So I’m relatively new to server hosting. (But experienced with remote web hosting from providers.) After about a year of fighting to run Nextcloud on a hosting company and finally losing everything from the cPanel vulnerability a few months ago, I broke down and launched my own home server. I’m looking for advice to maximize security.
CachyOS Linux with ClamAV Docker via Portainer Nextcloud (E2EE), Immich, DocuSeal and NoteTrace Routed through a domain and subdimains via Zero Trust Cloudflare Tunnel and Cloudflare DNS.
I have regular redundant backups both onsite and offsite with Duplicati.
My passwords for OS and all admin dashboards are extremely long, unique, random strings managed by Bitwarden.
I know just enough about this stuff to get into trouble. What else should I setup? I have little to no monitoring going on and don’t know much about that direction.
Use authelia for 2fa
Disable root ssh
Disable password authentication for ssh. Keys only.
Set up Fail2ban
That’s about all that’s left; 2fa and brute force protection. Good job.
And move SSH to a non-default port. Without that, my public-facing servers get thousands of SSH attacks a day, and it basically goes to zero after moving it to a random-looking high port.
Also, totally agree with using public key login and disable password login.
Why do you expose port 22 to the entire internet? Limit it to your own IP addresses and/or only allow access through your Wireguard/VPN ranges. Then changing the default port becomes meaningless.
That’s generally good advice but not actually security related.
Removing all the stress on your ressources by using a non-standard port is good for your ressources, But those automated scanners looking for unsecured devices and trying out password like admin/admin are not actually a risk. It’s just a case of security by obscurity and never actually serves its purpose.
OpenSSH rate limits authentication attempts so it isn’t a big deal. My public VPS gets pounded but it doesn’t matter as it doesn’t really use any system resources.