Question: Would It Be OK To Host A BBS On An Existing VPS That Already Hosts Nginx + A Site? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BackToPlebbit69 · 2022-02-18 05:45 Curious if anyone here does this via Digital Ocean. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neat-Peach3196 · 2022-02-18 05:50 Uh yeah sure, you have my permission - it's OK. \-Guy from the Internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- the_darkener · 2022-02-18 06:07 Run the BBS as a different user than Nginx and check permissions, if someone hacks your board you don't want them to be able to mess with the site too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gnu2tux · 2022-02-18 08:32 Nginx or Apache will typically run as httpd or www-data which is a different user than the BBS runs as. I would recommend never running a BBS as root. Even though Mystic for example, recommends running as root, I run it as a standard, locked down user on port 2323 (i.e. above 1024 for non superuser ports) and it works perfectly fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gnu2tux · 2022-02-18 08:33 But to answer your question, I've always run it on a Linux VPS with a web server running, no problems ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gozarc · 2022-02-18 10:26 You could isolate it further by putting it in a Linux container on the VPS. I'm setting up a BBS and that's what I'm doing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- quentinnuk · 2022-02-18 10:27 Your biggest risk is vulnerability in the BBS. If you run it as a normal user (not root) preferably in a container or with chroot active then that will mitigate to some extent. I would also use ufw or iptables to firewall the services, and include things like time based ip dropping for repeat failed logins etc. you can also use iptables to redirect port 23 to a user port like 2323 if you want to appear on the default telnet port. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BackToPlebbit69 · 2022-02-18 14:08 Do you have any guides on how to do this? u/quentinnuk ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BackToPlebbit69 · 2022-02-18 14:08 Any guides on how to do this? u/gozarc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BackToPlebbit69 · 2022-02-18 14:09 Any guides on how to do this? u/the_darkener ---------------------------------------------------------------------- quentinnuk · 2022-02-18 14:39 Heres a video on setting up docker containers on Linux https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGCn0b4FOfs Heres a thing about rate limiting with iptables http://blog.serverbuddies.com/using-iptables-to-rate-limit-incoming- connections/ Here is an example of rate limiting telnet: # /usr/sbin/iptables --append INPUT --protocol tcp --match tcp --destination-port 23 --in-interface eth0 --match state --state NEW --match recent --set /usr/sbin/iptables --append INPUT --protocol tcp --match tcp --destination-port 23 --in-interface eth0 --match state --state NEW --match recent --update --seconds 120 --hitcount 4 -j DROP /usr/sbin/iptables --append INPUT --protocol tcp --match tcp --destination-port 23 --jump ACCEPT # To enable your BBS to run as non-privilegd user listening to port 2323 but respond to telnet on port 23: iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 23 -j REDIRECT --to-port 2323 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- the_darkener · 2022-02-18 16:10 Not specifically, no. You need general knowledge of running these types of services and Linux filesystem permissions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SqualorTrawler · 2022-02-18 21:47 The easiest way is to not install Mystic as root, and don't run telnet on port 23. Run it on a port over 1023 instead. Part of the mystic configuration will ask you what port you want to run on. Create a user and group called mystic. chown/chgrp the mystic directory to "mystic" and then install into there. When you configure the server just pick a port over 1024 to listen on, then when you provide the address of your board to a potential caller, provide the port as well. People really want to hold on to port 23, and I get it, but the benefits of this (being able to provide a hostname without a port to potential users) is more than compensated for by avoiding the tsunami of shit coming in off of the net on port 23 -- especially for a beginner. I get that people are trying to hold the fort and don't want to be cowed by the zombie apocalypse on port 23, and I admire people's grit, but possibly for someone who isn't a Linux power-user, just not running on 23 would be best. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tallship · 2022-02-19 00:26 Yes of course there are. There are guides for just about everything lolz. Here's a cookbook style, step by step tutorial for doing it: https://devo.linboard.org/tallship/mystic If you run into any snags you can contact me at: SysOp@1:102/127 You can thank me later 🤘💀🤘 ⛵ . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gozarc · 2022-02-21 22:14 Let me collect a few resources. Basically, you install lxd, make a linux container with the distro you want, and then forward ports from the host machine to the Linux container. It's a more complicated, but it's also easier to backup and isolate from the rest of the machine.