vault: add automatic token renewal at TTL/2 + Prometheus metric

Closes Top-10 fix #5 of the 2026-05-03 issuer-coverage audit (see
cowork/issuer-coverage-audit-2026-05-03/RESULTS.md). Pre-fix, the
VaultPKI adapter authenticated with a static token and never called
renew-self. Long-lived deploys hit token expiry; the first
operator-visible signal was failed cert renewals on production
targets.

This commit:

  1. Connector.Start(ctx) spawns a goroutine that calls
     POST /v1/auth/token/renew-self at TTL/2 cadence (computed from a
     one-shot lookup-self at startup). Honours ctx.Done() for
     graceful shutdown via a per-loop done channel + Stop().
  2. On `renewable: false` response (initial lookup OR any subsequent
     renewal), the loop emits a WARN, increments the not_renewable
     counter, and exits. The operator must rotate the token before
     Vault's Max TTL elapses.
  3. New Prometheus counter certctl_vault_token_renewals_total with
     labels result={success,failure,not_renewable}. Registered
     alongside existing certctl_issuance_* counters in
     internal/api/handler/metrics.go.
  4. ERROR-level logging on renewal failure with operator-actionable
     substring ("vault token renewal failed; rotate the token before
     TTL expires") so journalctl + grep find it. Loop keeps ticking
     after a failure — transient blips don't kill it.

New optional issuer.Lifecycle interface:

  type Lifecycle interface {
      Start(ctx context.Context) error
      Stop()
  }

Connectors that hold no background goroutines (almost all of them)
do not implement this — IssuerRegistry.StartLifecycles /
StopLifecycles feature-detect via type assertion. New
lifecycle-bearing connectors plug in by implementing the interface;
no further registry plumbing required.

Wiring (cmd/server/main.go):

  - service.NewVaultRenewalMetrics() instance is shared between
    issuerRegistry.SetVaultRenewalMetrics (so Vault connectors built
    by Rebuild get a recorder) and metricsHandler.SetVaultRenewals
    (so the Prometheus exposer emits the new series).
  - issuerRegistry.StartLifecycles(ctx) is called after
    issuerService.BuildRegistry; defer issuerRegistry.StopLifecycles
    is paired so goroutines exit cleanly on signal.
  - IssuerConnectorAdapter.Underlying() exposes the wrapped
    issuer.Connector so registry-level machinery can reach the
    concrete connector behind the adapter without duplicating the
    wiring at every call site.

Tests (internal/connector/issuer/vault/vault_renew_test.go):

  - TestVault_RenewLoop_TickAtHalfTTL — three ticks → three
    renewals, all "success".
  - TestVault_RenewLoop_StopsOnNotRenewable — second renewal returns
    renewable=false, loop exits, third tick fires no HTTP call.
  - TestVault_RenewLoop_FailureSurfacesViaMetric — first renewal 403
    bumps "failure", second renewal succeeds → loop kept ticking.
  - TestVault_RenewLoop_CtxCancellation_StopsCleanly — Stop returns
    within 200ms after ctx cancel.
  - TestVault_RenewLoop_StartsNothingWhenNotRenewable — token
    already non-renewable at boot ⇒ no goroutine, "not_renewable"
    metric increments at startup so operators see it in Grafana.
  - TestVault_ComputeInterval — 4 cases pinning TTL/2 +
    minRenewInterval floor.
  - TestVault_RenewSelf_ParseFailure_NamesActionableInError —
    surfaced error contains "vault token renewal failed" + "rotate
    the token".

Cadence is dynamic — every successful renewal re-derives TTL/2
from the renewed lease's lease_duration, so a short bootstrap
token that gets renewed up to a longer Max TTL shifts to the
longer cadence automatically (defends against degenerate fast
ticking on a token whose Max TTL is far longer than its initial
TTL).

Documentation:
  - docs/connectors.md Vault PKI section gains "Token TTL +
    automatic renewal" subsection (operator-facing: cadence, metric,
    renewable=false rotation playbook).

Out of scope (intentional, flagged in the audit follow-up):
  - AppRole / Kubernetes / AWS IAM auth methods (different renewal
    semantics).
  - Hot-reload of rotated token from disk (operator restarts
    today; future: GUI/MCP issuer-update path triggers Rebuild
    which Stops the old connector and Starts the new one).
  - Auto-re-auth after token death (operator playbook owns it).

CHANGELOG.md is intentionally not hand-edited (per CHANGELOG.md
itself: "no longer maintains a hand-edited per-version changelog;
per-release notes are auto-generated from commit messages between
consecutive tags").

Verified locally:
- gofmt clean.
- go vet ./internal/service/... ./internal/api/handler/...
  ./internal/connector/issuer/vault/... ./cmd/server/...  clean.
- go test -short -count=1 ./internal/connector/issuer/vault/...
  ./internal/service/... ./internal/api/handler/...  green.
- go test -race -count=10 -run 'TestVault_RenewLoop|TestVault_ComputeInterval'
  ./internal/connector/issuer/vault/...  green.

Audit reference: cowork/issuer-coverage-audit-2026-05-03/RESULTS.md
Top-10 fix #5.
This commit is contained in:
shankar0123
2026-05-03 21:24:27 +00:00
parent 60dce0bf10
commit ceca3647eb
10 changed files with 1293 additions and 7 deletions
+3 -1
View File
@@ -431,7 +431,9 @@ The connector is registered in the issuer registry under `iss-vault`. Vault issu
**MaxTTL enforcement (M11c):** When a certificate profile defines a maximum TTL, the Vault connector overrides the TTL string in the signing request to ensure the issued certificate does not exceed the profile limit. This is applied before Vault's own role-level max TTL.
Location: `internal/connector/issuer/vault/vault.go`
**Token TTL + automatic renewal (Top-10 fix #5, 2026-05-03 audit):** certctl-server periodically calls `POST /v1/auth/token/renew-self` at half the token's TTL to keep the integration alive without manual rotation; the cadence is read from a one-shot `lookup-self` at startup and re-derived on every successful renewal so a short bootstrap token that gets renewed up to a longer Max TTL shifts to the longer cadence automatically. The renewal loop emits the `certctl_vault_token_renewals_total{result="success"|"failure"|"not_renewable"}` Prometheus counter so operators see expiry trouble in Grafana before issuance breaks. When Vault returns `renewable: false` (configured Max TTL reached), the loop logs a WARN, increments `{result="not_renewable"}`, and exits — the operator must rotate the Vault token and restart certctl-server (or use the GUI/MCP issuer-update path to swap the token in place; the registry's Rebuild path re-Starts the lifecycle on the new connector). Per-tick failures (e.g. transient 5xx, brief network blips) bump `{result="failure"}` and the loop keeps ticking; only the explicit `renewable: false` case stops it.
Location: `internal/connector/issuer/vault/vault.go` + `internal/connector/issuer/vault/vault_renew.go`
### Built-in: DigiCert CertCentral