Jellyfin critical security update - This is not a joke

https://jlai.lu/post/35398174

Jellyfin critical security update - This is not a joke - jlai.lu

Lemmy

Don’t expose jellyfin to the internet is a golden rule.
That’s never made sense to me; why build an authn frontend instead of just clicking your user if the security is just an illusion anyways. “Use a VPN” is fine for a mainframe, but an active project in 2026 should aspire to be better.
Unfortunately, not everyone is tech-literate enough nowadays to understand how a VPN works, nor do they want to

Yes, not everyone. My grandmother would struggle setting up a VPN, for example.

However, a community member of the selfhosted community is perfectly capable of reading a manual and learning the software.

That’s how you become tech literate in the first place, and you’re already on that path if you’re commenting/reading here.

Agreed, was more so referring to others. I apologize if it seemed like I was referring to myself

I’m already well and truly deep into this, myself. Two Proxmox nodes running the *Arr stack and Jellyfin in LXC containers. Bare metal TrueNAS, with scheduled LTO backups every two weeks. A few other bits and bobs, like some game servers and home automation for family.

Look at Tailscale (or self-host headscale)

Especially for things like game servers, you could use tailscale serve (tailscale.com/docs/features/tailscale-serve) to allow temporary access, via a generated URL using your tailscale domain, to the server’s port.

It’s a bit of learning (like all of these other things) but it’s a very powerful tool.

I do agree with the general point that Jellyfin shouldn’t require a VPN.

Tailscale Serve · Tailscale Docs

Explore the Tailscale Serve service.

Tailscale

Yes, not everyone. My grandmother would struggle setting up a VPN, for example.

that’s a weird take. your grandmother doesn’t need to set up a VPN. It’s not like this is where they would get stuck, they would have problems much sooner with running their own Jellyfin. that’s why you are hosting it for them, and why you go there and set the VPN up yourself.

I was not actually presenting a scenario where my grandmother would use a VPN.

I was pointing out that this community is full of people who are perfectly capable of learning to use a VPN. In response to this comment:

Unfortunately, not everyone is tech-literate enough nowadays to understand how a VPN works, nor do they want to

That’s a true statement about ‘everyone’ i.e. the entire population of the planet… but true about everyone here in this community.