Munich-news/SECURITY_UPDATE.md

Security Update: Ollama Internal-Only Configuration

Summary

Ollama service has been configured to be internal-only and is no longer exposed to the host machine. This improves security by reducing the attack surface.

Changes Made

Before (Exposed)

ollama:
  ports:
    - "11434:11434"  # ❌ Accessible from host and external network

After (Internal Only)

ollama:
  # No ports section - internal only ✓
  # Only accessible within Docker network

Verification

✓ Port Not Accessible from Host

$ nc -z -w 2 localhost 11434
# Connection refused (as expected)

✓ Accessible from Docker Services

$ docker-compose exec crawler python -c "import requests; requests.get('http://ollama:11434/api/tags')"
# ✓ Works perfectly

Security Benefits

1. No External Access: Ollama API cannot be accessed from outside Docker network
2. Reduced Attack Surface: Service is not exposed to potential external threats
3. Network Isolation: Only authorized Docker Compose services can communicate with Ollama
4. No Port Conflicts: Port 11434 is not bound to host machine

Impact on Usage

No Change for Normal Operations ✓

• Crawler service works normally
• Translation and summarization work as before
• All Docker Compose services can access Ollama

Testing from Host Machine

Since Ollama is internal-only, you must test from inside the Docker network:

# ✓ Test from inside a container
docker-compose exec crawler python crawler_service.py 1

# ✓ Check Ollama status
docker-compose exec crawler python -c "import requests; print(requests.get('http://ollama:11434/api/tags').json())"

# ✓ Check logs
docker-compose logs ollama

If You Need External Access (Development Only)

For development/debugging, you can temporarily expose Ollama:

Option 1: SSH Port Forward

# Forward port through SSH (if accessing remote server)
ssh -L 11434:localhost:11434 user@server

Option 2: Temporary Docker Exec

# Run commands from inside network
docker-compose exec crawler curl http://ollama:11434/api/tags

Option 3: Modify docker-compose.yml (Not Recommended)

ollama:
  ports:
    - "127.0.0.1:11434:11434"  # Only localhost, not all interfaces

Documentation Updated

• ✓ docker-compose.yml - Removed port exposure
• ✓ docs/OLLAMA_SETUP.md - Updated testing instructions
• ✓ docs/SECURITY_NOTES.md - Added security documentation
• ✓ test-ollama-setup.sh - Updated to test from inside network
• ✓ QUICK_START_GPU.md - Updated API testing examples

Testing

All functionality has been verified:

• ✓ Ollama not accessible from host
• ✓ Ollama accessible from crawler service
• ✓ Translation works correctly
• ✓ Summarization works correctly
• ✓ All tests pass

Rollback (If Needed)

If you need to expose Ollama again:

# In docker-compose.yml
ollama:
  ports:
    - "11434:11434"  # or "127.0.0.1:11434:11434" for localhost only

Then restart:

docker-compose up -d ollama

Recommendation

Keep Ollama internal-only for production deployments. This is the most secure configuration and sufficient for normal operations.

Only expose Ollama if you have a specific need for external access, and always bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost only), never 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces).