---
title: Security Architecture
sidebarTitle: Security architecture
description: How Sencho protects your infrastructure with layered authentication, encryption, access control, and audit logging.
---

Sencho applies defense-in-depth across authentication, authorization, encryption, and auditing. All security features ship with sensible defaults and work out of the box on a fresh install.

<Note>
  Sencho is used in production for day-to-day Docker Compose and fleet management. As a pre-1.0 project it still evolves quickly, so review the [known limitations](https://github.com/studio-saelix/sencho/blob/main/KNOWN_LIMITATIONS.md) and validate against your own setup before deploying it on critical infrastructure.
</Note>

## The authentication stack

Every self-hosted instance includes the full security stack. Some advanced governance and authentication options require an Admiral plan today.

<CardGroup cols={2}>

<Card title="Password authentication" icon="lock-keyhole">
  Cryptographically hashed credentials with an enforced minimum-length policy aligned to NIST SP 800-63B.
</Card>

<Card title="Single sign-on" icon="right-to-bracket" href="/features/sso">
  LDAP/Active Directory, Google, GitHub, Okta, and any spec-compliant OIDC provider, all protected by PKCE and state parameters.
</Card>

<Card title="Two-factor authentication" icon="shield-check" href="/features/two-factor-authentication">
  TOTP-based second factor with single-use backup codes, replay prevention, and automatic lockout after repeated failures.
</Card>

<Card title="Session management" icon="cookie">
  httpOnly, Secure, SameSite=strict cookies with immediate invalidation on password or role changes.
</Card>

<Card title="API tokens" icon="key" href="/features/api-tokens">
  Scoped tokens for CI/CD with three permission levels, hashed storage, and configurable expiry.
</Card>

<Card title="Role-based access control" icon="users" href="/features/rbac">
  Five roles with a granular permission matrix and optional per-resource scoped assignments.
</Card>

<Card title="Audit logging" icon="clipboard-list" href="/features/audit-log">
  Every mutating API request logged with user, IP, method, and status. Searchable, filterable, and exportable.
</Card>

<Card title="Encryption at rest" icon="lock">
  AES-256-GCM encryption for all sensitive values, with the key stored separately from the database.
</Card>

<Card title="Rate limiting" icon="gauge">
  Per-user and per-IP rate limiting across authentication endpoints and the global API surface.
</Card>

<Card title="Node-to-node authentication" icon="network-wired" href="/features/multi-node">
  Long-lived JWT bearer tokens, encrypted at rest, injected automatically during proxied requests.
</Card>

<Card title="Vulnerability scanning" icon="shield-virus" href="/features/vulnerability-scanning">
  Trivy-powered CVE scanning of container images, with severity badges, post-deploy automation, and policy gating.
</Card>

<Card title="Fleet Secrets" icon="key-skeleton" href="/features/fleet-secrets">
  Encrypted, versioned env-var bundles pushed to labeled nodes' stacks. Sealed with the same data key as MFA and registry credentials.
</Card>

<Card title="Webhook signatures" icon="signature" href="/features/webhooks">
  Per-webhook HMAC-SHA256 secrets, shown once at creation, never echoed back, validated with constant-time comparison on every inbound trigger.
</Card>

</CardGroup>

## Tier availability

Every Sencho instance includes the foundational security stack. Organizational identity and extended audit governance features are available on paid tiers.

| Feature | Community | Admiral |
|---------|:---------:|:-------:|
| Password authentication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom OIDC SSO (Authelia, Keycloak, Authentik, any provider) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Preset Google / GitHub / Okta SSO | ✓ | ✓ |
| LDAP / Active Directory | | ✓ |
| Two-factor authentication (TOTP + backup codes) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Session management (httpOnly, Secure, SameSite) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Encryption at rest (AES-256-GCM) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rate limiting (auth + API) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Node-to-node authentication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vulnerability scanning (on-demand + post-deploy + scheduled) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in RBAC (five roles + scoped assignments) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Webhook signatures (HMAC-SHA256) | ✓ | ✓ |
| API tokens (scoped, expiring) | ✓ | ✓ |
| SBOM generation (SPDX, CycloneDX) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recent-activity audit log (14-day window) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scan policies (`block_on_deploy`) | ✓ | ✓ |
| SARIF export (admin) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit log export, anomaly detection, and extended retention | | ✓ |

## Password authentication

Sencho enforces a minimum 8-character password policy aligned with [NIST SP 800-63B](https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63b.html). Passwords are hashed with bcrypt (cost factor 10) before storage. On first launch, you create the initial admin account through a setup wizard; additional users can be created from **Settings · Users**.

