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Hoody.com

Traditional infrastructure secures a dozen protocols, each with its own authentication model, encryption scheme, and vulnerability surface: SSH keys scattered across machines, VPN configs shared over Slack, database passwords in environment variables. Every protocol is another entry point to secure.

Hoody collapses this surface to one protocol (HTTPS with HTTP/2 and HTTP/3), one gateway (the proxy), and one enforcement point. Instead of securing 18 different services, you secure one proxy; instead of managing 6 different authentication mechanisms, you configure one permission layer. Certificate issuance and renewal need no configuration from you, and every URL is served over HTTPS.

Security is structural here rather than added afterwards: workloads run on a machine allocated to you, and isolation applies to every process and container.


The first layer of security is not a password or a token. Every container ID is 24 hexadecimal characters: 96 bits of entropy, the same keyspace as a strong encryption key.

https://67e89abc123def456789abcd-890abcdef12345678901cdef-terminal-1.node-us.containers.hoody.com
└──────────┬──────────┘
24 hex chars = 2^96

The numbers:

  • 2^96 is 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,336 possible container IDs
  • At 1 billion guesses per second, enumeration takes 2.5 × 10^12 years
  • The universe is 1.38 × 10^10 years old, so a full scan would run for about 180 times its age

Container URLs cannot be scanned, enumerated, or guessed. There is no directory listing and no discovery endpoint; if you do not know the URL, you cannot reach the resource.

This is what makes “open by default” workable: the URL is the secret. Sharing the URL grants access, and withholding it denies access. The security model starts at the URL, before any authentication layer runs.


Each container’s boundary is enforced by the kernel, not by convention or configuration.

Each container has its own root filesystem, with no shared volumes by default. Container A cannot read container B’s /etc/passwd, cannot write to container B’s /home, and cannot even know container B exists on the same server.

Each container has its own network namespace and routing table. Each gets its own Linux bridge on a dedicated /30 subnet, so containers never share a bridge and there is no shared internal segment to eavesdrop on. A container has a private IPv4 there, masqueraded behind the host’s public address; it does not have a dedicated public IPv4. Containers reach each other the same way any two machines on the internet do.

PID namespaces mean each container sees only its own processes. A compromised container cannot enumerate, signal, or attach to processes in any other container.

TechnologyWhat it does
Linux namespacesIsolate PIDs, network, mounts, users, IPC
seccompSyscall filtering with additional targeted restrictions, layered on the container runtime’s default profile
Hardened kernelA custom hardened Hoody kernel, patched and locked down to reduce attack surface
Hardened LXCContainer runtime on the Hoody kernel, with optional dedicated VM instances for full kernel isolation
No shared kernel memoryContainers cannot read each other’s RAM

A compromised container does not spread to your other containers: delete it, restore a clean snapshot, and move on. No isolation boundary is absolute (kernel and runtime vulnerabilities exist), but the unit of compromise stays small.


Most cloud platforms run your workloads on shared hardware: your containers share a hypervisor with strangers’ containers, and your memory shares physical DIMMs with unknown processes. Spectre, Meltdown, and their variants demonstrated that CPU-level side-channel attacks can leak data across hypervisor boundaries.

On a rented or owned Hoody server, containers run on a physical machine allocated to you alone. There is no shared hypervisor and no other customer’s workload on the hardware.

The security implications of a dedicated machine:

  • No cross-tenant side channels. Nobody else’s workload shares your CPU cache or memory bus, which removes the entire class of attacks that depends on a neighbouring tenant.
  • No hypervisor escape risk. There is no shared hypervisor to escape from; your containers run on bare Linux. (If you opt in to running your own VMs, that hypervisor is yours, on your own machine, not a boundary shared with other tenants.)
  • Physical control. You control the server and its network configuration, and nobody else rents the host.
  • Performance predictability. All CPU cycles, memory, and disk IOPS are yours, so strangers’ workloads cannot slow yours down.

Every guarantee above describes a machine that is yours. A free server is not a machine; it is a slice of one. Free-tier servers are capped slices carved out of a shared physical host that also carries other people’s slices. Everything in Layers 1, 2, and 4 through 8 still applies to your containers. This layer does not.

