by kenlin

What Is SSH?
SSH stands for Secure SHell and is typically used as an encrypted version of telnet.

In a telnet session, all communications are transmitted in plain-text, allowing anyone to listen-in on your session and steal passwords and other information. Such sessions are also susceptible to session hijacking, where a malicious user takes over your session once you have authenticated.

OpenSSH, the tool included with most Linux variants, is a FREE version of the SSH suite of network connectivity tools that increasing numbers of people on the Internet are coming to rely on. Many users of telnet, rlogin, ftp, and other such programs might not realize that their password is transmitted across the Internet unencrypted, but it is. OpenSSH encrypts all traffic (including passwords) to effectively eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other network-level attacks.

SSH allows you to access a remote server's shell without compromising security. SSH serves to prevent such vulnerabilities.

What is SSH Tunneling?
SSH can be used to encrypt communications between Navicat and your remote MySQL server. This is known as SSH tunneling and is actually quite simple to use.

Many Hosting Companies that provide MySQL hosting will block access to the MySQL server from outside the hosting company's network, and only grant access to users connecting from localhost.

The major benefit of SSH tunneling is that it allows us to connect to a MySQL server from behind a firewall when the MySQL server port is blocked.

To perform port forwarding between your Navicat and the MySQL server, you will need a working MySQL server. You will also need a copy of Navicat, a MySQL client software and available at http://www.navicat.com/download.php3. Navicat (MySQL Client) version 6.0.5 has supported SSH Tunnel.

As long as the Hosting Company provides SSH access, you can still connect through Navicat's Port Forwarding function.

Navicat Port Forwarding Screenshot :

When your Navicat communicates with your remote MySQL server, all communication (with the exception of the user password) is done in plain text. Navicat Port Forwarding offers an easy way to boost the security of communications with the MySQL server. It protects MySQL sessions from various attacks.

The next session will illustrate how to setup SSH Tunnel by Navicat.

Navicat 2004 (ver. 6.0.5), has started to support this feature. If your remote server supports SSH connection, your Navicat will be able to connect with remote MySQL databases through SSH tunnel without making any changes to existing MySQL privileges setting.

Screenshot 1 :

 
Screenshot 2:

Navicat 2004 (MySQL Client) is a powerful MySQL database administration and development tool. Navicat, with a nice GUI, lets you quickly and easily create, organize, access and share information in a secure and easier way.

With more than 200,000 downloads, Navicat is recognized as the most popular MySQL client. The latest release added over 100 new features, performance and manageability improvements. Featured new functions including data import from ODBC, batch job scheduling, printing of table structure and support MySQL 5.0 Alpha (support stored procedure). More information can be found at www.navicat.com .

MySQL database download :
www.mysql.com/downloads
Navicat (MySQL Client) download :
www.navicat.com/download.php3
OpenSSH:
www.openssh.org