Rooted is not the same as safe, and the gap between the two cost a production
host every one of its API keys on 2026-08-09.
MxGateway:Authentication:SqlitePath was set to an absolute path inside the
directory the upgrade procedure renames to Server.bak.*. That passes the
existing rooted check cleanly. The deploy renamed the directory away, the store
went with it, and the gateway created a fresh empty one at the same path — no
error, no log line. No gRPC consumer could authenticate for two days. The deploy
itself was correct: the binaries were the point of the rename and the store was
collateral.
GatewayConfigPathRules gains AddIfUnderContentRoot, applied to the auth store
and the Galaxy snapshot. Both are written by the running process and both are
lost the same way. The rule compares resolved full paths and requires a
directory-separator boundary, so a sibling directory whose name merely starts
with the content root's ("/srv/app-data" against "/srv/app") is not treated as
inside it — on a fail-closed startup rule, that false positive would be a
gateway that refuses to boot on a legitimate path. Case sensitivity follows the
running OS rather than assuming case-insensitivity everywhere, which would
reject /srv/App as under /srv/app on Linux where they are different directories.
The rule is not exempted in Development. An environment-conditional guard is
never exercised where the mistake is made, and what failed in production was a
config that looked fine.
Secrets:SqlitePath is the same defect one layer down: it shipped as a bare
relative "mxgateway-secrets.db", which is how a stray database landed in
src/…Server/ and tripped the repository's tree-hygiene test. It is bound by the
shared ZB.MOM.WW.Secrets package, so appsettings.json now ships no value and the
default is computed from CommonApplicationData in code — the same mechanism
SEC-33 already used for the Galaxy snapshot, ten lines away, for the same reason.
Setting a default for an unset key is deliberately not the same act as
relocating a value someone configured, which these rules still refuse to do.
Note the migration edge this creates: a host relying on the old repo default now
looks somewhere new, finds nothing, and creates an empty store — this bug
re-introduced by its own fix. Deployed hosts are safe because they set the path
explicitly, in appsettings copied forward or in the service environment. The
latter is the more robust of the two, since it cannot be lost by a missed
preserve step.
Repo-side half of SEC-36. The appsettings.json plaintext was already discharged
before this branch (HEAD ships the fail-closed ${secret:ldap/mxgateway/bind}
store reference), so the residual leak was the literal value in glauth.md,
docs/GatewayTesting.md, and the historical archreview SEC-06 evidence -- all
scrubbed to <service-account-password> placeholders pointing at the source of
truth scadaproj/infra/glauth/.
- csproj: add <UserSecretsId>mxaccessgw-server</UserSecretsId> (dev channel)
- GatewayOptionsValidator: blank-password message now names both channels
(dev user-secrets, deployed MxGateway__Ldap__ServiceAccountPassword)
- test: assert the message names both channels
- docs: GatewayConfiguration.md (three channels + rotation note), glauth.md
(placeholders + rotation-required + runbook pointer), GatewayTesting.md
- new operator runbook docs/runbooks/SEC-36-ldap-credential-rotation.md
(live rotation + NSSM staging remain operator-pending)
- tracking: SEC-36 -> Done (repo-side) in both registers + change-log
Deviation: kept the ${secret:} reference in appsettings.json rather than
deleting it (spec step 2 assumed the stale plaintext baseline); deleting it
would regress the shipped/documented/tested secret-store channel.
git grep -i for the old value is empty across all tracked files.
SEC-33: make rooting host-meaningful and stop shipping foreign-platform literals.
- Delete IsRootedForAnyPlatform; AddIfNotRooted now uses Path.IsPathRooted (current OS).
- Promote AddIfNotRooted/AddIfInvalidPath to shared GatewayConfigPathRules so the new
Galaxy validator reuses them and the two validators cannot drift.
- Remove Authentication:SqlitePath and Galaxy:SnapshotCachePath Windows literals from
appsettings.json; the CommonApplicationData-derived code defaults take over. The
Galaxy default is seeded as a configuration value before AddZbGalaxyRepository
(SnapshotCachePath is init-only, so a PostConfigure mutation cannot compile).
