Bit of a followup to my previous post. I now have a VPS with nginx working as a reverse proxy to some services on my DMZ. My router (UDM pro) is running a wireguard server and the VPS is acting as a client.
I’ve used Letsencrypt to get certs for the proxy, but the traffic between the proxy and the backend is plain HTTP still. Do I need to worry about securing that traffic considering its behind a VPN? If I should secure it, is there an easier way to do self-signed certs besides spinning up your own certificate authority? Do self-signed certs work between a proxy and a backend, or would one or the other of them throw a fit like a browser does upon encountering a self-signed cert?
I’d rather not have to manage another set of certs just for one service, and I don’t want to involve my internal domain if possible.
This is fine unless you have a slightly higher threat model.
Me personally, I dislike the idea that if someone (VPS provider or LE) were to snoop inside my VPS, they would have all of my unencrypted data where TLS ends and wireguard picks it up.
I don’t do anything illegal, but I do have photos, personal files, and deeply personal journals/notes for which I enjoy the comfort of mind when kept private and secure.
My recommendation is always to have your TLS equipped reverse proxy on your own hardware. Then use a VPS as a SSL passthrough proxy that forwards requests to the locally hosted reverse proxy. You can connect the two via wireguard.
This has a few benefits. It keeps encryption end to end. It also allows you to connect to your server via your domain name even in you LAN. You can hijack your domain at the router level DNS menu to reroute to your local reverse proxy. And it keeps the TLS connection.