Secure Your Minecraft World: A Guide to Setting Up a Zero Trust Server

Minecraft’s allure is undeniable, captivating players of all ages with its boundless creativity and collaborative gameplay. For many, the ultimate Minecraft experience is hosting their own server, a personal digital playground to share with friends. Imagine crafting intricate worlds, embarking on epic adventures, and building sprawling kingdoms together in a space you control.

The dream of a private Minecraft server is often met with the practicalities of network security. Setting up a server accessible to friends outside your home network can feel like opening a window to potential vulnerabilities. My own son’s ingenuity in creating a server connection highlighted this very concern. Discovering he had granted a friend network access via VPN, while resourceful, raised immediate red flags about network security. Allowing external connections into your home network without proper safeguards can expose your personal data and devices to unwanted risks.

Image alt text: A meme image depicting a surprised and slightly concerned father figure with the text “You did what now?” above, reacting to his son’s network configuration.

This experience spurred a quest for a more secure solution, leading us to the concept of a zero trust overlay network. Unlike traditional methods that might open up your entire network, zero trust allows for granular control. It’s like having a digital doorman who only grants access to specific services, in this case, your Minecraft server, while keeping everything else securely locked down. This approach even provides the peace of mind to invite online friends, knowing your broader network remains protected.

Understanding the Network Challenge

Typically, your home network acts as a secure island, shielded from the outside internet by your firewall. Your Minecraft server, residing within this island, is naturally inaccessible to external players. To bridge this gap and allow friends to join your game, you need to create a pathway through your firewall. Common methods include port forwarding, which punches a hole in your firewall, or VPNs, which create a tunnel into your network. However, these methods can broaden your network’s attack surface.

Zero trust networking offers a different paradigm. It establishes a secure overlay network that operates independently of your underlying home network. This overlay network allows authorized users to access specific services, like your Minecraft server, without granting them broad access to your entire network. Think of it as building a secure bridge specifically for Minecraft, rather than opening the city gates.

Image alt text: Network diagram illustrating Minecraft server accessibility without Zero Trust Network. A server within a home network is shown blocked by a firewall from external access by a Minecraft player figure (Mr. Enderman).

Setting Up Your Zero Trust Minecraft Server: Getting Started

To embark on this secure server setup, you’ll need a Virtual Private Server (VPS) to host the zero trust overlay network. Consider a VPS as your secure command center in the cloud. While technically you could host the zero trust network on your home computer, using a VPS avoids exposing your home network directly to the internet, enhancing security. Oracle Cloud offers a free tier VPS, making it an accessible option. You can find guides online detailing how to set up an Oracle Cloud VPS for OpenZiti.

This guide utilizes OpenZiti, an open-source zero trust networking platform, to create a secure pathway to your Minecraft server. The following steps will walk you through configuring OpenZiti to safeguard your server and provide controlled access to your friends.

Streamlining the Setup Process with Variables

To simplify the configuration commands, we’ll use variables. This allows for easy customization and copy-pasting of commands. You can tailor these variables to your preferences:

export DEVICE_NAME="my.minecraft.server"
export MY_NAME="my.name.here"
export PORT=25565

• DEVICE_NAME: A unique identifier for your Minecraft server device within the zero trust network. For example: “minecraft.home.server”.
• MY_NAME: Your personal identifier within the network. For example: “john.gamer”.
• PORT: The port your Minecraft server uses. The default Minecraft port is 25565.

These variables will be used throughout the configuration process, as demonstrated in the following example screenshot.

Image alt text: Screenshot of command line interface showing variable definitions for DEVICE_NAME, MY_NAME, and PORT, with example values highlighted.

Configuring the Zero Trust Network: Step-by-Step

With the VPS set up and variables defined, the next stage is configuring the zero trust network itself. While the initial network setup might seem intricate, once completed, managing access becomes remarkably straightforward.

1. Create Identities: Defining Users and Devices

Identities are fundamental to zero trust. They uniquely identify each device and user authorized to access your network. At minimum, you’ll need:

• Device Identity: For the computer hosting your Minecraft server.
• User Identity: For yourself, and subsequently for each friend you wish to invite.

