Self-Host Weekly (12 September 2025)

SPONSORED BY    PikaPods

Weekly Highlights

Another week, another round of bad press for the team at Plex, who spent the past few days mitigating damage from yet another security breach:

An unauthorized third party accessed a limited subset of customer data from one of our databases. While we quickly contained the incident, information that was accessed included emails, usernames, securely hashed passwords and authentication data.

To make matters worse, updating a Plex password is apparently a difficult task (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) that required many users to reclaim their servers for some reason. (I wonder if they've considered asking this guy for tips on perfecting their authentication system?)

As usual, the incident added fuel to the ongoing Plex vs Jellyfin fire (the latter of which – despite being open-source – also isn't immune to security incidents). In a nutshell, Plex's tight grip on authentication and remote access proved to be somewhat of a nightmare this week while still addressing the more difficult aspects of getting Jellyfin up-and-running.

I haven't been shy in the past about being an adamant Plex user, and despite recent events, I still don't see that changing any time soon. My hot take on the matter: Plex isn't perfect, but the open-source aspect of Jellyfin is holding the platform back. Fractured development across its third-party ecosystem prevents any clients from being as functional as apps like Plexamp while also creating hyper-focused support for popular platforms and leaving smaller platforms virtually unsupported.

In other related news and activity:

• Campfire, a web-based chat platform, officially went open-source
• The Apache Software Foundation updated its brand logo from the classic feather to a similarly-colored leaf
• Self-hosting aficionado and Multi-Scrobbler developer FoxxMD shared just how much of a madlad he is when asked how many containers he's running in his homelab
• Somebody finally made a GUI for configuring Kometa (note: it's only available for Windows)
• The OPNsense (firewall) team struggled a bit with their v25.7.3 release after having to drop multiple subsequent hot fixes (taking a page from the Immich playbook, I see...)
• The original developer of the Android launcher Nova Launcher announced the project is shutting down and discontinuing plans to open-source its codebase (it's been a tough past couple of weeks for open-source Android users)

Happy selfh.st/ing!

Newswire

Important Notice of Security Incident

We have recently experienced a security incident that may potentially involve your Plex account information. We believe the actual impact of this incident is limited; however, action is required from you to ensure your account remains secure. What happened An unauthorized third party accessed a limited subset of customer data from one of our databases. While we quickly contained the incident, information that was accessed included emails, usernames, securely hashed passwords and authentication…

Plex ForumPlexInfo

20i FOSS Awards

The 20i FOSS Awards are here to celebrate the contribution self-hosted Free Open Source Software makes to our lives every day. The 20i FOSS Awards are your chance to recognise all the hard work that goes in to developing the tools we rely on so much.

20i20i FOSS Awards

Rybbit — Privacy-focused open-source analytics that actually makes sense

Rybbit is a modern, privacy-first analytics platform that serves as a compelling alternative to Google Analytics. With features like session replay, real-time dashboards, and zero-cookie tracking, it’s perfect for privacy-conscious developers who want comprehensive analytics without compromising user privacy.

Akash RajpurohitAkash Rajpurohit

Building the AI-powered local smart home

In the past year, we’ve made significant progress in making AI a powerful tool in the home

Home AssistantPaulus Schoutsen

How to Self-Host All Kinds of Apps (and Why You Should)

So many of the apps we use every day are privacy nightmares. There’s an alternative to letting a corporation sell your data, though: Host it yourself. Here’s how.

LifehackerJeff Somers

GitHub Copilot on autopilot as community complaints persist

: Unavoidable AI has developers looking for alternative code hosting options

The RegisterThomas Claburn

Introducing Signal Secure Backups

In the past, if you broke or lost your phone, your Signal message history was gone. This has been a challenge for people whose most important conversations happen on Signal. Think family photos, sweet messages, important documents, or anything else you don’t want to lose forever. This explains wh…

Signal Messenger

Feedback

Quote of the Week

making RSS cost $5 for your mid tier selfhosting newsletters is absurd. Bringing together interesting Reddit and GitHub content in one place is somewhat interesting but not this money grabbing route. Paywalling RSS for a newsletter targeting the FOSS crowd is brave

Content Spotlight

Meet Sharry, a self-hosted file sharing platform. Sharry, which boasts itself as convenient, lives up to its claim with a minimal web interface that makes uploading, managing, and sharing files a breeze. Features include sending and receiving files, multi-user support, REST API, resumable uploads, public download restrictions, sharing via QR codes, and more.

Sharry can be easily deployed via bare metal or Docker and requires a separate PostgreSQL database for storage.

Links: Website, Source Code

Videos and Podcasts

• rwMarkable - Simple Self-Hosted Notes & Checklists | DB Tech
• Unraid Must-Have! Maintainerr Setup & Media Cleanup Tutorial | AlienTech42
• I Got So Annoyed with YouTube I Built My Own |
  Life Of Gaurz
• Secure Jellyfin with Authentik (SSO + LDAP + 2FA/MFA Tutorial) | IBRACORP
• Zulip - Open Source, Self Hosted, team and organization communication platform | Awesome Open Source

Command Line Corner

Use uptime -p to easily see the formatted system uptime directly from the command line:

$ uptime -p
  up 4 days, 11 hours, 21 minutes

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