# Security

URL: https://docs.nolay.ru/en/security/
Updated: 2026-09-23

> The trust model: what the agent can do on your server and what Nolay can do.

Nolay works on your server, so the main question is what it can do there. The answer can be checked on the server itself with the commands below.

## The agent

- Runs as the `nolay` system user in the `docker` group, not as root. The systemd service runs with restrictions: `NoNewPrivileges`, `ProtectSystem=strict`.
- Listens on no inbound ports: one outgoing WSS connection to the hub on 443, and a second one to the relay only when the [tunnel](/en/guides/tunnel/) is on.
- Runs only a closed list of operations: deploy, rollback, stop, logs, secrets, backups, domains. An arbitrary command cannot be run on the server through Nolay.
- The binary is downloaded from `get.nolay.ru` and verified by checksum before install.

## Project containers

Containers start without extra Linux capabilities (`cap_drop: ALL` and a short list of needed ones) and in their own Docker network. Extra capabilities are granted only explicitly with [`run.privileged_caps`](/en/reference/nolay-toml/#field-run-privileged_caps), and each one is written to the agent log.

## Tokens and secrets

- The agent token is shown in the panel once and is not stored in the panel. On the server it lives in `/etc/nolay/agent.token` with mode `0600`.
- Secret values are stored only on the server, encrypted. See [Secrets](/en/guides/secrets/) and [What is stored where](/en/concepts/data/).

## Panel sign-in

Two-factor authentication with a code from an app is turned on in the profile. An organization has roles: owner, admin, member and viewer. Tunnels, archive uploads and service passwords are changed only by owners and admins.

## Check it yourself

```sh
ss -tulpn
ps -o user,pid,cmd -C nolay-agent
systemctl show nolay-agent -p User -p NoNewPrivileges -p ProtectSystem
```