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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You have a firewall. It’s in your router, and it is what makes it so that you have to VPN into the server. Otherwise the server would be accessible. NAT is, effectively, a firewall.
Should you add another layer, perhaps an IPS or deny-listing? Maybe it’s a good idea.
Op means, as they said, a firewall on the server itself.
NAT is, effectively, a firewall.
No it isn’t. Stop giving advice on edge security.
Assuming it’s not a 1-1 NAT it does make for a functional unidirectional firewall. Now, a pure router in the sense of simply offering a gateway to another subnet doesn’t do much, but the typical home router as most people think of it is creating a snat for multiple devices to reach out to the internet and without port forwarding effectively blocks off traffic from the outside in.
Assuming it’s not a 1-1 NAT it does make for a functional unidirectional firewall.
That’s like saying a router and firewall are the same thing. NAT appears to be a “firewall” because it’s usually deployed with one. NAT itself has no filtering functions the way you’re describing.
Now, a pure router in the sense of simply offering a gateway to another subnet
A “pure” router, as you put it, understands upstream subnets and routing tables. NAT does not, and is usually overlayed on top of an existing routing function.
You can set up NAT between two subnets as an experiment with no iptables and it will do its job.
Disclaimer, I’m not a network professional im only learning. But you dont need ufw since your router firewall should be able to filter majority of the traffic. But in security there is a concept of layers. You want your router firewall then your device firewall to provide multiple layers incase something slips through one layer.
So to give a simple answer, it depends how secure you want your network to be. Personally I think UFW is easy so you may as well set it up. 5sec of config might stop a hacker traversing your network hoping from device to device.
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Sounds like you could use a reverse proxy.
