is this safe?

[Guest]

I making my own vpn with a rapsberry pi and am having trouble getting the upload to work (thats a different issue if you have input) but it still works with youtube and stuff (mainly download) so I am wondering is it safe to have the pi set as the DMZ Host? I don't really understand a ton about networking.

[brwainer]

When a device is set as the DMZ Host, *every* request coming from the internet that isn’t directed at something else (e.g. a reply to a client device’s request, or other things you may have port forwarded like a minecraft or other server) will be forwarded to it. This means that if you set up something on the Pi, it will be accessible to the internet. SSH waiting for someone to bruteforce and try dictionary attacks on you? Check. SMB or NFS file sharing with possible known bugs? Check. An improperly configured proxy or VPN that lets people into your network or to use your connection? Check. 

 

It is way safer to only forward the individual ports you need. Note that some types of VPNs, like PPTP, require other protocols like GRE to be forwarded to the Pi. Most routers have a section in their Firewall/NAT config for VPN Passthrough to help with this.