Remote-access Guide

home assistant secure remote access

by Lafayette Cronin Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago
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Here’s the summary of what you must do to secure your Home Assistant system: 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. Other options are to use TLS/SSL via the add-ons Duck DNS integrating Let’s Encrypt or Let’s Encrypt .

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.

Full Answer

How to set up remote access in home assistant?

  • Download it for free from you your mobile phone store.
  • Open it and scan the code that Home Assistant will display with the authenticator app.
  • Then the authenticator will display a code that you will have to enter in Home Assistant.

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How to access home assistant remotely?

access your Home Assistant remotely using DuckDNS, Letsencrypt and the nginx SSL proxy

  • open up ports for nginx in your router. Go to your home router admin page and find the port forwarding section. ...
  • edit your configuration.yaml to permit nginx. The Home Assistant docs suggest editing configuration.yaml as follows. ...
  • use nginx SSL proxy to get your domain connected. ...
  • start using your subdomain to access Home Assistant. ...

How do you enable remote access?

Steps to enable allow remote connection in Windows 10:

  1. Open System using Windows+Pause Break.
  2. Choose Remote settings in the System window.
  3. Select Allow remote connections to this computer and tap OK in the System Properties dialog.

How to access home assistant?

  • What will you see in this article?
  • Home Assistant Port Forwarding
  • Creating a DuckDNS sub domain
  • Adding DuckDNS add-on in Home Assistant
  • Set Home Assistant internal and external URLs Using the Home Assistant GUI Editing configuration.yaml file
  • Home Assistant http section
  • What if Home Assistant Remote Access is not working or you loose your local access?

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How do I access my Home Assistant externally?

13:3817:57Home Assistant 101: Setting up Remote Access - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipStore but in ssl cert only allows the communication. Between home assistant. And an outside deviceMoreStore but in ssl cert only allows the communication. Between home assistant. And an outside device to remain private it doesn't prevent someone from trying multiple passwords.

Is port forwarding Home Assistant safe?

Just putting a port up is not secure. You should definitely consider encrypting your traffic if you are accessing your Home Assistant installation remotely. For details please check the set up encryption using Let's Encrypt blog post or this detailed guide to using Let's Encrypt with Home Assistant.

How do you secure DuckDNS?

How to set up a DuckDNS domain.LetsEncrypt, a trusted Certificate Authority.PiHole setup – block ads & choose upstream DNS servers.Secure remote access with OpenVPN.OpenVPN & PiHole test.Support.

How do you use DuckDNS at Home Assistant?

Go to www.duckdns.org and logon using your preferred credential method. Once you logged on, add a domain and take note the token information. We will be using this token to configure the DuckDNS in Home Assistant. Also take note the domain information you created (e.g., https://myhomeassistant.duckdns.org).

Is Duckdns secure?

Malicious behavior The domain duckdns.org hosts a free service which will point a DNS (sub domains of duckdns.org) to an IP of your choice. Unfortunately this service is often abused by phishers.

Is Home Assistant cloud free?

Well good news, because you can trial Home Assistant cloud for free for one month. In a few easy steps you can set-up your trial: From the Home Assistant user interface go to Settings, and then go to Home Assistant cloud. Click on the Start your free 1 month trial.

What is DuckDNS?

DuckDNS is a free dynamic DNS service that allows you to point a subdomain under duckdns.org at your computer. If you are running the Home Assistant DuckDNS add-on this integration is not required. The add-on will keep your IP updated with DuckDNS.

What is Nginx Home Assistant?

4:0910:06Home Assistant Remote Access using Reverse Proxy (NGINX & DuckDNS)YouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipAnd if you are wondering what nginx is here is a simple explanation.MoreAnd if you are wondering what nginx is here is a simple explanation.

How do I create a DuckDNS domain?

5:0123:51DuckDNS for Routing Internet Traffic to your Home Lab with Dynamic IPs ...YouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipBut you're going to register your sub domain. And then you're going to get a token for thatMoreBut you're going to register your sub domain. And then you're going to get a token for that subdomain. The next thing you're going to do is you're going to create a container with your sub domain.

Does Home Assistant need static IP?

