Please take this discussion to this post: https://lemmy.ml/post/28376589

Main content

Selfhosting is always a dilemma in terms of security for a lot of reasons. Nevertheless, I have one simple goal: selfhost a Jellyfin instance in the most secure way possible. I don’t plan to access it anywhere but home.

TL;DR

I want the highest degree of security possible, but my hard limits are:

  • No custom DNS
  • Always-on VPN
  • No self-signed certificates (unless there is no risk of MITM)
  • No external server

Full explanation

I want to be able to access it from multiple devices, so it can’t be a local-only instance.

I have a Raspberry Pi 5 that I want to host it on. That means I will not be hosting it on an external server, and I will only be able to run something light like securecore rather than something heavy like Qubes OS. Eventually I would like to use GrapheneOS to host it, once Android’s virtual machine management app becomes more stable.

It’s still crazy to me that 2TB microSDXC cards are a real thing.

I would like to avoid subscription costs such as the cost of buying a domain or the cost of paying for a VPN, however I prioritize security over cost. It is truly annoying that Jellyfin clients seldom support self-signed certificates, meaning the only way to get proper E2EE is by buying a domain and using a certificate authority. I wouldn’t want to use a self-signed certificate anyways, due to the risk of MITM attacks. I am a penetration tester, so I have tested attacks by injecting malicious certificates before. It is possible to add self-signed certificates as trusted certificates for each system, but I haven’t been able to get that to work since it seems clients don’t trust them anyways.

Buying a domain also runs many privacy risks, since it’s difficult to buy domains without handing over personal information. I do not want to change my DNS, since that risks browser fingerprinting if it differs from the VPN provider. I always use a VPN (currently ProtonVPN) for my devices.

If I pay for ProtonVPN (or other providers) it is possible to allow LAN connections, which would help significantly, but the issue of self-signed certificates still lingers.

With that said, it seems my options are very limited.

  • The 8232 Project@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
    28·
    4 days ago

    For real though, if you think someone is (or might be) listening in on your local network, i.e. have physical access or compromised one of your machines, then the Jellyfin traffic is the least of your problems. Pick your battles. What’s the worst that could happen here - someone gets to know your favorite show?

    A bad router + bad ISP combo means I get ratted out for copyrighted material (that I don’t have… I only host creative commons videos on my Jellyfin server, of course…)

    • smiletolerantly@awful.systemsEnglish
      15·
      4 days ago

      This isn’t really true. Even IF your router would fail catastrophically in the right way to expose your Server to the internet, or of it actually “ratted your traffic out” to the ISP and the ISP cared (which it does not), it’s not illegal to hist Jellyfin, or put media on it which you own (which is not discernible from just… Media being streamed).

      Also your ISP has no part in your local network traffic.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      Sounds far more likely that either someone misunderstood that residential IPs change frequently/may be shared by multiple subscribers or the ISP made an error when responding to a subpeana and provided the incorrect IP. Unfortunately both are all too common with privacy enforcement

      If you really think the ISP router is snooping and can’t by bypassed you could simply double-NAT your network with a trusted router and call it a day. Much less VPNing and much less unusual decisions of trust and threat model involved then