savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
I assume that result is the modem or the router (I use a separate one of each)
The only ports open on the firewall are 22 SSL and 53 DNS which with my limited knowledge seems about right?
How much should you worry about open ports?
- Thread starter savoloysam
- Start date
I assume that result is the modem or the router (I use a separate one of each)
The only ports open on the firewall are 22 SSL and 53 DNS which with my limited knowledge seems about right?
souljacker
innit
You don't want any of these open. Why would a home network respond to DNS?
friedaweed
Me and me girl named Jane
Secret forum. Post needs editing before everyone knows.
souljacker
innit
Only if you use the firewall as your DNS server and only if you need to ssh to the firewall. These should never be open to the rest of the internet.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
If your getting responses back via TCP they should go to the original source port, If the server is returning them via UDP they come back to 53.
souljacker
innit
The original source port from your PC won't be 53 though. It will be something over 1024. The destination port will be 53. The response will come back to the source port but it's only opened briefly so the transaction can occur and is only opened in the first place because of the initial request from inside the network. It will never respond to an unsolicited request to that port unless you have a decent hack going on.
You would only open port 53 if you were a DNS server which I can bet a decent wedge that sam isn't doing.
High Voltage
In the top 97% of Urban's most interesting posters
Given what you have for breakfast on a daily basis . . . NO, it's not
savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
I have the firewall configured to only use DNS over HTTPS via Quad9.
I have the option to add Google, Cloudfare, or Open DNS but apparently Quad9 is the safest. I have no idea if that's correct.
I have the option to add Google, Cloudfare, or Open DNS but apparently Quad9 is the safest. I have no idea if that's correct.
savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
Should I close port 22 then. It's supposed to be a secure protocol?
savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
See my post above about DNS.
I rarely use a laptop (odd occasions when my phone won't do) I use the network mostly for my phone, Two music streamers and my smart TV.
The biggest security risk is of course my laptop when it used. Windows being as vulnerable as it is.
souljacker
innit
I would. Last time I had an SSH server sat on the internet, it was getting hammered by connection requests from China. Yeah, it's secure, but that doesn't mean it's not hackable. Also, having SSH and HTTPS open on the internet can give hackers quite a bit of information on the type of device that is responding, making it easy for someone to fire up metasploit and see if there are any hacks they can use against the server.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
We're having another agree to disagree moment here. DNS was originally written to use UDP and started migrating to TCP about 10 years ago with the introduction of a larger packet size.
UDP packets are/were returned to port 53 whereas TCP packets are returned to the source port specified in the header.
Checking on the 2 devices I currently have running on my home network, 1 x Windows 10 and 1 x RHEL 7.9 neither of them have a listener on port 53 so any DNS UDP packets would end up getting lost but that's not a risk.
I personally would leave 53 open even though on my current setup (which does vary) it wouldn't respond to external connections.
I would say no, souljacker is clearly a vote for yes. It will probably do no harm if you do, if you find odd things that now don't work you could try opening it again and see if they do (so long as you don't forget you have done this).
souljacker
innit
Does your DNS entry on the laptop point to the firewall? If so yes, it should be open but ONLY to the inside network, never to the outside world.
savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
Anyhoo I am guessing I should just leave it as it is. The router has a lot of fully activated security options as it is and coupled with a physical firewall it's a decent set up and at the end of the day nothing will stop law enforcement or a determined and clued up enough hacker from causing some havoc or other.
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savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
I'll check the DNS service next time I use the laptop but I suspect the firewall will force the network configuration not vice versa.
souljacker
innit
That's not right. When a device requests a DNS record, it doesn't need port 53 open. A PC doesn't need port 53 open to do DNS and a router shouldn't have it open either. There is only one reason that you would have DNS open to the internet and that's if you were a DNS server.
souljacker
innit
True. It could be doing your DHCP too.
I'm intrigued though. Why do you have a router and a firewall? Most home routers are perfectly capable of handling the firewalls job these days. What firewall is it?
savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
Just for extra security. I've got a firewalla blue plus which coupled with an app can show real time network info and has some other features the router doesn't.
souljacker
innit
If you had bought the gold or purple one, you wouldn't need your home router.
It has got a VPN server inside. What I do with my router is run a VPN server then block all other ports. That way, if you really need to see what is inside, you VPN in and connect as if you were local.
As said. unless you're running services you need to access from the web, you shouldn't really have any open (listening) ports.
Go here
www.whatsmyip.org
And check what your public IP address is. That's what should be scanned.
You can also scan it here.
www.grc.com
If you're using wifi at home and your smart phone is on wifi, the your public address is that of your router. Which should have an integrated firewall in most cases. Which should be on and blocking inbound connection attempts by default.
Go here
www.whatsmyip.org
And check what your public IP address is. That's what should be scanned.
You can also scan it here.
GRC | ShieldsUP! — Internet Vulnerability Profiling
GRC Internet Security Detection System
If you're using wifi at home and your smart phone is on wifi, the your public address is that of your router. Which should have an integrated firewall in most cases. Which should be on and blocking inbound connection attempts by default.
Actually I prefer this scanner. Just checked everything on my router is closed, as expected.
nmap.online-domain-tools.com
Nmap Online - Highly customizable scanning of network hosts
Online interface for Nmap Security Scanner. Commonly used by administrators to verify their network and firewall configurations.
souljacker
innit
I use zenmap Zenmap - Official cross-platform Nmap Security Scanner GUIActually I prefer this scanner. Just checked everything on my router is closed, as expected.
Nmap Online - Highly customizable scanning of network hosts
Online interface for Nmap Security Scanner. Commonly used by administrators to verify their network and firewall configurations.
existentialist
Things Done
22 is one of the few ports I do have open. But that's because I want inbound ssh access to my machine, and because I am reasonably confident that the software listening on that port (sshd) is a) reasonably secure, and b) regularly updated.
I'd be much more wary of having a webserver sitting on an open port 80 (not that I imagine you do), or some of those Microsoft/NetBios type things running.
existentialist
Things Done
I'm hardcore: I use nmap at the command line
savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
Aye I thought about getting the Gold one but had invested £160 on a mid spec router before I heard about them. I'll settle with I have for now
I used to have 22 open on a VPS. It not unsurprisingly got hammered. I locked it down to key access only and also had fail2ban running as well. But change the bantime if you do use the latter, it's only set to 5 minutes by default. Don't get locked out yourself though. 
VPN is probably a better idea as said though.
VPN is probably a better idea as said though.
editor
hiraethified
The OP has asked me to delete this thread although it seems a unfair on people who given up their time to contribute useful information and I don't like deleting other people's content.
However, unless they change their mind, I will delete this thread in a day or two, so I'm giving people fair warning,
However, unless they change their mind, I will delete this thread in a day or two, so I'm giving people fair warning,
savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
Internet hasn't seemed quite right lately. Lots of disconnections where it doesn't normally but that could be anything however scanning for open ports on the firewall is showing 80 and 443 being open on the outside when there didn't used to be any.
It says to block them you need to do it upon receiving an alarm but it hasn't come up as an alarm so I am assuming that the firewall doesn't consider a risk or thinks that the router wants them open.
My head hurts lol
It says to block them you need to do it upon receiving an alarm but it hasn't come up as an alarm so I am assuming that the firewall doesn't consider a risk or thinks that the router wants them open.
My head hurts lol
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