ESPHome Device Builder Dashboard is a dashboard for the ESPHome home management software. Prior to version 1.0.12, the dashboard reads its a

ESPHome Device Builder Dashboard is a dashboard for the ESPHome home management software. Prior to version 1.0.12, the dashboard reads its authentication credentials from $ESPHOME_USERNAME and $ESPHOME_PASSWORD. Earlier versions, and the legacy esphome dashboard, read the bare $USERNAME and $PASSWORD instead. When the env vars were renamed the bare names were dropped with no fallback, so an operator who had protected their dashboard with USERNAME / PASSWORD (as the older getting started guide documented) loses authentication on upgrade and the dashboard starts open to anyone who can reach its port. The issue is fixed in 1.0.12. The bare $USERNAME / $PASSWORD are accepted again as a deprecated fallback so previously protected instances stay protected across the upgrade without operator intervention, with a loud deprecation warning at startup directing operators to rename them to $ESPHOME_USERNAME / $ESPHOME_PASSWORD. The fallback is gated on $PASSWORD being set and is only adopted as a pair, so the OS provided $USERNAME is never read on its own and the original collision footgun stays closed. A lone bare $PASSWORD with no username still fails loud as a credential mismatch rather than starting unauthenticated. This restores compatibility rather than failing closed on the legacy names, because the priority is that an instance which was protected before the upgrade stays protected without the operator having to act; the deprecation warning plus a future removal handles the migration. Operators should migrate to the $ESPHOME_* names. The esphome container delivers the fix in the 2026.6.2 release, which bumps its pinned esphome-device-builder version to 1.0.12. Without upgrading, restore authentication immediately by setting the new env vars to the same values, on any affected version. Alternatively, do not expose the dashboard port to untrusted networks, and check the startup logs for the WITHOUT AUTHENTICATION banner to confirm whether a given instance is currently open.