this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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[–] tiz@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Don’t reverse proxies like pangolin just do the job? Does it have to be VPN in this particular concept? VPN isn’t like immune to vulnerabilities.

[–] radar@programming.dev 31 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Reverse proxy doesn't really get you much security. If there is an application level issue a reverse proxy will not help

[–] whimsy@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Hmmm, I'm a bit rusty on this but can't one put an auth gate in front of the application, handled by the reverse proxy?

[–] radar@programming.dev 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You can, that would actually give you security. Not sure how many people do that. I assumed a straight reverse proxy without any auth

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

I think that's one of the major reasons to use pangolin over something like nginx - built in auth and support for oidc.

Of course, the native jellyfin apps don't like the auth layer so idk if it helps if you're trying to install it on your dad's tv

[–] tiz@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago

I see thanks. I’ll think about it more.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

well, at least you are not depending on the application to do TLS properly, and you may be able to set up some access restrictions that your clients may support

[–] r00ty@kbin.life 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Reverse proxy will let anyone connect to it. VPN, you can create keys/logins for your intended users only. Having said that, from what I could see, nothing in the security fixes were to do with authentication. I think (just from a cursory look), they could only be exploited, if at all from an authenticated user session.

But personally, something like jellyfin where the number of people I want to be able to access it is very limited, stays behind a VPN. Better to limit your potential attack surface as much as you can.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Reverse proxies like the one specifically mentioned, pangolin, have auth and user access rules.

[–] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Pangolin is based off of Traefik if I’m not mistaken, should be able to use Traefiks IPAllowlist middleware to blacklist all IP addresses and only whitelisting the known few, that way you can expose your application to the internet knowing you have that restriction in place for those who connect to your service.

[–] VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If the people you want to have access have static, exclusive ip addresses. Which is pretty unusual, these days.

[–] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Oh yeah I’m aware, if people don’t want to use a VPN then I suggest this but give them the advisory warning.

Actually, recently I’ve been using a fork of IPAllowList which accepts DDNS addresses, but that usually is for more technical folk who would probably rather use a VPN then purchase a domain and associate it with their network.