- New GalaxyRepositoryOptionsValidator (ValidateOnStart) enforces a valid, host-rooted
SnapshotCachePath when PersistSnapshot is true.
- Root-cause the stray junk-named auth DB: host start eagerly builds
AuthSqliteConnectionFactory; under the non-rooted Windows literal on macOS SQLite
wrote it relative to the test bin CWD. The three real-host-start tests now pin
SqlitePath to a temp path.
SEC-34: verification cache Invalidate-vs-in-flight-repopulation race closed with a
per-key generation counter (bump-before-evict, snapshot-then-recheck). The expiry
cap (window 2) takes the documented fallback: the library verification identity
carries no ExpiresUtc, so the cache cannot cap at the key's expiry (donor-library ask).
GWC-24 rider: cap MxGateway:Events:QueueCapacity at int.MaxValue/2 so the derived
checked(2 * EventChannelCapacity) in WorkerClient cannot overflow at session creation.
SEC-35 (doc-only): note IsProduction() env-name semantics in GatewayConfiguration.md.
Docs updated same commit (GatewayConfiguration.md, Authentication.md) and tracking
registers/change-log flipped (00-tracking.md, 40-security-dashboard.md).
The gRPC auth failure limiter partitioned on the key id parsed out of the
*unauthenticated* token and rejected with ResourceExhausted before VerifyAsync
ran. Key ids are not secret — they ride in every token and are listed on the
dashboard — so any network peer could send 10 garbage-secret requests per minute
and deny that key indefinitely: the legitimate holder's correct secret was
refused before it was ever checked, and the success-path Reset that would clear
the block sat behind the verification the block prevented (SEC-31). The tracked
map was also flushable — any `a_b_c`-shaped junk minted a fresh partition (the
`mxgw` literal was never compared), so ~4096 throwaway tokens evicted a blocked
entry and reset the window (SEC-32).
ApiKeyFailureLimiter moves from IsBlocked/RecordFailure/Reset(string peer) to a
partition-pair API: Check/RecordFailure/Reset(ApiKeyThrottlePartition) with an
ApiKeyThrottleDecision result. Two layers share one sliding window — a composite
(transport peer, key id) partition at ApiKeyFailureLimit, and a per-key-id
aggregate across all peers at the new ApiKeyFailureAggregateLimit (default 30)
that bounds a source-rotating sprayer. An over-limit state is now a valve rather
than a wall: one request per the new ApiKeyFailureProbeIntervalSeconds (default
5) is admitted through to the real verifier, so the correct secret always reaches
the constant-time compare and resets both layers. Guarantees preserved: guessing
stays bounded per window, and the failure path still spends no store read per
attempt.
SEC-32 rides the same change set: the interceptor validates token shape (literal
`mxgw` prefix, >= 3 non-empty `_` segments, key id <= 64 chars) before minting a
key-id partition, each transport peer may mint at most 32 of them before the
overflow collapses onto its fallback partition, and eviction prefers fully
expired windows and never drops an over-limit partition below a 2x transient
overshoot ceiling. Throttled attempts increment mxgateway.auth.throttled, tagged
stage=peer|aggregate only — /metrics is unauthenticated (open SEC-14), so no key
material may appear there.
Docs in the same commit: GatewayConfiguration limiter rows plus the two new keys,
the Authentication hot-path paragraph, the Authorization SEC-11 section, and the
limiter / SecurityOptions XML remarks (the old NAT rationale described the
defective keying). Tracking rows flipped to Done with a change-log entry.
Tests: new ApiKeyFailureLimiterTests (11) covering window pruning, composite vs
aggregate trip points, probe cadence, absolute-block mode, reset across both
layers, junk-spray eviction resistance, the per-peer cap, and expired-window
eviction preference; GatewayGrpcAuthorizationInterceptorTests gains the four
SEC-31 contract tests plus NonMxgwToken_FallsBackToTransportPeerPartition (20
total); GatewayOptionsValidatorTests covers both new keys including 0 as a
supported disable value (66 total).
