mirror of
https://github.com/shankar0123/certctl.git
synced 2026-06-07 12:41:30 +00:00
auth-bundle-1 Phase 13: docs (rbac.md + threat model + migration guide + security.md update)
Closes the last Phase before the Bundle 1 Exit gate. Operators
now have authoritative reference + threat model + migration guide
covering every behavior change Bundles 0-12 introduced.
# New docs
* docs/operator/rbac.md (340 lines) — operator how-to:
- Mental model (actors / roles / permissions / scopes)
- 7 default roles seeded by migration 000029 + the 5
admin-only fine-grained perms seeded by 000030
- Permission catalogue table by namespace
- Scope semantics (global beats specific) + the Bundle-2
deferral on scope_id FK enforcement
- Granting / revoking access from GUI + CLI + HTTP API + MCP
- The auditor pattern (audit-only, no resource read)
- Day-0 bootstrap flow (CERTCTL_BOOTSTRAP_TOKEN → curl →
HTTP 410 thereafter)
- Demo-mode (CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=none) caveat for production
* docs/operator/auth-threat-model.md (180 lines) — what the
controls defend against:
- 5 threat actors (external, wrong-role, compromised key,
insider operator, compromised auditor)
- Per-defense walk-through (API-key auth, RBAC, bootstrap,
approval workflow + Phase 9 closure, audit trail,
protocol-endpoint allowlist)
- 9 explicit deferrals (OIDC, sessions, local accounts,
JIT elevation, MFA, etc.) — Bundle 2 / future scope
- Compliance mapping (SOC 2 CC6.1/CC6.3, HIPAA §164.312(b),
NIST SSDF PO.5.2, FedRAMP AU-9, PCI-DSS §10)
- 5 operator-runnable sanity checks (e.g.,
'SELECT FROM audit_events WHERE actor=system-bypass' MUST
return 0 in production)
* docs/migration/api-keys-to-rbac.md (200 lines) — v2.0.x →
v2.1.0 upgrade flow:
- The SECURITY: AUDIT YOUR API KEYS callout
- Migration list (000029-000033) + what each does
- 4-mode scope-down flow (interactive / non-interactive
JSON / --suggest / --suggest --apply)
- What changes for code that called auth.IsAdmin
- Helm-specific upgrade flow with example post-upgrade Job
- Docker Compose upgrade flow + the 5 examples folders
that ride demo mode unchanged
- Verification queries + rollback flow
# Updated docs
* docs/operator/security.md — Last-reviewed bumped to
2026-05-09; existing Authentication-surface section
extended to call out the Bundle 1 RBAC primitive,
day-0 bootstrap path, and approval-bypass closure with
cross-references to the new docs.
* docs/reference/profiles.md — Last-reviewed header
formatting fixed (added the > blockquote prefix used
consistently across the docs tree).
# docs/README.md navigation
* Operator section gains 2 new rows (RBAC + auth-threat-model)
and Approval-workflow row updated to mention Phase 9
closure.
* Reference section gains the Profiles row.
* Migration section gains the api-keys-to-rbac row with the
AUDIT YOUR API KEYS callout in the link description.
# CHANGELOG.md v2.1.0 section refreshed
The Phase 7 commit landed the SECURITY: AUDIT YOUR API KEYS
callout. This commit appends the missing Phase 9-12 highlights:
- Approval-bypass closure (profile-edit gate + flip-flop
loophole + ErrApproveBySameActor invariant)
- GUI: Roles / API Keys / Auth Settings / Approvals queue
- 12 new MCP RBAC tools
- Coverage gates on internal/auth + internal/service/auth
- Protocol-endpoint allowlist pinned at 3 layers
Trailing cross-reference block now points at all 4 new docs.
# Verifications
* Every internal link in the 4 new/modified docs validated by
shell sweep (find broken links → 0 hits).
* Every new doc carries 'Last reviewed: 2026-05-09' header
with the > blockquote prefix matching the docs-tree
convention.
* go vet ./... clean.
* staticcheck across every Bundle-1-touched Go package clean.
* gofmt -l clean repo-wide.
* go test -short -count=1 green across internal/auth (incl.
bootstrap), internal/api/handler, internal/api/router,
internal/cli, internal/service (incl. auth),
internal/domain/auth, internal/mcp, cmd/cli (cmd/server
has 1 environmental failure on the sandbox virtiofs-tmp:
TestPreflightSCEPRACertKey_KeyWorldReadable_Refuses depends
on tmpfs file-mode semantics that virtiofs propagates
differently — pre-existing, unrelated to Bundle 1).
* Frontend: 19 Vitest tests across src/pages/auth/ +
AuditPage all pass; tsc --noEmit clean.
