HFS HTTP File Server - Secure Self-Hosted File Sharing

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for cloudimg support services.

## Why This AMI Instead of Self-Deploying?

HFS (HTTP File Server) is a long established open source, self hosted file server. It lets you share files and folders straight from a web browser, with drag and drop uploads, downloads, folder archives, a modern responsive interface and a full admin panel for managing accounts, virtual folders and granular per folder permissions. It is a practical private alternative to third party file sharing services, kept on infrastructure you control. Deploying it yourself means fetching and verifying the release, wiring a systemd service under an unprivileged account, hardening an nginx TLS reverse proxy, generating certificates and secure credentials, closing the default localhost admin hole, and maintaining the stack over time. This AMI eliminates that effort: a working, secured file server is operational within minutes of launch.

## Secure By Default

Unlike a bare deployment, this image is secure by default. Out of the box HFS ships with no account and grants admin access to anyone connecting from localhost, which behind a reverse proxy would expose the admin panel to every visitor on the internet. This image disables that behaviour so an administrator login is always required, gates the shared folder to logged in accounts only so there is no anonymous browsing and no anonymous upload, and generates a unique administrator credential on each instance first boot. HFS stores only a one way SRP hash of the password, while the plain password is placed in a root only file for the administrator to read. There are no shared or default credentials and nothing usable is baked into the image, so no two deployments are ever the same.

## Application Stack

The file server is served over HTTPS on port 443 by nginx, which terminates TLS with a self signed certificate that is regenerated for the specific instance on first boot, and reverse proxies to HFS bound to the loopback interface only. Port 80 redirects to HTTPS and an unauthenticated health endpoint is provided for load balancer probes. The service runs under systemd as an unprivileged system user for automatic restarts and clean logging. The shared file store is placed on its own independently resizable storage volume, separate from the operating system disk, so you can grow it without rebuilding the instance.

## What You Avoid By Using This AMI

• Fetching, verifying and pinning the upstream release
• Writing and debugging a systemd service unit for an unprivileged account
• Configuring nginx as a TLS reverse proxy with unlimited upload size and real client IP forwarding
• Closing the default localhost admin hole that a reverse proxy would otherwise expose
• Generating certificates and securely storing per instance credentials
• Ongoing maintenance and security patching without expert guidance

## cloudimg Support

24/7 technical support by email and live chat. Our engineers help with deployment, signing in, adding shared folders, creating accounts and per folder permissions, installing a CA signed certificate for a real domain, sizing and growing the file store volume, and scaling.

## Use Cases

• Sharing large files and folders with clients or colleagues from your own infrastructure
• A private, self hosted alternative to third party file sharing services
• A simple upload and download endpoint for teams, secured with per folder permissions

HFS is a trademark of its respective owner. All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.