schmonz.com is a Fediverse instance that uses the ActivityPub protocol. In other words, users at this host can communicate with people that use software like Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, etc. all around the world.

This server runs the snac software and there is no automatic sign-up process.

Search results for tag #selfhosting

[?]Rolle Laukkarinen » 🌐
@rolle@mementomori.social

What many people misunderstand about hosting your own content (like this social media instance) is thinking we somehow NEED a big audience or Big Tech involvement.

I'm perfectly fine if the world faded away and it was just the thousand of us here. It's like the early days of the web when we had small forums, nobody missed Reddit back then. Federation is a big plus, not a requirement.

It's the same with websites or IRC for me. I know people use Discord, but I still stick to IRC even if there are only about a hundred of us left. I know people use AI now and website visitors are dropping, but who cares? I still keep doing it for those who like to read.

I don't need the whole world involved for this to feel worthwhile. It's mine, I own it, and I host it for as long as I breathe. After that, it won't matter to me anymore, but I hope other admins keep things running the way I did.

    [?]Matt Brunt [He/Him] » 🌐
    @brunty@brunty.social

    Damn. Again?!

    heise.de/en/news/Up-to-200-per

    One of the servers I use would go from 7.99 to 19.49 and another from 20.99 to 62.49

    Oof

      Jay 🚩 :runbsd: boosted

      [?]Dragon of BSDCafe :freebsd: [he/him] » 🌐
      @evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe

      Kinda postmortem:

      1) The maximal log size before rotation and count of gzipped logs to store should be increased in the newsyslogd configuration. This should be applied to any service, which is looking into the void^WInternet. So, I will not loss log records, related to the start of attack…

      2) Also, Asterisk log should be added to newsyslogd configuration first. It weren't added here, so *.log files became too big (> 1 Gb) and of course fail2ban ate a lot of memory while parsing these big logs. If they were rotated properly, then fail2ban will not eat so much memory, parsing small enough files.

      3) Since start of attack in logs were lost, then I could only imagine possible root cause of an attack. By default, any IP, which once failed to provide the proper credentials to login somewhere in my kitchen server, is banned immediately and forever.
      But somehow those attackers managed to use just 2 IPs to make an attack and they weren't banned before manual intervention :drgn_confused:

      According to fail2ban logs they were banned, but they were obviously not banned by npf. So, I think, they started attack right in time when my blacklists were successfully updated and npf was reloading — as a result their IPs appeared as "banned" in the fail2ban, but the fail2ban failed to ban them via npf, so "IRL" their IPs still weren't banned. Time to revisit my script to update blacklists :drgn_wrench:

      4) Looks like I need to install some Intrusion Detection System (possibly snort :drgn_think: since it is mature enough). It isn't good to rely only on one mechanism (fail2ban + blacklists + npf) to protect my precious machine.

        [?]Dragon of BSDCafe :freebsd: [he/him] » 🌐
        @evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe

        Oh fuck, I was mistaken — it was a real attack, not LLM bots :drgn_lurk_nervous: — someone, using machines from French hosting, was trying to connect to my Asterisk box, using various SIP endpoints.

        The attack was started at Monday's night and was found only because monit reported about too much memory eaten by fail2ban :drgn_cry:

        Interesting, why fail2ban didn't banned attacker's IP, because it should do that right after failed attempt to login? :drgn_think_confused: Tine to revisit fail2ban jails configs… :drgn_wrench:

        Screenshot of termux with opened console of my home server. There is an asterisk log in the console, showing various and constant attempts to login into my PBX via PJSIP.

        Alt...Screenshot of termux with opened console of my home server. There is an asterisk log in the console, showing various and constant attempts to login into my PBX via PJSIP.

          #netbsd boosted

          [?]Dragon of BSDCafe :freebsd: [he/him] » 🌐
          @evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe

          Kinda postmortem:

          1) The maximal log size before rotation and count of gzipped logs to store should be increased in the newsyslogd configuration. This should be applied to any service, which is looking into the void^WInternet. So, I will not loss log records, related to the start of attack…

          2) Also, Asterisk log should be added to newsyslogd configuration first. It weren't added here, so *.log files became too big (> 1 Gb) and of course fail2ban ate a lot of memory while parsing these big logs. If they were rotated properly, then fail2ban will not eat so much memory, parsing small enough files.

          3) Since start of attack in logs were lost, then I could only imagine possible root cause of an attack. By default, any IP, which once failed to provide the proper credentials to login somewhere in my kitchen server, is banned immediately and forever.
          But somehow those attackers managed to use just 2 IPs to make an attack and they weren't banned before manual intervention :drgn_confused:

          According to fail2ban logs they were banned, but they were obviously not banned by npf. So, I think, they started attack right in time when my blacklists were successfully updated and npf was reloading — as a result their IPs appeared as "banned" in the fail2ban, but the fail2ban failed to ban them via npf, so "IRL" their IPs still weren't banned. Time to revisit my script to update blacklists :drgn_wrench:

          4) Looks like I need to install some Intrusion Detection System (possibly snort :drgn_think: since it is mature enough). It isn't good to rely only on one mechanism (fail2ban + blacklists + npf) to protect my precious machine.

