IH-CFG-001: Gateway bind is not loopback

What does IH-CFG-001 flag?

Reads gateway.bind in your OpenClaw config and flags a Gateway that listens on more than the local machine, or that is exposed through Tailscale Funnel.

gateway.bind set to lan, tailnet, custom, auto, or an all-interfaces address.
gateway.tailscale.mode set to funnel.

Why it matters

A Gateway on a LAN or all-interfaces address can be reached by other devices. Public exposure through Funnel puts it on the internet. Both raise the cost of any weak setting elsewhere in the file.

Severity: High. auto is medium because the real bind is decided at run time. Funnel and an all-interfaces address are critical.

Examples

Illustrative shapes with placeholders in angle brackets. They show what the rule looks at; they are not runnable and not taken from real malware.

LAN bind

Flagged

gateway.bind: "lan"

Funnel

Flagged

gateway.tailscale.mode: "funnel"

Loopback

Not flagged

gateway.bind: "loopback"

Omitted

Not flagged

gateway.bind omitted (OpenClaw's default is loopback)

Can IH-CFG-001 fire on a safe skill?

A bind you deliberately expose behind your own firewall and authentication.

How do I fix an IH-CFG-001 finding?

Prefer gateway.bind loopback.
If the Gateway must leave the machine, require token or password auth and firewall the port.
Do not use Tailscale Funnel for a Gateway you have not locked down.

CLI guidance: Prefer gateway.bind "loopback". Run openclaw security audit for a live check.

How do I tune or allow IH-CFG-001?

audit-config reads the file only. Lower the severity or turn the rule off for a deliberate setup with ruleOverrides in your Ironheights config.

{
  "ruleOverrides": {
    "IH-CFG-001": {
      "enabled": false
    }
  }
}

Every key is described in Configuration. To print this rule from the CLI, run ironheights rules show IH-CFG-001.

What can IH-CFG-001 miss?

Whether anything is actually listening. The rule does not probe the port; openclaw security audit --deep does.
Settings that come from environment variables rather than the file.

No finding means no rule matched. It is not proof of safety. Files larger than 1 MiB are skipped without being read; the verdict is then incomplete, not no findings, but the file is still not checked. See Limitations.

Scores and thresholds shown are the CLI defaults; your config can change them. List every rule from the terminal with ironheights rules list.

All 35 rules

Gateway bind is not loopback