What actual damage do you secure your servers against? Whats the attack vector?

2026-07-05 23:37 UTC

I’m a software developer working in the telecam sector on security related products, so I know a fair bit about system security. Yet I wound secure my own system far less than most people here if I didn’t enjoy cybersecurity as a hobby. I wonder what you are securing against? Some examples: jellyfin: unless you have home videos on there, what does it matter if someone exfiltrates some movies? Surely you have basic DOS protection and/or region locking to reduce wasted network traffic, right? linux: I assume nobody is using their servers as daily drive PCs, so what does it matter if somehow your system is superficially compromised. You can always reimage. Sure they could mine some bitcoin with your system, but it doesn’t have that much PSU headroom to cost you much on your bills, right? It just seems like most attack vectors lead to mild annoyance at most for most systems. Do you guys just enjoy cybersecurity? Do you actually keep sensitive data on your self hosted systems? Do you self-host on expensive hardware? What am I missing?

Replies (3)

@Morgikan@fedia.io 2026-07-06 01:03

My biggest concern is pivoting. Specific to Jellyfin, many users are using docker, but do not isolate the user so the daemon is operating as root. With that setup, an attacker could mount the host filesystem to the container and would own the host from that container. Again, for the linux mention, the answer is pivoting. Many machines use Tailscale. If one of those machines were to be compromised using Tailscale's default ACL, they would be able to move laterally through the network without issue. At that point, it would be possible to modify existing nodes (ex. subnet routers, exit nodes, etc) or even add additional rogue nodes. The question of why people care is tricky. Why should you care if your networked printer is using out of date firmware? It likely isn't storing personal information, right? It's a prime target because it's easy, poorly monitored, and opens another door. A lot of infosec is just keeping doors shut so other doors don't get opened.

Open ##3783133
@fozid@feddit.uk 2026-07-06 07:13

From my perspective, self hosting is a hobby, we run services we feel we need, but it’s also something we do for fun. As such some people enjoy thinking about and deploying the most secure server possible, regardless of actual threats. However, to directly answer your question, yes there isn’t really a lot that can be stolen from a self host residential server, maybe if you hack a valutwarden instance and acquire all the credit card details stored in it and all the id’s stored in it. But the main hack isnt stealing, but deploying a bot net of some sort.

Open ##3794742
@pHr34kY@lemmy.world 2026-07-06 08:17

The worst I had was a credential-stuffer bot that used a set of leaked credentials to get on my mail server and send spam. I changed the password within 5 minutes and it stopped. That was the end of it. Once I had someone deface a website because wordpress wasn’t patched. I just restored the site from backup and moved on with life. I would think that most of the time, you just join a botnet. BUT someone getting into your email can let them do password resets to all your accounts. Then again, I self-host my email because all mail providers are reading your email by default. I’d still rather self-host it.

Open ##3797775