Free slice (shared host)Rented or owned machine
HardwareShared with other tenantsYours alone
KernelOne kernel, shared with strangersOne kernel, shared only with yourself
CPU cache / memory busShared; the Spectre/Meltdown class of cross-tenant side channel is not ruled outNot shared with anyone
Disk blocksDeduplicated host-wide, so identical blocks may be physically shared across tenantsDeduplicated only among your own containers
Noisy neighborsPossibleNone
Terminal window
# List your servers: physical machines rented to you alone
hoody servers list
# Each server runs its own proxy and its own containers,
# with no infrastructure shared with other customers

When URL unguessability is not enough and you need explicit authentication, the proxy provides a multi-layered permission system.

MethodMechanismUse case
PasswordHTTP Basic AuthQuick protection for internal tools, demos
JWTToken with claims validationAPI consumers, AI agents, service-to-service
IP whitelistAllow by IP address or CIDR rangeOffice networks, known servers, CI/CD runners
Bearer tokenCustom token in Authorization headerMachine-to-machine, webhook endpoints

Project-level permissions apply to every container in the project:

Project "production" → deny all by default
└─ Group "devops": IP 203.0.113.0/24 → allow terminal, files, display
└─ Group "monitoring": Bearer token → allow http (read-only)

Container-level permissions override project settings for specific containers:

Container "public-api" → override project permissions
└─ Group "world": IP 0.0.0.0/0 → allow http only
└─ Group "operators": JWT → allow everything

Permissions are not all-or-nothing. Each authentication group gets fine-grained access per service:

Terminal window
# Build permissions with the granular commands (each PATCHes one field).
# Read the current file_version first, then pass it as --if-match file:vN
# (a write is rejected 428 without it, 412 if stale). Re-read after each
# write, since every mutation bumps the version.
V=$(hoody containers proxy permissions get -c $CONTAINER_ID -o json | jq -r '.file_version')
# Create the 'office' IP auth group (only this public range may reach the proxy).
# Use the public egress CIDR your clients actually come from; a private range
# like 10.0.0.0/8 can never match an internet visitor's source address.
hoody containers proxy groups ip set -c $CONTAINER_ID \
--group-name office --range 203.0.113.0/24 --if-match "file:v$V"
# Grant that group per-service access (re-read file_version between writes)
V=$(hoody containers proxy permissions get -c $CONTAINER_ID -o json | jq -r '.file_version')
hoody containers proxy groups permissions set -c $CONTAINER_ID \
--group-name office --program terminal --access true --if-match "file:v$V"
V=$(hoody containers proxy permissions get -c $CONTAINER_ID -o json | jq -r '.file_version')
hoody containers proxy groups permissions set -c $CONTAINER_ID \
--group-name office --program files --access true --if-match "file:v$V"
# Everything else stays denied
V=$(hoody containers proxy permissions get -c $CONTAINER_ID -o json | jq -r '.file_version')
hoody containers proxy default --default deny -c $CONTAINER_ID --if-match "file:v$V"

Beyond the proxy permission layer, each container has host-level firewall rules that control network traffic at the packet level.

The rules are configured on the host, not inside the container, so a compromised container cannot modify its own firewall. This is iptables on the bare metal, scoped to the container’s network namespace, not iptables inside a container.

Rule typeWhat it controls
IngressWhich IPs/ports can reach the container
EgressWhich IPs/ports the container can reach
ProtocolTCP, UDP, ICMP filtering
Default stanceDefault-allow: your rules drop what you name, everything else passes. Add explicit rules to restrict

You can also install iptables, nftables, or ufw inside the container for defense in depth: two independent layers of network control.


By default a container has no dedicated public IPv4: its outbound traffic is masqueraded behind the host’s address, and egress to public IPv4 is permitted. Private and special-use ranges, common SMTP ports (25, 26, 366, and 2525), and tunnelling protocols 4, 41, 47, and 132 are blocked at the host. Configure a network exit when you need every outbound connection to take a specific path.

When a container needs internet access, you configure the exit path at the host level, where the container cannot tamper with it:

  • SOCKS5/HTTP/HTTPS proxies as exit nodes
  • Commercial VPN endpoints: point a container at any provider’s internet-reachable SOCKS5/HTTPS proxy endpoint with no in-container configuration (native WireGuard routing is planned for a future update)
  • Block mode to prevent all outgoing traffic
  • Custom DNS servers (up to 4)

Once an exit is configured, direct egress to the internet is removed and the container cannot get around it: the exit path is enforced on the host, outside the container’s reach, so a compromised container cannot add its own route or fall back to a direct connection. Platform services (DNS, the package mirror, the AI gateway) stay reachable on their own paths. Until you configure an exit, treat container egress as open.