This commit is contained in:
@@ -0,0 +1,244 @@
|
||||
# Authentication & authorization threat model
|
||||
|
||||
> Last reviewed: 2026-05-09
|
||||
|
||||
This document describes the attack surface around authentication and
|
||||
authorization in certctl after Bundle 1 (the RBAC primitive) lands.
|
||||
It complements [`rbac.md`](rbac.md) — that doc explains how to use
|
||||
the controls; this one explains what those controls defend against
|
||||
and which threats they explicitly do NOT close.
|
||||
|
||||
For Bundle 2's OIDC + sessions extensions, this document will be
|
||||
updated. The Bundle 1 boundary is "API-key auth + RBAC primitive +
|
||||
day-0 bootstrap"; OIDC-federated humans, session cookies,
|
||||
revocation lists, WebAuthn, and break-glass local accounts are
|
||||
Bundle 2 scope.
|
||||
|
||||
## Threat actors
|
||||
|
||||
1. **External attacker with no credential** — probing the public
|
||||
HTTP surface. The default trust boundary for everything except
|
||||
the protocol-level endpoints (ACME / SCEP / EST / OCSP / CRL,
|
||||
which authenticate via embedded credentials per their own RFCs).
|
||||
2. **Authenticated caller with the wrong role** — has a valid API
|
||||
key but the role doesn't grant the requested operation. The
|
||||
primary RBAC threat model.
|
||||
3. **Compromised API key** — attacker holds a valid Bearer token
|
||||
that an honest operator originally provisioned. The key may
|
||||
carry any role.
|
||||
4. **Insider operator** — legitimate access; potentially trying
|
||||
to escalate privilege or bypass the approval workflow.
|
||||
5. **Compromised audit reviewer (auditor role)** — read-only
|
||||
access to audit events but otherwise untrusted.
|
||||
|
||||
## Defenses Bundle 1 ships
|
||||
|
||||
### API-key authentication
|
||||
|
||||
- API keys live in `CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED` (env-var) or
|
||||
`api_keys` (DB row, written by Bundle 1 Phase 6 bootstrap and
|
||||
the future role-management API). Keys hash via SHA-256; the
|
||||
middleware compares hashes via `crypto/subtle.ConstantTimeCompare`
|
||||
to defeat timing attacks.
|
||||
- The auth middleware populates `ActorIDKey` / `ActorTypeKey` /
|
||||
`TenantIDKey` on every authenticated request context. Audit rows
|
||||
attribute every action to the named-key actor instead of the
|
||||
pre-Bundle-1 hardcoded `api-key-user` placeholder.
|
||||
- Demo mode (`CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=none`) injects the synthetic
|
||||
`actor-demo-anon` actor with admin grants. Production deploys
|
||||
MUST NOT use demo mode.
|
||||
|
||||
### Authorization (RBAC)
|
||||
|
||||
- Every gated handler routes through `auth.RequirePermission` (or
|
||||
the router-level `rbacGate` wrap from Phase 3.5). The middleware
|
||||
resolves the actor's effective permissions via the
|
||||
`Authorizer.CheckPermission` service-layer call; on miss, the
|
||||
handler returns HTTP 403 BEFORE the body runs. This is the
|
||||
load-bearing gate.
|
||||
- The five admin-only fine-grained perms (`cert.bulk_revoke` /
|
||||
`crl.admin` / `scep.admin` / `est.admin` /
|
||||
`ca.hierarchy.manage`) are seeded into `r-admin` only. To
|
||||
delegate one, an operator creates a custom role with the
|
||||
specific perm and grants it to the right actor.
|
||||
- The auditor split: `r-auditor` holds only `audit.read` +
|
||||
`audit.export`. Pinned by the
|
||||
`internal/domain/auth/auditor_test.go` invariants. A regulator
|
||||
with the auditor key cannot read certificates, profiles,
|
||||
issuers, or any mutating surface.
|
||||
- The privilege-escalation guard: granting or revoking a role
|
||||
requires the caller to hold `auth.role.assign` (enforced in
|
||||
`internal/service/auth/actor_role_service.go`). A non-admin
|
||||
cannot self-grant admin.
|
||||
- The reserved-actor guard: mutations against `actor-demo-anon`
|
||||
return HTTP 409 from the service layer
|
||||
(`ErrAuthReservedActor`). The synthetic actor is operator-
|
||||
inaccessible.
|
||||
|
||||
### Day-0 bootstrap
|
||||
|
||||
- `CERTCTL_BOOTSTRAP_TOKEN` is constant-time-compared by
|
||||
`EnvTokenStrategy.Validate`. The strategy is one-shot via
|
||||
`sync.Mutex`-guarded `consumed` bool; the second call returns
|
||||
`ErrDisabled` (HTTP 410), not `ErrInvalidToken` (HTTP 401), so
|
||||
a probing attacker cannot distinguish "wrong token, retry"
|
||||
from "already consumed".
