ngrok October update: no-grok, OAuth, and webhooks for all
This month, we focused in two areas you asked for (a lot) and filled in some other bits and bytes to give you a hand:
- Productivity features to launch your tunnels fast and with style: agentless ngrok and new integrations
- Security features so you use ngrok in your org with IT and security approval: New OAuth Providers and signed agent
ngrok without ngrok
While we want ngrok everywhere, there are embedded devices and environments that the ngrok agent doesn’t run in (yet!). SSH reverse tunneling is an alternative mechanism to start an ngrok tunnel without needing to download or run the ngrok agent. You can start tunnels via SSH without downloading an ngrok agent by running an SSH reverse tunnel command.
Just start ngrok:
Original:
ngrok http 80
Equivalent:
ssh -R 80:localhost:80 \
tunnel.us.ngrok.com http
And even add middleware:
Original:
ngrok http --hostname=example.com --oauth "google" 8080
Equivalent:
ssh -R example.com:80:localhost:8080 \
tunnel.us.ngrok.com http -oauth="google"
New OAuth 2.0 Providers at the Edge
Expanding our OAuth capabilities, we recently added support for GitLab, LinkedIn, and Twitch. You can use any as a generic identity provider or request specific scopes to give your apps fine-grained access to those systems in seconds.
All it takes is a single line:
ngrok http 3000 --oauth=linkedin
or
ngrok http 3000 --oauth=gitlab \
--oauth-scope=read_repository
Signed Windows Agent
As of v3.1.0, all releases of the ngrok agent come signed to verify authenticity. The signing process is baked into our deployment process to ensure consistency across every release.
Shout out to osslsigncode for making this possible on our Linux hosts! Additionally, we took time to display metadata on the executable using syso files.
Shout out to go-winres for helping automate this!
ngrok Partner Program
As we build our apps, we have to integrate with tools, APIs, and systems to ship great software quickly. With our partnership program, we’re making those integrations available out of the box and publishing howtos, guides, and docs to support you.
We’ve published over 30 integrations and have dozens more in mind. Let us know if we’re missing your favorite!
Are you a potential Partner that wants to integrate more deeply?
webhooks.fyi updates
After launching webhooks.fyi as a community resource for learning the how and why of webhooks, we received a ton of great feedback, pull requests, and suggestions. Thank you! Check out the new assessments, provider pages, and more best practices.
Upcoming Events
- Longhorn PHP - At Longhorn, we’ll cover API security and webhooks. Find us to get a shirt or sticker and share what you’re working on!
- Zoomtopia - For this online conference, we’ll show you how to get started building and debugging your first Zoom App in under 15 minutes.
- Nordic APIs: Zero Trust - Are you struggling with Zero Trust? In this event, we’ll dive into the underlying principles and patterns to secure your systems.
Other Product Improvements
1. Preview Releases:
- ngrok-go library: With the new agent library, you can embed ngrok directly into your Go application to make your connectivity programmable.
- ngrok ingress controller: The ngrok ingress controller is a general purpose kubernetes ingress controller which dynamically provisions and deprovisions ngrok tunnels as ingress resources are needed.
2. More webhook verifiers: Clearbit, Go1, Orbit, Plivo, Terraform, Webex, Zoom
- v3.1.0 - Started signing Windows executables. Updated the root CA to improve incident recovery and mitigation options.
- v3.0.7 - Added the region flag to the ngrok diagnose command for more specific debugging and investigation.