GoBot is designed for a self-hosted deployment, but no application can be declared completely vulnerability-free. Keep the host, Go toolchain, dependencies, and deployment configuration maintained.

• Keep IRC certificate verification enabled with verify_cert: true.
• GoBot refuses to send SASL or NickServ credentials over non-TLS IRC.
• Keep client certificate/private-key PEM files outside Git with mode 0600 and readable only by the GoBot service user.
• CertFP fingerprints are registered with NickServ; do not store a fingerprint or private key in the repository.
• The temporary certfp_enroll mode uses the existing SASL password only to send a one-time NickServ CERT ADD; disable it after NickServ confirms the certificate so the normal passwordless EXTERNAL flow is used.
• Keep secrets in .env or a deployment secret store, never in Git.
• Use authenticated IRC account names for owner controls; nicknames are not authorization proof.
• GoBot requests the IRCv3 account-tag capability when the server advertises it, and uses that tag for owner checks; if the server does not provide it, GoBot does not fall back to nickname-based ownership.
• GoBot also requests IRCv3 server-time when available so persisted message timestamps reflect the IRC server clock.
• The private reload command is accepted only from an authenticated account listed in owner_accounts; it cannot change ownership or connection settings.
• Configuration reloads do not reread systemd's EnvironmentFile; restart the service after changing .env so API keys and provider settings take effect.
• Restrict /stats and /metrics; they have no built-in authentication.
• Bind the stats listener to localhost unless another host must scrape it.
• If remote scraping is required, use a private/WireGuard address and firewall the port to the Prometheus host.
• The URL title plugin rejects loopback, private, link-local, multicast, and local host targets to reduce SSRF risk.
• External HTTP lookups use timeouts and bound response sizes. Package, audit, and Docker requests use fixed public provider hosts; package suggestions use only the fixed public Go, npm, and PyPI index hosts.
• The paste plugin's URL mode is different: it fetches a user-supplied HTTP or HTTPS URL from the bot host and follows redirects. Treat it as an outbound network capability. Only enable it where users are trusted and host/network egress rules prevent access to loopback, private, link-local, metadata, and other sensitive services; otherwise disable plugins.paste.enabled.
• The paste token is sent only to the configured Opengist base URL and should use HTTPS. BOT_PASTE_TOKEN and BOT_PASTE_BASE_URL belong in the service environment, not in Git.
• IRC invitations, command handling, and cooldown warnings are rate-limited.
• The Docker image runs as a non-root user.
• Protect the BoltDB data file and its containing directory with filesystem permissions.
• Review CI, CodeQL, Dependabot, and vulnerability-scan results before deploying updates.