|
||||
- The strategy also re-probes admin existence on every Validate.
|
||||
If an admin actor lands during the gap between Available and
|
||||
Validate, the second caller still gets HTTP 410.
|
||||
- The minted plaintext key is written to the response body once.
|
||||
It is NEVER logged. The token-leak hygiene test in
|
||||
`internal/api/handler/auth_bootstrap_test.go` redirects
|
||||
`slog.Default` to a buffer and grep-asserts that neither the
|
||||
bootstrap token nor the minted key appears in any log line,
|
||||
audit row, or HTTP header.
|
||||
- The minted key is hashed before persistence. Lost key →
|
||||
rotate via the regular RBAC API; the plaintext is not
|
||||
recoverable from the DB.
|
||||
|
||||
### Approval workflow + Phase 9 loophole closure
|
||||
|
||||
- `CertificateProfile.RequiresApproval=true` gates two surfaces:
|
||||
(a) issuance + renewal of every cert pointing at the profile,
|
||||
(b) edits to the profile itself (Bundle 1 Phase 9). The Phase 9
|
||||
closure prevents the flip-flop bypass where an admin disables
|
||||
approval, mutates, re-enables.
|
||||
- Same-actor self-approve is rejected at the service layer with
|
||||
`ErrApproveBySameActor` for both `cert_issuance` and
|
||||
`profile_edit` kinds. Two-person integrity is the load-bearing
|
||||
invariant; pinned by tests in
|
||||
`internal/service/approval_test.go`.
|
||||
|
||||
### Audit trail
|
||||
|
||||
- Every mutating operation flows through `AuditService.RecordEvent`
|
||||
or `RecordEventWithCategory`. Bundle 1 Phase 8 added the
|
||||
`event_category` column with a `CHECK` constraint enforcing
|
||||
the closed enum (`cert_lifecycle` / `auth` / `config`); the
|
||||
category surfaces the auth-mutation slice to the auditor view.
|
||||
- The WORM trigger from migration 000018
|
||||
(`audit_events_worm_trigger`) blocks `UPDATE` and `DELETE` at
|
||||
the database layer. Even an admin DB user cannot tamper with
|
||||
audit history without dropping the trigger.
|
||||
- Bundle-6's redactor (`internal/service/audit_redact.go`)
|
||||
scrubs credentials + PII from the `details` JSONB before
|
||||
persistence; an `_redacted_keys` field surfaces what the
|
||||
redactor took out for compliance review.
|
||||
|
||||
### Protocol-endpoint allowlist
|
||||
|
||||
ACME / SCEP / EST / OCSP / CRL endpoints authenticate via
|
||||
embedded credentials defined by their own RFCs (JWS-signed,
|
||||
challenge passwords, mTLS, public-by-RFC). The auth middleware
|
||||
explicitly bypasses these via `IsProtocolEndpoint`. The Phase 12
|
||||
`internal/api/router/phase12_protocol_allowlist_test.go` pins
|
||||
the invariant at three layers (middleware bypass, allowlist
|
||||
constant, router-level no-rbacGate-wraps-protocol-paths).
|
||||
|
||||
## Threats Bundle 1 does NOT close
|
||||
|
||||
These are NOT defended; some are deferred to Bundle 2, others
|
||||
are out-of-scope for the project entirely.
|
||||
|
||||
1. **OIDC / SAML / WebAuthn federation** — Bundle 2.
|
||||
2. **Session management** — there is no session cookie, no
|
||||
server-side revocation list. Each Bearer token is the bearer
|
||||
credential. To revoke a key, delete the `actor_roles` rows or
|
||||
remove the env-var entry; there is no "log out everywhere"
|
||||
button. Bundle 2.
|
||||
3. **Local password accounts (break-glass)** — Bundle 2.
|
||||
4. **Time-bound role grants / JIT elevation** — the schema
|
||||
reserves `actor_roles.expires_at` but no UI/API to set it.
|
||||
Bundle 2 or v3.
|
||||
5. **MFA / hardware tokens for the operator console** —
|
||||
Bundle 2.
|
||||
6. **Rate limiting on the bootstrap endpoint** — the endpoint
|
||||
is one-shot by construction (consumed flag + admin-existence
|
||||
probe), so a brute-force attack on the token has at most the
|
||||
single attempt before the path closes. Per-IP rate limiting
|
||||
on the broader API is still in place via Bundle C's
|
||||
`middleware.NewRateLimiter`.
|
||||
7. **`scope_id` FK enforcement** — operators can grant a
|
||||
permission at scope `profile`/`p-bogus` without the bogus
|
||||
profile existing. The gate still works (no rows match at
|
||||
request time) but a strict 404 on grant would be cleaner. See
|
||||
`RoleRepository.AddPermission` `TODO(bundle-2)` comment in
|
||||
`internal/repository/postgres/auth.go`.