Every Hoody machine runs LUKS full-disk encryption on its bare metal. There is nothing to enable and no way to opt out: the platform provisions encryption when the server is installed, and the orchestrator manages it from there, on free-tier hosts and rented machines alike.

The property that matters is where the key lives: not on the machine it unlocks. The orchestrator holds the key and supplies it out of band at boot, so a reboot comes back up unattended while a drive that leaves the rack does not. A stolen disk or a seized chassis holds ciphertext, and the key that decrypts it stayed behind. That makes theft and physical seizure a hardware loss rather than a data breach.

What it does not do is protect a running host. Once the volume is unlocked, the filesystem is plaintext to anything with host-level access, which includes the platform services that serve your containers, and includes Hoody’s own administration of the machine. Layer 7 answers the powered-off threat, not the live one. For data that must stay opaque even while the server runs, encrypt above the disk: a crypt-wrapped storage backend or application-level encryption, where the key is yours and never reaches the host in the clear.


Realms provide API-level isolation. Each realm sees only its own containers:

https://507f1f77bcf86cd7994390aa.api.hoody.com → sees only Realm A's containers
https://507f1f77bcf86cd7994390bb.api.hoody.com → sees only Realm B's containers

Auth tokens scope to specific realms, and AI agents in one realm cannot discover, enumerate, or access containers in another realm. This is multi-tenant isolation at the API level rather than network segmentation.


Proxy aliases put a clean, brandable domain in front of a cryptographic URL. They are also the point where your security model changes.

The cryptographic URL is the secret (Layer 1): the container ID inside it carries 96 bits of entropy and is never meant to be shared verbatim. An alias hides that ID behind a memorable name, which is its job. Hiding the ID is not the same as hiding the surface behind it.

Two failure modes follow you across the alias:

  1. Metadata leakage. Some programs embed the underlying container ID, internal paths, hostnames, or environment details into HTML, response headers, error pages, or websocket handshakes. The alias hides nothing if the response body says container_id: 890abcdef….
  2. Surface exposure. The alias still routes to a specific program. Some programs are user-written code, whose security is your responsibility. Others are privileged control planes where the surface itself is the dangerous action: terminal is a shell, files is a filesystem, sqlite is a database, agent orchestrates everything else.

These programs expose HTTP-shaped surfaces that you control. Aliasing them for public sharing, business cards, embedded docs, or customer-facing URLs is the intended use case:

ProgramWhy it is safe to publish
httpYour web server / API. The auth and authorization are your application logic: you decide what is exposed.
exec (hoody-exec)Scripts you wrote with explicit handlers and routes. Behaves like any HTTP framework.
pipe (hoody-pipe)A streaming HTTP relay (POST/PUT to send, GET to receive; each path is one-directional, no on-disk state) with permission gating at the proxy. The wire protocol is the only surface.
tunnel (hoody-tunnel)HTTP and TCP forwarding of a local service through the proxy. Auth runs at the proxy boundary.

These four are the public diffusion set: they expose plain transport, nothing more, and rely on you to decide what the application returns. Combine them with proxy permissions and you have a clean URL backed by real authentication.

Every other Hoody Kit program is an operator surface. Aliasing them is fine for internal use behind IP whitelists or strong auth, but never publish those aliases the way you would publish an API URL:

ProgramWhy publishing the alias is dangerous
terminalThe alias becomes a published shell endpoint. One credential away from arbitrary command execution.
filesFilesystem browser. Listings, downloads, and uploads against the container’s root. Path leakage is the default behavior.
sqliteLive database UI and SQL API. Schema, secrets, and writes, all over HTTP.
displayRemote desktop with keyboard, mouse, and screenshots. Hijacking it hijacks the running session.
codeFull editor with filesystem access. Extensions can execute code. Reads keys and configs.
browserHeadless Chrome with JavaScript evaluation. Cookies, automation, and credential interception live here.
agentThe AI agent orchestrates every other service in the container. Compromising the alias compromises everything below it.
cron, daemonsScheduled jobs and process control. Inject a job, gain persistent execution.
curlHTTP request wrapper. Aliased and exposed, it becomes an open SSRF gateway with your IP and your secrets.
sshSSH over the proxy. Same risk class as terminal.

For these, prefer the cryptographic URL: the 2^96 keyspace is your authentication of last resort, and rotating the URL only requires deleting the program and re-creating it.

