Securing
One major advantage of Home Assistant is that it is not dependent on cloud services. Even if you are only using Home Assistant on a local network, you should take steps to secure your instance.
Checklist
Here’s the summary of what you must do to secure your Home Assistant system:
- Configure secrets (but do remember to back them up)
- Regularly keep the system up to date
Remote Access
If you want secure remote access, the easiest option is to use Home Assistant cloud by which you also support the founders of Home Assistant.
Another option is to use TLS/SSL via the add-on Duck DNS integrating Let’s Encrypt.
To expose your instance to the internet, use a VPN, or an SSH tunnel. Make sure to expose the used port in your router.
Extras for manual installations
Besides the above we advise that you consider the following to improve security:
- For systems that use SSH set
PermitRootLogin noin your sshd configuration (usually/etc/ssh/sshd_config) and to use SSH keys for authentication instead of passwords. This is particularly important if you enable remote access to your SSH services. - Lock down the host following good practice guidance, for example:
- Securing Debian Manual (this also applies to Raspberry Pi OS)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide, CIS Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Benchmark