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What's the real danger of opening ports? (feddit.it)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Some services run really good behind a reverse proxy on 443, but some others can really become an hassle.. And sometimes just opening other ports would be easier than to try configuring everything to work through 443.

An example that comes to my mind is SSH, yeah you can use SSLH to forward requests coming from 443 to 22, but it's so much easier to just leave 22 open..

Now, for SSH, if you have certificate authentication or a strong password, I think you can feel quite safe, but what about other random ports? What risks I'm exposing my server to if I open some of them when needed for a service? Is the effort of trying to pass everything through 443/80 worth it?

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[–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Get a WAF. Sophos firewall is free if you want to diy. If not, use cloudflare.

Opening ports, logging, monitoring, nailing up allow listed IP addresses and dicking around with fail2ban is such a timesuck. None of that crap will stop something from exploiting a vulnerability.

Some things are worth farming out to a 3rd party. Plus, you can just point your DNS entry over and be mostly done. No more dynamic IP bs.

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  • [+] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    It isn't a magic solution, no, but you have a lot more control than crummy layer 3 firewall rules and endless lists.

    The big players have far more data about what bad looks like. Either we can play whack a mole with outdated tools and techniques or get smart and learn to use what is available.

    Self hosting doesn't mean we go backward in terms of the sophistication and difficulty, it means embracing modern solutions.

    In the dinosaur days, we had primitive tools, but so did the attackers. We cannot hope to self host with any measure of security if we bring piss to a shitfight.

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