BitBang - NAT-traversing remote access without accounts or port forwarding
Show HN: BitBang – Reach machines behind NAT from a browser, no account
BitBang is a single static binary that enables secure, peer-to-peer remote access to machines behind NAT or CGNAT directly from any web browser. It eliminates the need for port forwarding, VPNs, or user accounts by using a simple one-line command to launch an interactive shell, file browser, or web proxy. With end-to-end encryption via WebRTC and a unique 6-digit pairing code for authentication, BitBang offers a frictionless way to manage devices or access local web apps from anywhere, even on borrowed laptops or phones, without installing client software.
Nothing to forward or configure. Works from behind NAT, CGNAT, or a locked-down network -- no router changes, no VPN, no tunnel daemon.
- narragansett
It's a single Go binary, shaped like ssh. The main difference is the transport -- WebRTC instead of TCP -- so it doesn't need the machine to be reachable in the first place. Run "bitbang serve" and it prints a URL. Open it in a browser and you get a terminal, a file browser, and a proxy to web apps on that machine's network -- or connect from another terminal. There's nothing to install on the connecting side, no account, no port forwarding.
The trick to having no accounts: a device's identity is the hash of its public key, so browser and device verify each other directly. The server keeps no registry, authorizes nothing, and isn't in the data path -- it brokers the introduction and steps aside. About 75% of connections go direct P2P. The rest fall back to a TURN relay that only sees ciphertext. The server is open source and self-hostable -- and since it's out of the data path, cheap to run.
BitBang started on an ESP32, as the networking for a tiny telepresence robot. Embedded development is difficult and slow, so this CLI is where I've beaten the security model into shape. The embedded version is next. :)
- Sean-Der
Fantastic work on this. This idea has so much promise, I hope this is the project that makes it take off.
Self-hosting is pretty these days with docker. Exposing it to the internet is the annoying part. I do Jellyfin via netbird, but that means I don't really share it with my friends. I hope something like this getting baked into self-hosting flows is killer.
My other pet peeve is that people use 'Cloud Services' for File transfer. Sometimes when they are in the same LAN!
Nice work again and I hope it catches on/people understand how great this really is :)
- apitman
Would love to have this on https://github.com/anderspitman/awesome-tunneling as soon as it hits 100 stars.
- Arshad-Talpur
I like the idea but product seems to be unfinished or at least still not usable considering the problem it is solving
- eqvinox
IPv6.
(Let's skip the discussion, I don't feel like watching groundhog day today.)