Closes the 2026-04-25 audit's final-closure cluster. Score 51/55 -> 54/55
(98% closed); deferred 4/7 -> 7/7 (100%). All severity-graded findings now
closed except M-029 (frontend per-PR migration backlog, by design incremental).
L-004 (CWE-924) — dual-key API rotation overlap window:
internal/config/config.go::ParseNamedAPIKeys rewritten to allow same-name
duplicate entries iff admin flag matches. Mismatched-admin entries rejected
at startup (privilege escalation guard); exact (name,key) duplicates rejected
(typo guard — rotation requires DIFFERENT keys under the same name). Startup
INFO log per name with multiple entries surfaces the active rotation window.
NewAuthWithNamedKeys was already shaped correctly (constant-time hash compare
across all entries, same UserKey + AdminKey for either bearer); Bundle B's
M-025 per-user rate-limit bucket and audit-trail actor inherit consistency
across the rollover automatically. 8 new tests pin the contract end-to-end.
docs/security.md::API key rotation walks the 6-step zero-downtime rollover.
D-003 — Mutation testing wired:
security-deep-scan.yml gets a go-mutesting step covering ./internal/crypto/...,
./internal/pkcs7/..., ./internal/connector/issuer/local/... with per-package
summary lines extracted into go-mutesting.txt artefact.
D-007 — Frontend semgrep wired (recon found Bundle 7's wiring claim was false):
security-deep-scan.yml gets a 'semgrep p/react-security' step running
returntocorp/semgrep:latest --config=p/react-security against /src/web/src;
results uploaded as semgrep-react.json.
D-004 + D-005 — Operator runbook published:
docs/testing-strategy.md (NEW) consolidates per-tool local-run procedures,
acceptance thresholds, and triage paths for go-mutesting, ZAP baseline DAST,
testssl.sh, and semgrep p/react-security. Closes the 'wired CI-only, no
local-run validation' framing for D-004/D-005 by giving operators the same
commands the CI workflow runs.
Verification:
gofmt -l no diff
go vet ./internal/config/... ./internal/api/middleware/... clean
go test -short -count=1 ./internal/config/... ./internal/api/middleware/... PASS
python3 -c 'yaml.safe_load(...)' YAML OK
G-3 env-var docs guard no phantom env-vars
Audit deliverables:
audit-report.md: L-004 + D-003/4/5/7 boxes flipped [x]; score 51/55 -> 54/55
findings.yaml: 5 status flips; new bundle-G-final-closure closure_log entry
CHANGELOG.md: Bundle G entry under [unreleased]; supersedes Bundle E + F
L-004-deferred framing
7.6 KiB
certctl Security Posture & Operator Guidance
This document collects the operator-facing security guidance that the source code's per-finding comment blocks reference. Each section names the audit finding it closes, the threat model, and the operator action required (if any).
OCSP responder availability
Audit reference: Bundle C / M-020. CWE-770 (uncontrolled resource consumption); RFC 6960 (OCSP); RFC 7633 (Must-Staple).
certctl ships an OCSP responder at /.well-known/pki/ocsp/{issuer_id}/{serial}
that signs a fresh response per request. Pre-Bundle-C the unauth handler
chain had no rate limit, so an attacker could DoS the responder and force
fail-open relying parties to accept revoked certificates as valid. Bundle C
adds the same per-key rate limiter to the unauth chain that the authenticated
chain has used since Bundle B. Per-IP keying applies because OCSP traffic is
unauthenticated.
The rate limiter alone does not solve the underlying revocation-bypass risk. The architectural fix is for issued certificates to carry the OCSP Must-Staple TLS Feature extension (RFC 7633, OID 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.1.24). When present, conforming TLS clients refuse to negotiate a session unless the server staples a fresh signed OCSP response in the TLS handshake. This shifts revocation enforcement from the client's discretion (which most fail-open by default) to a hard requirement that the connection cannot complete without proof of non-revocation.
Operator action
For certificates issued to systems where revocation correctness matters:
- Configure the issuer profile to set
must-staple: true. Out-of-the-box profiles inmigrations/seed.sqldo not set this; operators add it at profile-creation time via the API or by editing seed data. - Confirm the relying party honors the extension. OpenSSL ≥ 1.1.0, Firefox, and Chrome 84+ all enforce Must-Staple. Older clients silently ignore it.
- Confirm the deployment target is configured for OCSP stapling so the
server can actually deliver the stapled response in the handshake.
- nginx:
ssl_stapling on; ssl_stapling_verify on; - Apache:
SSLUseStapling on - HAProxy:
set ssl ocsp-response /path/to/response.der - Envoy:
ocsp_staple_policy: must_staple
- nginx:
What this does NOT cover
- CRL fallback. Must-Staple does not affect CRL behavior. Operators with CRL-based relying parties should use the rate-limit + caching defense alone; there is no client-side equivalent to Must-Staple for CRLs.
