Hey there!

I’m thinking about starting a blog about privacy guides, security, self-hosting, and other shenanigans, just for my own pleasure. I have my own server running Unraid and have been looking at self-hosting Ghost as the blog platform. However, I am wondering how “safe” it is to use one’s own homelab for this. If you have any experience regarding this topic, I would gladly appreciate some tips.

I understand that it’s relatively cheap to get a VPS, and that is always an option, but it is always more fun to self-host on one’s own bare metal! :)

  • Foster Hangdaan@lemmy.fosterhangdaan.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    I self-host everything from my home network including my website. I like to keep all my data local. 😁

    It’s a simple setup: just a static site made with Lume, and served with Caddy. The attack surface is pretty small since it’s just HTML and CSS files (no JavaScript).

    • LunchMoneyThief@links.hackliberty.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      I wonder sometimes if the advice against pointing DNS records to your own residential IP amounts to a big scare. Like you say, if it’s just a static page served on an up to date and minimal web server, there’s less leverage for an attacker to abuse.

      I’ve found that ISPs too often block port 80 and 443. Did you luck out with a decent one?

      • Foster Hangdaan@lemmy.fosterhangdaan.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        I wonder sometimes if the advice against pointing DNS records to your own residential IP amounts to a big scare. Like you say, if it’s just a static page served on an up to date and minimal web server, there’s less leverage for an attacker to abuse.

        That advice is a bit old-fashioned in my opinion. There are many tools nowadays that will get you a very secure setup without much effort:

        • Using a reverse proxy with automatic SSL certs like Caddy.
        • Sandboxing services with Podman.
        • Mitigating DoS attacks by using a WAF such as Bunkerweb.

        And of course, besides all these tools, the simplest way of securing public services is to keep them updated.

        I’ve found that ISPs too often block port 80 and 443. Did you luck out with a decent one?

        Rogers has been my ISP for several years and have no issue receiving HTTP/S traffic. The only issue, like with most providers, is that they block port 25 (SMTP). It’s the only thing keeping me from self-hosting my own email server and have to rely on a VPS.