Fixing Job Tracking WebSockets On Non-Standard Ports In Intel Owl

Aug 8, 2025 by ADMIN 66 views

Job Tracking WebSockets Broken for Non-Standard Ports: A Deep Dive and Fix

Hey guys! Today, we're diving into a fascinating issue within the Intel Owl project: job tracking WebSockets failing when running on non-standard ports. This is a pretty crucial problem, as it impacts the real-time monitoring of tasks, which is kinda the backbone of any efficient security analysis platform. Let's break down what happened, how to reproduce it, and potential solutions. Trust me, this is something you'll want to know if you're using Intel Owl in your cybersecurity toolkit!

Understanding the Issue

So, what's the deal? The core of the problem lies in how WebSockets, which are used for real-time communication between the Intel Owl frontend and backend, handle non-standard ports. Usually, WebSockets should seamlessly adopt the same port the site is hosted on. However, in this case, when Intel Owl is set up to run on a port other than the standard 80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS), the WebSocket connection for tracking job progress goes belly up. This means you're left in the dark about the status of your scans and analyses, which is far from ideal, right? Imagine kicking off a complex analysis and having no clue whether it's chugging along smoothly or has hit a snag. Not cool!

This issue was reported by a user running Intel Owl version 6.1.0 on Linux Fedora, using Firefox 140.0. They noticed that the WebSocket connection was failing when the service was running on a non-standard port, specifically after updating the docker-compose definition. The expected behavior, of course, is for WebSockets to just work regardless of the port. They should automatically adapt to the port the site is hosted on, ensuring that real-time updates are pushed to the user interface without any hiccups. To reproduce this, you basically need to start the Intel Owl web service on a non-standard port. This typically involves tweaking the docker-compose configuration to map a different port to the service. Once that's done, you'll likely see the WebSocket connection failing, and the job progress will not be updated in real-time. The user even provided a helpful screenshot showing how the docker-compose definition was modified to use a non-standard port, making it super clear how to replicate the issue. We'll dig deeper into the reproduction steps in a bit.

Diving Deeper into WebSockets and Ports

Before we proceed, let's talk WebSockets and ports for a minute, especially if you're not super familiar with the underlying tech. Ports are like doors on your computer, each allowing different types of network traffic to pass through. Standard ports like 80 and 443 are the usual suspects for web traffic (HTTP and HTTPS, respectively). When a website or web application runs on a non-standard port (like 8080 or 8000), it's essentially using a different door. WebSockets, on the other hand, are a communication protocol that provides full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection. Think of it as a persistent, two-way street between the client (your browser) and the server (Intel Owl). This is crucial for real-time updates, like the progress of a job.

The problem arises when the WebSocket connection doesn't correctly identify or adapt to the non-standard port. The client might try to connect on the default ports (80 or 443) instead of the actual port the service is running on. This leads to a connection failure, and you miss out on those sweet, sweet real-time updates. In the context of Intel Owl, this means you won't see the progress bar moving, the logs updating, or any other real-time feedback about your scans. This is obviously a major pain point, especially when dealing with lengthy or complex analyses. You want to know what's going on, right?

The Importance of Real-Time Feedback

Real-time feedback is super important for a tool like Intel Owl. When you're running security analyses, you want to know what's happening now, not later. Imagine running a scan that takes several hours. You'd want to see the progress, spot any errors, and maybe even adjust your strategy on the fly. Without real-time updates, you're flying blind. You're left guessing whether the scan is still running, if it's encountered any issues, or when it's likely to finish. This can be incredibly frustrating and can significantly impact your workflow. Real-time feedback isn't just a nice-to-have feature; it's a critical component of an effective security analysis platform. It allows you to stay informed, make timely decisions, and ultimately, get the most out of the tool. This is why fixing this WebSocket issue is so crucial for the Intel Owl project.

Reproducing the Issue: A Step-by-Step Guide

Alright, let's get our hands dirty and see how to reproduce this issue. Trust me, it's not rocket science, and walking through the steps will give you a solid understanding of the problem. Plus, if you're contributing to the Intel Owl project, being able to reproduce the bug is the first step towards fixing it!

Set up your Intel Owl environment: First things first, you'll need a working Intel Owl installation. If you haven't already, clone the Intel Owl repository from GitHub and follow the installation instructions. The easiest way to get up and running is usually using Docker and Docker Compose. This will ensure you have all the necessary dependencies and configurations in place.
Modify the docker-compose.yml file: This is where the magic happens. Open your docker-compose.yml file (usually located in the root of the Intel Owl repository). You'll need to change the port mapping for the Intel Owl web service. Look for the section that defines the ports for the web service. It probably looks something like this:
```
ports:
  - "8000:8000"
```
Change the left-hand side of the mapping to a non-standard port, like 8080 or 8888. For example:
```
ports:
  - "8080:8000"
```
This tells Docker to map port 8080 on your host machine to port 8000 inside the container (where the Intel Owl web service is running).
Restart the Intel Owl services: After modifying the docker-compose.yml file, you'll need to restart the Intel Owl services for the changes to take effect. You can do this by running the following command in the terminal, from the directory where your docker-compose.yml file is located:
```
docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d
```
This command first stops all the running containers (docker-compose down) and then starts them again in detached mode (docker-compose up -d).
Access Intel Owl in your browser: Now, open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080 (or whichever non-standard port you chose). You should see the Intel Owl login page.
Start a job and observe the WebSocket connection: Log in to Intel Owl and start a scan or analysis. Keep an eye on the job progress. If the WebSocket connection is broken, you'll likely see that the progress bar isn't updating, and you won't get real-time feedback. You can also open your browser's developer tools (usually by pressing F12) and check the