I Found 50 Old Writeups on My VPS (Free Content!)

Tip 1: SSH Into Your Old Server Once In A While

You set up a VPS, you pay $5 a month, you forget it exists. That's fine. Until you need something from it and you realize you haven't logged in for 18 months.

I logged into mine today to grab a config file. Found a directory called backups/writeups/. Had no idea this existed.

Dozens of old HTB and THM writeups. Markdown files. From years ago. Notes I took while rooting boxes and completely forgot about.

If I never logged in, they'd still be there. Forever. A ghost directory of free blog content nobody ever reads. Including me. Especially me.

What happens if you leave it

Nothing. Your VPS doesn't care. Those files will sit there until the sun explodes. But you won't know they exist, and that's the real loss.

Tip 2: Use SSH Keys

My server has SSH keys. No password login. That's not a flex, that's the bare minimum. If you're still typing a password to SSH in 2026, I don't know what to tell you.

What happens if you don't

Bots find you. Bots try to log in 800 times a day. One of them is 45.33.32.156. He's been trying for months. Dedicated guy. Using keys means he stays locked out forever and I get to laugh at his auth.log entries.

Tip 3: Know What's Running

That's basically it for security. SSH enabled. Nothing stupid exposed. That's enough for a backup server.

I have like three services running. SSH. A web server for something I forgot. That's it. I know what they are because there aren't enough of them to forget.

What happens if you don't

You might have something running that you don't know about. A database you opened for testing and never closed. A random service from that tutorial you followed in 2022. It happens.

Tip 4: Add A Firewall Anyway

You don't NEED a firewall if you know exactly what's running and nothing is exposed. But you don't know that. You think you know. You're probably wrong.

I add ufw anyway. Block all incoming by default, open only what I use. It takes 30 seconds and I don't have to think about it again.

What happens if you don't

You forget about that one thing. We all do. Maybe it's a Redis instance you opened for five minutes and never closed. Maybe it's a test server you spun up and abandoned. It happens. Firewall catches it. You don't even notice.

That's the whole point. You add the firewall not for the things you know about. You add it for the things you forgot.

Tip 5: Keep Old Writeups In Markdown

Past me left all these files in markdown. Current me formats them to org-mode for the site. The conversion is trivial with Emacs motions:

C-x C-f /ssh:vps:/backups/writeups/lame.md ci{ → #+BEGIN_SRC bash vi{ → change block :%s/^## /** /g → headings :w → done

3 minutes per file. Formatted 10 in 30 minutes.

What happens if you don't

Nothing. They stay in markdown. They stay on your VPS. They stay unread. That's the same place they've been for years. The only thing that changes is that nobody reads them on your site instead of nobody reading them on your VPS. Same outcome, better location.

Tip 6: Be Happy About Free Content

I found 50 old writeups. Formatted 10. Have 40 more. Didn't write a single new word. Just converted existing ones. Best day.

What happens if you don't

You leave them on the VPS and nobody ever sees them. That's fine too. They don't expire. They'll be there next time you remember they exist.

But it's nice to have content. And it took 30 minutes. Hard to beat that.

Good day.