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WAL Ransomeware

Excellent — and very important — question. Let’s evaluate your current setup and then identify resilience against ransomware, with practical hardening options you can apply right now.

✅ Current Resilience Summary (Based on Your Setup)

Layer Status
ZFS Snapshots Yes — immutable, instant rollback point-in-time protection
Scheduled Backups Yes — daily ZFS-based backups (possibly stored locally)
Offline Backups Not yet — currently no mention of external/offsite isolation
VM Isolation Yes — Windows Server is isolated in Proxmox VM
Access Model Yes — RDP with CALs, admin via /admin, Proxmox console for fallback
Firewalling Possibly — but not yet discussed; no mention of limiting RDP exposure
Restore Time (RTO) Fast — VM restore or rollback in minutes
Recovery Point (RPO) 1 day — if nightly backups are in place

⚠️ Ransomware Weak Points (If Unaddressed)

1.	Backups on the same disk
•	Ransomware in the Windows VM may encrypt ZFS-mounted shares or mapped volumes, depending on permissions.
2.	No air-gapped/offsite backup
•	If backups are local-only (even snapshots), ransomware could destroy the Proxmox node or ZFS pool.
3.	Admin access misused
•	If a malicious actor gains RDP + admin access, they could destroy snapshots before encryption begins.
4.	No read-only snapshot access
•	Snapshots in ZFS can be deleted by a compromised root user unless protected.

✅ Recommendations for True Ransomware Resilience

  1. Keep ZFS Snapshots but Protect Them
    • Enable snapshot replication to a second disk or ZFS pool
    • Set readonly flags on snapshot datasets where possible
  2. Create an Air-Gapped Backup
Method How-To
External USB SSD (manual) Plug in once/week, zfs send or Proxmox backup job, then unplug
NAS with pull-based rsync Let NAS pull backups from Proxmox — keeps write access minimal
Cloud backup gateway Use something like BorgBackup + Rclone for encrypted offsite copy
  1. Harden RDP Access
    • Use Cloudflare Tunnel or VPN only
    • Never expose port 3389 to the internet directly
    • Use 2FA on admin accounts
    • Use mstsc /admin only for IT — not for daily use
  2. Create Immutable Backups
    • Use Proxmox backup retention + write-once snapshots
    • If using rsync or zfs send, target read-only ZFS datasets
  3. Test Restore Paths
    • Monthly test of snapshot rollback and backup restore
    • Keep documented steps for fast RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

✅ If Implemented, Your Setup Will Offer:

Feature Resilience Level
On-host ZFS snapshots High
Immutable off-host backup Very High
VM isolation via Proxmox Strong
Hardened access (RDP + VPN) Very Strong

Would you like a resilience checklist in Markdown, including commands and policies for ZFS snapshot protection and backup hardening?