this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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Hi folks. So, I know due to a myriad of reasons I should not allow Jellyfin access to the open internet. However, in trying to switch family over from Plex, I'll need something that "just works".

How are people solving this problem? I've thought about a few solutions, like whitelisting ips (which can change of course), or setting up VPN or tail scale (but then that is more work than they will be willing to do on their side). I can even add some level of auth into my reverse proxy, but that would break Jellyfin clients.

Wondering what others have thought about for this problem

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Netbird/Tailscale

You also could use Wireguard as it is a p2p protocol by default.

If you have IPv6 access you could put in on a IPv6 address

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

I share Jellyfin.

Behind a Reverse Proxy with 2FA that breaks client support.
So only web browser :)

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

I've been making people use VPN, but that's been a huge barrier to entry. I'm in the process of switching to IP allow list in traefik.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I do. I run it behind a caddy service so it's secured with an SSL. The port is running on a high non standard one. I do keep checking access logs but haven't had a peep apart from the 1 person I shared it with

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don't do this, but I would set up oAuth like Authelia or something behind a reverse-proxy and authenticate Jellyfin clients through that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

that's what I'd like personally, but I don't think the clients would play nice with that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

They are out of luck if using the Android TV client but web browser should be fine

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 days ago (9 children)

You can share jellyfin on the net. I do.

The issues shared wide and large are mostly moot points, where the attacker needs to already have access to the jellyfin itself to have any surface.

Its FUD and I am convinced spread by Plex people in an effort to cover up their fuckup and enshittyfication.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

I love Jellyfin and use it. I also think the security issues are very serious and it's irresponsible to not fix them. At the very least they can make a new API and give users the option to enable or disable the insecure one until clients get updated. But they don't.

I've decided to remove public access to my Jellyfin server until it's resolved, though it's still accessible behind my VPN.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Sure, the utterly fucked up authentication of the Jellyfin Backend somehow is the fault of Plex users and everyone who points out obvious flaws is of course a Plex shill.

Maybe you should take a look at what you are defending here. The fact that the devs openly refuse to fix this to maintain backwards compatibility, thus endangering their users speaks a lot about the quality of the project

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (2 children)

There are two routes. VPN and VPS.

VPN; setup wireguard and offer services to your wireguard network.

VPS; setup a VPS to act as a reverse proxy for your jellyfin instance.

Each have their own perks. Each have their own caveats.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You could probably set up a cloudflare tunnel. I forget what they call it. I think technically sending video through it is against their TOS but if just a few friends and family are using it I doubt you will hit their naughty list.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I've heard mixed responses about how sensitive they are about routing video through their service. I've heard some people are just fine running jellyfin/Plex while others get shut down from routing a security system through it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

I've used it about 2 years now. I have both Jellyfin and even had Invidious for a while. I don't even know it was against any terms until right now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I just expose it to the internet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I have it behind a proxy and IPS. I force my users to have strong passwords. I don't see why this would be a problem.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Reverse proxy with CrowdSec, which has setups specifically for Jellyfin. Docker for everything.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Now that's interesting, what is the purpose of the reverse proxy, don't you still need something exposed then?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

The reverse proxy is the part that's exposed. CrowdSec watches the logs for intrusion attempts like fail2ban would.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A reverse proxy saves you from having to expose your services directly and acts as a go-between.

Internet <--> Reverse Proxy <--> Service

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Right, but what exactly does the reverse proxy do to stop intrusion?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Think of it as more modular.

I personally used Traefik, but only because I'm a masochist and it would be useful to know in IT workplace.

Traefik + CrowdSec + CowdSec Traefik Bouncer.

Traefik handles the traffic, and said traffic has to get a green light from CrowdSec + Bouncer before it can go anywhere.

The concept of CrowdSec is honestly super awesome.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Crowdsec is what stops the intrusion.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

When I did this I set up a VPN on my network and forced anyone that wanted to use it to get on my network.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (4 children)

How does that work with Roku/smart TVs?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I have my smart TV access it over my local network. If you're using a friend's instance, you could set up a WiFi SSID that tunnels everything over your VPN.

If that's onerous, you can make it publicly accessible, but only for whitelisted client IPs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I want to completely switch off of Plex but neither is a good solution for my non tech family members. Mother in law is in a retirement center where they use wifi provided for the condos so I can't access her router. And I would expect her ip to occasionally change on reboots etc. I might try IP ranges or narrow geo blocking.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

You configure the VPN in the router the roku connects through.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

Probably doesn't. Might need to use the router to get the whole network on th vpn

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Making a note so I can find this again - also I have been loving JellyFin over Plex.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yup, I like jelly more - not that I have one running over the other lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

I thought there was some way to use Jelly on the backend with a Plex client!

[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (7 children)

You can share jellyfin over the net.

The security issues that tend to be quoted are less important than some people claim them to be.

For instance the unauthorized streaming bug, often quoted as one of the worst jellyfin security issues, in order to work the attacker need to know the exact id of the item they want to stream, which is virtually impossible unless they are or have been an authorized client at some point.

Just set it up with the typical bruteforce protections and you'll be fine.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's not impossible, Far from it. The ids are not random uuids but hashes derived from the path. Since most people have a similar setup to organize their media, this gets trivial very fast

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (4 children)

If you're worried about it, make sure to not use a default path. Then legit clients are fine but these theoretical attackers get stymied.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This. Just setup fail2ban or similar in front of Jellyfin and you'll be fine.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Hang on, why not open the port to jellyfin to the internet?

I have a lifetime Plex pass so its not urgent but I have a containers running emby and jellyfin to check them out. When I decide which one I planned to open it up and give people logins.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

See this issue on their github repo: here

Basically from what I understand there's loads of unauthenticated api calls, so someone can very easily exploit that.

If they just supported mTLS in their clients it wouldn't be an issue but oh well :(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The main unauthenticated action is video streaming, but an attacker would need to guess the correct id by chance.

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/5415#issuecomment-2825240290

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

It's not chance if the I'd is based on the path to your media. There's but that much variation in the path to a certain movie and its trivial to build a rainbow table to try them out. This way unauthenticated users can not only stream from your server but effectively map your library

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