STEVEN.JOHNSTON
← BACK TO WORK
№ 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.

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 PREVIEW · DROP REAL CAPTURE HERE
CLIENT
Self-funded R&D
DURATION
Ongoing
ROLE
Sole designer / engineer
STATUS
In active use

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.

02

Loaded NIST 800-53 controls and the CIS IOS XE Benchmark into a ChromaDB vector store, so every finding can cite the exact control it violates.

03

Wired live CVE lookup against the NIST NVD — the moment Gladius detects an IOS version, it pulls every known CVE with CVSS scores.

04

Wrapped the whole thing in a FastAPI dashboard with templated HTML reports, an SSE stream, a Slack audit bot, and a separate Slack 'overseer' agent that can read code, restart containers, and commit changes.

SELECTED VIEWS ↓
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. 02 · PLACEHOLDER
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. 03 · PLACEHOLDER

THE OUTCOME

Audit time
Days → minutes
−98%
Frameworks
NIST 800-53 + CIS
with citations
MCP tools
11
live SSH, KB, NVD, email
Gladius is the tool I've always wanted to hand to a junior on day one — every finding comes with the control it breaks and the command to fix it.

BUILT WITH.

Claude Sonnet 4.6MCPFastAPIChromaDBDockerSlack BoltPython
GITHUB ↗
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NEXT STEP →
STEVIE.JOHNSTON@
GMAIL.COM
Glasgow · Scotland
UTC+0 / UTC+1
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