Could the website be exposed through a tunnelling service?¶

Yes. A tunnel can make a service on a private network publicly reachable without opening an inbound route directly to that network.

How the two ends connect¶

Software on the local device creates an outbound connection to the tunnel provider. Visitors connect to the provider’s public hostname or IP address, and the provider carries their traffic through the established tunnel to the local service.

It is like renting a public reception desk with a private line back to an office: visitors see the reception address, not the office location.

The visible address may therefore identify the tunnel company rather than the origin device. Provider records may include the customer account, assigned hostname, connection times, source IP addresses, access history and payment. The local device may contain the tunnel client, configuration, credentials and logs showing which internal port received traffic.

A tunnel can be used legitimately for development, remote access and home services. Credentials can also be shared or stolen, and malware may create a tunnel on a compromised device.

Trace both halves at the relevant time: the external account and connection, then the internal system and service.