            [?]Larvitz :fedora: » 🌐
            @Larvitz@burningboard.net

            New post: IPv6 Foundations.

            IPv6 isn't "the future of the internet." It's the internet. IPv4 is the relic we keep alive on NAT life support.

            A laid-back tour through the basics: how the addresses are built, the two rules for crushing out the zeros, a /64 per subnet so you stop counting hosts, SLAAC, and why blocking ICMPv6 is a self-inflicted wound.

            And no, dual-stack isn't a destination. It's a burden.

            blog.hofstede.it/ipv6-foundati

              [?]Dragon of BSDCafe :freebsd: [he/him] » 🌐
              @evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe

              Huh, looks like the new ASes, with LLM-bots attacking servers, just dropped :drgn_aww:

              TLDR: there are AS12876 and AS16276 — both located in France (Scaleway SAS and OVH SAS). My Asterisk self-hosted box was attacked from the next IPs: 62.4.15.81 and 51.222.38.229.

              Today, after I was checked my e-mail, I found three warnings from Monit about fail2ban exhausting limits in my small server in the kitchen (Intel Atom N2800 1866 MHz and 4 Gb of RAM). First e-mail warns about fail2ban ate 200 MB of RAM, next about 500 MB of RAM and the last e-mail warns me that fail2ban ate 2 GB of RAM :drgn_shocked:

              Emacs Gnus with e-mail from Monit opened. In the e-mail Monit warns me about fail2ban ate 2.1 GB of RAM when the limit is 200 MB.

              Alt...Emacs Gnus with e-mail from Monit opened. In the e-mail Monit warns me about fail2ban ate 2.1 GB of RAM when the limit is 200 MB.

                [?]Dragon of BSDCafe :freebsd: [he/him] » 🌐
                @evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe

                Then, I logged into my box and found that fail2ban, Asterisk and PostgreSQL aren't feeling well. The system load and the traffic amounts was unusual — the parameters are completely differs from which I used to see since server installation.

                I checked fail2ban logs and found that it is still parses the data from Asterisk log which were happen at near 5 hours ago :drgn_shocked: And there were total mess in the Asterisk security.log (see screenshot) — some dumb (as it programmers :drgn_blush_giggle: ) LLM-bots were constantly trying to connect to my Asterisk server with HTTP protocol, evaluating it as a web-server, I dunno :drgn_think_confused:

                And the Asterisk logs became enormously big — while newsyslogd wasn't invoked — they eat at near 4 GB :drgn_shocked: . I didn't specify the maximal size of Asterisk logfiles in the /etc/newsyslog.conf, because I wasn't expected a lot of lines in the PBX logs, which is in use only for my relatives.

                top output in the terminal of NetBSD server, showing three CPU-consuming processses: python3.12, postgres, asterisk.

                Alt...top output in the terminal of NetBSD server, showing three CPU-consuming processses: python3.12, postgres, asterisk.

                Excerpt from failban log showing how it processes events from asterisk logs, happened 5 hours ago.

                Alt...Excerpt from failban log showing how it processes events from asterisk logs, happened 5 hours ago.

                Alt...Video with as fast scrolling lines -- there is a tail -f security.log for my Asterisk installation. Each three lines is an unsuccessfull attempt to break into my Asterisk from LLM bots.

                ls -lh in the /var/log/asterisk.
Size of asterisk.log: 1.2 Gb, queue.log: 4.4 Kb, security.log: 2.5 Gb.

                Alt...ls -lh in the /var/log/asterisk. Size of asterisk.log: 1.2 Gb, queue.log: 4.4 Kb, security.log: 2.5 Gb.

                  [?]Dragon of BSDCafe :freebsd: [he/him] » 🌐
                  @evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe

                  Some graphs :drgn_aww: from with LLM-bots attacking my kitchen server.
                  Graphs spans to the whole week, so on the left there is a normal state of my server. And on the right — attack is happening.

                  Graph of CPU usage, which going high after LLM bots attack (at near 08 Jan Monday). At near 2 CPU cores were used by LLM bots, trying to abuse my  PBX as an Web-server.

                  Alt...Graph of CPU usage, which going high after LLM bots attack (at near 08 Jan Monday). At near 2 CPU cores were used by LLM bots, trying to abuse my PBX as an Web-server.

                  Graph with main network interface bits per minute — before attack there were almost no data receivin/transmitting, only some cron jobs at night. But after attack there are at near 20 Mb per minute both receiving and transmitting.

                  Alt...Graph with main network interface bits per minute — before attack there were almost no data receivin/transmitting, only some cron jobs at night. But after attack there are at near 20 Mb per minute both receiving and transmitting.

                  Graph with PostgreSQL connections. Active connections has green color. Before the attack there are almost no active connections, but after attack there are a lot of them, since Asterisk using PostgreSQL as a main backend.

                  Alt...Graph with PostgreSQL connections. Active connections has green color. Before the attack there are almost no active connections, but after attack there are a lot of them, since Asterisk using PostgreSQL as a main backend.

