I am looking to setup a public DNS server and I found this DNS server

https://technitium.com/dns/

Does anyone know what the risks are of exposing the DNS port to the internet? How likely am I to get compromised? Is this a really bad idea?

  • Gooey0210
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    11 months ago

    Use encryption, using vpns for such a trivial task is a “really bad idea”

    There are many cases when somebody wants to have their dns public, maybe they want to share with their friends, family, community, audience (not everyone is a solo server user)

    Also, it’s good to use your dns even before connecting to the vpn. Just use encryption, it’s safe and nice

    Keeping 53 opened is not that bad, the only thing you will notice is an increased load on your server if somebody tried to ddos somebody’s server using your dns

    P.S. Or as somebody mentioned below, use rate limiting. It’s described pretty well in some other comments. Not just “spooky internet port”

    • atzanteol
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      11 months ago

      Use a public dns provider. Cloudflare, route53, dyndns (are they still around?), etc. Cheap, reliable, no worries about joining a ddos by accident. Some services are better left to experts until you really know what you’re doing.

      And if you do really know what you’re doing you’ll use a dns provider rather than host your own.

      • Gooey0210
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        11 months ago

        Cloudflare is not private… not sure if dyndns has even worse reputation than cloudflare

        Some services are better left to experts until you really know what you’re doing.

        DNS, for experts? 😂

        You host your own dns, and don’t work with glowing services, this is the private way

        • atzanteol
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          11 months ago

          Host your own private DNS - yes, knock yourself out. I highly recommend it.

          Public DNS? No - don’t do that.

          There are two services homegamers should be extra cautious of and should likely leave alone - DNS and email. These protocols are rife with historic issues that affect everybody, not just the hosting system. A poorly configured DNS server can participate in a DDOS attack without being “hacked” specifically. A poorly configured mail server can be responsible for sending millions of spam emails.

          For a homegamer you probably only need a single public DNS record anyway (with multiple CNAME if you want to do host based routing on a load balancer). You take on a lot of risk with almost zero benefit.

          • Gooey0210
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            11 months ago

            You don’t knock yourself out, it doesn’t look like you ever even tried it

            See you when you start selfhosting stuff, or at least get interested

            Also, knocking yourself out is not privacy, but anonymity 🤭

            • atzanteol
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              11 months ago

              Uh oh - my “nerd creds” are being questioned by a rando on the internet. 🤣