While technically only external users require explicit identities, for enhanced security and simplicity, we’ll create identities for everyone, regardless of their location.

To view existing identities, use the command: ziti edge list identities. Initially, this list will likely be empty.

Image alt text: Screenshot of command line showing the output of ‘ziti edge list identities’ command, displaying an empty list of identities before creation.

1.1. Create Identity for the Minecraft Server Host

This command creates a device identity for your server host.

ziti edge create identity device ${DEVICE_NAME} -o ${DEVICE_NAME}.jwt -a "${DEVICE_NAME}.hosts"

• -o ${DEVICE_NAME}.jwt: Saves the enrollment token (JWT file) to a file named after your DEVICE_NAME. This file is crucial for enrolling the device into the network.
• -a "${DEVICE_NAME}.hosts": Assigns the attribute ${DEVICE_NAME}.hosts to this identity. Attributes are used to define access policies later.

1.2. Create Identity for Yourself

Create a user identity for yourself to access the server.

ziti edge create identity user ${MY_NAME} -o ${MY_NAME}.jwt -a "${DEVICE_NAME}.clients"

• -a "${DEVICE_NAME}.clients": Assigns the attribute ${DEVICE_NAME}.clients. This attribute will be used to grant client access to the Minecraft server service.

1.3. Verify Identity Creation

After running these commands, you should see two new identities listed when you run ziti edge list identities again.

Image alt text: Screenshot of command line output of ‘ziti edge list identities’ after creating device and user identities, showing the newly created identities with names and types.

You’ll also find two new .jwt files in your working directory. These JWT files are enrollment tokens, essential for authenticating and enrolling devices and users into the zero trust network. Keep these files secure and accessible, as they are needed for the next enrollment steps.

Image alt text: Screenshot of file explorer showing two newly created JWT files, named after DEVICE_NAME and MY_NAME variables, indicating successful identity token generation.

2. Create Service and Configurations: Connecting Overlay to Underlay

A service in OpenZiti bridges the gap between the secure overlay network and your physical home network (the underlay). It defines how connections are routed and managed.

Use ziti edge list configs and ziti edge list services to view existing configurations and services. Initially, these lists will be empty.

2.1. Service Configurations

These commands define configurations for hosting and intercepting connections to your Minecraft server.

ziti edge create config ${DEVICE_NAME}.hostv1 host.v1 '{"protocol":"tcp", "address":"localhost","port":'${PORT}'}'
ziti edge create config ${DEVICE_NAME}.interceptv1 intercept.v1 '{"protocols":["tcp"],"addresses":["'${DEVICE_NAME}'.ziti"], "portRanges":[{"low":'${PORT}', "high":'${PORT}'}]}'

• ${DEVICE_NAME}.hostv1: Configuration for hosting the service on your local machine. It specifies TCP protocol, localhost address, and your Minecraft server port.
• ${DEVICE_NAME}.interceptv1: Configuration for intercepting connections on the overlay network. It defines TCP protocol, the service address (${DEVICE_NAME}.ziti), and the port range.

2.2. Service Creation

This command creates the Minecraft server service, linking the configurations created above.

ziti edge create service ${DEVICE_NAME} --configs "${DEVICE_NAME}.hostv1,${DEVICE_NAME}.interceptv1"

• --configs: Links the host and intercept configurations to this service.

2.3. Verify Service Creation

After creating the service, running ziti edge list services should display your newly created Minecraft service.

Image alt text: Screenshot of command line output of ‘ziti edge list services’ after service creation, showing the newly created Minecraft service with its configurations.

