Linux Administration | ttyd - A better shell in a box 📦

The old tool shell in a box is unmaintained and has fallen out of favour.

But we have ttyd.

Install as follows for Linux:

wget https://github.com/tsl0922/ttyd/releases/download/1.7.7/ttyd.i686
sudo mv ttyd.i686 /usr/local/sbin/ttyd
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/ttyd
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install lrzsz

Next create a service which is only run on the local interface to prevent native access from across a network:

# Create the systemd unit file as follows
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/ttyd.service

# the ttyd unit file for systemd
[Unit]
Description=ttyd_ComputingforGeeks.com
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/ttyd --writable -i eth0 -t enableZmodem=true login
Restart=always
RestartSec=2
TimeoutStopSec=5
SyslogIdentifier=ttyd

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# Activate ttyd service by executing these command seperately and not in the above unit file
sudo systemctl enable ttyd
sudo systemctl start ttyd

To see the status of the service:

sudo service status ttyd

sudo lsof -i -P -n | grep ttyd

Then use secure connect to connect on 10.207.35.254 using port 7681

This provides a shell in a browser tab and includes the ability to transfer files using lrzsz. Neat!