Authentication

Porthole provides built-in password protection to secure your local development environment when shared over the public internet.

Password Protection Workflow

When you start a tunnel with the --password flag (or configured via environment variables), Porthole intercepts incoming requests.

1. Unauthenticated Request: If a user visits your tunnel URL without a valid session cookie, they are redirected to a built-in login page.
2. Login Page: The login page provides a simple interface to enter the tunnel password.
3. Session Management: Upon successful authentication, a secure cookie is set in the user’s browser, allowing them to access the tunneled application.

Usage

To enable password protection, run:

porthole 3000 --password your-secure-password