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Any way to setup WebAdmin to be accessible from the WAN side, without a VPN, yet, without having to worry about brute force attacks?

I setup a UTM for my parents in Bridge Interface + Full Transparent Mode. The great thing about this setup is 1/2 of the network is not filtered in any way, for someone like my lawyer brother who still lives with parents and the other 1/2 of the network has dual AV, Snort, Sophos Content Filtering, with OpenDNS content filtering for my parents, who despite their best efforts, constantly seem to be hitting hijacked ads when on the web, etc.

 Basic topology is:

 Internet[DSL modem/router][Bridged UTM][Unmanaged LAN switch]Airport Extreme in Access Point mode

I can forward port 4444 to the UTM and set the UTM to be accessible from the web. I have no problem doing that; however, since I can not setup A VPN on the UTM in bridge + full transparent mode, I am afraid to leave the UTM accessible to be scanned and attacked on the WAN side. The same goes for my experience with the Sophos UTM and the Amazon Cloud. In testing, I was constantly getting e-mails about IP addresses that have been blocked for too many failed login attempts.

Is there any way that I can secure this setup so that I can manage the UTM remotely without having to worry about a brute force attack, without a VPN? I get that using HTTPS encrypts the traffic, my concern is brute force attacks, that eventually lead to the UTM being compromised on the WAN side.



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  • After searching online awhile, I discovered no-ip still allows for a free version of their dynamic DNS, as long as a person renews their dynamic DNS registration every 30 days. In the event that I forget to reregister my username, it would mean only 1 external IP address and/or no-ip username could access the UTM remotely.

    As long as the UTM automatically blocks the IP address of failed login attempts for a period of time, I think it would have to be an incredibly small and remote possibility that some would be able to hijack the DNS settings and remotely gain access to the UTM.

    I love the idea of the 2-factor authentication, but I do not think I am ready to go there yet. Maybe when I have more free time to play with the system.

    Thanks for your help everyone!

  • Scott, Doug and Alex have given you good advice.  You still should take advantage of a dynamic DNS service.  There are several no-hassle free ones.  Go to the 'DynDNS' tab and you will see the choices in 'Type' field.  I moved to FreeDNS (freedns.afraid.org) after Dyn made their move.

    Cheers - Bob

     
    Sophos UTM Community Moderator
    Sophos Certified Architect - UTM
    Sophos Certified Engineer - XG
    Gold Solution Partner since 2005
    MediaSoft, Inc. USA
Reply
  • Scott, Doug and Alex have given you good advice.  You still should take advantage of a dynamic DNS service.  There are several no-hassle free ones.  Go to the 'DynDNS' tab and you will see the choices in 'Type' field.  I moved to FreeDNS (freedns.afraid.org) after Dyn made their move.

    Cheers - Bob

     
    Sophos UTM Community Moderator
    Sophos Certified Architect - UTM
    Sophos Certified Engineer - XG
    Gold Solution Partner since 2005
    MediaSoft, Inc. USA
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