Technology Overview

SelfTQ is a system designed to empower and support you with self-hosted applications that provide excellent security, convenience, reliability, and privacy. We work hard to strike a balance between all of these often competing objectives and relish the opportunity to share our implementation strategies with you. Security through obscurity is really no security at all, and we welcome the opportunity to learn from your feedback.

Initially based on the Red Hat platform, with Ubuntu and derivatives available or coming soon, SelfTQ is implemented as a series of system settings and shell scripts distributed through packages articulated below.

selftq-release

This establishes the yum repo, ability to link your system to a SelfTQ online account, and a few function libraries used throughout the selftq system. All selftq packages depend on this package.

selftq

This package provides for direct support from selftq representatives. This includes configuring secure SSH access, a VPN to a jumphost, and installing an administrative user "selftq".

selftq-ddns

This package provides a simple DDNS client so that your chosen domain name will publicly resolve. This is necessary to set up services such as a website, image hosting, game server, and the like.

selftq-gwintolin

GWinToLin is a system designed to transition you from Windows to Linux easily, safely, and securely. This package provides software useful in migrating from Windows to Linux - this is the "Linux Side" of GWinToLin, which primarily includes software to import your data from a backup of your Windows installation, but also installs selftq (for support), selftq-ddns (for control over your domain name), and selftq-release (for updates).

Security

The selftq package is written to assume that you may want support from SelfTQ. To accomplish this:

1. To prevent opening up any public ports and to allow for support through firewalls, It establishes a VPN with a "jump host". This provides a very secure channel for a support representative to access your system when you "unlock the door".

2. Access to your system by any SelfTQ representative is disabled by default. We can only access your system with your express permission, which you provide by logging in as the system user "selftq", which is given administrative permission through sudo. If you aren't logged in as this user, the door is closed and we cannot access your system.

3. You can otherwise set up ssh access to your system as you deem fit. By default, we do not allow root login at all, and disable password logins to prevent dictionary attacks.

Opting Out

If you don't wish to receive our services, you can remove the entire SelfTQ system by removing the package "selftq-release" or from a non-selftq based prompt:

sudo yum remove selftq-release;

Closing

We hope this overview provides an understanding of our goals and would love to hear from you. If you'd like to bring something to our attention, please use the Contact Form!