Is local exposing my local computer to the LAN and WAN? And how to prevent this if needed?

Support
1

What steps can be taken to replicate the issue? Feel free to include screenshots, videos, etc

System Details

  • Local Version: Version 9.2.9+6887

  • Operating System (OS) and OS version: Fedora Linux 43

Local Logs

Attach your Local Logs here (Help Doc - Retrieving Local’s Log)

Hello, I am not an IT person but I do know that localwp seems to be acting as a local web server.

I am concerned that local is serving eg http beyond just my local computer to for instance other computers on my local network (LAN) or the internet (WAN).

I dont need local to serve beyond my local computer and in my limited knowledge of things, I think it would be a security issue if local did expose my local computer to the LAN or WAN.

I have searched the Internet, docs, FAQs, etc and I am surprised to not have been able to find any info on this concern. I would have thought there would be some articles about “How to secure local” but have not been able to find anything.

Maybe I have not been able to find anything about how to secure local, because local is secure by default. But I also am not able to find any info saying that it is secure by default. It would be nice to see this stated explicitly.

Any help on this would be very much appreciated.

2

Hi @locallyspeaking!

Your concerns are totally understandable, and I’m sorry there wasn’t a clear explanation anywhere for you. The short answer is that LocalWP is secure by default and does not expose your sites to your LAN or the internet.

The longer answer is that in order for someone to access your device and Local multiple steps would have to be taken through manual intervention to make that so. None of which Local would ever do by default.

There is a “sharing” feature that Local comes with called Live Links that you can enable to share a temporary link of your site as a preview. This is still not a feature that comes enabled by default or shares anything automatically. Live Links - Local

3

@Nick-B Thanks very much for your very quick and comprehensive and reassuring reply especially when it is the last day of the year and you may not be even working.
As a suggestion for WP Engine to consider - maybe it would be good to add this to the FAQ?
Best wishes to you and the WP Engine team for 2026 and beyond!

4

Great suggestion @locallyspeaking! I’ll make a note to get something into our FAQ doc in the new year. Thank you for reaching out to us with your feedback and have a Happy New Year! :green_heart: