Hardening Network Infrastructure
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Firewalls
Firewalls allow administrators to filter and control access to a system by providing granular control over network communications. For administrators of MongoDB, the following capabilities are important: limiting incoming traffic on a specific port to specific systems and limiting incoming traffic from untrusted hosts.
On Linux systems, the iptables interface provides access to the underlying netfilter firewall. On Windows systems, netsh command line interface provides access to the underlying Windows Firewall. For additional information about firewall configuration, see:
For best results and to minimize overall exposure, ensure that only traffic from trusted sources can reach mongod and mongos instances and that the mongod and mongos instances can only connect to trusted outputs.
Virtual Private Networks
Virtual private networks, or VPNs, make it possible to link two networks over an encrypted and limited-access trusted network. Typically, MongoDB users who use VPNs use TLS/SSL rather than IPSEC VPNs for performance issues.
Depending on configuration and implementation, VPNs provide for certificate validation and a choice of encryption protocols, which requires a rigorous level of authentication and identification of all clients. Furthermore, because VPNs provide a secure tunnel, by using a VPN connection to control access to your MongoDB instance, you can prevent tampering and “man-in-the-middle” attacks.