# Rusnel
[](https://crates.io/crates/rusnel)
[](https://crates.io/crates/rusnel)
[](LICENSE)
## Description
Rusnel is a fast TCP/UDP tunnel, transported over and encrypted using QUIC protocol. Single executable including both client and server. Written in Rust.
## Quickstart
```bash
cargo install rusnel
# on your public box
rusnel server --tls-self-signed
# server cert fingerprint: sha256:abcd...
# on your laptop — expose laptop:8080 as <server>:8080
rusnel client --tls-fingerprint sha256:abcd... <server>:8080 R:8080
```
## Features
- Easy to use
- Single executable including both client and server.
- Uses QUIC protocol for fast and multiplexed communication.
- Encrypted connections using the QUIC protocol (TLS 1.3).
- Static forward tunneling (TCP, UDP)
- Static reverse tunneling (TCP, UDP)
- Dynamic tunneling (socks5, including UDP ASSOCIATE)
- Dynamic reverse tunneling (reverse socks5, including UDP ASSOCIATE)
- Layered peer authentication: insecure, fingerprint pinning, or full mTLS
(see [Authentication](#authentication)).
## Install
```bash
cargo install rusnel
```
Or build from source:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/guyte149/Rusnel.git
cd Rusnel
cargo build --release
```
Pre-built binaries for Linux (x86_64 + aarch64, gnu and musl), macOS
(x86_64 + Apple Silicon), and Windows (x86_64) are attached to each
[GitHub release](https://github.com/guyte149/Rusnel/releases).
On Windows the admin HTTP API and the `rusnel ctl` subcommand are
not available — both are Unix-socket-based. Tunnels, TLS, and
embedded credentials work the same as on Unix.
### Docker
Multi-arch images (`linux/amd64`, `linux/arm64`) are published to GHCR:
```bash
docker pull ghcr.io/guyte149/rusnel:latest
docker run --rm -p 8080:8080/udp ghcr.io/guyte149/rusnel \
server --tls-self-signed
```
Note that QUIC runs over **UDP** — `-p 8080:8080/udp`, not `/tcp`.
## Usage
```bash
$ rusnel --help
A fast tcp/udp tunnel
Usage: rusnel <COMMAND>
Commands:
server run Rusnel in server mode
client run Rusnel in client mode
cert generate certificates for use with --tls-* flags
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Options:
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
```
```bash
$ rusnel server --help
run Rusnel in server mode
Usage: rusnel server [OPTIONS]
Options:
--host <HOST> defines Rusnel listening host [default: 0.0.0.0]
-p, --port <PORT> defines Rusnel listening port [default: 8080]
--allow-reverse Allow clients to specify reverse port forwarding remotes
--allow-socks Allow clients to specify SOCKS5 remotes. `R:socks`
additionally requires `--allow-reverse`.
--insecure Disable all TLS authentication (testing only)
--tls-self-signed Persisted self-signed cert under --tls-state-dir
--tls-state-dir <DIR> Directory for persisted self-signed cert/key (default: ~/.rusnel)
--tls-cert <PATH> Server PEM cert (paired with --tls-key)
--tls-key <PATH> Server PEM key (paired with --tls-cert)
--tls-ca <PATH> Enable mTLS: require client certs signed by this CA
--congestion <CC> QUIC congestion controller: cubic (default) or bbr.
cubic wins on loopback / clean LANs; bbr wins on
high-BDP / lossy WAN links (≳25ms RTT or any loss).
-v, --verbose enable verbose logging
--debug enable debug logging
-h, --help Print help
```
```bash
$ rusnel client --help
run Rusnel in client mode
Usage: rusnel client [OPTIONS] <SERVER> <remote>...
Arguments:
<SERVER> defines the Rusnel server address (in form of host:port)
<remote>...
<remote>s are remote connections tunneled through the server, each which come in the form:
<local-host>:<local-port>:<remote-host>:<remote-port>/<protocol>
■ local-host defaults to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces).
■ local-port defaults to remote-port.
■ remote-port is required*.
■ remote-host defaults to 0.0.0.0 (server localhost).
