I was worrying about typical Chinese cloud you cannot turn off (seems to be present on all cheap IP cameras), but this device is actually pretty good.
For remote access, there is no cloud. But you can BYO tailscale or FRP [0] (note: I really like the FRP idea, as it's trivial to self-host)
For updating, there is a central server. But at least the process seems to be manually-initiated [1].
I am not saying the firmware is backdoor-free, but at least it would be feasible to monitor/block all outgoing network connection attempts, and still have a functional device.
[0] https://wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/kvm/NanoKVM/network/tail...
[1] https://wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/kvm/NanoKVM/system/updat...
Re:Sipeed NanoKVM-PCIe
by poisonborz on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @03:47AM
(#42500595)
You can selfhost the control server, look at headscale, all the clients support this.
Re:Sipeed NanoKVM-PCIe
by stevefan1999 on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @02:47AM
(#42500350)
For FRP do you mean https://github.com/fatedier/frp?
What's FRP? Your source link speaks only of tailscale.
Just open the link about tailscale, in the page it's one tab below on the left.
Ahh a reverse proxy. Thanks!
Speaking of cameras, I got some Reolink cameras for $40 and they're great. I run then on a wifi that has no internet access, but which I can access through Tailscale, and all functionality works (except notifications, obviously), as the cameras have a LAN only mode.
About this KVM, I really like the Tailscale access ability, though I'm worried about the binary blob.
I can see a great deal of trouble capable of coming from a networked device capable of watching the screens 24x7 and potentially intercepting passwords being entered. And those are the legitimate functions for this device. Wouldn’t take much to throw a reverse shell for external access if you wanted to be particularly nefarious.
Not saying there’s any evidence this kvm is malicious. But I probably wouldn’t put it in anything more than one of my toy home lab servers.