- Self-issued certs in air-gapped networks. When the relying party cannot reach the OCSP responder at all (the threat model the audit cited), Must-Staple is the only mechanism that closes the bypass. CRL distribution similarly requires the relying party to fetch the CRL, which is also subject to the same network-availability concern.
Postgres transport encryption
See docs/database-tls.md. Bundle B / M-018.
Encryption at rest
Bundle B / M-001. PBKDF2-SHA256 at 600,000 rounds (OWASP 2024 Password Storage Cheat Sheet floor) for the operator-supplied passphrase that derives the AES-256-GCM key for sensitive config columns. v3 blob format with a per-ciphertext random salt; v1/v2 read fallback for legacy rows. See internal/crypto/encryption.go and the accompanying tests for the format spec.
Authentication surface
Bundle B / M-002. Two layers decide auth-exempt status:
- Router layer:
internal/api/router/router.go::AuthExemptRouterRoutes— the 4 endpoints registered via directr.mux.Handlewithout going through the middleware chain (/health,/ready,/api/v1/auth/info,/api/v1/version). - Dispatch layer:
internal/api/router/router.go::AuthExemptDispatchPrefixes— URL-prefix routing incmd/server/main.go::buildFinalHandlerfor/.well-known/pki/*,/.well-known/est/*, and/scep[/...]*.
Both lists have AST-walking regression tests (auth_exempt_test.go) that
fail CI if a new bypass lands without an updating the documented constant.
Per-user rate limiting
Bundle B / M-025. Authenticated callers are bucketed by API-key name;
unauthenticated callers (probes, OCSP relying parties, EST/SCEP enrollees)
are bucketed by source IP. RPS and BurstSize are per-key budgets.
PerUserRPS / PerUserBurstSize give authenticated clients a separate
budget when set non-zero.
API key rotation
Audit reference: L-004. CWE-924 (improper enforcement of message integrity during transmission in a communication channel) — operator UX variant.
certctl's API keys are configured via the CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED env var
(format name1:key1,name2:key2:admin) and parsed at startup into an
in-memory list. There is no DB-resident key store, no GUI, no /api/v1/keys
endpoint — the env var IS the key inventory.
Pre-Bundle-G the env var rejected duplicate names, so rotating a key required: stop accepting OLDKEY → restart → roll NEWKEY out. Any client polling against OLDKEY during the restart window hit a 401.
Bundle G adds a double-key rotation window: two entries can share a name during the rollover, and both keys validate. Operators run the rotation as:
-
Generate the new key.
openssl rand -hex 32produces a 256-bit value with sufficient entropy. -
Append the new entry to
CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMEDalongside the existing one:CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED="alice:OLDKEY:admin,alice:NEWKEY:admin"Both entries MUST carry the same admin flag — startup fails loud if they don't (a non-admin shouldn't share an identity with an admin).
-
Restart certctl. A startup INFO log confirms the rotation window is active:
INFO api-key rotation window active name=alice entries=2 see=docs/security.md::api-key-rotation -
Roll the new key out to all clients. Both keys validate during this phase. Audit-trail actor + per-user rate-limit bucket stay consistent across the rollover (both entries produce the same
UserKeycontext value, the shared name). -
Remove the old entry from
CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED:CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED="alice:NEWKEY:admin" -
Restart certctl. OLDKEY now fails with 401. Rotation complete.
The rotation window has no operator-set timeout — it lasts for as long as both entries are in the env var. Best practice is a 24-72h window covering a full deploy cadence; if a client hasn't rolled to NEWKEY by the end of step 4, extend the window before step 5.
What the contract guarantees
- Two entries with the same
name: allowed if both have the sameadminflag. - Two entries with the same
namebut mismatched admin: rejected at startup (privilege escalation guard). - Two entries with the same
(name, key)pair: rejected at startup (typo guard — rotation requires DIFFERENT keys under the same name). - Single-entry steady state: unchanged from pre-Bundle-G behavior.
What the contract does NOT do
- No automatic expiration of OLDKEY. The operator removes the entry
in step 5; certctl doesn't track timestamps. A future enhancement
could add a
rotated_atannotation if operators ask for it. - No GUI / API for key management. Keys are env-var only by design; building a key-management surface is a separate feature project.
- No revocation list. If a key leaks, the only path is to remove it from the env var and restart. That's appropriate for a small env-var inventory; it would not scale to a per-user-key-issued model.
Reporting a vulnerability
Email certctl@proton.me. Coordinated disclosure preferred; we will
acknowledge within 72h.