■ protocol defaults to tcp.
which shares <remote-host>:<remote-port> from the server to the client as <local-host>:<local-port>, or:
R:<local-host>:<local-port>:<remote-host>:<remote-port>/<protocol>
which does reverse port forwarding,
sharing <remote-host>:<remote-port> from the client to the server\'s <local-host>:<local-port>.
example remotes
1337
example.com:1337
1337:google.com:80
192.168.1.14:5000:google.com:80
socks
5000:socks
R:2222:localhost:22
R:socks
R:5000:socks
1.1.1.1:53/udp
[::1]:80
[::1]:5000:[2001:db8::1]:80
R:[::1]:2222:[::1]:22
stdio:example.com:22
IPv6 literals must be wrapped in [brackets] (same
convention as URLs and ssh -L).
When the Rusnel server has --allow-reverse enabled, remotes can be prefixed with R to denote that they are reversed.
Remotes can specify "socks" in place of remote-host and remote-port.
The default local host and port for a "socks" remote is 127.0.0.1:1080.
Remotes can specify "stdio" in place of <local-host>:<local-port>
to pipe the client process's stdin/stdout to/from the tunnel
instead of binding a local listener. Stdio remotes are
forward-only.
Options:
--insecure Skip server cert verification (testing only)
--tls-fingerprint <SHA256> Pin server cert by SHA-256 fingerprint
--tls-ca <PATH> Verify server cert against this CA bundle
--tls-cert <PATH> Client PEM cert (mTLS; paired with --tls-key + --tls-ca)
--tls-key <PATH> Client PEM key (mTLS; paired with --tls-cert + --tls-ca)
--tls-server-name <NAME> Override SNI / verification name
--congestion <CC> QUIC congestion controller: cubic (default) or
bbr. cubic wins on loopback / clean LANs; bbr
wins on high-BDP / lossy WAN links.
--max-retry-count <N> Reconnect attempts after a disconnect or
failed connect. -1 = retry forever (default);
counter resets on every successful connect.
--max-retry-interval <S> Cap on the exponential reconnect backoff
(default 300s; starts at 200 ms and doubles).
--proxy <URL> Route the QUIC connection through a SOCKS5
proxy via UDP ASSOCIATE.
Form: socks5://[user:pass@]host:port.
-v, --verbose enable verbose logging
--debug enable debug logging
-h, --help Print help
```
The client survives both transient network drops and full server restarts
out of the box: on disconnect it logs the close reason (e.g.
`closed by peer: server received ^C (code 0)`), backs off, and tries every
resolved address in parallel using **RFC 8305 Happy Eyeballs** so v4-only
servers reachable via a v6-preferring resolver still connect within
~250 ms. Server-side resources (including reverse-tunnel listeners) are
released the moment the QUIC connection drops.
## Authentication
Both the server and the client require an explicit TLS-mode flag — there is
no silent insecure default. Three modes:
| Insecure | `--insecure` | `--insecure` |
| Fingerprint pin | `--tls-self-signed` (or `--tls-cert`/`--tls-key`) | `--tls-fingerprint sha256:...` |
| Full mTLS | `--tls-cert ... --tls-key ... --tls-ca ...` | `--tls-ca ... --tls-cert ... --tls-key ... [--tls-server-name ...]` |
Quickest path for a private/single-user setup — the server logs its
fingerprint at startup, the client pins it:
```bash
rusnel server --tls-self-signed
# server cert fingerprint: sha256:abcd...
rusnel client --tls-fingerprint sha256:abcd... 1.2.3.4:8080 1337
```
For full mTLS, generate a CA + server + client cert (no `openssl` required):
```bash
scripts/gen-certs.sh ./pki 1.2.3.4
rusnel server --tls-ca ./pki/ca.pem --tls-cert ./pki/server.pem --tls-key ./pki/server.key
rusnel client --tls-ca ./pki/ca.pem --tls-cert ./pki/client.pem --tls-key ./pki/client.key \
--tls-server-name 1.2.3.4 1.2.3.4:8080 1337
```
`rusnel cert --help` lists the underlying subcommands (`ca`, `server`,
`client`, `fingerprint`) for finer control.
### Embedded credentials (drop-and-run binaries)
Rusnel can bake credentials and the default invocation into the binary
at **build time** via `RUSNEL_EMBED_*` env vars. The resulting binary
connects, authenticates, and starts forwarding the moment it's run —
no flags, no subcommand, no config file. CLI flags still override
embedded values, so `--help` and ad-hoc subcommands keep working.
