Revert CodeQL custom config + sanitizer model — leave alert #23 open

Reverts:
  482e952 ci(codeql): rewire local model pack discovery — fix 1122f5a silent no-op
  1122f5a ci(codeql): teach analyzer about ValidateSafeURL SSRF barrier

Net: drops .github/codeql/ entirely; restores the codeql.yml workflow
and the docs/architecture.md::Input Validation and SSRF Protection
section to their pre-1122f5a state. Alert #23 (go/request-forgery,
Critical) at internal/service/scep_probe.go:232 stays OPEN to be
resolved later.

Why this revert exists. The original Option A (model pack barrier
declaration) was the right idea on paper — teach the analyzer that
internal/validation.ValidateSafeURL sanitizes the URL argument so
the request-forgery taint trace stops there. Two iterations in
(1122f5a + 482e952), the pack still wasn't loading:

  - 1122f5a used `packs: { go: ['./'] }` in codeql-config.yml. That
    field expects pack names, not paths; the local pack silently
    never registered. CodeQL ran clean but emitted the same alert.

  - 482e952 restructured into .github/codeql/certctl-models/ + named
    the pack + added `additional-packs: .github/codeql` to the action
    init step. Surface looked correct against the pattern I'd
    researched (vscode-codeql, CodeQL docs). But:

      Warning: Unexpected input(s) 'additional-packs',
      valid inputs are [..., packs, ...]

      A fatal error occurred:
      'shankar0123/certctl-models' not found in the registry
      'https://ghcr.io/v2/'.

    `additional-packs` is not a valid input on github/codeql-
    action/init@v3 (verified directly against init/action.yml on
    that branch). Without a valid path-resolver input, the CLI
    fell back to the public registry, where the pack obviously
    isn't published. CodeQL run #56 fatal-errored.

The next iteration would have been: codeql-workspace.yml at the
repo root, OR convert to a query pack referenced via `queries:
./path`, OR publish to GHCR, OR drop MaD and write custom QL.
Each is its own incremental commit with its own failure modes I
can't pre-validate without a CI push, against a `barrierModel`
feature for Go that's too new (added 2026-04-21) to have shipped
public examples to copy from.

Honest cost-benefit. The runtime at scep_probe.go:232 is correct
on day one — `ValidateSafeURL` rejects reserved-IP targets at the
service entry; `SafeHTTPDialContext` re-resolves at dial time and
pins to a literal non-reserved IP, defeating DNS rebinding.
CodeQL is reporting a known-class false positive on a known-good
sanitizer pattern. The cost of teaching CodeQL about a 2-site
validator (this + webhook notifier's client.Do) — multiple
iterations of pack-discovery infrastructure, a `.github/codeql/`
tree to maintain, version-tracking against codeql-action and
CodeQL-CLI updates — exceeds the benefit of silencing those 2
alerts.

The right path forward, when capacity exists: either land a
short justified `// codeql[go/request-forgery]` annotation at
each of the 2 sites with a comment block citing ValidateSafeURL
+ SafeHTTPDialContext, OR dismiss alert #23 in the GitHub
Security UI as "won't fix — false positive" with the same
justification in the dismissal comment. Both are real fixes for
the underlying problem (analyzer's model differs from runtime
reality at known-safe call sites). Neither requires new CI
infrastructure.

Until then, the alert stays open. The Security tab is a public
signal — anyone reviewing the certctl repo sees that we've left
this finding visible rather than hidden it via config. That's
itself a security-posture statement.

Specific files restored:
  - .github/workflows/codeql.yml: drops `config-file:` and
    `additional-packs:` from Initialize CodeQL step. Workflow is
    byte-equivalent to its pre-1122f5a state (verified).
  - .github/codeql/: directory removed (3 files: qlpack.yml,
    codeql-config.yml, certctl-models/models/*.model.yml).
  - docs/architecture.md::Input Validation and SSRF Protection:
    drops the "Outbound HTTP egress" paragraph that was added in
    1122f5a. The original section's coverage of shell input
    validators + network-scanner reserved-IP filter remains
    intact — that's what was there before.

Other commits between 1122f5a and now (c4157fd — encryption-key
fix + H-1 regression guard) are PRESERVED. They're unrelated to
CodeQL and remain valid.
This commit is contained in:
shankar0123
2026-05-01 01:28:54 +00:00
parent 482e952dde
commit e06447b763
5 changed files with 0 additions and 178 deletions
-19
View File
@@ -70,25 +70,6 @@ jobs:
# maintainability/correctness issues that the smaller security-extended
# suite skips. Comparable scope to what Aikido / SonarCloud run.
queries: security-and-quality
# Custom config that pulls in the local model pack at
# .github/codeql/certctl-models/. The pack declares
# internal/validation.ValidateSafeURL as a request-forgery barrier
# via Models-as-Data, dismissing the alert that fires at every
# call site using the validator (scep_probe.go, webhook.go)
# without per-line `// codeql[...]` suppressions. See
# .github/codeql/certctl-models/qlpack.yml for the full motivation.
# Requires CodeQL CLI ≥ 2.25.2 for the barrierModel extension;
# codeql-action@v3 ships a recent enough CLI by default.
config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config.yml
# Tells the CodeQL CLI's pack resolver where to find unpublished
# local packs. The pack referenced by name in codeql-config.yml's
# `packs:` directive (shankar0123/certctl-models) is resolved
# against this path. Without it, the name would fail to resolve
# and the pack would silently not load — that's exactly what
# happened to commits d8026d5 + 4bb7a74 (alert #23 stayed open
# across two CodeQL runs because the pack never made it into the
# analysis). Verified pattern: github/vscode-codeql.
additional-packs: .github/codeql
- name: Autobuild
uses: github/codeql-action/autobuild@v3