Selfhosted @lemmy.world MTK @lemmy.world 9mo ago

Should I bother with HTTPS over Tailscale?

I have a home server and I have some HTTP services running on it. I'm thinking if I should even bother with HTTPS, as I'm already using tail scale which should be peer-to-peer and encrypted. So I shouldn't worry about any men in the middle.

Am I missing something?

It just feels wrong to work with non-S HTTP :(

12 comments

There's no need, but if you really want to, you can do it through Tailscale - Provision TLS certificates for your internal Tailscale services
HTTPS performs two duties.

Secures your connection from prying eyes.

Verifies the identity of the server.

Your VPN provides the former but not the latter. That said the odds of there being an issue in this regard are so slim as to be zero, so you'll probably be fine.
- It does though doesn't it? since every device needs to be authorized by me first
  
  It can still have issues with potential attacks that would redirect your client to a system outside of the VPN. It would prevent MitM but not complete replacement.
Do you have any devices on your local network where the firmware hasn't been updated in the last 12 month? The answer to that is surprisingly frequently yes, because "smart device" companies are laughably bad about device security. My intercom runs some ancient Linux kernel, my frigging washing machine could be connected to WiFi and the box that controls my roller shutters hasn't gotten an update sind 2018.

Not everyone has those and one could isolate those in VLANs and use other measures, but in this day and age "my local home network is 100% secure" is far from a safe assumption.

Heck, even your router might be vulnerable...

Adding HTTPS is just another layer in your defense in depth. How many layers you are willing to put up with is up to you, but it's definitely not overkill.
- I have a router with dd-wrt and I have VLANS where only my "trusted" devices are and another for everything else (like smart things or guests)
  
  But I get your point, thank you!

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
HTTPS	HTTP over SSL
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption
TLS	Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL
VPN	Virtual Private Network

3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 8 acronyms.

[Thread #490 for this sub, first seen 5th Feb 2024, 20:05] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

Good bot.

Pretty sure all men got pushed out of the middle by grimy angry goblins that steal your cookies and tokens.

12 comments