```bash
RUSNEL_EMBED_CA=./pki/ca.pem \
RUSNEL_EMBED_CLIENT_CERT=./pki/client.pem \
RUSNEL_EMBED_CLIENT_KEY=./pki/client.key \
RUSNEL_EMBED_SERVER_NAME=1.2.3.4 \
RUSNEL_EMBED_ARGS='client 1.2.3.4:8080 R:2222:localhost:22' \
cargo build --release
./target/release/rusnel # connects + opens reverse tunnel
```
Recognised vars: `RUSNEL_EMBED_ARGS`, `RUSNEL_EMBED_SERVER_ADDR`,
`RUSNEL_EMBED_FINGERPRINT`, `RUSNEL_EMBED_SERVER_NAME`,
`RUSNEL_EMBED_CA`, `RUSNEL_EMBED_SERVER_CERT`, `RUSNEL_EMBED_SERVER_KEY`,
`RUSNEL_EMBED_CLIENT_CERT`, `RUSNEL_EMBED_CLIENT_KEY`. See
[`build.rs`](build.rs) for the full mapping.
## Configuration file
Both `rusnel server` and `rusnel client` accept `--config <PATH>`
pointing at a TOML file. A single file may contain a `[server]`
section, a `[client]` section, or both — only the section matching
the subcommand is read. Unknown keys are rejected so typos surface
immediately.
**Precedence**: CLI flag > config file > built-in default. Any flag
you pass on the command line overrides whatever the file says.
The TLS-mode flags are special: passing *any* of `--insecure`,
`--tls-self-signed`, `--tls-cert`, `--tls-key`, `--tls-ca` (server)
or `--insecure`, `--tls-fingerprint`, `--tls-ca`, `--tls-cert`,
`--tls-key` (client) on the CLI causes all of the file's TLS-mode
keys to be ignored — you get exactly the mode you typed, with no
silent mixing.
A minimal server example:
```toml
[server]
host = "0.0.0.0"
port = 8080
allow_reverse = true
allow_socks = true
tls_self_signed = true
log_format = "json"
```
A minimal client example:
```toml
[client]
server = "tunnel.example.com:8080"
remotes = ["R:2222:localhost:22", "1.1.1.1:53/udp"]
tls_fingerprint = "sha256:0123456789abcdef..."
max_retry_interval = 60
```
Both positional arguments (`<server>` and `<remote>...`) can be
supplied either by the file or on the CLI; the CLI version wins when
both are present.
A fully-annotated example covering every supported key lives at
[`examples/rusnel.toml`](examples/rusnel.toml).
## Logging
Rusnel uses [`tracing`](https://docs.rs/tracing) end-to-end with structured
fields and stable span hierarchy.
**Verbosity** (mutually exclusive):
```bash
rusnel server ... # INFO (default)
rusnel server -v ... # DEBUG for rusnel modules
rusnel server --debug ... # TRACE for rusnel modules
rusnel server -q / --quiet ... # WARN-and-above only
```
For finer control set `RUST_LOG` directly — it overrides the flags:
```bash
RUST_LOG=rusnel=debug,quinn=info rusnel server ...
RUST_LOG=rusnel::common::tcp=trace rusnel client ...
```
**Format**: human-readable compact (default) or one JSON object per line for
log aggregators:
```bash
rusnel server --log-format json ...
```
Logs go to **stderr** (so forward `stdio:` tunnels can use stdout cleanly).
Timestamps are ISO-8601 UTC with millisecond precision; ANSI colours are
auto-detected from the stderr TTY.
Every event is wrapped in spans whose field names match the
`rusnel ctl` / admin-API ID schema (`client_id`, `tunnel_id`,
`conn_id`, …), so logs grep cleanly against API output. Every conn
emits a `conn opened` event on entry and a `conn closed` event on exit
carrying `bytes_in`, `bytes_out`, and `dur_ms`.