                  Load average for my server. After attack it increased at near 4 times.

                  Alt...Load average for my server. After attack it increased at near 4 times.

                    [?]Bradley Taunt :runbsd: 🐡 🚩 » 🌐
                    @bt@mastodon.bsd.cafe

                    It's currently just a simplified version of my existing blog, but I'm hosting this website on my Raspberry Pi Zero for testing purposes:

                    fsck.lol

                    We will see how things go over time, then possible port over the "real" thing 😛

                      [?]Jan » 🌐
                      @js@mastodon.bsd.cafe

                      Wait, you guys are paying people to host your private data?

                        [?]Bradley Taunt :runbsd: 🐡 🚩 » 🌐
                        @bt@mastodon.bsd.cafe

                        We were without power for ~18 hours yesterday, but I’m still determined to eventually switch hosting my personal blog over to my local Raspberry Pi Zero

                        hermes.btxx.org/

                          [?]Larvitz :fedora: » 🌐
                          @Larvitz@burningboard.net

                          I know "AI" is a polarizing topic around here, but I wanted to share a small side-project I've been tinkering with to scratch a personal itch: MastoSum.

                          It’s a lightweight web app that listens to public streams, filters for the hashtags I actually care about, and uses an LLM to generate a daily digest of the last 24 hours. Basically, a personalized news feed to help cut through the noise.

                          It works reasonably well for what I need. Here’s an example of today's run: mastosum.linuxserver.pro/s/6q1

                          It's IPv6-only. Not reachable via IPv4.

                            Jay 🚩 :runbsd: boosted

                            [?]Michael Boelen » 🌐
                            @mboelen@mastodon.social

                            Any of my followers interested in running a mail server with 🐡 and want to help testing?

                            Working on the setup and documenting it along the way. So curious to learn if someone wants to tag along or test it.

                              [?]Florian 'floe' Echtler » 🌐
                              @floe@hci.social

                              I had found a very thorough server checker (e.g. TLS, DKIM, certificates, PFS, DMARC, you name it) here on the fedi at some point and thought I'd bookmarked it, but just can't find it anymore. Any recommendations from the sysadmin crowd?

                                [?]Root Moose » 🌐
                                @RootMoose@mastodon.bsd.cafe

                                Is there anyone out there running an AMD 5650GE based system running Linux or BSD?

                                Can you tell us your CPU and GPU idle power numbers as displayed in btop?

                                Maybe this is an "easy button" of sorts to reduce power on an existing AMD AM4 system without going through the machinations of new mobo, ram, etc., etc. Get most of the way there?

                                  [?]Root Moose » 🌐
                                  @RootMoose@mastodon.bsd.cafe

                                  Is there anyone out there running an AMD 5825U based system running Linux or BSD?

                                  Can you tell us your CPU and GPU idle power numbers as displayed in btop?

                                    [?]Ethan Black » 🌐
                                    @golemwire@social.golemwire.com

                                    OK, so I'm checking out the features of Snac.

                                    Looks like it has basic Markdown -> HTML converting. Neat.

                                    That

                                    works

                                    for

                                    me.



                                    It also allows a subset of straight HTML.

                                    • (I'm not gonna show it all)


                                    It converts some text like 🙂into emoji, which I don't like, though. Leave my alone ;)

                                    And of course, no post or poll length limit :)


                                      [?]Stephen Borrill » 🌐
                                      @sborrill@justfollow.me.uk

                                      Today in fun. I have a mail server that's been in place for years and hasn't had any noticable problems, but today I sent the same email from two different addresses to hotmail. Both had SPF, DKIM, DMARC and the same outbound IP address. One was delivered and one went to junk. Headers on the latter show a spam score of 5 (which is sufficient for it to be diverted):

                                      X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL: 5

                                      I tried running it through github.com/mgeeky/decode-spam- but that didn't give any clues

                                        [?]h3artbl33d :openbsd: :antifa: [Try/Me] » 🌐
                                        @h3artbl33d@exquisite.social

                                        Hi folks! I would love to hear about the non-standard physical security measures you've taken. From alarms to boobytraps, from customized IKEA boxes to reinforced closets. The crazier the better!

                                        One requirement: you need to have it implemented (at some point in the past or currently). No concepts that never left the design table please.

                                          4 ★ 0 ↺

                                          [?]Amitai Schleier [he/they] » 🌐
                                          @schmonz@schmonz.com

                                          my Fediverse microblog with means being able to do this kind of thing:

                                          :; jq -r '.id' < $(ag -l 'six thirty twelve meters' ~/sites/schmonz.com/snac/data/user/schmonz/public)
                                          https://schmonz.com/snac/schmonz/p/1743383179.235112

                                            1 ★ 0 ↺

                                            [?]Amitai Schleier [he/they] » 🌐
                                            @schmonz@schmonz.com

                                            Some people I know and love could be playing together if I ran a server for them. I'm happy to do that, provided I can approximately never again pay attention to it.

                                            Let's see how this setup pans out: https://schmonz.com/2025/04/15/sensible-basic-minecraft-hosting/