====== 2016-02-29 - remote console ======

recently i was asked to assist with on linux system remotely. there were just few commands to execute, but it is usually time-consuming to explain something like:
<code bash>
rm -rf `du -s /tmp/* | sort -n | tail -3 | awk '{ print $2 }'`
</code>
over a phone, to a person who is not used to working with a shell on a daily basis.

first i've asked for for an ssh access. it was however not possible, since remote computer was behind NAT, on a local network. i had a public IP, i could forward to my SSH on local machine and ask to do a reverse tunnel so that i could connect back to a person's machine. it did not however felt nice, to give an access to my hardware (just a [[blog:2016:02:29:green_light_for_mass-invigilation_in_poland|healthy paranoia]]). finally i proposed to use netcat for this. on my PC:
<code bash>
ncat --ssl -v -l 0.0.0.0 1234
</code>
i've tested remote end with help of [[wp>TOR]]((creative use for TOR, to check if all the port forwardings do work fine)):
<code bash>
torify ncat --ssl -v -e /bin/bash my.remote.address 1234
</code>
and confirmed i have a console to work with. then i've asked remote end to join, by typing this on his console:
<code bash>
ncat --ssl -v -e /bin/bash my.remote.address 1234
</code>
and voila! remote shell to play around. :) it was far from SSH, in terms of usability, but to execute few commands it was just fine.

later on it turned out we'd need to do [[wp>X11|X forwarding]] to continue, so the day ended using [[http://www.teamviewer.com|teamviewer]] from inside VM((zero trust for closed-source apps! :P)). i'm still thinking about a better solution for non-public IP scenario...