Today’s story about a hacker running AI agents through exposed Cairn panels had a second lesson: those web panels were wide open, and they leaked everyone’s secrets. If you run agents, local models or AI web UIs at home, here’s how I check that nothing is listening where it shouldn’t be.
1. See what each box is listening on
On every Linux machine that runs agent tools, list listening TCP ports and the process behind each:
sudo ss -tlnpAnything bound to 127.0.0.1 or [::1] is local only. Anything on 0.0.0.0, * or [::] is reachable from your network. Those are the ones to look at.
2. Scan your own LAN for common AI and dev ports
From a machine on your network (only scan networks you own), check the usual suspects: dev servers and agent panels (3000, 5000, 8000, 8080, 8888), Gradio (7860), ComfyUI (8188) and Ollama (11434).
# replace YOUR_SUBNET with your LAN, e.g. the /24 your router hands out
sudo nmap -sV --open -p 3000,5000,7860,8000,8080,8188,8888,11434 YOUR_SUBNET/24For anything that shows up, open it in a browser. If you get a working dashboard with no login, that’s a problem.
3. Check from the outside
Look at your router’s port forwards and UPnP table, and turn UPnP off if you don’t need it. If you have a cloud VM, you can scan your home public address from it with the same nmap line to make sure nothing answers.
4. Fix what you find
- Bind to localhost. For Ollama, leave
OLLAMA_HOSTat its default127.0.0.1:11434unless you really need it shared. - Reach it over SSH or a VPN instead of opening it up:
ssh -L 8000:127.0.0.1:8000 you@your-agent-box
# then browse http://localhost:8000 on your own machine- If it has to be shared on the LAN, put a login in front of it and firewall it to the machines that need it:
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw allow from TRUSTED_IP to any port 8000 proto tcp
sudo ufw enable- Never forward agent or model ports through your router. An agent panel can start and stop jobs and holds keys. Treat it like an admin console, because it is one.
Have a blessed day! And Happy Hacking!
