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Ollama (ailab-ds)

What It Is

Ollama is an LLM serving platform that provides a REST API for running language models locally. On the data science workstation, the team installed it via the official one-liner to experiment with small models. Unlike the dev workstation's instance, no custom models with embedded credentials exist here — only the base smollm2:135m model is pulled. This represents the "we just wanted to try it out" shadow AI pattern.


Installation

Installed via the official install script with a pinned version (same as ailab-dev):

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | OLLAMA_VERSION=0.6.2 sh

This installs:

  • /usr/local/bin/ollama — the binary
  • /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service — the systemd unit
  • Creates an ollama system user
  • Data directory: /usr/share/ollama/.ollama/ (when run as service)

Systemd Unit

Unit: ollama.service

The service runs as the ollama system user. An override binds it to all interfaces:

/etc/systemd/system/ollama.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
Environment="OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0"

Misconfiguration

Same misconfiguration as ailab-dev: binding to 0.0.0.0 exposes the unauthenticated API to the entire network. The default is 127.0.0.1.


Port & Config

Parameter Value
Host 172.16.50.30
Port 11434
Bind address 0.0.0.0 (via systemd override)
Authentication None

Models

Only one model is present:

Model Type Notes
smollm2:135m Base model ~220MB, pulled from registry. No custom models, no embedded credentials.

What aipostex Finds

  • Unauthenticated API — The Ollama REST API has no authentication, same as the dev instance.
  • Model enumeration/api/tags lists the available model. While no credentials are embedded, the presence of an unauthenticated LLM endpoint is itself a finding.
  • Network-accessible inference — Any host on the network can run inference against the model.

Verification

Confirm Ollama is running:

curl http://localhost:11434/
Expected response
Ollama is running

List available models:

curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags
Expected response

JSON listing only smollm2:135m.