gsshvnc (pronounced "Gosh VNC") is designed to make your otherwise-insecure unencrypted VNC connections secure by making it as simple as possible to establish an SSH tunnel for the connection.

It is based on the excellent gtk-vnc project that powers Vinagre, but unlike Vinagre uses libssh directly, making it easier to port to Windows and other systems. It is actively supported on Linux and Windows, but should work on other platforms supported by GTK+ 3.0.

For the simplest case, enable the SSH tunnel via the switch on the connection dialog, and enter the remote host's address or domain name, and your username for the remote host (if different from your current username). To specify a different desktop on the remote host, enter ":<display>" into the "VNC Server" field:

You can also tunnel through an SSH host to a computer on a network that would otherwise be inaccessible by specifying the remote host in the "VNC Server", for example:

When connecting, gsshvnc will try your SSH public keys first, and prompt for an SSH password if that fails. After establishing a tunnel, your VNC server may prompt for a second password (for your VNC desktop).

Note that gsshvnc can also be used as a "plain" VNC client without any SSH tunnel by simply turning off the SSH tunnel switch.