streaming webcam security issues?

[ncpilot]

Considering that you have to have a publicized open port to stream from your own computer to the rest of the world, are there any security risks? (i.e., just about any page I've seen with a streaming image, when you look at the page source, will show the URL, including port, of the webcam).

[George Richardson]

Marc,
Interesting Observation. If you notice, my source says "NO-IP" which a friend suggested I use to compensate for a dynamic Ip and said he had been using for years, yet when I just checked his webcam the IP was showing. I sort of feel that there is so little here to protect I not going to worry about it. Hope others will either confirm or show why thats a foolish attitude.
George

[capeweather]

If you use a service such as Dynamic Dns it will help hide your IP a little more than just displaying it to the world in your source code. http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/  This kind of covers it up but it's still able to be found by jumping into dos and pinging the DNS address. I don't use this service for that particular purpose instead I use it at sites where the IP constantly changes. When the IP changes the DNS updates keeping the camera online all the time.

[kray1000]

Marc,
Interesting Observation. If you notice, my source says "NO-IP" which a friend suggested I use to compensate for a dynamic Ip and said he had been using for years, yet when I just checked his webcam the IP was showing. I sort of feel that there is so little here to protect I not going to worry about it. Hope others will either confirm or show why thats a foolish attitude.
George

George, are you keeping your web page(s) secret too? 

[SLOweather]

One of the original network cameras, the Axis 2100, had the ability and included instructions to stream the video to a server. This was for bandwidth multiplication, but would also serve (pardon the expression) to mask the camera's address from the real world.

This is a real problem, because once a few people find out you have a live feed, they will camp on it and swamp your Internet connection. Or, they will extract your camera's address (IP or URL) and use it as their own. My original SLOweather cameras used the URL to serve a current static image to my webpage. After a while, I found all manner of sites using it without permission or attribution.

When we changed Internet providers and the static IP addresses changed, I wrote PHP scripts to grab and brand and save the images, and now host them on my server.

[George Richardson]

Kevin,

I did buy a domain name and am renting a hosting spot for it but have done nothing with it other than point VWS there and said "Go for it". I can't even figure how to add a link to the cam page. I've tried to go to school on Anthony's site but I haven't gotten very far. Since the site doesn't offer anything not found on wunderground or cwop, I just haven't "published". Perhaps this TWEAK from you will force me to find that big ROUND TOIT I need to proceed. The site is http://www.smlweather.com/.

Thanks for the push,

George

[ncpilot]

I already use DynDNS... and tried the redirection service in an attempt to further obscure the URL and possibly eliminate the issue of port blocking on firewalls... neither issue got solved...

Using the redirection service, you still see the actual URL flash in a browser status line.

That's another reason why I like network cams... the open port goes to the cam, not a server on your computer--there's only so much a miscreant can do to a network cam by knowing the exact URL and port number... although maybe they could use that to still create havoc once past the router?

Here's a case of where one of those small form factor PC's might work nice as a video server for webcams, although I don't know if they could handle the load of multiple viewers. It would seem so easy to restore the system should someone mung it up.

Doesn't solve the problem of people borrowing the URL, camping out on the stream, or bandwidth.

So if you had a dedicated PC of some form, to which the port is directed, is there any way someone could attack other PC's on the LAN?

[Kpalivec]

a way around this issue is to use one of the free video streaming services like www.mogulus.com.
You can feed your videostream to their server and not have to poke any holes through your firewall.
Pros:
It saves you bandwidth load from viewer's feeds from your home internet.
You don't expose your internet world side ip address.
It's free!
you can embed the player and all it's controls on your own website.

Cons:
you have a "wapper" around your video.
You cant customize the player.


I've been messig around with it with a little cheesy webcam pointed out the window at my office.
Go to http://dragonneo.net/~bigcountrywx/videofeed.php  to see how I'm using it.
Kevin Palivec