3. Create Service Policies: Granting Access Control

Service policies define who can access your Minecraft server service. We’ll create policies based on attributes, simplifying user management.

ziti edge create service-policy "${DEVICE_NAME}.bind" Bind --service-roles "@${DEVICE_NAME}" --identity-roles "#${DEVICE_NAME}.hosts"
ziti edge create service-policy "${DEVICE_NAME}.dial" Dial --service-roles "@${DEVICE_NAME}" --identity-roles "#${DEVICE_NAME}.clients"

• ${DEVICE_NAME}.bind: Policy for devices hosting the service (your server). “Bind” permission allows the server to offer the service on the overlay network.
  • --service-roles "@${DEVICE_NAME}": Applies this policy to the service named ${DEVICE_NAME}.
  • --identity-roles "#${DEVICE_NAME}.hosts": Grants “Bind” permission to identities with the attribute ${DEVICE_NAME}.hosts (your server identity).
• ${DEVICE_NAME}.dial: Policy for clients connecting to the service (your friends). “Dial” permission allows users to connect to the service.
  • --identity-roles "#${DEVICE_NAME}.clients": Grants “Dial” permission to identities with the attribute ${DEVICE_NAME}.clients (user identities).

3.1. Verify Policy Creation

Running ziti edge list service-policies will show the newly created service policies.

Image alt text: Screenshot of command line output of ‘ziti edge list service-policies’ after policy creation, displaying the newly created Bind and Dial service policies with their roles and permissions.

4. Enroll Identities: Connecting Devices and Users

Now, it’s time to enroll your devices and user accounts into the zero trust network using the .jwt tokens generated earlier. You’ll need to install the Ziti Desktop Edge client on each device that needs to connect.

4.1. Install Ziti Desktop Edge Client

Download and install the Ziti Desktop Edge client appropriate for your operating system:

• Windows: Ziti Desktop Edge for Windows (ZDEW) (Supports Windows 9 and later)
• Mac: Ziti Desktop Edge for Mac
• Linux: For Linux server hosts, the Ziti Tunneler SDK is used. (Setup for Linux server hosts will be covered in a separate guide.)

4.2. Enroll the Minecraft Server Host Device

On the computer hosting your Minecraft server:

1. Open the Ziti Desktop Edge application.
2. Click the “+” button (“Add an Identity”).
3. Navigate to and select the .jwt file named after your DEVICE_NAME (e.g., my.minecraft.server.jwt).
4. Click the “Enroll” button.

4.3. Enroll Your User Identity (and Friends’ Identities)

On your computer (and each of your friends’ computers):

1. Open the Ziti Desktop Edge application.
2. Click the “+” button (“Add an Identity”).
3. Navigate to and select the .jwt file named after your MY_NAME (or the respective .jwt file for each friend).
4. Click the “Enroll” button.

The Enhanced Network: Zero Trust in Action

With the configurations complete and identities enrolled, your network is now fortified with zero trust security. Revisiting the network diagram, you can now visualize how the Ziti Desktop Edge client and the zero trust overlay network enable secure access to your Minecraft server.

Image alt text: Network diagram illustrating Minecraft server accessibility with Zero Trust Network. A secure connection is shown established through the Ziti Desktop Edge and Zero Trust Network, allowing Mr. Enderman to access the Minecraft server within the home network.

Testing Your Secure Minecraft Server Setup

With everything configured, it’s time to test your zero trust Minecraft server.

1. Ensure your Minecraft server is running on the host machine.
2. Verify Ziti Desktop Edge is running on both the server host and client machines.
3. Launch Minecraft on a client machine.
4. Select Multiplayer.
5. Click “Add Server”.
6. In the “Server Address” field, enter your DEVICE_NAME followed by .ziti. For example, if your DEVICE_NAME was “minecraft.home.server”, enter minecraft.home.server.ziti.

Image alt text: Screenshot of Minecraft “Add Server” screen, with the server address field highlighted, showing an example address in the format “DEVICE_NAME.ziti”.

Back in the Multiplayer menu, your server should now appear online and accessible through the zero trust network!

Image alt text: Screenshot of Minecraft Multiplayer server list, showing a server listed as online and accessible, indicating successful zero trust network connection.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up a secure Minecraft server using zero trust networking. Invite your friends by providing them with their own user identity JWT files. You retain full control, able to issue new tokens or revoke access at any time, ensuring a safe and enjoyable Minecraft experience for everyone.

Image alt text: Two in-game screenshots from Minecraft, showing successful connection to the server and gameplay, confirming the zero trust server setup is working.