Security

Mistborn provides security in several ways. All services run in separate Docker containers. To see which Docker containers are active, use:

sudo docker container ls -a

Access to Mistborn is only available via WireGuard: The virtual private server service does not respond to unauthenticated traffic.

The iptables-persistent package takes care of automatically loading the iptables rules, which are created during the installation of Mistborn and each time Docker is started. A chapter in the documentation [8] provides detailed explanations.

Conclusion and Outlook

Mistborn impressed us in the test. The idea of securing a home network and managing as many services as possible in a single interface has been professionally implemented. This fairly young application still has some rough edges, but the core features run smoothly. We were able to smooth out some of these rough edges during the test phase by cooperating with Foerster, who was very accessible. He already has plans for further services and other extensions [9].

If you run into problems with Mistborn, check out the Troubleshooting section on the website [10]. If you can't find an answer there, Foerster will be happy to help you via email at steven@cyber5k.com.

For testing and for the basic applications (WireGuard and Pi-hole), a Raspberry Pi 4 may be sufficient. If you want to use further services on a permanent basis, you will want to change to more powerful hardware. Using the cloud is a good option, as you do not need the DDNS service there. However, a laptop built in the last 10 years like the Thinkpad X220 from 2011 will do the trick. But no matter what hardware you opt for, Mistborn is definitely worth a closer look.