Read your mail in networks that forbid e-mail traffic

Posted Almost 13 years ago. Visible to the public.

If you are connected with a network that forbids e-mail traffic but allows SSH, you can tunnel your e-mail connection through a trusted, intermediary server:

 sudo ssh -i /home/local-user/.ssh/local-user.key -L 143:mail-server.tld:143 remote-user@trusted-server.tld

Explanation for the command above:

| sudo | Secure ports may only be forwarded by root |
| ssh -i /home/local-user/.ssh/local-user.key | Private half of your SSH key for the trusted server |
| -L 143:mail-server.tld:143 | Forward connections to port 143 on your mail server mail-server.told to port 143 on localhost. Check your e-mail settings to see which port you are using to receive e-mail. |
| remote-user@trusted-server.tld | User and hostname of a trusted, intermediary server |

You can now tell your e-mail client to receive e-mail from localhost instead of mail-server.tld. You will get a certificate warning.

Henning Koch
Last edit
Over 11 years ago
Keywords
forward, paranoid
License
Source code in this card is licensed under the MIT License.
Posted by Henning Koch to makandra dev (2011-06-20 08:04)