Mastodawn

Are you exposing any ports on your home server?

https://lemmy.world/post/1884273

Are you exposing any ports on your home server? - Lemmy.world

Maybe I’m using the wrong terms, but what I’m wondering is if people are running services at home that they’ve made accessible from the internet. I.e. not open to the public, only so that they can use their own services from anywhere. I’m paranoid a f when it comes to our home server, and even as a fairly experienced Linux user and programmer I don’t trust myself when it comes to computer security. However, it would be very convenient if my wife and I could access our self-hosted services when away from home. Or perhaps even make an album public and share a link with a few friends (e.g. Nextcloud, but I haven’t set that up yet). Currently all our services run in docker containers, with separate user accounts, but I wouldn’t trust that to be 100% safe. Is there some kind of idiot proof way to expose one of the services to the internet without risking the integrity of the whole server in case it somehow gets compromised? How are the rest of you reasoning about security? Renting a VPS for anything exposed? Using some kind of VPN to connect your phones to home network? Would you trust something like Nextcloud over HTTPS to never get hacked?

effingjoe Jul 20, 2023

I think many of use are using reverse proxies, and opening port 443 (https) and maybe port 80 (http).

HousePanther Jul 20, 2023

Port forwarding can be a recipe for disaster. I’d much rather make use of reverse proxying.

Aiden Jul 20, 2023

For lots of things I self host that I wanna expose, I’ll just open a random port like 6952 and then reverse proxy w/ nginx on my web server. Not sure how secure it is, but it works

cestvrai Jul 20, 2023

Ports are probed and scanned constantly so a random port doesn’t make so much difference. I would use a strict firewall with the server IP whitelisted.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble Jul 20, 2023

Ever since I moved to a ridiculously high port I haven’t had any access attempts on my server. 6952 won’t do shit, but if you’re between 40000 and 65000 you probably won’t get anything.

Retiring Jul 20, 2023

That’s security through obscurity and one should never rely on this strategy alone

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble Jul 20, 2023

If it’s your only form of security then it’s bad. But if it’s on combination with other measures then it’s a good thing.

I wouldn’t let anyone who hits my ip/port directly into my openvpn. But not having china and russia bomboarding me with requests is nice.

𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬 Jul 20, 2023

I forward 443 to my reverse proxy.

HousePanther Jul 20, 2023

No, all of services are reverse-proxied through a WireGuard tunnel connected to my cloud VPS.

majestictechie Jul 20, 2023

The only port I open is for wireguard. That way I can access all services on my LAN. Wireguard is also very secure and requires keys based authentication so is hard to brute. It also allows me to secure myself if I ever need to join WiFi or an untrusted network

manitcor Jul 20, 2023

ipv6 and reverse proxied. yes.

Rikudou_Sage Jul 20, 2023

I have one for OpenVPN and that’s it.

NotGeorge Jul 20, 2023

Port 443 through Traefik and a port for Plex.

Vendetta9076 Jul 20, 2023

This is the way I do it. Id like to run plex through traefik as well but it gets angry.

NekuSoul Jul 20, 2023

For services that need to be public facing (Mastodon, Lemmy, Gitea…) I’m renting a VPS. Services that are only for personal use run on my home server and are only accessible through Wireguard, with the VPS acting as a “bridge” whenever I’m outside of my home network.

TheInsane42 Jul 20, 2023

Openvpn to connect to the network, 80 and 443 for static websites, that’s it.

Email gets delivered by a VPS via a different port, ssh acces via vps as well. No initial connections from an ip not from the my country as well.

somedaysoon Jul 20, 2023

Unless you need to share/provide services for a public, then you shouldn’t be setting up reverse proxies or cloudflare tunnels in my opinion. All you need is WireGuard for you and the handful of users that might be using it.

I have two ports open for:

WireGuard

SSH Tunnel

Both of these services will only accept key based authentication.

WireGuard is the main way that my wife and me access the services away from home. When our phones disconnect from our home’s SSID, Tasker automatically connects to the WireGuard tunnel so we never lose access to services.

The SSH tunnel is just a fallback in case I get behind a firewall that might be doing DPI and blocking VPN traffic. The SSH tunnel operates on 443 to hopefully appear to be SSL traffic and allowed through. I’ve used it a very limited amount of times to get out from strict corporate firewalls.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod Jul 20, 2023

I was able to reduce that to just SSH by having my Wireguard host on a VPS and connecting out from home. Running SSH on 443 is a neat idea.

