How Dangerous is a Port Forward?

[SkyeRangerDelta]

Hey guys,

This is just a very general question, and I have looked into this myself but I'll give you some backstory. I run two different servers occasionally for my CC friends. I port forwarded the server stuffs using UPnP becuase it's quick and simple and becuase I don't like Hamachi or Evolve. The problem is my dad seems to believe that there is no security in port forwarding at all. My laptop has both Windows Firewall and Defender (Default AV program) activated.

My main question is, now that he has disabled UPnP, I guess it's no longer possible to port forward.

1.) How dangerous is port forwarding considering it's a non 24/7 connection and that the IP is limited to under 8 people?

2.) Is there any other way to port forward without login info (because I don't have it) and without UPnP?

3.) If I were to convince him to re-enable UPnP, what can I do to make the connection more secure?

Keep in mind that this is my home network and the servers are for Terraria, Factorio, and the occasional Minecraft. I live in a very rural area as well.

Thanks for any insight!

[Cathulhu]

UPnP is more dangerous than a static port forward. UPnP is by design insecure as ANY application on your computer can just kindly ask the router to open ANY port. There is no check if the app doing the request is malicious or not.

A static port forward is pretty much secure, unless there is an app with a security issue listening on that specific port, or malicious software.

Interesting how your dad thinks port forwarding is insecure but allowed UPnP which is way worse.

1. Not very. It would need very specific circumstances to be exploited.
2. No.
3. Don't use UPnP at all. It makes the firewall in your router pretty much pointless.

[SkyeRangerDelta]

Originally posted by ឴:

https://portforward.com/is-portforward-safe/

I was under the impression that even UPnP, can be unsafe.
http://www.howtogeek.com/122487/htg-explains-is-upnp-a-security-risk/
https://www.grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm

Ask your dad to pay for a game server rental.

^^

Well, that's why I run my own servers, so they're free. :P

Wow, so UPnP is actually worse than a normal PF. Good to know. Now to convince him of such things. I would setup another firewall, but I have no idea how to do so.