Update (New LM Studio Feature — LM Link)
In this guide I recommended “limiting LM Studio to your LAN and not exposing it to the public internet”, this is still a good security practice.
However, LM Studio recently introduced 
LM Link, which changes the remote-access story in a safer way.
LM Link allows you to access your local models remotely without opening ports or exposing your server publicly. It creates an end-to-end encrypted private network between your devices using a mesh VPN (powered by Tailscale), so your machines communicate securely without being visible on the internet. ( LM Studio)
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Practically, this means:
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You can keep LM Studio locked down (no public exposure)
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Still use your models from another device or location
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n8n can continue connecting via
localhost:####as usual, even when the model runs on another machine
So the original advice remains valid, don’t expose LM Studio publicly, but LM Link is now a secure alternative for remote access instead of port forwarding or public endpoints.