Question about Ports and Security

Hello. This is a great forum and I have managed to pick up a lot of tips here. I have a question about NVRs using port 8000 and also the whole Smartphone remote access feature in general.

I have a Swann NVR8-7300 8 Channel NVR. It uses device port 8000 which I believe to be the norm for many systems over the past couple of years. It also automatically uses UPnP and by default activates Smartphone access, not to mention HTTP access (I have already changed the http port and setup port forwarding to secure that a little more).

Anyway, this whole smartphone remote access has me kind of freaked out because the documentation doesn't talk about much to do with security and in particular barely anything about smartphones remotely accessing your system. I don't know if the stream is somehow encrypted, how user id's and passwords are transmitted and basically if port 8000 is wide open in such a way that somebody could easily gain access to my NVR and see my video. I've used canyouseeme.org and found that it can see port 8000. So.....what does this all mean? 8000 is a fairly common port to use and for hackers to port scan for. Does this imply that people can get into my NVR? How do I know that they cannot? Swann doesn't have much to say about it.

I've thought about changing the default port from 8000 to something else and using another Port Forward. I really don't want to have to disable UPnP on my router because that just creates all sorts of hassles (my router is not impacted by the UPnP exploit).

Can anybody set my mind at ease here?

The most important security issue is setting up user account and password. Change the 'default user' account password and the other default accounts such as the admin account,making certain to record the admin account password carefully somewhere safe.

Having said that, you can indeed change the default port numbers but you will have to do these withing the DVR's acceptable range (some DVRs eg Hikvision)) (just a coupe of numbers away from the default is a safe bet).

You will need to bear in mind other default ports and if they are in use for anything. The appropriate setting changes for both HTTP and Mobile ports will need correcting to the new settings too. If you are logical about this you shouldn't have too many issues but it is probably not that much of an issue Very often you will find a list of default ports for various uses on the internet or even in some routers interface pages. You can do a scan of open ports to see which ones are in use saving you time and frustration.

Why would anyone want to hack into your CCTV anyway? Do you run a jewellery shop or precious metals foundry?

You should CLOSE any ports you already have open and have changed or you will create a security risk just leaving the back door open.

I have never experienced a hacker log in to a DVR yet in 5 years, but if you want to take extra precautions, more power to you.

Thank you for your reply. Sadly, there are no precious metals in this place.

I think that my concerns here are mostly just an extension of working in the IT industry. Any time a device opens a port through a firewall to allow remote access, I naturally would like to learn more about how the manufacturer and software developer are working to ensure that the device and its software as well as the remote access software are properly locked down. Based on the materials that came with it and searches on the net, I was sort of disappointed to find not a lot of info available. My port forwards appear to be working though so that is good. In retrospect I probably should have dug a little further into this before I bought this thing. I can always give their tech support a call too. In the end, I can always just setup VPN and that should help.

Thanks again.

I also have the same Swann system NVR8-7300. Can this system accept any other camera (from Swann or 3rd party) besides the Swann NHD-815?