GitHub Action SSH Tunnel via ngrok

A GitHub Action for connecting to the runner via SSH.

Why?

Debugging GitHub Actions remotely can be difficult. Maybe you want to connect to the runner environment live to troubleshoot.

Requirements

1. An ngrok account (free)
2. An SSH public key (e.g. /.ssh/id_rsa.pub)

Compatibility

This Action was only tested on the Ubuntu 20.04 runner, but it may work on other Linux based runners.

Setup

Create a YAML workflow (e.g. ssh.yml) in .github/workflows following this example:

name: SSH Tunnel
on: push

jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Set up tunnel
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Setup tunnel
      uses: joshlarsen/ssh-tunnel-action@main
      with:
        timeout: 1h
        ssh_public_key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PUBLIC_KEY }}
        ngrok_token: ${{ secrets.NGROK_TOKEN }}

Required Secrets

Create two repository secrets (Settings -> Secrets -> New repository secret)

SSH_PUBLIC_KEY: your local SSH public key (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)

NGROK_TOKEN: your ngrok auth token

Deploy

On the next push, GitHub Actions will download the ngrok binary and set up a TLS tunnel on a random port. Check the ngrok dashboard to get the hostname and port the tunnel is listening on.

Connect via SSH

The runner username is runner. Connect to the ngrok tunnel port using SSH:

$ ssh -p 11785 [email protected] 

The authenticity of host '[0.tcp.ngrok.io]:11785 ([3.134.39.220]:11785)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:f27aouAtzHOx7rzEnrGUfKy9xhpFK5auzq6+ZY.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[0.tcp.ngrok.io]:11785,[3.134.39.220]:11785' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.

Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.0-1039-azure x86_64)

  System load:  0.0                Processes:                153
  Usage of /:   75.5% of 83.18GB   Users logged in:          0
  Memory usage: 10%                IPv4 address for docker0: 172.17.0.1
  Swap usage:   0%                 IPv4 address for eth0:    10.1.0.4

runner@fv-az214-809:~$ 
runner@fv-az214-809:~$ curl ipinfo.io
{
  "ip": "52.173.149.212",
  "city": "Des Moines",
  "region": "Iowa",
  "country": "US",
  "loc": "41.5878,-93.6274",
  "org": "AS8075 Microsoft Corporation",
  "postal": "50392",
  "timezone": "America/Chicago",
  "readme": "https://ipinfo.io/missingauth"
}
runner@fv-az214-809:~$