My ISP has provided me with a fixed IP address. I‘m going to use a web domain name to point to the IP address in order to make WireGuard and Home Assistant connections easier to set up. What are the security implications of doing this? I’m a total noob with this side of things
Web domain pointing to home IP address
- Thread starter Bluecube
- Start date
If you have a fixed IP, there is little advantage in using a domain name, unless you use a signed certificate which can bring its own headaches if you are a beginner. But you need to buy the domain, then once you've bought it, you set the DNS records or the domain to your home IP. I use Cloudflare for my own DNS/domains. https://developers.cloudflare.com/dns/zone-setups/full-setup/setup/
If its a fixed IP just forward the ports in your firewall to the home assistant device and away you go surely there is no reason to open up web ports here unless you want remote access. Even then Id go for a radius server and VPN tunnel in my firewall over exposing web ports.
Edit: could also be missing something here as I dont use any home assistant tools. But yea I wouldn't be exposing home assistant stuff to remote control over the web I dont think.
Edit: could also be missing something here as I dont use any home assistant tools. But yea I wouldn't be exposing home assistant stuff to remote control over the web I dont think.
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Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
Don't open ports up over the internet without knowing what you are doing. There are much more secure and easier ways, generally at the software layer. E.g. for Home Assistant use reverse proxy. There is a plugin called Cloudflared and several videos on YouTube as to how to do it.
What's wrong with a static IP for wireguard? What do you think having a domain name will achieve?
having a VPN negates the need to port forwarding or accessing HA.
True, but your WireGuard config is a static .conf file. Once your endpoint (IP or domain) is in there, you don't need to remember it anyway? Regardless, to answer your actual question in the OP, having a domain does no harm. If your static IP has a port open (eg for WireGuard), then that is the security risk (or lack of) over and done with. Having a domain further point to that IP doesn't add to the potential risk in any meaningful way; so don't worry about that.
WireGuard itself is a silent protocol, by design. If some bot tries to scan your IP (which they will, relentlessly - that's just the Internet for you) then your WireGuard service will remain silent as though it wasn't even installed. WireGuard will only reply to a properly formatted request over UDP on its operating port (51820 by default), and will further require the correct keys (and, optionally but highly recommended, PSK) to begin replying. I wouldn't worry about having WireGuard running 'exposed' at all, it's literally what it's designed for.
If you want to open other services, then I highly recommend at the least a reverse proxy (Caddy, Nginx Proxy Manager, Traefik et al.). Better yet, run cloudflared as suggested above, and configure Cloudflare Zero Trust on a free account. Add authentication with only your email permitted, so you can receive a code every 24h to be allowed to access your home services. That way, no ports are open on your router (except WireGuard) and all your other self hosted stuff is punched out from the inside via cloudflared and protected behind their own authentication and DDOS protection service. Win/win.
Thanks all for the advice and guidance. It’s made me think about more about what I’m trying to do and that’s really just to provide an easily remembered domain name for the couple of times I’ll set up Wireguard! Even my Home Assistant set up doesn’t need access to an external port as I can access it through the VPN connection. I’m already using the IP address for Wireguard so there’s little sense now in buying a domain