read() ) ) {
          logger.info( getName() + " '" + ( char ) n + "'" );
          out.write( n );
          // out.flush();
        }
        try { Thread.sleep( 1 ); } catch ( Exception e ) { }
      } while ( ! kill );
      logger.info( String.format( "%s completed proxy transport.", getName() ) );
    } catch ( IOException e ) {
      logger.error( String.format( "%s Failed to copy from input stream to output stream. Aborting thread.", getName() ),  e );
      kill = true;
    } finally {
      IOUtils.closeQuietly( in );
      IOUtils.closeQuietly( out );
    }
  }
}

This section is the Tunnel Servlet (ProxyServlet.java)

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.Socket;

import javax.net.SocketFactory;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
import org.apache.commons.lang.math.NumberUtils;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

public class ProxyServlet extends HttpServlet {
  private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger( ProxyServlet.class ); 
  private static final long serialVersionUID = -686421490573011755L;

  @Override
  protected void service( HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response ) throws ServletException, IOException {
    new Runner( request, response ).start();
  }

  class Runner extends Thread {
    private HttpServletRequest request;
    private HttpServletResponse response;

    public Runner( HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response ) {
      this.request = request;
      this.response = response;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
      Socket endpoint = null;
      StreamProxy streamToHttp = null;
      StreamProxy streamToEndpoint = null;

      String host = StringUtils.defaultIfEmpty( request.getHeader( "tunnel_host" ), "localhost" );
      int port = NumberUtils.toInt( request.getHeader( "tunnel_port" ), 8000 );

      try {
        logger.info( String.format( "Received incoming http connection, attempting to forward to endpoint %s:%d", host, port ) );

        logger.info( String.format( "Connecting to endpoint %s:%d", host, port ) );
        endpoint = SocketFactory.getDefault().createSocket( host, port );

        streamToHttp = new StreamProxy( "[endpoint-read -> http-write    ]", endpoint.getInputStream(), response.getOutputStream() );
        streamToEndpoint = new StreamProxy( "[http-read     -> endpoint-write]", request.getInputStream(), endpoint.getOutputStream() );
        streamToHttp.start();
        streamToEndpoint.start();

        while ( streamToEndpoint.isAlive() || streamToHttp.isAlive() ) {
          try { Thread.sleep( 100 ); } catch ( InterruptedException e ) { }
        }

        logger.info( String.format( "Safely shut down servlet-to-%s:%d proxy.", host, port ) );
      } catch ( IOException e ) {
        logger.error( String.format( "Shutting down servlet-to-%s:%d proxy.", host, port ), e );
      } finally {
        if ( streamToHttp != null ) {
          streamToHttp.interrupt();
        }
        if ( streamToEndpoint != null ) {
          streamToEndpoint.interrupt();
        }
        IOUtils.closeQuietly( endpoint );
      }
    }
  }
}

The application container configuration (web.xml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"
    version="2.4">

    <display-name>tunnel</display-name>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>log4jConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>classpath:log4j.properties
        </param-value>
    </context-param>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>classpath:env-spring/applicationContext*.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>Debug Proxy</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>ProxyServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>Debug Proxy</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/debug-proxy</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>Debug Socket</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>ProxySocket</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>Debug Socket</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/debug-socket</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

Finally, my pom.xml as I am building with maven.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>tunnel</groupId>
  <artifactId>tunnel</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <packaging>war</packaging>

    <properties>
        <version.spring>3.1.1.RELEASE</version.spring>
    </properties>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jetty-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>6.1.22</version>
                <configuration>
                    <webApp>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}.${project.packaging}</webApp>
                    <stopPort>9966</stopPort>
                    <stopKey>foo</stopKey>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Utilities -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-lang</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId>
            <version>2.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
            <version>2.0.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-collections</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-collections</artifactId>
            <version>3.2.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-httpclient</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-httpclient</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.1</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
                    <groupId>junit</groupId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-codec</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-codec</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Logging -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.16</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Spring Framework -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
            <version>${version.spring}</version>
        </dependency>
    <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${version.spring}</version>
        </dependency>
    <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
            <version>${version.spring}</version>
        </dependency>
    <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${version.spring}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies> 
</project>

I run Jetty server with the following Maven targets

jetty:stop clean install jetty:run-war

Hope you find this little project interesting! I look forward to hearing your ideas and comments.

Thanks, Stuart

Answer 1

SSH tunnel - my choice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunneling_protocol

ssh -L [bind_address:]port:sshserverhostname:targetmachinehostname port

-L Specifies that the given port on the local (client) host is to be forwarded to the given host and port on the remote side. This works by allocating a socket to listen to port on the local side, optionally bound to the specified bind_address. Whenever a connection is made to this port, the connection is forwarded over the secure channel, and a connection is made to host port hostport from the remote machine. Port forwardings can also be specified in the configu- ration file. IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing the address in square brackets. Only the superuser can forward privileged ports. By default, the local port is bound in accor- dance with the GatewayPorts setting. However, an explicit bind_address may be used to bind the connection to a specific address. The bind_address of `localhost'' indicates that the listen- ing port be bound for local use only, while an empty address or*' indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.