Re:Security by obscurity is underrated
by Kalium on Saturday September 12, 2020 @12:17PM
(#24453512)
Not to be That Guy, but what I'm reading is that you have the wonderful opportunity before you to learn about VPNs until they fail in boring ways!
That's not how that works.
Simple systems tend to fail in boring ways. Complex systems tend to fail in interesting ways. Learning more about a complex system, while rewarding in many ways, will not change that identity.
It's been my experience that a system's complexity (basic or complex) is less an intrinsic trait and more a matter of subjective perception, familiarity, and experience. Your experience is clearly different.
I think the reason I continue to prefer (and evangelize) port knocking is that the intersection of (modest) security gain and simplicity/robustness hits a sweet spot for me.
Again, 10+ years in production on many hosts, worldwide, and never so much as a blip. IF knockd were to fail, it would fail in a very boring way. VPNs, on the other hand, are far more complex and they fail in fascinating ways.
I am a sysop turned sysadmin - this is my lifes work. I prefer simple, unixy tools that fail in boring ways :)