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?
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Ya my paranoia only allows me to expose Wireguard to access everything. I sleep better at night knowing that’s the only thing exposed. Too many instances of major companies getting hacked who have dedicated security teams to manage that. I am one person, learning to manage my own stuff in my free time.
I am not exposing any ports online. I do not trust myself
Instead, I am using Tailscale (Wireguard)
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:
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WireGuard
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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.
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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.
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.
I think many of us are using reverse proxies, and opening port 443 (https) and maybe port 80 (http).
Run a WireGuard VPN on your server and only forward its port (only UDP is needed) to your server.