Resolve all CommentChecker findings across the gateway server, worker, tests,
and .NET client (314 -> 0 real issues): add missing <returns>/<summary>/<param>
on public and test members, convert Stream/interface overrides to <inheritdoc/>,
and remove internal task/issue tracking IDs (SEC-*, IPC-*, WRK-*, GWC-*, TST-*,
Client.Dotnet-*) from shipped code documentation while preserving the design
rationale prose. Shipped comments should not carry internal bookkeeping, and
complete XML docs keep the analyzer/TreatWarningsAsErrors gate and generated API
docs clean. The 6 remaining flags are heuristic false positives (MD5, UTC-4,
capacity-1, near-1601) left intact so real documentation is not corrupted.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01DMXXvNuPekkkrTEyPNxEkW
Proto foundation + gateway-side of the size/backpressure pass:
- IPC-02: add GatewayHello.max_frame_bytes (regen Generated/); gateway sends
its negotiated worker-frame max in the handshake so the worker can adopt it
instead of a hard-coded default. Worker read-half lands separately.
- IPC-03: give the pipe frame max envelope-overhead headroom above the public
gRPC cap (WorkerFrameProtocolOptions.EnvelopeOverheadReserveBytes = 64 KiB;
default Worker.MaxMessageBytes bumped to 16 MiB + reserve), cross-validate the
headroom at startup, and pre-check command envelope size in WorkerClient so an
oversized command fails only that correlation (ResourceExhausted) instead of
faulting the whole session.
- IPC-04: reject DrainEvents max_events above a public ceiling in the request
validator (worker per-reply cap lands with the worker half).
Docs: GatewayConfiguration, WorkerFrameProtocol, gateway.md.
Tests: headroom validation, DrainEvents bound, oversized-command per-command
failure (pipe-harness, verified on windev).
SEC-07: add QueryActiveAlarmsRequest -> events:read scope arm; fix two tests that
constructed StreamAlarmsRequest instead of QueryActiveAlarmsRequest.
SEC-05: shorten hub-token lifetime 30m -> 5m; document that the ?access_token= query
carriage must never be request-logged.
SEC-08: gateway-side CachingApiKeyVerifier (short TTL, keyed on a hash of the presented
secret) skips the per-call store read+last_used write; CoalescingMarkApiKeyStore bounds
last_used writes to <=1/key/min; identity constraints are cached. Invalidation is wired
at the gateway admin sites (revoke/rotate/delete); short TTL backstops out-of-process CLI.
SEC-11: fixed-window rate limit on POST /auth/login + a per-peer (key-id) failure limiter
checked before VerifyAsync; new MxGateway:Security options bound + validated.
Also fixes regressions from the SEC-01/04/06 commit (c185f62) that a narrow test filter
missed (all now covered by a full-suite checkpoint):
- Rooting check is cross-platform: accepts Windows C:\/UNC forms on Unix so the shipped
appsettings path validates on the macOS dev box, still rejecting bare filenames.
- AddGatewayConfiguration TryAdds a non-production IHostEnvironment fallback so the validator
resolves in minimal test/tooling containers; the real host + apikey CLI register the actual
environment first (TryAdd no-op there).
- Test assembly defaults ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development (ModuleInitializer) so full-host
tests exercise wiring instead of tripping the SEC-04/06 production guards.
- GatewayOptionsTests asserts the SEC-01 CommonApplicationData-derived default (platform-correct).
archreview: SEC-07/05/08/11 (P1). Verified: NonWindows build clean; full gateway suite
747 passed / 42 failed, where all 42 are the pre-existing macOS named-pipe-harness failures
(Unix-socket path limit) and 0 are validation/regression failures.
- SEC-01: derive AuthenticationOptions.SqlitePath / TlsOptions.SelfSignedCertPath
defaults from SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData (was Windows-literal strings
that became CWD-relative files off-Windows); validator rejects non-rooted
overrides; delete the stray C:\ProgramData\...gateway-auth.db files that
materialized under src/; add a tree-hygiene test failing on any *.db under src/.
