id summary reporter owner description type status component version resolution keywords cc guest host 6067 vboxwebsrv host default is NOT localhost as claimed => fixed in SVN Claudio Nieder "vboxwebsrv claims in its help and in the documentation, that if the option -H is not supplied that it will then bind to localhost. That is not true at least for version 3.1.2 on OS X 10.6.2. As you can see below it will bind to all interfaces if -H is not supplied and only when -H localhost is supplied then it will bind to localhost only. $ vboxwebsrv --help Sun VirtualBox Webservice Version 3.1.2 (C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Usage: vboxwebsrv [options] Supported options (default values in brackets): --help, -h: Print this help message and exit. --background, -b: Run in background (daemon mode). --host, -H: The host to bind to (localhost). --port, -p: The port to bind to (18083). --timeout, -t: Session timeout in seconds; 0 = disable timeouts (300). --check-interval, -i: Frequency of timeout checks in seconds (5). --verbose, -v: Be verbose. --logfile, -F: Name of file to write log to (no file). $ vboxwebsrv & [1] 2030 Sun VirtualBox Webservice Version 3.1.2 (C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Socket connection successful: host = default (localhost), port = 18083, master socket = 7 $ netstat -an | grep 18083 tcp4 0 0 *.18083 *.* LISTEN $ kill %1 $ vboxwebsrv -H localhost & [2] 2042 [1] Terminated vboxwebsrv Sun VirtualBox Webservice Version 3.1.2 (C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Socket connection successful: host = localhost, port = 18083, master socket = 7 $ netstat -an | grep 18083 tcp4 0 0 127.0.0.1.18083 *.* LISTEN " defect closed webservices VirtualBox 3.1.2 fixed localhost bind default host other other