Moltbot Security Guide: Protect Your VPS from Hackers and Vulnerabilities

Summary

Running Moltbot (or any always-online bot service) on a VPS is powerful—but it also makes your server a target. The reality is that most attacks aren’t personal. The internet is full of automated scanners that continuously probe VPS IPs for open ports, weak SSH, exposed dashboards, public databases, and misconfigured webhooks. If Moltbot is new (or quickly evolving), it’s even more important to lock things down before you go live. This guide is a complete, practical playbook to secure your VPS when running Moltbot. It covers the most common ways VPS machines get compromised and shows you exactly how to protect yourself with hardening, firewall rules, safe networking, proper secrets management, monitoring, and incident response. Security Disclaimer: This article is general security guidance. Security is a process, not a one-time setup. Apply the steps that fit your environment, keep your system updated, and treat your bot token, database credentials, and SSH access like the keys to your home. Table of Contents Threat Model: How Hackers Actually Target VPS Bots The “Golden Rules” for Securing Moltbot VPS Hardening: Secure SSH, Users, and Updates Firewall & Port Exposure: Close Everything You Don’t Need Run Moltbot Safely: Localhost Binding, Reverse Proxies, and Least Privilege Webhooks & Dashboards: HTTPS, Auth, and Rate Limiting Database Security: Local-Only, Permissions, and Backups Secrets: .env Safety, Rotation, and Leak Prevention Monitoring & Alerts: Logs, Audit Trails, and Suspicious Activity Malware & Persistence Checks: What to Look For Incident Response: What to Do If You Think You’re Compromised Security Maintenance Checklist (Weekly/Monthly) 1) Threat Model: How Hackers Target Moltbot VPS Deployments Before you secure anything, understand the common attack paths. Most compromises happen through a handful of repeating patterns: A) Open Ports Attackers scan public IP ranges for: Open SSH (22) Open bot ports (3000/5000/8080/etc.) Exposed databases (3306 MySQL...