Port forwarding is often the fastest way to access an internal service — a database, admin panel, or metrics endpoint.

But in many setups, that means opening a public port and relying on firewall rules or IP restrictions for safety. Those rules tend to accumulate over time.

I’ve been looking at how modern “brokered” port forwarding models work. Instead of exposing a service publicly, they rely on outbound-only connections and create identity-scoped tunnels that exist only for the duration of a session.

No persistent inbound ports. No long-lived firewall exceptions.

I wrote a breakdown here, focusing on mechanics rather than product pitch:

https://www.lynxtrac.com/secure-port-forwarding-without-exposing-services

Curious how others here handle temporary service access in cloud environments.