Manifish_Destiny Jul 20, 2023

Running ssh on 443 doesn’t do anything unfortunately. A proper port scan will still detect such a common protocol.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod Jul 20, 2023

It's more about gaining access from inside a network that doesn't allow outbound on 22. For the web to work it would need 443 so connecting out on 443 might work

Manifish_Destiny Jul 20, 2023

Sure, just don’t mistake port switching for actual security.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod Jul 20, 2023

Absolutely. Though putting it on 443, which is regularly port scanned as well, is the opposite of security through obscurity.

witten Jul 21, 2023

Why not use Wireguard from your phones all the time, even at home? Just performance?

somedaysoon Jul 21, 2023

It would be extra overhead for no reason. There is added network latency, server resource, and phone battery drain… overall, all of these probably are negligible, but why have it on when Tasker automates it? You would gain nothing from leaving it on unless I’m missing something.

witten Jul 21, 2023

I don’t know about your particular use case, but I’ve found that some apps experience problems when the IP address of a resource they’re using changes out from under them. Like either they experience temporary connectivity issues during the transition or even just stop being able to reach the resource until restarted. However if your setup is working for you, that’s great!

somedaysoon Jul 21, 2023

Yeah, I haven’t had any problems with it, what apps have been an issue for you?

The app that I use the most during that transitional period would be Ultrasonic which would be streaming music from the Airsonic service as I get in my vehicle and drive away or arrive back home. But even that flawlessly transitions without skipping a beat since it is set to cache songs.

witten Jul 22, 2023

The app that comes to mind as having problems with changing IPs is the Home Assistant app. It would simply lose connectivity when the IP changed and never do another DNS lookup to connect again… I always had to restart it. The “solution” for me was not to change IPs and just leave Wireguard on.

somedaysoon Jul 22, 2023

Interesting, yeah, maybe report it as an issue on github, I use a browser link to my dashboard for Home Assistant instead of the app so it hasn’t happened to me. I almost installed it the other day to get presence detection but decided on another way.

a1studmuffin Jul 22, 2023

I’m confused why the IP address of a resource is changing for you when you’re moving in/out of the wireguard tunnel? In my setup the LAN IP addresses always stay the same whether I’m on the local network or accessing remotely, It’s just the route to them that changes (over a different ethernet adapter). Perhaps that’s what you meant, or there’s some crazy configs out there I’m unaware of.

huojtkeg Jul 20, 2023

HTTPS and VPN (Wireguard) ports

Chupachups Jul 20, 2023

Check out tail scale. It's wire guard made easy. I expose http services to the public Internet, and have all my devices on the same network so I can access local services without exposing them to the public Internet.

pblsnchz Jul 20, 2023

I used to, but then switched to Cloudflare tunnels and I sleep much better now.

rarkgrames Jul 20, 2023

Have a look in to Twingate, that should do exactly what you need.

redballooon Jul 20, 2023

I did for a while, but it never felt right.

I’m also lazy a f, so I purchased a new router that comes with WireGuard VPN and that works well enough with our iPhones.

spez_Jul 20, 2023

I have the GL.iNet travel router, which has a lot of services built in like Tailscale www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt3000

It’s based on OpenWrt

GL-MT3000 / Beryl AX

Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) is an OpenWrt multi-gigabit Wi-Fi 6 wireless router for frequent travelers and remote workforces to protect their digital assets and footprints online.

tbblake Jul 20, 2023

ssh to a few specific ip ranges, WireGuard to the world on a port I randomly picked

zib Jul 20, 2023

I have https open along with a non-standard port for ssh. Just for fun, I have the standard ssh port open, but redirecting to a Raspberry Pi running a honeypot. It's fun to mess with foreign bots trying to access my network.

FarraigePlaisteach Jul 21, 2023

Do you see much activity there?

I know that they say that security through obscurity doesn’t work, but to me (a novice) it sounds like a good idea to route the default port to a dummy server.

zib Jul 21, 2023

I do see a decent amount of activity on it. Full disclaimer, I am not a security expert. I know just enough to be dangerous. But, I see at least a few connection attempts from different IPs about every day. The top 3 countries of origin are China, Russia, and Brazil (based on the reverse DNS, but it's possible some are using VPNs to hide their origin). My impression is they're all bots that just go through a list of IP addresses, attempting to connect to the standard ssh port, then guessing the username and password. What I've found is they usually go through a list of likely ssh ports until one of them connects. Having the default port open to only the honeypot means they usually establish the connection, then leave it at that, so my real ssh port never gets hit. I kinda think of it like scambaiting, where I'm just wasting time they might otherwise spend trying to break into someone else's real ssh server.

Manifish_Destiny Jul 20, 2023

https, wireguard and mumble.

Just set up shodan monitoring, use burpsuite or owasp zap, and check your pcap files for accidental plaintext.

Also ssllabs has a nice website checker.

And get a NGFW

ZenArtist Jul 20, 2023

Everything except https and wireguard went above my head. Do you have some sort of guide/writeup that you can point to for integrating all this?

Awwab Jul 20, 2023

Shodan is a internet scanning website, it can monitor your IP for new ports open and some basic vulnerability stuff.

Burpsuite is a tool to capture network traffic, they are saying they use it to confirm all their services use end to end encryption for communication.

NGFW is next gen firewall and it's just a firewall that's able to do more than your basic in/out rules.

pornhubfan Jul 20, 2023

If you’re gonna post that here, at least flag the post as NGFW.

🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 🏆Jul 20, 2023

I use Remote Desktop, BitTorrent, and play games, so I need some things open for that. I used to be super paranoid about hackers and viruses and shit like that, but it’s not like those things are looking for regular, everyday users and even if they did get in my system, I don’t keep anything important on my computer so I can just wipe it all out and reinstall everything.

iliketrains Jul 20, 2023

I'm hosting an email server on a VPS that has fail2ban in it. A lot of ports are open but only wireguard and knockd are listening.

