MQTT

A More Secure MQTT

NoPorts solves MQTT’s security issues

Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, or as it is widely known, MQTT, is a standards-based messaging protocol, or set of rules, used for machine-to-machine communication. It provides a publish-subscribe model for communications between clients of a centralized broker service running on a server. It's a classic hub and spoke model, with the broker as the hub and clients as the spokes.

It’s great for handling large numbers of devices, low-bandwidth connections, and real-time data transmission, making it super useful for IoT applications. It connects smart home and wearable devices, monitors, and controls machinery in factories. It also collects data from sensors in fields and greenhouses in agriculture, and tracks location and status of goods in transit.

Even though MQTT is lightweight and efficient, its inherent privacy and security limitations can be a bottleneck for IoT deployments. Here’s how they’re solved by using NoPorts:

MQTT

Requires Broker Trust

Traditional MQTT relies on centralized brokers, exposing data to potential interception. End-to-end encryption is available, but it is difficult to manage and distribute the keys, so it’s not commonly used.

Presents Authentication Challenges

Managing certificates is complex, error-prone, and not easy to scale.

Exposes Open Ports

The client-server architecture of MQTT, reliant on open ports, creates opportunities for cyberattackers.

MQTT +

Does Not Require Broker Trust

NoPorts provides a mechanism to clients to privately share cryptographic keys. This means MQTT messages can be encrypted, sent, received, and then decrypted, so there’s no need to trust the broker.

Simple Authentication

With NoPorts, there’s no need to manage certificates on the clients, because the clients can cut their own cryptographic keys.

No Open Ports

NoPorts makes it possible to have no open doors to the Internet and still provide access to authenticated connections to the broker software.

See How to Secure MQTT with NoPorts

In order to begin, you will need purchase NoPorts or sign up for a free 30-day trial.

Simple Inter machine encrypted communication across IP networks WITHOUT open ports or network address translation

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Read our post on securing MQTT

MQTT is a key protocol for IoT, but it has security flaws like open ports and difficult client authentication. NoPorts from Atsign addresses these with built-in security, eliminating open ports and simplifying management.