Comment on What's the security situation when opening a jellyfin server up for casting?
victorz@lemmy.world 1 week agoCould you explain a bit more?
Like, right now, I have two machines in my local network. Both are running sshd on port 22.
In my router, I’ve set the port forwarding to be some high port number in the 19000’s to forward to port 22 on the first machine, and then the same high port number incremented by one (1) to forward to port 22 on the second machine.
Also key based login only of course.
Is this insecure in some way?
Would a VPN make connecting to my computers more secure somehow? I’m not sure I understand how if so.
What I meant with the Jellyfin question was kind of, how is having it exposed via a reverse proxy different from exposing its port right away? It’s it because the only allowed connection would be HTTPS/encrypted etc, maybe?
I’ve never set up a home network apart from physical cables and using routers and switches before, no advanced site/network configuring. Definitely interested to learn more though for when I want to serve a real media center using a NAS and like a Pi.
dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
Your SSH setup is good.
ssh is a very resilient piece of software so I doubt with your setup you would encounter any issues.
Enforcing use of a VPN to get into your network before being able to ssh into a machine is mostly just an extra layer of defense, though using a non-standard port, only allowing key logins and disabling root user login are all layers of defense you have already added.
I thinj you’ll be fine, but if you are worried, you could setup a VPN or alternatively something like Fail2Ban if you notice any brute-force attacks (which may be unlikely with the use of a non-standard port).
It’s down to how secure the software is really.
Jellyfins (and other software) don’t use really secure web servers for getting themselves accessible via the network.
Caddy (a reverse proxy, for example) is made to be exposed to the internet and so it is more resilient and safe to use.
So putting the resilient software (a good reverse proxy) infront of Jellyfin (or most other software) simply increases your security by having the more safe web server be the one interfacing with end users.
Have fun on your journey!
victorz@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Okay cool, thanks for that follow-up and confirming my SHH setup seems reasonable. 🙏
There’s one thing I don’t really get though, with the whole reverse proxy thing and how that’s supposedly safer:
Like, once a user client has contact with the Jellyfin instance, via the reverse proxy, wouldn’t the Jellyfin instance be just as vulnerable as without the reverse proxy? Once a connection is established, or found to be available, you could just start exploiting away in the same way, right? Or wrong? If wrong, how? 😅 Maybe it’s too long for a text reply? Maybe I should watch some helpful video explaining how it works. 😁
dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
No problemo.
Thanks for pointing out the reverse proxy comment. I think I was wrong to say simply putting jellyfin behind a reverse proxy will increase your security.
The benefits may only be minute or non-existent if you don’t use the reverse proxy for handling other stuff like HTTPS (and redirects to https, etc), restricting access or adding extra authentication requirements (mainly https).
It may also be good to note that Jellyfins docs explicitly do not recommend directly exposing jellyfin ports to the internet (a reverse proxy or using a vpn are recommended instead).
Still I will continue to feel safer always using a reverse proxy when I expose to the internet (maybe my misconceptions).
victorz@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Thanks again, mate. So basically, if I’m exposing my junk to the world, and by junk I mean service(s), and by world I mean the open internet, I should do it using a reverse proxy and enable HTTPS, otherwise it’s not really very secure? Would that be a reasonable takeaway?
Yet again, thanks. Especially for pointing out the things you (may) be not so sure about. That’s admirable. 🫡