Newbie about webmin...

budhusa · 12-12-2003, 03:04 AM

i would like to enable remote access to my home pc's webmin, but im kinda wondering if anyone has any good security tips... just cause im a little bit worried, since someone could really fuck things up with webmin access...

so, would it help to have it on a non-standard port? and are there any specific modules that should be disabled for remote access, or is it safe to allow evthing? any other tips help too...

or...should i just not worry about this, and assume webmin's safe...

thanks...

bud

irish_rover · 12-12-2003, 07:25 AM

Anytime you open ports outside your lan you are taking a risk. Non-standard ports don't work so well, that is security-through-obscurity.

phoeniXflame · 12-12-2003, 10:08 AM

anyone who is even remotely motivated to attack you WILL find your open ports no matter what you change them to, if your that worried about security, learn to do the things you do via webmin in a console, you'll learn more that way and its considerably more secure (imo)

bureado · 12-12-2003, 10:22 AM

Using Debian?
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/se....html#contents

budhusa · 12-12-2003, 11:10 AM

okay...thanks for all your info.

im actually running mandrake, and i would say that security for me is not essential (it is just my home pc), but it cant hurt. anyway, ill rethink whether or not i should use webmin, and look into all the command line stuff...peace,

mac_phil · 12-12-2003, 11:25 AM

You need to at least use SSL when you use Webmin remotely.

Another thing you could do is restrict access to Webmin. If you have an account on another computer, only let that computer connect to webmin. Then, when on the road, connect to that intermediate computer, then webmin.

If you don't have an account to facilitate this, you could set up webmin to only listen to requests from a proxy server, then connect through that proxy server.

However, if you have good passwords (long, alphanumeric, gibberish) and you use SSL (https) then it should be OK to just open Webmin up to the world.

Changing the port is probably pointless, since any attacker is going to scan you anyway.

frogman · 12-15-2003, 04:36 PM

In addition to the above:

On boxes where I need webmin (read: am too lazy to fix by command line), I login via ssh and start the webmin service, then do what I need from the browser and when I'm finished I turn the service off again.

It can be a hassle that way, but I prefer to turn it on only when I need it.

ymmv.