Steven Johnston
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№ 01 · AI Network Auditor · 2026

GLADIUS

An autonomous Cisco security auditor. Tell it an IP. It SSHes in, runs hardening checks, cross-references NIST 800-53 and CIS, looks up live CVEs, and produces the report. No checklists, no scripts.

Context
Personal project
Role
Sole designer / engineer
Status
In active use
Audit · 10.0.0.1
IOS XE 17.9 · running compliance scan
Email
Re-run
Overall
78
+4
NIST
82
CIS
71
−2
CVEs
3
+1
CRIT SNMPv2 community 'public' enabled CIS 2.3.1
HIGH SSH protocol 1 still allowed NIST AC-17
MED NTP sources unauthenticated CIS 6.1.2
Fig. 01 · stylised interface preview

The problem

Network security audits are slow, inconsistent, and gated on the senior engineer who knows where the gotchas live. The good ones take days. The bad ones miss CVEs that have been public for months. Either way, nobody runs them often enough.

The approach

01

Built an MCP server that gives Claude direct, controlled access to a Cisco device: SSH, show commands, even config push. The audit runs a strict three-phase, max-three-loop structure so every run is cheap and predictable.

02

Loaded NIST 800-53 controls and the CIS IOS XE Benchmark (about 2,400 vectors) into ChromaDB, so every finding cites the exact control it violates. Added live NVD CVE lookup, Cisco PSIRT advisories, and EOX end-of-support dates per hardware PID.

03

Added a separate PenTest agent with its own 20-tool MCP server (nmap, masscan, sslyze, nikto, hydra and more) gated by a GO ACTIVE operator approval. Active tools are blocked server-side until a human says yes, even if the model asks nicely.

04

Wrapped it all in a FastAPI dashboard with templated HTML reports, SSE streaming, a Slack audit bot, a Slack 'overseer' agent that can read code and restart containers, and Cisco's Foundation-Sec-8B running locally on Ollama for scope-aware security chat.

Outcome

Audit run
3 phases
capped at 3 model loops
Frameworks
NIST 800-53 + CIS
with citations
PenTest tools
20
behind a GO ACTIVE gate
Design note

Built so it could be handed to a junior on day one: every finding comes with the control it breaks and the command to fix it.

Built with

Claude Sonnet 4.6MCPFastAPIChromaDBFoundation-Sec-8BpyATSDockerSlackPython

More tools

02 SHELLMATE Terminal + AI Copilot 03 CISCO API NAVIGATOR Cisco DevNet API Chat 04 PARITY Network Digital Twin
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Get in touch
stevie.johnston@gmail.com
Glasgow, Scotland
UTC+0 / UTC+1