Which tool is an OS X-based SSH tunneling software?

• A. OpenSSH
• B. Secure Pipes
• C. Bitvise
• D. Snort_inline

Answer: (C)

On macOS, SSH tunneling is normally done with the built-in OpenSSH client, which provides local, remote, and dynamic port forwarding through the ssh command. This means you don’t need extra software to create secure tunnels—you use simple command-line options to forward ports or to run a SOCKS proxy.

For local port forwarding, you forward a local port to a destination reachable from the remote SSH server. For example, using a command like ssh -L 8080:internalhost:80 user@sshserver makes connections to localhost:8080 travel through the SSH tunnel and reach internalhost:80 from the sshserver’s network. This is a common way to securely access an internal web service without exposing it publicly.

For a SOCKS proxy, dynamic port forwarding lets you route traffic through the SSH server by opening a local SOCKS proxy: ssh -D 1080 user@sshserver. You then configure your browser or applications to use localhost:1080 as a proxy, and their traffic will be tunneled securely via the SSH server.

Bitvise is a Windows-focused SSH client with tunneling features, not the typical OS X-based solution. Snort_inline is an IDS/IPS tool, not a tunneling utility. Secure Pipes is not the standard macOS SSH tunneling approach. The macOS-native and most widely used method for SSH tunneling on OS X is the OpenSSH client included with the system.