Secure Pipes for Mac

Product summary

Secure Pipes is a macOS utility for creating and managing SSH tunnels. It provides a graphical interface that simplifies establishing encrypted channels between your machine and remote hosts, so sensitive traffic can traverse untrusted networks without exposing data. The app focuses on straightforward setup, live connection visibility, and the ability to run several tunnels at once.

Primary capabilities

• Run multiple tunnel profiles at the same time, each with its own settings and endpoints.
• Visual, easy-to-use controls for creating tunnels, assigning ports, and selecting authentication methods.
• Live monitoring of active connections with status indicators and basic usage metrics.
• Encrypted port forwarding between local and remote systems to protect data in transit.
• Advanced SSH options (custom flags, keepalives, compression) for fine-grained control.

Configuration and tuning

• Adjust SSH flags and performance-related options such as compression and keepalive intervals.
• Choose between different authentication methods (key-based, agent forwarding, password) and manage keys.
• Define routing and port-forwarding rules for each profile, including local and remote forwards.
• Select which ports are exposed locally and how they map to remote services.
• Save reusable profiles so common tunnel setups can be launched quickly.

Cost and availability

Secure Pipes is available for macOS and is offered at no cost, making it accessible for both personal and professional use. Installation and basic usage are aimed at users who want secure forwarding without deep command-line interaction.

Suggested alternatives and additional resources

• LocalTunnel — lightweight option for temporary exposures and quick sharing of local ports.
• autossh — robust, command-line-focused tool that automatically restarts dropped SSH tunnels.
• sshuttle — a VPN-like choice that forwards network traffic over SSH with minimal setup.
• Tunnelblick — a GUI front-end more focused on OpenVPN rather than raw SSH tunnels.
• OpenSSH (built-in) — the standard command-line client for full manual control over SSH tunnels.