Comment by _dan

Comment by _dan 6 hours ago

SSH tunnelling is an utter necessity in the ridiculous corporate environment I work in. Incredible amounts of bureaucracy and sometimes weeks of waiting to get access to stuff, get ports opened, get some exception in their firewalls and vpn so someone can access a thing they need to do their job.

This guide mentions -D but doesn't really articulate quite how powerful it is if you don't know what it does.

ssh -D 8888 someserver, set your browser's SOCKS proxy to localhost:8888 (firefox still lets you set this without altering system defaults). Now all your browser's traffic is routed via someserver.

I find that to be incredibly useful.

globular-toast 11 minutes ago

That was pretty much my standard way to browse the web away from home in the mid 2000s. But when I actually got a corporate job they had whitelisted IP addresses so I couldn't even get an SSH connection to some random box on the net. I was so miserable I started to look into setting up http tunnel and somehow getting a box I controlled whitelisted. But instead of going that far I just changed jobs.

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hackit2 6 hours ago

It isn't a good idea to circumvent corporate environment networks. they're there for a reason, and doing it shows a lack of professionalism and dis-respect for the organization process, procedures, and security. Yes it takes weeks/months to get access, then it takes weeks/months to get access. You don't want to be held liable for opening a backdoor to confidential information, or compromising their security.

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ziml77 3 hours ago

Exactly. It's not a good idea to bypass policies at work. Just because you don't know why the policy is there or you disagree with the reason, it doesn't mean you can ignore the policy.
If you can't get your job done, then escalate the issue to your manager. You not being able to get your work done because of other teams is the kind of problem they're supposed to be solving.

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- ddulaney an hour ago
  
  I think that statement is pretty short-sighted.
  Bypassing corporate policy at work is risky. You might bring down negative consequences on yourself or your workplace. You have to understand what you are doing. You have to understand likely reactions.
  But also, bypassing corporate policy can have benefits. If I'm more productive or get a reputation as the guy who gets things done or don't get seen as a complainer or just generally produce results because I bypassed a policy, those are all benefits. If I can transform "hey boss, it's gonna be another week on this project because I'm waiting on a policy exemption" to "here it is", that's a benefit.
  You have to weigh whether the benefits outweigh the risks for you.
  
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hmottestad 20 minutes ago

New version of https://xkcd.com/303/ ?
"Waiting for corporate to punch a hole through three firewalls for me to get access to the test server :P"
I was on a project once where a consultant had dropped their laptop and it had taken a week or two to get fixed. After that everyone had to use a laptop provided by the client. When we scaled up the project with 3 more developers the project manager who had set up this policy discovered that the lead time for 3 dev laptops meant that the new developers got to be bored for a month at a fairly high hourly rate.

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barbs 5 hours ago

Sometimes they are. Sometimes that reason is long forgotten, or isn't really valid anymore, or is an overprotective measure and not really a good reason in the first place. Quite often it doesn't justify waiting weeks or months to get it changed.

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FroshKiller 6 hours ago

Can you cite any examples of damage resulting from personal browsing over an SSH tunnel that the worker was held liable for?

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- wakawaka28 an hour ago
  
  That is an awfully specific question. Here are a few examples of what could happen though:
  - Malicious code on a webpage compromises your computer.
  - You download unauthorized software to install, which possibly even comes from a known-bad source.
  - Your employer could have trouble establishing that their patent is legitimate because you accessed documentation from a competitor.
  Even if the worker avoids liability for costly mistakes, the company will be set back. You can also be fired for breaking rules like that even when there are no actual damages.
  
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