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ADR-0003: Baseline Security Hardening for Self-Hosted Server

Status

Accepted

Context

The HomeOps Platform introduces a self-hosted server environment as a foundation for running backend services, containerized applications, and supporting platform components. Once a server is exposed to a local network, and potentially to external networks, it becomes part of the platform’s security boundary.

At this stage of the platform’s evolution, the primary goal is not to implement advanced or enterprise-grade security controls, but to establish a clear and reasonable baseline for secure operation. This baseline should reduce obvious risks, support safe experimentation, and remain manageable within the constraints of limited hardware and operational complexity.

Security decisions made at this level are expected to influence later choices related to networking, access control, deployment automation, and observability.

Decision

The HomeOps Platform will adopt a baseline security hardening approach for the self-hosted server environment.

This baseline focuses on reducing unnecessary attack surface, enforcing basic access control, and establishing safe defaults for system operation. Security controls will be applied incrementally and reviewed as the platform evolves.

The baseline does not attempt to address all possible threat scenarios. More advanced security measures may be introduced in later phases as requirements become clearer.

Rationale

A baseline security hardening approach provides the following benefits:

  • Reduces exposure to common and preventable security risks
  • Establishes consistent operational practices from the start
  • Supports safe hosting of containerized services
  • Avoids premature complexity that could hinder learning or maintenance
  • Aligns with the platform’s incremental and documentation-driven philosophy

By explicitly defining a baseline, security becomes a conscious design aspect rather than an afterthought.

Baseline Principles

The following principles guide baseline security hardening:

  • Prefer minimalism: only required services and components should be enabled
  • Enforce least privilege for user access and service execution
  • Separate concerns between system administration and application workloads
  • Make security assumptions explicit and document trade-offs
  • Treat security as an evolving aspect of the platform, not a fixed state

Consequences

Positive

  • Clear security expectations for the self-hosted environment
  • Reduced likelihood of accidental misconfiguration
  • Improved confidence when deploying and operating services
  • A stable foundation for future security-related decisions

Negative

  • Additional setup and maintenance effort
  • Manual configuration required in early stages
  • Baseline controls may need to be revisited as platform complexity increases

These trade-offs are considered acceptable given the current scope and goals of the platform.

  • ADR-0001: Decision to introduce a self-hosted server environment
  • ADR-0002: Observability stack choice
  • Future decisions regarding network segmentation and trust boundaries
  • Future decisions regarding authentication and access management
  • Future decisions regarding intrusion detection or security monitoring