If any service has only username and password instead of mfa or password less then it’s not safe.
You also didn’t mention if you have automated patching or immutable backups enabled.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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I'd add Crowdsec
My usual additions:
- Have the router to block portscanners
- fail2ban on internet facing services.
- Have the router to block portscanners
What do you mean by this? Closing unused ports?
Thanks I'll look into these. Quick question: how does fail2ban use port 80 if that's already used by nginx?
It does not. It does not uses ports at all. Fail2ban monitors your logfiles and activates the firewall to block IP's that matched your rules.
t.ex. You can block an IP that tried to access https:///admin. You can block an IP that used wrong credentials x times to login on an ssh port. Or block one that tried to relay via your mailserver. The duration is configurable and alternative duration can be configured for recidivists.
And yes, you can whitelist IP's to avoid locking yourself out. The possibilities are endless.
Networking looks fine, but check fail2ban as the other commenter mentioned, it goes to the npm.
Make sure to keep all internet facing applications up to date and use strong passwords.
Thanks I'm going to look into fail2ban. I mostly wanted to make sure I wasn't being a total idiot here.
I wasn’t being a total idiot
that goes unanswered ;) it's not unlikely selfhosters have at least one loose screw.
selfhosters have at least one loose screw.
I have a box of them, right next to my box of strings too short to use.
Am I missing anything here or is this how I’m supposed to be doing it?
AFA fail2ban, I always set up the jails in aggressive mode:
[sshd]
mode = aggressive
enabled = true
port = ssh
filter = sshd
logpath = /var/log/auth.log
maxretry = 5 <---edit to tastes
bantime = 3600 <---edit to tastes
findtime = 600 <---edit to tastes
You might want to check out Crowdsec, maybe deploy Tailscale as an overlay. How many users are you providing services for? If just yourself, I use the host allow / host deny feature in Linux. Just make sure you do host allow first, lol.
Safety is relative. How are you handling every hacker in the world knocking on your door?
Personally I only expose a VPN and use that, instead of exposing a bunch of services.
Safety is relative.
It's also not a state you can reach, it's a mindset as well as an on-going process
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| HTTP | Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web |
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
| nginx | Popular HTTP server |
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 5 acronyms.
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