For remote server management, I would use wireguard for regular ssh access, but when I need to configure the wireguard I can just disable/reenable the wireguard-only ssh firewall rule using port knocking, there is also the option of using the serial console on the VPS web ui but it is slower.

Honestly, I'm not sure myself if my public facing services face a DoS attack. Well, there's always an option of using Cloudflare. With that being said though, I think in your case you should just use a free "VPN" like Tailscale or ZeroTier.

vd1n Jul 20, 2023

Can you eli5 both of those? Tailscale and zerotier…

iliketrains Jul 21, 2023

I am unsure if I can ELI5 those without also ELI5-ing about Computer Network, VPN and Firewall.

They are VPNs. Like a regular network, they connect your devices through their network. They may put Firewall rules to allow you to talk to X networks (any specified networks). That also means the VPN may not allow you to connect to the internet through their network. Now the difference between ZeroTier and Tailscale and other VPNs for accessing the internet is that ZeroTier and Tailscale only permit your traffic to your other devices that are bound to your account and not to the internet (your other internet data won't go through zerotier/tailscale). This configuration is great because you have a virtual and secluded network that you can connect to from anywhere via the internet using ZeroTier/Tailscale networks (with your virtually local IP on ZeroTier/Tailscale).

vd1n Jul 22, 2023

Thanks!

Fizz Jul 20, 2023

Heaps

spez_Jul 20, 2023

I am not exposing any ports online. I do not trust myself

Instead, I am using Tailscale (Wireguard)

notleigh Jul 22, 2023

I’ve got a very similar setup now. Only recently adopted tailscale and was previously port tunnelling over SSH to access anything on the local network. SSH is still open, and am just waiting a bit to see if theres any cases where I need it before closing that out too.

Short story: If you don’t need stuff open to the general public, just having Tailscale will probably cover you.

Bristlerock Jul 21, 2023

Exposed is the right term. Other than my Wireguard VPN port, everything I have exposed is HTTPS behind Authelia MFA and SWAG.

I'm tempted to switch Wireguard for Tailscale, as the level of logging with WG has always bothered me. Maybe one day.

Smk Jul 21, 2023

I open 443 and 80 on my router and forward it to a reverse proxy.

I have a couple of service that are exposed but most of them make sense only when I’m home so I whitelist private IP address on my reverse proxy.

If you do.your basic security such as updating your servers and services and not having dumb password, you shouldn’t be afraid. Think about it, all of the services that you use is exposed on the internet. I did work for big company and they don’t do much more than what you would probably do, except maybe having some automated monitoring that flag weird stuff. But hey, aside from bots, I don’t think Russian hackers are interested in your stuff. Stay low profile with your exposed things and it’s gonna be alright. Make sure you backup.

ulemmyagain Jul 21, 2023

I only have my (non default) ssh port exposed. I just use an ssh tunnel to access all my services. I don’t know if this is a good idea or not, but it works for me.

carzian Jul 21, 2023

Security through obfuscation is never a good idea. Best practices for exposing ssh (iirc):

disable root login (or at least over ssh)
disable password login over ssh, use key pairs instead
use fail2ban to prevent brute forcing
install security updates frequently

All of those are pretty easy to do, and after that you’re in a really good place.

I don’t see a problem with ssh tunneling to access services, as long as the ssh server is secured correctly

ulemmyagain Jul 21, 2023

I should install fail2ban. I already have everything else covered. I’ve only heard of fail2ban, not very familiar with it. Is it necessary if password login is disabled? Can you brute force ssh keys? I really appreciate your advice.

carzian Jul 21, 2023

I definitely recommend you do your own research into this. Brute forcing ssh keys should be practically impossible. Is it necessary to install fail2ban with password login disabled? Not sure, I’m of the opinion that it won’t hurt, just one more line of defense. It’s pretty easy to setup.

BCsven Jul 21, 2023

I’m somewhat like you, in that I recognize I’m not a network guru. My home server with containers, as well as a few other devices are blacklisted from accessing the internet at my router. When i have needed outside access I have one machine with wireguard and some ip forwarding/masqurade etc so I have one connection in but can see the LAN for logging into stuff “locally”. The only pain is non internet access devices losing sync with a time server.

𝓢𝓮𝓮𝓙𝓪𝔂𝓔𝓶𝓶 Jul 21, 2023

I’ve had 22, 80, & 443 open for literal decades. Key auth only on ssh. 80 & 443 rev proxy to inside web services I want to expose only. Also host game servers as needed.

Keep your stuff up to date and follow best practices for securing it. Use things like crowdstrike. If you can segment your network, go ahead.

Unless you have a target on your head your main concern is going to be scripts looking for vulnerabilities.

csm10495 Jul 21, 2023

I’ll put a recommendation out for if you’re going to open ports: use abnormal ports. Someone is likely to try to hit your port 22 for ssh, but not your port 49231.