Files
certctl/docs/security.md
T
Shankar 904b2266e7 Bundle G: Final audit closure — L-004 + D-003/4/5/7 closed; 54/55 + 7/7
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
2026-04-27 02:27:44 +00:00

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:

  1. Configure the issuer profile to set must-staple: true. Out-of-the-box profiles in migrations/seed.sql do not set this; operators add it at profile-creation time via the API or by editing seed data.
  2. Confirm the relying party honors the extension. OpenSSL ≥ 1.1.0, Firefox, and Chrome 84+ all enforce Must-Staple. Older clients silently ignore it.
  3. 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

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:

  1. Router layer: internal/api/router/router.go::AuthExemptRouterRoutes — the 4 endpoints registered via direct r.mux.Handle without going through the middleware chain (/health, /ready, /api/v1/auth/info, /api/v1/version).
  2. Dispatch layer: internal/api/router/router.go::AuthExemptDispatchPrefixes — URL-prefix routing in cmd/server/main.go::buildFinalHandler for /.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:

  1. Generate the new key. openssl rand -hex 32 produces a 256-bit value with sufficient entropy.

  2. Append the new entry to CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED alongside 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).

  3. 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
    
  4. 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 UserKey context value, the shared name).

  5. Remove the old entry from CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED:

    CERTCTL_API_KEYS_NAMED="alice:NEWKEY:admin"
    
  6. 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 same admin flag.
  • Two entries with the same name but 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_at annotation 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.