Alby said one user has been affected so far.
The flaw, the releases it touched, and the fix
Alby has warned of a critical flaw in Alby Hub — the project's self‑hosted Lightning wallet — that "could have let an attacker take over a wallet and send its funds," but only when the Hub had been made reachable from the public internet. The company named the affected range as versions v1.7.0 through v1.18.5, all released before August 2025.
According to Alby, versions v1.19.0 and later do not contain the flaw; the first release including the fix was published on August 29, 2025. Alby is telling operators to update to v1.24.0, which the company described as the current release.
Alby has not disclosed the technical details of the vulnerability yet; it said it will publish a full disclosure later "in line with responsible disclosure practices" and thanked researchers who reported other issues that were fixed in the latest release.
Alby's immediate, specific guidance to Hub operators
- Check the version your Hub is running. If it is v1.18.5 or older, prevent outside access to the Hub's management interface before updating.
- For Docker setups, that means publishing the port only to the local machine (example: 127.0.0.1:8080:8080) rather than to every address (8080:8080).
- On a cloud server, ensure the firewall rule for port 8080 allows only your own address rather than any address.
- Update to v1.24.0.
- If your Hub ran an affected version and was reachable from the internet, change your unlock password after updating and contact security@getalby.com.
Alby has not said whether updating alone revokes any access an attacker already had to an exposed Hub; the company’s advice to change the unlock password applies specifically to Hubs that were reachable from the internet, but Alby did not explain precisely what changing the password is meant to undo.
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See what we buildHow Hubs end up exposed: documentation, Docker, and cloud guidance
Alby Hub is built to sit on a private network, but the project's server "listens on every network connection the machine has, rather than only on the machine itself." That warning is new: a documentation change merged on September 7 noted that several setup guides had described the server as "running on localhost when it actually listens on all network interfaces."
The same change altered the project's Docker file to publish port 8080 only to the machine itself instead of to every address. Still, the README shipped with the oldest and the newest affected releases did not carry that warning, and neither does the README in the current release.
As of September 9 — the day of Alby's warning — the company’s own cloud‑server guides remained written in ways that could lead operators to leave a Hub open to the internet. The DigitalOcean guide tells the reader to keep the server's public address switched on because it is "needed so you can open Alby Hub in your browser," then to open the Hub at that address. The Hetzner guide walks users through creating a firewall rule for port 8080 with the source set to "Any IPv4 and Any IPv6, or your own IP address for better security," and the example Docker file in these guides publishes the port to every address.
Previous takeover in November 2025 and platform responses
This is not the first time an Alby Hub left open to the internet was taken over. In November 2025, replying to a user whose Hub had been emptied, Alby said the machine was "reachable publicly on the clearnet, so it could be accessed from the outside." Alby said that incident resulted from a different problem: the Hub's setup had never been finished, so no unlock password existed and the attacker completed the setup themselves.
After that November case, a change to Umbrel's app put Alby Hub behind Umbrel's own login, which had previously been switched off for the app. Umbrel's app store now installs v1.24.0, and Alby's own Umbrel listing installs v1.21.4 — both releases newer than the initial fixed version — although those figures describe what those stores install today rather than what any particular Hub may be running.
What this means for technologists, self‑hosters, and platform maintainers
- Technologists and security teams: Verify versions across inventories, prioritise Hubs running v1.18.5 or older that are reachable from outside your network, and follow Alby’s steps to block external access before applying v1.24.0. Note the outstanding question about whether updates sever existing access.
- Self‑hosters and end users: If you run an exposed Hub on Docker, change published ports to 127.0.0.1:8080:8080; if on a cloud server, tighten the firewall for port 8080. If your Hub was internet‑reachable while on an affected version, change your unlock password after updating and contact security@getalby.com.
- Platform and documentation maintainers (cloud guides, app stores): Review examples and defaults that publish ports or instruct leaving a public address enabled. The record shows some vendor guides still instruct open setups; app stores currently list installs that are newer than the fixed release but individual Hubs may vary.
Alby’s disclosure leaves two operational questions that matters to many users: whether Alby Cloud has already remediated Hubs for customers, and why v1.7.0 is named as the start of the affected range without commentary on releases going back to v1.0.2. The Hacker News has put those questions to Alby, along with asking what the password change is meant to undo. Alby says it will provide a fuller technical accounting in due course.
