MinION remote access

[Awk66]

Hi all!

Does anyone know if it's possible to connect to the MinION software (MinKnow) remotely, e.g. via SSH?

I am starting a sequencing run on the lab PC over the weekend, and I would like to monitor it from home


Cheers!

-A

[sklages]

That's probably not possible. But you could connect with sth. TeamViewer [1] to see and also control the PC running MinKnow.


[1] https://www.teamviewer.com

[gringer]

Yes, as far as I'm aware all MinKNOW clients run inside their own web server, which can be connected to remotely. This is explicit with the MinIT, where the remote server is the standard way to connect.

The easiest way to connect with another computer is to install MinKNOW on the other computer and use the "Connect to a remote computer" function provided in the startup screen.

[cement_head]

Okay, so you would then type in the IP of the machine running the minKNOW instance and it would be mirrored on your (remote) machine?

[kmcarr]

Okay, so you would then type in the IP of the machine running the minKNOW instance and it would be mirrored on your (remote) machine?

Yes you can, which is actually kind of scary. So long as you have a copy of MinKNOW installed on your local computer, and know the IP of a MinION/GridION computer you can connect remotely and have total control of the software, including the ability to kill a run. Absolutely no authentication is required.

We saw this and considered an enormous security hole. Oxford couldn't understand why we were worried about this, because in their mind a person would need to know the IP address (port scans??) and be malicious (have they not met the internet?). Our sysadmin blocked the ports it listens on for external connection. Yes, this does remove the convenience of remote run monitoring but the risk was too great.

[gringer]

External access

On the other side of things, a MinION sequencing run won't work unless the computer has access to the outside via non-standard ports, which are used to fetch firmware, and send telemetry data a short while after the sequencing run has started (I think it's 30 minutes). I needed to tether to someone's cellphone to do a sequencing run during a presentation because both the free WiFi network and the conference WiFi networks were too restricted.

It is now possible to get around this by using a MinIT, which is ONT's "you don't need to worry about IT, or an Internet connection" solution. It's a start, I guess.

[davidjstudholme]

Yes you can, which is actually kind of scary. So long as you have a copy of MinKNOW installed on your local computer, and know the IP of a MinION/GridION computer you can connect remotely and have total control of the software, including the ability to kill a run. Absolutely no authentication is required.

We saw this and considered an enormous security hole. Oxford couldn't understand why we were worried about this, because in their mind a person would need to know the IP address (port scans??) and be malicious (have they not met the internet?). Our sysadmin blocked the ports it listens on for external connection. Yes, this does remove the convenience of remote run monitoring but the risk was too great.

This is scary enough for the MinION or GridION. Presumably the same vulnerability also applies to the PromethION. Unauthorised access to a PromethION run could result in VERY costly losses. Even read-access could mean unauthorised access to patient sequence data. Risks might be small but the consequences could be catastrophic.