this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Do I really need a firewall for my server? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I've been running my server without a firewall for quite some time now, I have a piped instance and snikket running on it. I've been meaning to get UFW on it but I've been too lazy to do so. Is it a necessary thing that I need to have or it's a huge security vulnerability? I can only SSH my server from only my local network and must use a VPN if I wanna SSH in outside so I'd say my server's pretty secure but not the furthest I could take it. Opinions please?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

IMHO, security measures are necessary. I have a tendency to go a bit heavy on security because I really hate having to mop up after a breach. So the more layers I have, the better I feel. Most of the breaches I've experienced were not some dude in a smokey, dimly lit room, wearing a hoody, and clacking away at a keyboard, while confidently announcing 'I'm In!' or 'Enhance!'. Most are bots by the thousands. The bots are pretty sophisticated now days. They can scan vulnerabilities, attack surfaces, et al. They have an affinity for xmrig too, tho those are easy to spot when your server pegs all resources.

So, for the couple days investment of implementing a good, layered security defense, and then the time it takes to monitor such defenses, is worth it to me, and lets me sleep better. To each their own. Not only are breaches a pain in the ass, they have serious ramifications and can have legal consequences such as in a case where your server became a hapless zombie and was orchestrated to attack other servers. So, even on the selfhosted side of things, security measures are required, I would think.

It takes about 5 minutes to set up UFW which would be the absolute minimum, I would think.