privacy: fix a real leak - global IPv6 addresses were uploaded verbatim

Setting out to build the machine-readable schema, the first step was checking
whether the anonymizer covers the fields the schema declares sensitive. It did
not, and five identifying values were going out at the `balanced` level:

  networks[].link.addresses[].addr   the device's own global IPv6 address
  networks[].link.routes[].gateway   the ISP allocation
  networks[].link.dns.servers[]      the configured resolver
  private_dns_hostname               an internal hostname
  search_domains[]                   the internal domain

The settings screen describes that level as pseudonymizing addresses.

Root cause: classification keyed on field names, and the schema's actual names
were never added to the table. Every existing test passed, because each checked
a field somebody had remembered to write a case for - an unfalsifiable design
for a privacy control.

So beyond adding the names, classification now falls back to the *value* when
the name is unknown: anything shaped like an IPv4/IPv6 address or a MAC is
treated as one. Hostnames deliberately are not inferred by shape, since
train.udp_updown is indistinguishable from a domain and mangling a test type
would corrupt the document to protect nothing.

LeakTest is the guard, and is written to fail for fields nobody thought of: it
plants identifying values wherever one can occur and asserts none survive. It
also pins that RFC1918 addresses stay readable, so it cannot pass by
over-redacting. Route prefixes and :: needed care - 0.0.0.0/0 must stay itself
or a routing table becomes unreadable for no privacy gain.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
mrambossek
2026-08-01 14:45:52 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent e7afc2210f
commit 172afb421d
4 changed files with 469 additions and 237 deletions
+45
View File
@@ -848,3 +848,48 @@ itself to table rows, so the prose can keep explaining which codes were retired
Six tests: uniqueness, declared-vs-listed, prefix↔category agreement, naming convention, a
word-order-anagram check (the shape the duplication actually took), and the document agreement.
### A real privacy leak, found by starting on the machine-readable schema (2026-08-01)
The intent was `measurement.schema.json` (§8's promised companion). The first step — checking
whether the anonymizer actually covers the fields the schema declares as sensitive — found that it
did not, so that became the work.
**At the `balanced` level, five identifying values were being uploaded verbatim:**
| value | field | why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| `2001:…::150` | `networks[].link.addresses[].addr` | the device's own global IPv6 address — a strong, geolocatable device identifier |
| `2a02:…::1` | `networks[].link.routes[].gateway` | identifies the ISP allocation |
| `203.0.113.77` | `networks[].link.dns.servers[]` | the configured resolver |
| `nas.example.lan` | `private_dns_hostname` | an internal hostname |
| `example.lan` | `search_domains[]` | the internal domain |
The settings screen describes that level as pseudonymizing addresses. It was not.
**Root cause:** classification keyed on field *names*, and the schema's actual names (`addr`,
`gateway`, `dst`, `servers`, `search_domains`, `private_dns_hostname`) had never been added to the
table. Not a subtle bug — just an unfalsifiable design. The existing tests all passed, because each
one checked a field somebody had remembered to write a case for.
**Two fixes, one of them structural:**
1. The missing names were added.
2. More importantly, a **shape-based backstop**: when a field name is unrecognised, the *value* is
inspected, and anything shaped like an IPv4/IPv6 address or a MAC is treated as one. A name
table can only protect fields someone thought of, which is precisely the wrong property for a
privacy control. Hostnames are deliberately *not* inferred by shape — `train.udp_updown` is
indistinguishable from a domain, and mangling a test type would corrupt the document to protect
nothing.
`LeakTest` is the new guard and is written to fail for fields nobody has considered: it plants
identifying values wherever one can actually occur and asserts none survive, rather than checking
a list of known cases. It also pins that RFC1918 addresses still come through readable, so the
test cannot pass by over-redacting everything.
Route prefixes and the unspecified address needed care in the transform: `0.0.0.0/0` and `::/0`
must stay themselves, or a routing table becomes unreadable for no privacy gain.
**Still outstanding:** `measurement.schema.json` itself. Worth noting what this episode implies for
it — much of a document's payload lives in `evidence`/`metrics`/`params`, which are per-test-type
`JsonObject` by design and therefore *outside* any schema. A schema-driven anonymizer would have
less coverage there than the name-plus-shape one now does, so the schema should be built for
validation and external tooling, not as a replacement for the classifier.