Owen, DSc, PhD Student

Afternoon with #TheBaltimoreSymophonyOrchestra at #TheStrathmore

It’s been a minute since I posted a self-hosting update.

After a 2nd spam incident (open relay misfire—my bad), I tore things down and rebuilt.

Now running a lean, hardened Mailu stack on a VPS w/ secure comms routed over WireGuard to my NAS.

Modular. Private. No Google. No Microsoft. Still mine.

I've been working through getting my mail server back up. Locked down relaying, worked through spam management, currently working on geo-filtering and auto sorting. Recently I heard about Discord going public, so I'm likely to depart that space soon. Blarg! #SelfHosting #MailServer #DataSovereignty

#pathfinder2e Played our weekly PF2E game last night. 3 yrs into a planned 5 yr campaign and I still enjoy playing my Amnesiac Magus/Ranger pirate - Washe Seasever. Foul-mouthed family first scallywag. Hates artifacts, undead, and the Grath (fictional) family. #ttrpg

#selfhosting Got my NAS successfully proxied behind my VPS! Learned a ton about Traefik and LXCs. Fixed a mail relay misconfig (they boosted my monthly amount too!), and spun up a private Foundry VTT instance for my Pathfinder GM. Productive night! Next is Spacebar and Nextcloud.

#selfhosting Rebuilt my email server from scratch—mostly smooth, but forgot to restrict relaying. Woke up to a maxed-out SMTP relay from spam abuse. Pulled the logs, shut it down fast. Lessons learned: always lock down relays early.

Fake SQL Errors: Mislead attackers with false error messages or redirects, denying real data access.

LotL Mitigation: Use deceptive PowerShell or CLI scripts that mimic normal DB actions to confuse and deter attackers.

CVE-2019-9874 – Exploitation of SQL Injection in Trend Micro Deep Security

Cyber-Deception Techniques:

Honeytokens: Fake records that look valuable but trigger alerts on access.

Deceptive DB Response: Modify responses to appear real but mislead or confuse attackers during SQLi attempts.

[ #cybersecurity ] LotL cyber-deception uses existing tools to blur the line between real and fake activity, making detection harder for attackers. CTI reports show this CVE is currently being exploited.

Here are some key LotL cyber-deception techniques for defense:

Outbound was Mailcow > Proxmox Mail Gateway > SMTP2Go > Internet

Inbound was Internet > Mailu > Proxmox MG (via Wireguard) > Mailcow.

I should have use a lighter weight Mail Transfer Agent vs a full mail stack on the Mailu side. Lesson learned.

[ #Selfhosting ] Well my first foray into hosting my email failed, miserably. Email would go out, but incoming wouldn't make it to the mailbox causing an automated notification loop between my mail server and the inbound relay. So Sunday I scrapped the build and went back to the drawing board.

There is always room in my world for any old fools, gay or otherwise.

We'll always have a spot for you @mdf1109.bsky.social ❤️

With such an in-depth back and forth with GPT I have, sometimes frustratingly, learned the nuances of the limits behind LLMs like GPT. I know there are ways to self-host an LLM, but I'm definitely not there yet. If anyone has any self-hosting tips or tricks let me know.

So, I've had to engage with LLMs (ChatGPT in this instance), to understand what commands to use, what the syntax is, and generally how things work in the Linux world. Which is ideal because one of my final steps is to drop Microsoft altogether and switch to Linux for my personal PC.

[Self-hosting] So as a part of my self-hosting journey, I've had to engage with Linux terminals. Now, as a professional IT/Cybersecurity person you'd think "oh no big deal" - fun fact, I have very little experience in Linux. Just never had to use the terminal in my career.
#selfhosting #cyber

[Self-hosting] So the conversation with ISP didn't go as hoped. SMTP is blocked in/out bound and it would be an additional $480/yr to get a static IP (which opens SMTP). I decided to go the VPS route for a fraction of the cost. Finished the VPN setup and will get the relay up tonight. #selfhosting

and deleted the last of my data from OneDrive. Next set of projects is to look at self-hosting a search engine (sort of) with SearXNG, and my community has asked me to look into a private (self hosted) Discord alternative called Spacebar. The journey continues.

[Self Hosting] Well my self hosted email is ready, just need to chat with Verizon and see if they can allow SMTP through, may have to shift to a business account.

As I wait for that I have fully removed myself from Meta (so called) services. Killed my very little used Snapchat account...

If you find yourself looking for something to play, this one seems to be on a Steam sale pretty regularly. I highly recommend it.

Okay, off to do this "adult" thing.... stupid adulting... ::grumble grumble::

Icarus | The Future of Survival Icarus is a co-operative survival game. While navigating each prospect’s unique challenges, players must collect meta-resources to permanently progress, create advanced technologies and take on longer...

Icarus (www.surviveicarus.com) - I can't tell you why, but this game scratches a lot of itches. I've been enjoying the survival games recently and this one is particularly well done - though I have some issues with the NVIDIA optimization. There are survival elements, open world, mission driven, etc

Honestly, its the only tool I got. I'm pretty boring otherwise, I don't talk much, not particularly witty... all those things. SO, gaming, I've wrangled a handful of friends to meet-up fairly regularly online (via Discord for now, more on that later) and we've been really enjoying a game called...

[Gaming] My experience of mid-adulthood, while also being just unnecessary, its surprisingly difficult to build and maintain friendships. To help myself with this challenge I started to actively engage those people in my life I want to hang with. My primary weapon - Gaming.

Less ambition, more "get off my lawn" (from a personal data perspective) :-)

a self-hosted internet searching system/relay. I'm also considering self-hosting a FOSS Discord variant, Owncast - a self-hosted Twitch-like service, and Home Assistant - my Google Home replacement. There is so much more, but I need to get he basics done first and build out a maintenance workflow.

this has been a journey as it has been well over 2 decades since I set up an exchange server, let alone a containerized FOSS mail service. In the process of identifying services to self-host I came across so much that i had never considered. Once the email is done, I am likely to set up SearXNG...

... as it is the most straightforward if not byzantine process to follow. But my true first step was to get a NAS device. I have a Synology NAS which gives me 10 TB of storage and a host of neat little tools. I'm currently attempting to set-up my own mail server to self-host my email --

[Self-Hosting] So, as a part of entering into my "Old Man Era", I've decided to do what I can to take control of my data. This mostly involves divesting myself of Google, Microsoft, and Mass Social Media; also (potentially) using DeleteMe. I've recently begun to start with the Social Media...

Its okay to be anxious, just know it will subside the more you experience the work you want to do.

Studying provides an awareness of existence. Knowledge comes from experience.

Conducting an Incident Response is considerably different than studying about incident response. Being a malware analyst is more than being aware of malware.

Study to get the piece of paper. Experience to be an expert.

Fair point, the advent of ATT&CK has provided a way to build some testing mechanisms. Do you find that these methods are normal across an org maturity levels or do orgs with more resources allow for this while less resourced orgs have to rely on something else? If so, what is that something else?