The password field in **Settings · Account** shows a live strength indicator that recommends 12 or more characters with mixed case and a number, but this is guidance only: any password meeting the 8-character minimum is accepted.

Changing your password immediately invalidates all other active sessions, so a compromised session cannot survive a password reset.

## Single sign-on

Sencho supports five identity providers split across tiers by delivery model:

- **Community**: **Custom OIDC**, which connects to any spec-compliant OpenID Connect provider (Authelia, Keycloak, Authentik, Zitadel, KanIDM, Pocket ID, and others), plus preset providers for **Google**, **GitHub**, and **Okta**.
- **Admiral**: **LDAP / Active Directory** for on-premises directories.

All OIDC flows use PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) and a cryptographic state parameter to prevent authorization code interception and cross-site request forgery. SSO credentials (client secrets and LDAP bind passwords) are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM.

When a user signs in via SSO for the first time, Sencho automatically provisions a local account with the role mapped from your identity provider's claims. SSO users cannot fall back to password authentication; their access is governed entirely by the identity provider.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/sso/sso-settings.png" alt="SSO settings showing all five identity provider cards" />
</Frame>

For configuration details, see [SSO & LDAP Authentication](/features/sso) or the [SSO Quickstart](/getting-started/sso-quickstart).

## Two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication adds a TOTP challenge after password verification. Users enroll by scanning a QR code with any standard authenticator app (1Password, Bitwarden, Google Authenticator, Authy, Microsoft Authenticator) and receive ten single-use backup codes.

Security controls include:

- **Lockout**: Five consecutive failed attempts trigger a 15-minute lockout
- **Replay prevention**: The same code cannot be reused within its 30-second validity window
- **Backup codes**: Each code is individually hashed and consumed on use; once all ten are spent, you must regenerate from **Settings · Account**
- **SSO enforcement**: Users who sign in via SSO can optionally require 2FA on every SSO login

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/two-factor-auth/challenge.png" alt="Two-factor authentication challenge screen" />
</Frame>

For enrollment steps and admin recovery, see [Two-Factor Authentication](/features/two-factor-authentication) and [2FA Admin Operations](/operations/two-factor-admin).

## Session management

Sencho delivers sessions as JWT cookies with the following protections:

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **httpOnly** | JavaScript cannot read the cookie |
| **Secure** | Cookie is only sent over HTTPS (or behind a TLS-terminating proxy) |
| **SameSite** | Strict, preventing cross-site submission |
| **Lifetime** | 24 hours from issuance |

Sessions are invalidated immediately when any of the following occur: password change, role change, account deletion, or an admin MFA reset. The current session survives its own triggering event (e.g., you stay logged in after changing your own password), but all other sessions for that account are terminated.

During the MFA challenge, a separate short-lived session (5-minute window) restricts the user to the verification endpoint only. If the window expires, the user must re-authenticate from scratch.

## API tokens

API tokens provide scoped, long-lived access for CI/CD pipelines and automation scripts. Three permission levels control what a token can do:

| Scope | Allowed operations |
|-------|--------------------|
| **Read Only** | GET requests only |
| **Deploy Only** | Everything in Read Only, plus deploy, down, restart, stop, start, and update |
| **Full Admin** | All API operations |

Regardless of scope, tokens are universally blocked from sensitive operations: password and MFA management, user administration, SSO configuration, node management, license management, token management, registry credentials, console access, Recovery Vault, and image channel management.

Tokens are cryptographically hashed before storage; the raw value is shown exactly once at creation. Each token tracks its last-used timestamp for auditing. You can configure expiry at 30, 60, 90, or 365 days, or leave it open-ended. A maximum of 25 active tokens are allowed per user.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/api-tokens/api-tokens-populated.png" alt="API tokens management showing active tokens with scope badges" />
</Frame>

For setup and usage, see [API Tokens](/features/api-tokens).

