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LAN party network security (midwest.social)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey all. I'm heading to Quakecon 2024 tomorrow and will be repping the penguin. I've got all my games set up and ready, but was now wondering, are there any extra steps I should take as far as network security goes?

I'm sure I'm not as vulnerable to random badness as the flock of Windows machines that will be on the network, but you never know. The only thing on my list so far is to disable sshd. I thought about installing Portmaster but it has always messed up my DNS in the past...

I'll probably run Wireshark just to see if I can capture anything interesting there. Do you all have any other suggestions for prepping my PC?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Checking the basics.. You got a firewall right? It's on? Ports closed?

Are you going to leave your pc unattended? At all?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Negative - that's why I was thinking of giving Portmaster another go but am open to any solution like that.

Yes the PC will be unattended for many hours at a time.

[–] gaylord_fartmaster 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'd just install UFW and either set the default for incoming and outgoing to deny and unblock the game ports manually, or just set incoming to deny and outgoing to allow.

You could pair that with OpenSnitch to see all attempted incoming and outgoing connections and block them by default, and then just allow the ones you want as they happen.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Thank you for these suggestions! I've been looking for something like Opensnitch for a long time.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Unattended? I'd use a bios password and disk encryption

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

You might find it helpful to look up "Evil Maid Attack" as you will be susceptible to that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

I guess if you want to be paranoid you could get a new hard drive and install just what you want for the LAN and keep personal info off it. Then just swap back when you get home.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I recommend gumming up the USB ports with chewing gum, and then wrapping the whole under case in a condom with airholes. Finally, lather any exposed peripherals with butter and marmalade, and walk by occasionally to just make intense eye contact and fart.

If that doesn't work, I don't know what will.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

This guy lans

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Update your bios, grab a clean disk image before you go, nuke it from orbit when you get back and restore from backup.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Make sure your BIOS is up to date

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Install Fail2Ban, maybe?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Don't know anything recent, but years ago they began blocking network traffic between rows. That killed what little self hosted LAN play was still happening but kept stuff from spreading across the whole BYOC.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Don't go, it's a trap