Baffling that “smart” products don’t just utilize the local network for their functionality.

When the dependencies need dependencies and then those dependencies need dependencies, the rabbit hole is endless!

But most people do have the time to save their files.

While true, ensuring an application stays stable and reliable over the course of time is a pain in the ass. Spinning up a docker-compose.yml easy as pie, just don’t ask me how to backup or manage a database or we’re all screwed.

There are many ways, a popular choice would be managing your own recursive DNS resolver and then blocking the endpoint it contacts.

PiHole - Non recursive but offers blocking capabilities, can make it recursive with Unbound.

Technitium - Recursive but not nearly as user friendly as PiHole, also lacks the fancy Ui.

With regards to the backup key, Yubikey recommends to save (screenshot) the QR code that is generated during 2FA setup to setup the backup key later on. Maybe that is also a workaround for services that only allow a single 2FA device. https://support.yubico.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021919459-How-to-register-your-spare-key

Just looking back at my purchase history, I got my Yubikey’s back in January 2020, it appears that I never read this doc about scanning the QR code for the backup key, or maybe I did? I don’t really remember it all too well. Regardless In certain circumstances my keys do the exact same thing and I’m quite sure I followed some guide to create one primary and one secondary key but it’s possible that guide has gone outdated.

Similar to something like Keepass, the database is local and you are in charge of making backups and such.

I can totally respect the folks who opted to self host, I’m horrible when it comes to backing up data and such and self hosting wasn’t really my thing back in 2020 so it never really was on my radar.

In the end this comes always down to an optimization problem between security and convenience that everyone has to decided for themself.

Couldn’t agree with you more, everybody has that dial between convenience and security and should adjust accordingly.

Doesn’t cover Traefik, plus the docker-compose.yml contains 4 separate images and researching into them didn’t provide much info. snicket_proxy, snikket_certs, snikket_portal and snikket_server. All four of these images bind to the host but if I am supplying my own reverse proxy then both snikket_proxy and snikket_certs are redundant right? Or do they serve another purpose? And if I wanted to take them off the host network, follow their firewall guide and expose the necessary ports manually behind a docker bridge network what images do I bind those ports to? When I tried binding them all to snikket_server that’s when my docker service crashed and I gave up.

Snikket locked my docker service up, their documentation sucks for when you want to use your own reverse proxy or bind it behind a docker network and not the host.

Can you explain a little more how you handle them in your daily life? I always liked the idea if Yubikeys, but I am a bit worried that I just would switch back to my phone (Aegis) for convenience.

I have two Yubikey 5 NFC’s, one I keep majority of my 2Fa auth codes on and keep on my keychain the other I leave at home mainly for backup 2Fa setups or desktop/WebAUTH/Single Sign-On logins, most websites won’t let you setup 2 2Fa keys so the second one mostly handles the plug-in and touch key portion of my setup.

Are they inconvenient? Yes, the amount of times where I got annoyed because I’ve had to grab my keychain to sign in has gotten annoying but not enough to switch back to online providers. I prioritized security over convenience in this circumstance. The Yubikey that I keep on my keychain also handles my work 2Fa codes, doesn’t feel necessary to have a dedicated key for that unless my company is willing to pay for it.

Do you just have it on your keychain a plug it in whenever you need it? Because always plugged in keys in your phone or laptop doesn’t really make sense.

It actually works out quite nice having it plugged in all the time, especially if you’re doing multiple 2Fa authentications, the keys won’t authenticate until you enter the password of the key (if you set one up) and touch the key, so even if your computer is compromised they still need to physically touch the key to generate the authentication codes.

As far as I know you can’t just clone a key.

So no you cannot clone a Yubikey to another Yubikey, which I think is dumb, but they have their security reasoning behind it I believe. Like I mentioned earlier all my 2Fa codes/keys are on my keychain so if I break that key I am in a horrible position as I lose access to a lot of accounts that I couldn’t setup multiple 2Fa’s for.

How easy is it to setup a backup key?

While Yubico does recommend having two keys as I mentioned certain services only let you setup 2Fa once and not multiple times. However, Linux (and I want to assume Windows as well) let you setup as many 2Fa keys as you want, so both the Yubikey on my keychain and the one I leave at home both grant Root access to my desktop and server.

I try to not use my phone for critical stuff, but there are times I have to just check an account. Do you use your phone with Yubikeys?

So I don’t have a USB C Yubikey ironically both my iPhone and iPad are USB C so I have the option to use a dongle or NFC, both have worked great, I have had a couple scares where the app will error and say “No response from key” but it seems that error is due to bad contact/connection. I’ve attached a few images of the iOS app to help get an idea of the layout.

Yubikey for 2Fa codes also works well for sudo and su (2Fa) or if you still use Windows I think it supports single sign on there. Absolutely worth the purchase have had my keys for years.

How else are they going to train their AI to make stupid images of yourself?

Pro-tip: buy it on steam, open it so that Steam recognizes play time, write heinous review, issue refund.