How do I host Jellyfin in the most secure manner possible?
How do I host Jellyfin in the most secure manner possible?
100 comments
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I don't plan to access it anywhere but home
Okay so what's all this faffing about for? Just don't open it up to the internet and access it with your servers local ip address on your home network
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I wish it were that simple, but as I mentioned that would require paying for ProtonVPN to allow LAN connections (which isn't the worst thing in the world, but I'd prefer to avoid subscriptions where possible) and clients don't allow self-signed certificates.
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What are you talking about. Please clarify if this is actually true:
I don’t plan to access it anywhere but home.
This would mean that you only want to access Jellyfin when you, and the device you are watching your show/movie on, are at home, where the Pi/server also is.
Is this correct?
If so, then questions about VPN, Certificates, DNS,.... do not matter.
- host Jellyfin on the Pi, e.g. with IP 192.168.10.20 on your local network
- open the Jellyfin app on your TV/Phone/PC, connect to http://192.168.10.20:8096/
- done
Now you can access it at home, and only at home. I honestly fail to see where a VPN would even come into the equation here (again, if you wish to ONLY watch when you are at home, as you've said).
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OPs problem is that proton blocks Lan connections when connected and require you to pay them if you want to unblock it
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Smh. I get wanting to be connected to a VPN, but being locked out of your own local network is just stupid.
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What the f
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Then he should use Mullvad.
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This would mean that you only want to access Jellyfin when you, and the device you are watching your show/movie on, are at home, where the Pi/server also is.
Is this correct?
Yes.
If so, then questions about VPN, Certificates, DNS,.... do not matter.
They do, because if ProtonVPN blocks LAN connections then the only other option is exposing the server to the WAN
open the Jellyfin app on your TV/Phone/PC, connect to http://192.168.10.20:8096/
This does not encrypt during transit, and my network is not a trusted party.
I honestly fail to see where a VPN would even come into the equation here
I, like many others, use my devices for more than just accessing my LAN while I am on my home network.
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This does not encrypt during transit, and my network is not a trusted party.
Then honestly, you have other problems than setting up Jellyfin.
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?
They do, because if ProtonVPN blocks LAN connections then the only other option is exposing the server to the WAN
Ah, I see. On your PC you should just be able to set a static route over the physical interface for 192.168.0.0/24 (or whatever your local network is) which takes precedence over the VPN. For android.... Oof, no idea. Probably need root.
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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...)
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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.
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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
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Just out of curiosity, why is your network not a trusted party?
You could start with an additional firewall and maybe setting up traffic restrictions on it to mitigate what devices can communicate with each other, in addition to setting up a local VPN.
Yes its possible to spoof mac addresses and such but it really sounds like your concerns could be mitigated by having a more secure network setup.
If your network isn't a trusted party then you need to start there. Why isn't it a trusted party and what do you need to do to secure the traffic to/through it.
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Just out of curiosity, why is your network not a trusted party?
Part of my threat model is essentially "anything that can connect to the internet poses a security risk". Since networks are the literal gateway to the internet, it is reasonable not to trust them. Routers don't run as secure operating systems as Qubes OS, secureblue, or GrapheneOS. If a malicious party found a way to connect to the network, all unencrypted activities can be intercepted. If the router itself has malicious code, any unencrypted traffic can be sent to a third party. Those are just the basics, but trying to put band-aid solutions on a fundamentally broken system is a losing battle.
GrapheneOS distrusts networks as much as possible, so I do too. Even if I own the network, I am not a network engineer, so the chances of fault are high. In the simplest case, the network is a gateway to all activity that happens on the LAN, and it only takes one zero day to make that happen. The best mitigation is proper encryption and no self-signed certificates (where possible).
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Look into Tailscale. Its free
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Idk if proton allows you to download config files on a free account but if they do then you could use those to manually split tunnel your local internet
Edit: if they don't then the "most secure" (and cheapest) option is to pay for a VPN that allows Lan connections
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Idk if proton allows you to download config files on a free account
I remember a time a few years ago when I managed to do something similar... I'll look into this!
Edit: It seems so
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