mantic (1) websockify.1.gz

Provided by: websockify_0.10.0+dfsg1-5_amd64 bug

NAME

       websockify - WebSockets to TCP socket bridge

SYNOPSIS

        websockify [options] [source_addr:]source_port target_addr:target_port
        websockify [options] [source_addr:]source_port -- WRAP_COMMAND_LINE

OPTIONS

        -h, --help         show this help message and exit
        -v, --verbose      verbose messages and per frame traffic
        --record=FILE      record sessions to FILE.[session_number]
        -D, --daemon       become a daemon (background process)
        --run-once         handle a single WebSocket connection and exit
        --timeout=TIMEOUT  after TIMEOUT seconds exit when not connected
        --cert=CERT        SSL certificate file
        --key=KEY          SSL key file (if separate from cert)
        --ssl-only         disallow non-encrypted connections
        --web=DIR          run webserver on same port. Serve files from DIR.
        --wrap-mode=MODE   action to take when the wrapped program exits or
                            daemonizes: exit (default), ignore, respawn

DESCRIPTION

       At  the  most  basic  level,  websockify  just translates WebSockets traffic to normal TCP
       socket traffic. Websockify accepts the WebSockets handshake, parses it,  and  then  begins
       forwarding traffic between the client and the target in both directions.

       websockify was formerly named wsproxy and was part of the noVNC project.

NOTES

   WebSockets binary data
       Websockify  supports  all  versions of the WebSockets protocol (Hixie and HyBI). The older
       Hixie versions of the protocol only support UTF-8 text payloads.  In  order  to  transport
       binary  data  over  UTF-8  an  encoding  must  used  to encapsulate the data within UTF-8.
       Websockify uses base64 to encode all traffic to and from the client. This does not  affect
       the data between websockify and the server.

   Encrypted WebSocket connections (wss://)
       To  encrypt  the  traffic  using  the WebSocket 'wss://' URI scheme you need to generate a
       certificate for websockify to load. By default websockify loads a  certificate  file  name
       self.pem  but  the --cert=CERT option can override the file name. You can generate a self-
       signed certificate using openssl. When asked for the common name, use the hostname of  the
       server where the proxy will be running:

       openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out self.pem -keyout self.pem

   Additional websockify features
       These are not necessary for the basic operation.

       *      Daemonizing:  When the -D option is specified, websockify runs in the background as
              a daemon process.

       *      SSL (the wss:// WebSockets URI): This is detected automatically  by  websockify  by
              sniffing  the  first  byte sent from the client and then wrapping the socket if the
              data starts with '\x16' or '\x80' (indicating SSL).

       *      Session recording: This feature that allows  recording  of  the  traffic  sent  and
              received from the client to a file using the --record option.

       *      Mini-webserver:  websockify  can  detect  and respond to normal web requests on the
              same port as the WebSockets proxy. This functionality is activate  with  the  --web
              DIR option where DIR is the root of the web directory to serve.

       *      Wrap a program: see the "Wrap a Program" section below.

   Wrap a Program
       In  addition  to  proxying  from  a  source address to a target address (which may be on a
       different system), websockify has the ability to launch a program on the local system  and
       proxy WebSockets traffic to a normal TCP port owned/bound by the program.

       The  is  accomplished  with a small LD_PRELOAD library (rebind.so) which intercepts bind()
       system calls by the program. The specified port is moved to a new localhost/loopback  free
       high port. websockify then proxies WebSockets traffic directed to the original port to the
       new (moved) port of the program.

       The program wrap mode is invoked by replacing the target with -- followed by  the  program
       command line to wrap.

       `./websockify 2023 -- PROGRAM ARGS`

       The  --wrap-mode  option  can  be  used  to  indicate what action to take when the wrapped
       program exits or daemonizes.

       Here is an example of using websockify to wrap the vncserver  command  (which  backgrounds
       itself) for use with noVNC:

       `./websockify 5901 --wrap-mode=ignore -- vncserver -geometry 1024x768 :1`

       Here  is  an  example  of  wrapping  telnetd  (from krb5-telnetd). telnetd exits after the
       connection closes so the wrap mode is set to respawn the command:

       `sudo ./websockify 2023 --wrap-mode=respawn -- telnetd -debug 2023`

       The wstelnet.html page demonstrates a simple WebSockets based telnet client.

   Use client certificate verification
       This feature requires Python 2.7.9 or newer or Python 3.4 or newer.

       The --verify-client option makes  the  server  ask  the  client  for  a  SSL  certificate.
       Presenting  a  valid  (not  expired  and  trusted  by  any supplied certificate authority)
       certificate is required for the client connection. With -auth-plugin=ClientCertCNAuth, the
       client  certificate  can  be  checked against a list of authorised certificate users. Non-
       encrypted connection attempts always fail during authentication.

       Here is an example of a vncsevrer with password-less, certificate-driven authentication:

       `./websockify  5901  --cert=fullchain.pem  --key=privkey.pem  --ssl-only   --verify-client
       --cafile=ca-certificates.crt             --auth-plugin=ClientCertCNAuth            --auth-
       source='jane@example.com Joe User9824510' --web=noVNC/ --wrap-mode=ignore -- vncserver  :1
       -geometry 1024x768 -SecurityTypes=None`

       The  --auth-source option takes a white-space separated list of common names. Depending on
       your clients certificates they can be verified email addresses, user-names  or  any  other
       string used for identification.

       The  --cafile  option  selects  a file containing concatenated certificates of authorities
       trusted for validating clients. If this option is omitted, system default list of  CAs  is
       used.  Upon connect, the client should supply the whole certificate chain. If your clients
       are known not to send intermediate certificates, they can be appended to  the  ca-file  as
       well.

       Note:  Most browsers ask the user to select a certificate only while connecting via HTTPS,
       not WebSockets. Connecting directly to the SSL secured WebSocket may cause the browser  to
       abort the connection. If you want to connect via noVNC, the --web option should point to a
       copy of noVNC, so it is loaded from the same host.

AUTHOR

       Joel Martin (github@martintribe.org)

SEE ALSO

       https://github.com/novnc/websockify/

       https://github.com/novnc/websockify/wiki/