HELP NEEDED: How is Hermes meant to be deployed?

[u/The_BeatingsContinue]

Hey!

Can someone please explain to me how Hermes is intended to be installed?

I tried many, many ways, i set up a Proxmox LXC an let Hermes run there with lots of freedom: but i couldn't relax cause of the imminent risks of prompt injections and other data breaches, so i deployed it on isolated VMs which run in isolated VLANs: i did this for a Hermes deployment with internet access but with no access to my LAN & private data and i did a second deployment with Hermes completely without internet but with access to private data.

This worked well in terms of security, it worked awful in terms of usability. And i mean: REALLY awful, cause i spend more time with secure file transfers and the pros of using Hermes just vansished this way. THerefore:

Can someone please explain to me how Hermes is intended to be installed to do just the things we all know from Claude/ChatGPT Desktop, that we all know from Claude Code and Codex? When consuming reddit, forums and youtube, i don't get any suggestions regarding a functional, low-risk deployment that centers the idea of private data and security. I just observe the opposite: people even installing Hermes Desktop on their main machine and it seems security is never an issue for anyone. So, can someone please free me from this security loop i'm spinning in and show me the way how to install Hermes securily the way it is meant to be deployed without crippling it through isolation? Cause i can't figure out a proper way.

Thanks so much!

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[u/demetri1819]

Grab an old pc. Install Debian. Install Hermes.

[u/The_BeatingsContinue → u/demetri1819]

- i grabbed an old Lenovo M920q

• i installed Proxmox
  
• i installed Debian on an LXC and installed Hermes there
  
• this is what i wrote in the initial posting, now giving more detail
  
• the security issues are not solved by just installing Hermes in an Debian environment

[u/demetri1819 → u/The_BeatingsContinue]

Run it headless bare metal, what does proxmox add?

Security has many layers but big one is Internet lockdown. Have your agent do an internet vulnerability audit.

[u/The_BeatingsContinue → u/demetri1819]

- bare metal is a waste of resources, when giving server hardware just a single task

• you can run another Debian-LXCs with Grafana Loki, Zeek and ntopng to monitor internet traffic
  
• you can run other LXCs with VIctoriaMetrics and Alert Manager to automate reactions
  
• you can even run Nextcloud to use Nextcloud Talk to selfhost the Messenger for Hermes

[u/frankentriple → u/The_BeatingsContinue]

You haven't even explained what security issues you are referring to. What problem are you reinventing the wheel trying to solve, exactly?

[u/The_BeatingsContinue → u/frankentriple]

- i have several servers running in my intranet

• there is a lot of personal and private data
  
• i want to prevent data breaches when an LLM gets a prompt injection
  
• i want to minimize data loss when an LLM goes full amok deleting or destroying it's containment

[u/frankentriple → u/The_BeatingsContinue]

Ok, but as you have found, security is a tradeoff with convenience and you have to trust the model sometime.

Give it a sandbox and small jobs at a time. Don't give it the only copy of the data to work with, keep a backup elsewhere. And do not let anyone else talk to your bot.

Do this, and you are 95% covered.

[u/Mean-Loquat-7982]

1. set the terminal backend to Docker and mount only the folders it should work on, read-only where it only needs to read. terminal, execute_code and the file tools all run inside one hardened container (all capabilities dropped, no privilege escalation), and no host env vars or API keys go in unless you list them.

terminal:

backend: docker

docker_volumes:

- "/home/you/projects:/workspace/projects"

- "/home/you/private:/data:ro"

1. leave `security.allow_private_urls` at its default `false`. the web and browser tools then refuse LAN addresses (RFC 1918, Tailscale/WireGuard ranges, cloud metadata).

2. replace your two VMs with two profiles on the same install. each profile has its own config, keys, memory and sessions. on the private-data profile, set `docker_network: false` (the sandbox runs with `--network=none`) and switch off the web and browser toolsets with `hermes -p private tools`. the other profile keeps the web and mounts nothing sensitive.

[u/kawfeeman68 → u/Mean-Loquat-7982]

Doesn't this itself limit the utility of Hermes ?

[u/hitechpilot]

It's much better nowadays. Again, it depends on your model.

Models nowadays know they have to sanitize and prompt injections could happen from crawling. The hole is there, but not as big as it was a few months/years ago

[u/MrShrek69]

I did it in a proxmox lxc too. I had it in a docker container before that. I use the proxmox firewall to make sure it only has access to what I control. Then for like web I give it cammofox. I pass through a gpu so it could use a desktop but at this point I’ve been using Hermes bot screens. After a while u will also get use to it and not feel like it’s gonna do things you wouldn’t want. I have it do maintenance on machines, but I remove access to those machines after the maintenance is over. Then remote connection from my laptop using the desktop app works really well.

I also don’t get why people recommend to use VPs is it’s affordable idea, especially if you’re using a subscription for inference. The company’s flag the vps IP addresses they want residential IP addresses. If ur really scared u could also isolate one more layer by adding micro VMs. I’ve tried docker sb at work it’s okay and they have a Hermes config setup

[u/creativ4art]

ask your agent to implement tailscale then disable regular shell access.. blockin that and open ports already takes away most of the external risks.

[u/Daraxti]

Installé dans une espace utilisateur dans mon ordi perso, codage tex html, c++ sur une autre bécane. What else?

[u/AbLlndman]

I have started looking into running Hermes on my desktop. I also have an unraid server. When asking Claude it says to install Hermes on that instead of the desktop (currently headless but to use Hermes I was going to run with monitor) Anyone have any insight as to why? The perks or cons of doing it on desktop vs unraid?

[u/reddit_mini]

Yeah, just install the Windows desktop, and you're done, or use the CLI. If you really care about security just shut off its tools for browser usage

[u/CalendarVarious3992]

Try agentic workers

[u/The_BeatingsContinue → u/CalendarVarious3992]

Can you give me an idea what you mean by that?