## Webhook signature authentication

Webhook triggers are authenticated with a per-webhook HMAC-SHA256 secret (32 random bytes). The secret is generated at create time and displayed exactly once in the success callout; the configured-webhooks list shows only a masked preview thereafter. Every inbound trigger must present a matching `X-Webhook-Signature` header computed over the raw request body. Sencho recomputes the HMAC server-side and compares it with a constant-time check to defeat timing attacks; mismatches return 401 before any deploy action runs.

Webhooks are available on every tier. For setup and verification recipes, see [Webhooks](/features/webhooks).

## Role-based access control

Sencho defines five built-in roles with increasing levels of access. All five roles and stack or node scoped assignments are available on every plan.

### Permission matrix

| Action | Admin | Node Admin | Deployer | Auditor | Viewer |
|--------|:-----:|:----------:|:--------:|:-------:|:------:|
| View stacks, logs, stats | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deploy / restart / stop / start | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| Edit compose and `.env` files | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| Create and delete stacks | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| View nodes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Add / edit / delete nodes | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| Audit log | ✓ | | | ✓ | |
| System settings | ✓ | | | | |
| User management | ✓ | | | | |
| License management | ✓ | | | | |
| Webhooks | ✓ | | | | |
| API tokens | ✓ | | | | |
| Host console | ✓ | | | | |

You can create **scoped assignments** that grant a user elevated permissions on specific stacks or nodes without giving them broad access. For example, a Viewer can be promoted to Deployer on a single production stack. Scoped assignments are available on Community and Admiral.

Both tiers support unlimited accounts and the same five built-in roles with additive stack and node scopes.

For user management and scoped permissions, see [RBAC & User Management](/features/rbac).

## Audit logging

Every POST, PUT, DELETE, and PATCH request to the API is recorded in the audit log with the acting username, IP address, HTTP method, response status, and an auto-generated summary. GET requests are excluded to keep the log focused on mutations.

The audit log is searchable by keyword (actions, paths, usernames) and filterable by HTTP method and date range. Users with the `system:audit` permission can open **Audit** from navigation. Community shows the last 14 days of activity; with Admiral, results can be exported as CSV or JSON (up to 10,000 entries per export), entries carry anomaly annotations, and retention defaults to 90 days and is configurable from 1 to 365 days in **Settings · Operations · Data Retention**.

The **Auditor** role provides read-only access to the audit log without any other administrative privileges, making it suitable for compliance reviewers who should not have access to system settings.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/audit-log/audit-log-overview.png" alt="Audit log table showing recent actions with method badges and status codes" />
</Frame>

For details, see [Audit Log](/features/audit-log).

## Encryption at rest

Sencho encrypts all sensitive values with AES-256-GCM before writing them to the database. Encrypted fields include:

- TOTP secrets (two-factor authentication)
- OIDC client secrets and LDAP bind passwords (SSO providers)
- Git source access tokens
- Remote node API tokens
- Registry credentials (private image registries)
- Fleet Secrets bundle payloads (env-var key/value pairs)
- Recovery Vault credentials (S3-compatible secret key)

A single 32-byte data key seals all of the above. The key is generated automatically on first startup and stored in a dedicated file with 0600 permissions (owner-only read/write). If the file permissions are found to be too permissive at startup, Sencho corrects them automatically.

The key file and the database are stored separately. Exposure of the database file alone does not reveal encrypted values.

## Rate limiting

Sencho applies tiered rate limiting to prevent credential stuffing and API abuse.

| Surface | Budget | Window |
|---------|--------|--------|
| Login and setup endpoints | Strict per-IP limit | 15 minutes |
| SSO endpoints | Moderate per-IP limit | 15 minutes |
| Global API | Per-user (authenticated) or per-IP (unauthenticated) | 1 minute |

Authenticated requests are keyed by user identity rather than IP address. This prevents users behind a shared NAT or VPN from pooling into a single budget. High-frequency polling endpoints (health checks, container stats) are exempt from the global limit but subject to their own ceiling.

## Node-to-node authentication

In a multi-node deployment, the gateway Sencho instance authenticates to remote nodes using long-lived JWT bearer tokens with a default one-year expiry. The token is encrypted at rest on the gateway and injected into proxied requests automatically. The browser never handles or sees the node token.