For the safe set (http, exec, pipe, tunnel), publishing the alias is the goal. A few guardrails make it more durable:

  • Use unique, non-generic names. acme-billing-api is not enumerable; api, app, prod are. Generic names also collide globally per server.
  • Restrict to an explicit base path. target_path: "/api/v1" with allow_path_override: false exposes only your public routes, even if other handlers exist in the same container.
  • Apply permissions to the underlying container. Permissions follow the container, not the URL: both the alias and the cryptographic URL inherit them. There is no way to lock down only the alias.
  • Watch Certificate Transparency for custom domains. Default container subdomains are covered by a wildcard cert and never appear in CT logs. The moment you CNAME api.mycompany.com to your alias, that hostname does show up in public CT logs. This is fine for intentional production exposure; just know that custom-domain hostnames are publicly enumerable in a way that *.{serverName}.containers.hoody.com URLs are not.
  • Delete aliases before deleting containers. Orphaned aliases keep responding (with errors), and stale alias names are an attractive target if reassigned later.

The container ID is a secret; the alias is a label. Publish the label only for programs whose surface you would also publish. For everything else, the cryptographic URL is the right address.


AI generates code you cannot fully review. When a human writes code, you can read it. When an LLM generates 10,000 lines in response to a prompt, you cannot meaningfully review every line, every import, or every network call.

That is a consequence of scale, not a failure of discipline. AI-generated code will have bugs and vulnerabilities, and it will make network calls you did not anticipate.

Hoody’s security model is designed for this:

  • Containment. Container isolation keeps a rogue AI-generated process inside its container: it cannot read other containers’ filesystems or signal their processes. Reaching the host takes a kernel or runtime vulnerability, the same caveat every isolation boundary carries.

  • Snapshots. Snapshot before an AI makes changes. If it breaks something, restoring takes seconds instead of hours of debugging or a git bisect.

  • Network control. You decide where AI-written code can reach. Configure an exit path and host-level firewall rules, and a container running AI-generated code hits a boundary it cannot modify. Configure nothing and its egress is open, so set the exit before you run code you have not read.

  • HTTP observability. Every HTTP call into your container’s services passes the edge proxy: log it, inspect it, rate-limit it, or intercept it with hoody-exec hooks. What those logs contain and how long they are kept is covered in Auditing & Data Collection. Outbound calls your code makes are not proxied by the edge; configure a network exit to control their path, and add logging at that exit if you need outbound observability.


From bottom to top, each layer narrows the attack surface:

┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Application Security │ Your responsibility (input validation, auth logic)
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Proxy Permissions │ JWT, password, IP, token per service
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Container Firewall │ Host-level ingress/egress rules
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Network Control │ No dedicated public IPv4, optional controlled exit
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Container Isolation │ Namespaces, seccomp, hardened kernel
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Bare Metal Ownership │ Your hardware, no shared hypervisor (dedicated servers only)
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Disk Encryption │ LUKS on every host, keys held off the machine
├─────────────────────────┤
│ Realm Isolation │ API-level multi-tenancy
├─────────────────────────┤
│ URL Unguessability │ 2^96 keyspace, no enumeration
└─────────────────────────┘

The layers fail separately (compromising one does not hand an attacker the rest), though they are not fully independent: containers on a host share a kernel. URL unguessability provides passive security even with no permissions configured. Container isolation contains breaches even if the application is compromised. On a dedicated machine, bare metal ownership eliminates entire classes of attacks even if a container is fully taken over. On a free slice that layer is absent, and the stack is one layer shorter.


Permissions: None configured
URL security: Cryptographic (2^96)
Firewall: Default allow
Network: Direct NAT by default
Who can access: Only people who have the URL

This posture suits development, experimentation, and internal tools. The URL is the password.

Permissions: IP whitelist for office/VPN
URL security: Cryptographic + IP check
Firewall: Allow from known IPs
Network: Proxied exit

This adds a second factor: even with the URL, you must be on the right network.

Permissions: JWT for API, password for operators, IP for infra
URL security: Cryptographic + auth required
Firewall: Default deny, explicit allow
Network: No dedicated public IPv4, controlled exit
Snapshots: Hourly automated

Every layer described above is active, and snapshots run hourly.

Terminal window
# The CLI proxy state command can only enable the proxy (--enable-proxy sends enable_proxy:true).
# To disable the proxy use the SDK or HTTP tab; there is no --no-enable-proxy flag.
# Re-enable when investigation is complete
hoody containers proxy state --container $CONTAINER_ID --if-match file:v<N> --enable-proxy

The defaults are open because they are already cryptographically secure. Every additional layer is there when you need it.


Next: Snapshots, point-in-time restore as a security tool.