Skip to content

Bug: Docker websockify localhost bind may break inter-container VNC access #2409

Description

@mrveiss

Problem

PR #2350 (#1962) changed websockify bind in `docker-compose.playwright-vnc.yml` from `0.0.0.0:5901` to `localhost:5901` for security hardening. However, Docker containers using this compose file may need `0.0.0.0` for inter-container networking — `localhost` inside a container only binds to the container's loopback, making the port unreachable from other containers or the Docker host.

The same PR also changed x11vnc from `-listen 0.0.0.0` to `-listen localhost` in the Docker compose file.

Location

  • `autobot-infrastructure/shared/docker/compose/docker-compose.playwright-vnc.yml` line 52

Proposed Fix

  • Keep websockify on `0.0.0.0` inside Docker (security is handled by Docker network isolation + `--ssl-only`)
  • Keep x11vnc on `0.0.0.0` inside Docker for same reason
  • Only use `localhost` bind on bare-metal/VM deployments where nginx proxies

Discovered During

Reviewing PR #2350 during devops batch session (2026-03-25).

Impact

Medium — Docker-based VNC may be unreachable until fixed. Currently only used in dev, not production fleet.

Activity

  1. mrveiss commented on Mar 26, 2026

    @mrveiss
    OwnerAuthor

    Fixed in PR #2475 (merged). Restored 0.0.0.0 bind for x11vnc in Docker compose.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Projects

    No projects

      Milestone

      No milestone

      Relationships

      None yet

      Development

      No branches or pull requests

      Issue actions