At Captive Portal Connect, we aim to provide safe and high-level network administration tools. We are committed to adopting technologies that meet our strict service and security requirements. Now, we must address a major restriction in UniFi systems and how it affects our captive portal offerings.
A primary issue we encounter is the lack of a cloud API for UniFi hardware. This shortcoming greatly limits our capacity to handle guest access safely and makes integrating strong security measures required for a protected network environment much harder.
Also, the need to enable local API access via port forwarding creates major security dangers. This approach heightens network risk, leaving infrastructure open to outside threats—a problem that is not acceptable and we consider problematic.
Due to these limitations, we have chosen to halt development of our captive portal tools for UniFi networks. Hurrying to offer a service that fails to meet the security levels we maintain would violate our core principles. For those needing instant help, we recommend looking into dependable open-source software like UniFi Hotspot to configure their own captive portals.
We remain hopeful that UniFi will build and release access to a cloud API, featuring strong Access Control Lists (ACLs), which would let us design secure and effective network administration solutions. A full cloud API would let us handle network access safely without endangering the security of your network infrastructure.
We value your ongoing support and patience as we deal with these issues. Our promise to provide high-quality and innovative network administration solutions does not change, and we hope to share our development updates soon.
Thanks for believing in us regarding your network administration requirements. Making sure your network works well while staying secure and tuned for speed is our main focus.
Update (2024-07-01)
We believed we had achieved a breakthrough in limiting API access by using the new (and, naturally, undocumented) ‘hotspotoperator’ permission rather than a complete admin account. Ultimately, it didn’t work (credit to @woodjme). Getting guests approved via UniFi’s External Portal Server still demands admin-level credentials and direct access to the console, so our UniFi captive portal service stays paused.
For complete technical context, including how the External Portal Server flow functions and which open-source libraries can power it, check On UniFi Captive Portals.