File Server + Counter Strike Server...

[dmw16]

I am building a server for my home. Mostly to store files, but I was thinking of putting a Counter Strike Source dedicated server on the same machine.

Are there major security concerns associated with doing this?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Originally posted by: dmw16
I am building a server for my home. Mostly to store files, but I was thinking of putting a Counter Strike Source dedicated server on the same machine.

Are there major security concerns associated with doing this?

Is it a Linux or Windows machine? Also, why not just create a small VM to run Counter Strike on? Doesn't take that much juice. Just give it a chunk of memory and 10GB of space and let it have at it in complete privacy.

 

[dmw16]

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune

Originally posted by: dmw16
I am building a server for my home. Mostly to store files, but I was thinking of putting a Counter Strike Source dedicated server on the same machine.

Are there major security concerns associated with doing this?

Is it a Linux or Windows machine? Also, why not just create a small VM to run Counter Strike on? Doesn't take that much juice. Just give it a chunk of memory and 10GB of space and let it have at it in complete privacy.

It will be Windows Home Server.

Never thought of that. Can you tell me more about using a virtual machine to do that?

 

[RebateMonger]

Whenever you install software that's listening to the Internet on a PC, you are trusting that the software has no security flaws. It's doubtful that the software is tested to the same security standards as Windows itself. So, yeah, it's a risk. Only you can decide if it's a risk you want to take.

You can take a look on the web at past vulnerabilities. Here's an example of an old Half-Life server vulnerability that potentially gave an attacker access to the host server.

 

[jlazzaro]

i would say windows inherently presents more of a security risk than the dedicated cs:s server itself. resources are going to depend on the size of the server and the tickrate...virtualization is definitely going to create a lot of overhead. what are the specs of the machine?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: jlazzaro
i would say windows inherently presents more of a security risk than the dedicated cs:s server itself.

How would you break into a Windows Home Server from the outside? By default, there'd be no open external ports. If you wanted to enable a web site or remote access, then you'd configure your router to open up only those ports.

The external RDP setup that WHS uses is running on TCP Port 4125 and there've been no known vulerabilities since that system was first utilized on SBS 2003. A poorly written web site running on IIS (or any other web hosting server) can certainly present vulnerabilities but IIS 6 and IIS 7 themselves have, again, been pretty well proven over the last five years.

The other major risk with WHS is people doing web surfing from it, which they shouldn't be doing from a server.

 

[dmw16]

Thanks for all the info.

Specs will be an AMD XP2500+ w/ 2GB of RAM.

Are there any good resources out there about how to configure WHS? It seems like it is very powerful...