When a request arrives at a remote node, it is verified using the remote instance's own signing key. License tier information is forwarded via headers so that tier-gated features are enforced consistently across the fleet.

For multi-node setup, see [Multi-Node Management](/features/multi-node).

## Pilot Agent tunnel credentials

Pilot Agent nodes use a different credential than Distributed API Proxy nodes. Instead of a long-lived bearer token configured on the control instance, each pilot agent persists a per-node tunnel JWT on its own data volume at `/app/data/pilot.jwt`. The token is signed with the control instance's own `auth_jwt_secret` and is valid for 365 days.

Bootstrap uses a separate one-time enrollment JWT with a 15-minute lifetime. Its hash is stored on the control instance and the slot is consumed on first use, so a leaked enrollment token cannot be replayed. The enrollment endpoint is rate-limited to 10 requests per minute per operator (or per IP when unauthenticated).

The tunnel JWT is bound to the control instance's JWT secret. If you restore the control instance from a backup made before a key rotation, or rebuild it into a different environment, every existing tunnel JWT stops verifying. Re-enroll each affected agent from Settings → Nodes to issue new tunnel credentials.

For the full Pilot Agent trust model (what the control instance trusts about the agent, what the agent trusts about the control instance, and what is not exposed inbound), see [Pilot Agent](/features/pilot-agent#security-and-trust-model).

## Supply chain security

Every Sencho release image ships a set of verifiable supply-chain artifacts:

- **Cosign signature** (keyless, GitHub OIDC): every tag is signed by digest and recorded in the Sigstore Rekor transparency log. No private key is stored anywhere.
- **SLSA provenance attestation**: produced by BuildKit at build time, describes the exact source commit, build inputs, and build steps.
- **CycloneDX 1.6 SBOM**: full package inventory in CycloneDX format, attached as a cosign attestation and downloadable as a GitHub Release asset (`sbom.cdx.json`).
- **SPDX 2.3 SBOM**: same inventory in SPDX format (`sbom.spdx.json`).
- **OpenVEX document**: triage decisions for CVEs that appear in vendored third-party dependencies but are not reachable via Sencho's usage of those dependencies (`sencho.openvex.json`).

For copy-paste verification commands, see [Verifying Images](/operations/verifying-images).

## Production hardening checklist

<Note>
  These steps are recommended for production deployments. Sencho works securely out of the box, but the following actions strengthen your security posture.
</Note>

1. **Place Sencho behind a TLS reverse proxy** (nginx, Traefik, Caddy) so that session cookies are transmitted over HTTPS only. See [Self-Hosting](/operations/self-hosting).
2. **Configure the Docker socket proxy** with the minimum API groups the Sencho features you use require, keeping mutating and build groups disabled where possible. See [Self-Hosting: Docker socket proxy](/operations/self-hosting#docker-socket-proxy).
3. **Enable at least one SSO provider** to centralize identity management and reduce password sprawl. See [SSO & LDAP Authentication](/features/sso).
4. **Enroll all admin accounts in 2FA** to protect against credential theft. See [Two-Factor Authentication](/features/two-factor-authentication).
5. **Use scoped API tokens** instead of sharing admin credentials with CI/CD pipelines. See [API Tokens](/features/api-tokens).
6. **Set `FRONTEND_URL`** to restrict CORS to your domain. See [Configuration](/getting-started/configuration).
7. **Verify Docker image signatures** before deploying to confirm the image has not been tampered with. See [Verifying Images](/operations/verifying-images).
8. **Review the audit log regularly** or assign a dedicated Auditor-role user for ongoing compliance monitoring. See [Audit Log](/features/audit-log).
9. **Keep Sencho updated** to receive security patches and dependency upgrades. See [Upgrade](/operations/upgrade).

## Reporting a vulnerability

If you discover a security vulnerability in Sencho, please report it privately via [security@sencho.io](mailto:security@sencho.io) or through [GitHub private vulnerability reporting](https://github.com/studio-saelix/sencho/security/advisories/new). Do not open a public issue for security vulnerabilities.

See the full [Security Policy](https://github.com/studio-saelix/sencho/blob/main/SECURITY.md) for response times and disclosure guidelines.