- SEC-04: GatewayOptionsValidator fails startup when IsProduction() && DisableLogin.
- SEC-06: validator rejects LDAP Transport=None in Production; document the
MxGateway__Ldap__ServiceAccountPassword env override + dev-credential rotation.
Galaxy SnapshotCachePath rooting could not be validator-enforced (bound by the
external GalaxyRepository package, not GatewayOptions) — documented instead.
archreview: SEC-01/04/06 (P1). Verified on the Auth-0.1.4 baseline: Server build
clean, GatewayOptionsValidator + GatewayTreeHygiene tests 53/53.
Interlocking changes across the gateway server (shared GatewaySession.cs /
SessionManager.cs), committed together:
- GWC-01 (Critical): alarm monitor now attaches as an internal
(non-counted) distributor subscriber instead of a second raw drain of the
single worker event channel; WorkerClient._events -> SingleReader with a
claimed-once guard so a future dual-consumer regression throws loudly.
- GWC-02 (High): faulted sessions are swept in CloseExpiredLeasesAsync
(IsFaultedReapable + FaultedReason); new FaultedGraceSeconds (default 0).
- GWC-03 (High): configurable MaxSparseArrayLength (default 1_000_000)
enforced before allocation.
- TST-02 (High, security): StreamEvents attach now enforces the opening key
id -> PermissionDenied on owner mismatch.
- TST-12 (Medium): CLAUDE.md retention-defaults sentence corrected.
Verified: NonWindows build clean; targeted tests 135/135 on macOS, plus
WorkerClientTests 18/18 on the Windows host.
Server-054/055/056, Contracts-020/021/022, Tests-036/038/039,
IntegrationTests-030/031/032 (+033 deferred to live rig),
Client.Dotnet-026/028/029 (+027 won't-fix), Client.Go-030..034,
Client.Python-032..036, Client.Rust-033..038.
Key fix: SessionEventDistributor orphaned a subscriber that registered after
the pump completed but before disposal (Server-056) -> register paths now
complete late registrants under _lifecycleLock; regression test added. The
racy dashboard-mirror gRPC test made deterministic (Tests-039).
Verified green locally: gateway Tests targeted classes (GatewaySession,
SessionEventDistributor, GatewayOptionsValidator, ProtobufContractRoundTrip,
GatewaySessionDashboardMirror) + dotnet/go/python/rust client suites.
Adds WorkerReadyWaitTimeoutMs to SessionOptions (default 0 = disabled),
validates >= 0 in GatewayOptionsValidator, documents it in
GatewayConfiguration.md, and adds validator + default-value tests.
No wait/poll logic is implemented here (that is Task 8).
Remove the hard-rejection of AllowMultipleEventSubscribers=true in GatewayOptionsValidator
(fan-out is now implemented via SessionEventDistributor). Add MaxEventSubscribersPerSession
(default 8, must be >= 1) to SessionOptions, validate it, expose it in
EffectiveSessionConfiguration / GatewayConfigurationProvider, document it in
GatewayConfiguration.md and appsettings.json. Tests cover the no-error path for
AllowMultipleEventSubscribers=true, the 0/-1 rejection, positive pass, and default pass.
Defect 1: ValidateLdap used AddIfNotPositive for Port, accepting any value
> 0 including 70000. Replaced with builder.Port() from the shared
ZB.MOM.WW.Configuration library, which enforces the 1-65535 TCP range and
emits "MxGateway:Ldap:Port must be between 1 and 65535 (was {value})".
Defect 2: AddIfInvalidPath only caught ArgumentException, NotSupportedException,
and PathTooLongException from Path.GetFullPath. On macOS/Linux a path containing
an embedded null throws IOException, which escaped the catch block and caused
Validate() to throw instead of returning a failure. Added catch (IOException).
Tests: added Validate_Fails_WhenLdapPortIsZero, Validate_Fails_WhenLdapPortExceedsMaximum,
and Validate_Succeeds_WhenLdapEnabledWithValidPort to cover the new range boundary.
Joseph Doherty