Given the function Home Assistant will play in your Home Automation Environment, it is very important you ensure that you assign a static IP to your instance. This will ensure that any other devices or systems within your setup always know how to connect to Home Assistant within your network.

How do I access Home Assistant configuration Yaml?

To do this, go to Developer Tools > YAML and scroll down to the YAML configuration reloading section (alternatively, hit “c” anywhere in the UI and search for it). If you can't see your integration listed there, you will need to restart Home Assistant for changes to take effect.

How do I set up Home Assistant app?

1:4710:13Getting Started with Home Assistant - Part 8.1 - Android Mobile AppYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipBased on wi-fi ssid we need access to location. So in your case you would be granting permission toMoreBased on wi-fi ssid we need access to location. So in your case you would be granting permission to that. And i'll go while using the app.

What is Home Assistant supervisor?

Supervisor integration allows you to monitor and control Supervisor add-ons and operating system from Home Assistant. This integration is installed automatically if you run Home Assistant OS or Supervised.

Why Home Assistant Doesn't Work Remotely by Default

The reason it's almost impossible for remote functionality to work out of the box is quite technical but can still be understood if we accept certain facts about home networking. First, your average router (which is often a box your Internet Service Provider (ISP) gives you) will be hard at work protecting your network.

Why Using Regular Remote Access Could be Insecure

The reality is that most people trust a product's instructions to provide the best way of achieving their goal. Unfortunately, when it comes to Home Assistant and remote access, the instructions are focused more on ease of use rather than security.

How a Reverse Proxy Fixes All Our Problems

A proxy is a service that hides your identity to internet services by collecting all their customers' connections and routing them through a few IP addresses which belong to the proxy company. As such, a third-party website can no longer tell who exactly is sending this information or where they live.

Prerequisites For Running a Reverse Proxy With Home Assistant

While the proxy helps tremendously, unfortunately, it adds some complexity to the standard process seen here. What exactly you need to do will depend on your setup, but we will assume that you are using the same computer for this as you are for Home Assistant.

Setting up a Reverse Proxy For Home Assistant

We will be using Apache, but you could also use Nginx if you wanted to. The configuration will be done differently, but they are both equally as good for this purpose.

How to add a record to Cloudflare?

Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard, and click on your site. Click on DNS in the top menu bar, and then click Add Record. Leave Type (A), TTL (Auto), and Proxied at their default settings. Under Name, enter the first part of the subdomain only. Under IPv4 address, enter your network’s public IP address.

How to edit yaml file in Home Assistant?

To edit your configuration.yaml file in Home Assistant, you need to have their File Editor plug-in installed. Click on Supervisor in the left hand menu. Click Add-on store, and then click on File Editor. Click Install and wait for the installation to complete. Once the installation is complete, ...

What is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare provides a variety of products that help make websites faster and more secure. In a nutshell, Cloudflare sits between your server and people trying to access your server - transparently blocking bad actors before they reach your website.

How often can Home Assistant update Cloudflare?

Home Assistant can run a check every hour for changes, and update Cloudflare if your IP changes. Paste the following into your configuration.yaml file. Your zone should be your domain, and the records will be any subdomains you wish to update. Use the same Global API Key that was used above.

Does Cloudflare encrypt your connection?

Cloudflare automatically encrypts the connection between your browser and Cloudflare’s network, however the connection between your Home Assistant server and Cloudflare still needs protection. Let’s Encrypt is a service that provides free, automated TLS/SSL certificates that can be used to encrypt website traffic.

Checklist

Here’s the summary of what you must do to secure your Home Assistant system:

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.

Extras for manual installations

As well as the above we advise that you consider the following to improve security:

Tor add-on for Hass.io

Franck Nijhof (@frenck) created the Tor add-on for Hass.io. This add-on makes the installation and the setup extremely simple. Go to the Hass.io panel, then to the Store, copy https://github.com/hassio-addons/repository into the text box of Add-On Repositories and save it.

Tor clients

To access you Home Assistant via the Tor Hidden Service, you will need a Tor client. There are multiple clients, for different devices and platforms, available. The Tor Browser is by far the simplest option, which is available for Windows, MacOS & Linux.

Cranking up security

The setup described in this blog post is easy and relatively secure, but anyone who knows your .onion address can still connect to your Home Assistant instance (Remember to use passwords!).

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