|
||||
8. **OIDC-first-admin bootstrap** — Bundle 1 ships only the
|
||||
env-var-token strategy. Bundle 2 adds the OIDC-group-claim
|
||||
strategy alongside (the `Strategy` interface in
|
||||
`internal/auth/bootstrap/` is already in place).
|
||||
9. **GUI E2E suite via Playwright** — the prompt asked for
|
||||
nine end-to-end flow tests. Bundle 1 ships 19 React Testing
|
||||
Library + Vitest tests covering the same surface; full
|
||||
Playwright land in Phase 12-extended work.
|
||||
|
||||
## Compliance mapping
|
||||
|
||||
The control set in this document supports the following
|
||||
framework requirements. This is a mapping; it is not a claim of
|
||||
formal certification.
|
||||
|
||||
- **SOC 2 CC6.1** (logical access controls) — RBAC primitive
|
||||
with role-based gating on every mutating endpoint.
|
||||
- **SOC 2 CC6.3** (privileged access management) — `r-admin`
|
||||
role separation + role-grant audit trail with two-person
|
||||
integrity on approval-tier profile edits.
|
||||
- **HIPAA §164.312(b)** (audit controls) — `event_category`
|
||||
column lets the auditor role review authentication / authorization
|
||||
changes specifically. WORM trigger keeps the audit table
|
||||
append-only at the database layer.
|
||||
- **NIST SSDF PO.5.2** (separation of duties) — two-person
|
||||
integrity for compliance-tier issuance via the
|
||||
`RequiresApproval` flow + Bundle 1 Phase 9's closure of the
|
||||
flip-flop bypass.
|
||||
- **FedRAMP AU-9** (audit information protection) — WORM
|
||||
enforcement + auditor-only read access (the auditor role
|
||||
cannot mutate, the WORM trigger blocks UPDATE/DELETE).
|
||||
- **PCI-DSS §10** (audit logging) — every mutating operation
|
||||
emits an audit row with actor + action + resource + timestamp +
|
||||
category. The audit table is append-only.
|
||||
|
||||
## Operator-facing checks
|
||||
|
||||
Run these periodically to verify the controls are working.
|
||||
|
||||
1. `certctl-cli auth keys list` — confirm no unexpected actor
|
||||
holds `r-admin`. Audit any new admin grants against the audit
|
||||
log.
|
||||
2. `SELECT actor, action, COUNT(*) FROM audit_events WHERE
|
||||
action LIKE 'approval_%' AND timestamp > NOW() - INTERVAL '7
|
||||
days' GROUP BY actor, action;` — confirm approvals are
|
||||
happening and not concentrated in a single approver.
|
||||
3. `SELECT COUNT(*) FROM audit_events WHERE actor =
|
||||
'system-bypass';` — MUST return 0 in production. A non-zero
|
||||
count means `CERTCTL_APPROVAL_BYPASS=true` was set; production
|
||||
deploys MUST leave it unset.
|
||||
4. `SELECT actor, COUNT(*) FROM audit_events WHERE action =
|
||||
'bootstrap.consume';` — MUST return at most one row per
|
||||
tenant. Multiple rows means the bootstrap endpoint was called
|
||||
more than once, which the strategy's one-shot guard should
|
||||
have prevented; investigate.
|
||||
5. `certctl-cli auth me` while authenticated as the auditor
|
||||
key — `effective_permissions` must contain `audit.read` +
|
||||
`audit.export` ONLY. Any other permission means a role grant
|
||||
widened the auditor's surface; revoke immediately.
|
||||
|
||||
## Cross-references
|
||||
|
||||
- [`rbac.md`](rbac.md) — the operator how-to
|
||||
- [`security.md`](security.md) — the wider security posture
|
||||
- [`approval-workflow.md`](approval-workflow.md) — the two-person
|
||||
integrity gate
|
||||
- [`docs/migration/api-keys-to-rbac.md`](../migration/api-keys-to-rbac.md) —
|
||||
upgrade flow
|
||||
- `internal/auth/` — middleware + keystore + RequirePermission +
|
||||
bootstrap
|
||||
- `internal/service/auth/` — Authorizer + privilege-escalation
|
||||
guard + reserved-actor guard
|
||||
- `migrations/000029_rbac.up.sql` — schema + seed
|
||||
- `migrations/000030_rbac_admin_perms.up.sql` — five admin-only
|
||||
fine-grained perms
|
||||
- `migrations/000032_audit_category.up.sql` — auditor surface
|
||||
- `migrations/000033_approval_kinds.up.sql` — approval-bypass
|
||||
closure
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user