Is port forwarding dangerous?

[Walt]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if it is dangerous to port forward your server (I am planning on a minecraft server). Because you basically 'open' your router. Can people make use of it in a bad way? 

Thanks!

[TheComputerdude]

Just now, Walt said:

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if it is dangerous to port forward your server (I am planning on a minecraft server). Because you basically 'open' your router. Can people make use of it in a bad way? 

Thanks!

Depends on the port generally probably not if you do everything right 

[Undergrid]

Whoever connects to the open port on your router gets forwarded by the router to the destination in your network that you select, they can't just access anything so you are pretty safe there.  However if whatever is listening on the destination port has a bug, it might be possible (in theory) to exploit that bug to gain access to the hosting machine and use that as a jumping off point to access anything on your network.

 

My suggestion is, if your router supports it, to create a VLAN with just the minecraft server and your router on it (Your router has to support VLAN's so you can still route your normal network traffic).  That way if someone does get onto the host machine, that's asfar as they'll get.

 

But I'm just paranoid like that

[Mira Yurizaki]

All port forwarding does is lets the router know which LAN IP address to forward incoming internet data to. It doesn't "open up your router" and it the receiving computer won't do anything with the data if it's not actively listening on that port.

[mynameisjuan]

Its only dangerous if there is something listening on the port on the device you are forwarding it to. Just make sure the only thing on the port for the server is the server and you are good to go. 

[Falconevo]

Considering you will be running a MineCraft server which is the most heavily DDoS'd game service there is, opening the port and forwarding it will put your local network at risk of being DDoS'd much easier than before.   You get upset kids etc and they will just DDoS your home connection in to oblivion, free tools exist to do just this.

 

Your ISP will not help you as in their terms and conditions generally forbid the usage of running server based services on your residential connection. 

Short answer, don't host MineCraft servers open to the public from your local PC..  Look to get an actual MineCraft server hosted within a network that has DDoS protection.