Example session (compact format, ANSI stripped):
```
2026-05-05T11:03:55.022Z INFO client: connected client_id=1 peer=127.0.0.1:62178
2026-05-05T11:03:55.027Z INFO client: session established count=1
2026-05-05T11:03:55.027Z INFO client: tunnel registered tunnel_id=1 dir="forward" spec=19999=>127.0.0.1:9999/tcp
2026-05-05T11:03:55.670Z INFO conn: conn opened conn_id=1 tunnel_id=1 peer="127.0.0.1:9999"
2026-05-05T11:03:55.671Z INFO conn: conn closed bytes_in=12 bytes_out=17 dur_ms=1
```
## Server admin API & `rusnel ctl`
The server exposes a read-only admin HTTP API on a unix domain socket
**by default** at `~/.rusnel/admin.sock` (mode `0600`). Filesystem
permissions are the only auth — only the user that started the server
can connect. Pass `--admin-socket <path>` to override the path or
`--no-admin-socket` to disable.
### Terminology: client, tunnel, conn
State is modelled in three layers, each with one meaning:
- A **client** is one connected `rusnel client` daemon. Lives for the
lifetime of the QUIC connection.
- A **tunnel** is the *remote declaration* a client established with
the server (`R:5000=>socks`, `1080=>1.1.1.1:53/udp`, …).
Deduplicated per client by spec; lives as long as the client.
- A **conn** is a single proxied network connection going through a
tunnel — one accepted TCP connection, one per-source UDP flow, one
SOCKS5 CONNECT, one SOCKS5 UDP target.
Query the API with `rusnel ctl` (or `curl --unix-socket`):
```bash
rusnel ctl clients # tab-aligned table by default
rusnel ctl client 3 # client detail incl. its tunnels
rusnel ctl client-conns 3 # active conns across all of client 3's tunnels
rusnel ctl tunnels # every tunnel across every client
rusnel ctl tunnel 7 # tunnel detail + its active conns
rusnel ctl tunnel-conns 7 # just the conns on tunnel 7
rusnel ctl conns --json # every active conn, raw JSON
rusnel ctl history --limit 20 # recent client disconnects
```
`ctl` defaults to the same socket path the server uses, so the
zero-flag pairing just works.
The available endpoints (`GET` only in this release):
| `/api/v1/server` | version, listen addr, uptime, client/tunnel/conn counts |
| `/api/v1/clients` | one row per connected client with rolled-up totals |
| `/api/v1/clients/:id` | client detail, with embedded tunnel summaries |
| `/api/v1/clients/:id/tunnels` | tunnels owned by one client |
| `/api/v1/clients/:id/conns` | active conns across all of one client's tunnels |
| `/api/v1/tunnels` | every tunnel across every client |
| `/api/v1/tunnels/:id` | tunnel detail with its active conns embedded |
| `/api/v1/tunnels/:id/conns` | just the active conns on one tunnel |
| `/api/v1/conns` | every active conn globally |
| `/api/v1/conns/:id` | one conn by id |
| `/api/v1/history?limit=N` | bounded ring buffer (256) of recent disconnects |
Write operations (kick client, kill conn), Prometheus `/metrics`, and
an embedded web UI are tracked as phase-2 follow-ups in
[`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md).
## Performance
Rusnel (QUIC) vs [Chisel](https://github.com/jpillora/chisel) (SSH-over-WebSocket)
on loopback. Throughput is iperf3 over a tunneled TCP forward
(100 MB × 5 runs + warmup, median); latency is the round-trip time of a
64 B echo across the tunnel.
End-to-end HTTP request times through the tunnel across payload sizes
(median of 5 runs, error bars show min/max):
The benchmark harness also includes a `wan` profile that applies
`tc qdisc netem delay 25ms` to the loopback interface to approximate a
50 ms-RTT WAN. Reproduce everything with `./benchmark/run.sh`
(requires Docker; needs `--cap-add=NET_ADMIN` for netem profiles, which
the script adds for you). See [`benchmark/`](benchmark/) for tunables.
## Roadmap
Planned protocol features (HTTP/3 facade, 0-RTT resumption, NAT
hole-punching), access-control work (server-side ACLs, OIDC client
auth), and admin-API phase 2 (kick / kill / Prometheus / web UI) are
tracked in [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md). Contributions welcome.
## License
Licensed under the [Apache License 2.0](LICENSE).