I think many of us are using reverse proxies, and opening port 443 (https) and maybe port 80 (http).

I've had 22, 80, & 443 open for literal decades. Key auth only on ssh. 80 & 443 rev proxy to inside web services I want to expose only. Also host game servers as needed.

Keep your stuff up to date and follow best practices for securing it. Use things like crowdstrike. If you can segment your network, go ahead.

Unless you have a target on your head your main concern is going to be scripts looking for vulnerabilities.

I am not exposing any ports online. I do not trust myself

Instead, I am using Tailscale (Wireguard)

Ya my paranoia only allows me to expose Wireguard to access everything. I sleep better at night knowing that's the only thing exposed. Too many instances of major companies getting hacked who have dedicated security teams to manage that. I am one person, learning to manage my own stuff in my free time.

Port 443 through Traefik and a port for Plex.

I open 443 and 80 on my router and forward it to a reverse proxy.

I have a couple of service that are exposed but most of them make sense only when I'm home so I whitelist private IP address on my reverse proxy.

If you do.your basic security such as updating your servers and services and not having dumb password, you shouldn't be afraid. Think about it, all of the services that you use is exposed on the internet. I did work for big company and they don't do much more than what you would probably do, except maybe having some automated monitoring that flag weird stuff. But hey, aside from bots, I don't think Russian hackers are interested in your stuff. Stay low profile with your exposed things and it's gonna be alright. Make sure you backup.

HTTPS and VPN (Wireguard) ports

https, wireguard and mumble.

Just set up shodan monitoring, use burpsuite or owasp zap, and check your pcap files for accidental plaintext.

Also ssllabs has a nice website checker.

And get a NGFW

Run your own vpn, and only allow access to your services remotely if they are coming through that vpn.

Now you've shifted some of the security over to how secure your vpn server's authentication is.

I’ve got a few layers of security for my homelab setup that make me feel pretty comfortable against random attacks.

Cloudflare is used to manage my domains and act as an external proxy to obscure my IP address, I’ve only forwarded ports 80 and 443 to Traefik my containerized reverse proxy, Authelia to add 2FA to services that I feel should have extra protection and my homelab nodes are on a separate vlan that is configured to drop all attempts to initiate communication outside of that vlan. I also use the ubiquity intrusion detection and prevention features on my firewall to attempt to stop any know malicious activity.

A majority of these configurations are overkill for a homelab, but were fun to implement. If you use a reverse proxy and keep your software up to date you will likely be fine unless you are specifically targeted by skilled hackers. Any random scans, or shotgun style attacks tend to target unpatched vulnerabilities.

Run a WireGuard VPN on your server and only forward its port (only UDP is needed) to your server.

No, all of services are reverse-proxied through a WireGuard tunnel connected to my cloud VPS.

I did for a while, but it never felt right.

I’m also lazy a f, so I purchased a new router that comes with WireGuard VPN and that works well enough with our iPhones.

Exposed is the right term. Other than my Wireguard VPN port, everything I have exposed is HTTPS behind Authelia MFA and SWAG.

I'm tempted to switch Wireguard for Tailscale, as the level of logging with WG has always bothered me. Maybe one day.

I have ports open for Wireguard and Plex. So far, no issues that I’m aware of. Time will tell

I'll put a recommendation out for if you're going to open ports: use abnormal ports. Someone is likely to try to hit your port 22 for ssh, but not your port 49231.

Edit: It's definitely some security by obscurity. Still use a strong password or keys.

I have https open along with a non-standard port for ssh. Just for fun, I have the standard ssh port open, but redirecting to a Raspberry Pi running a honeypot. It's fun to mess with foreign bots trying to access my network.

ssh to a few specific ip ranges, WireGuard to the world on a port I randomly picked

I'm hosting an email server on a VPS that has fail2ban in it. A lot of ports are open but only wireguard and knockd are listening.

For remote server management, I would use wireguard for regular ssh access, but when I need to configure the wireguard I can just disable/reenable the wireguard-only ssh firewall rule using port knocking, there is also the option of using the serial console on the VPS web ui but it is slower.

Honestly, I'm not sure myself if my public facing services face a DoS attack. Well, there's always an option of using Cloudflare. With that being said though, I think in your case you should just use a free "VPN" like Tailscale or ZeroTier.

I only have my (non default) ssh port exposed. I just use an ssh tunnel to access all my services. I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but it works for me.

I used to, but then switched to Cloudflare tunnels and I sleep much better now.

Check out tail scale. It's wire guard made easy. I expose http services to the public Internet, and have all my devices on the same network so I can access local services without exposing them to the public Internet.

I have one for OpenVPN and that's it.

The only port I open is for wireguard. That way I can access all services on my LAN. Wireguard is also very secure and requires keys based authentication so is hard to brute. It also allows me to secure myself if I ever need to join WiFi or an untrusted network

ipv6 and reverse proxied. yes.

32400

Have a look in to Twingate, that should do exactly what you need.