docs: record the admin-listener exposure, and the encrypted-upload design

The incident is written down with its cause rather than just its fix: the admin
listener was built localhost-only, and that assumption travelled with it when I
changed the address. The compounding error is the one worth remembering -
checkAdminExposure verifies encryption and says nothing about authentication, so
it passed and gave false confidence. A green light on an adjacent property is
worse than no check.

Also records the encrypted-upload idea while the reasoning is fresh, including
the four consequences that decide whether it is worth building: what metadata
must stay readable (and what the UI loses if it does not), that losing the
passphrase loses the data by design, that metadata is not hidden regardless, and
that it makes a server-side anonymization floor unenforceable - which is fine,
since encryption serves the same purpose better.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
mrambossek
2026-08-01 19:04:09 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent c7750fbf0b
commit 7bb54e1ec8
+52
View File
@@ -1002,3 +1002,55 @@ Also fixed: the Settings *Preview what an upload would send* button did nothing.
`UiState.history`, which is empty until the History screen has been opened — the same root cause as
the "0 run(s)" count. It now reads the archive directly, and says so when there is nothing to
preview rather than silently ignoring the tap.
### Security: the admin listener was publicly exposed for ~15 minutes (2026-08-01)
Moving the admin listener to `[::2]:443` for the UI exposed `/admin/enroll-tokens` and
`/admin/selftest` to the internet **with no authentication**. Anyone who could reach
`fmr.echo-lot.app` could mint enrolment tokens.
The listener was designed localhost-only — its own flag help says *"keep localhost"* — and that
assumption travelled with it when the address changed. The compounding error: `checkAdminExposure`,
added the same day, verifies **encryption** and says nothing about **authentication**. It passed,
and a green light on an adjacent property is worse than no check, because it invites you to stop
looking.
Closed by returning to loopback (the TLS and ACME work is retained, just not exposed). All 68 device
enrolments matched the timestamps of test runs, so there is no evidence of abuse — but the window
existed on a freshly published hostname and absence cannot be proven. 39 unused enrolment tokens
were purged, since any could have been minted by someone else and they cost nothing to replace, and
63 test devices removed.
**The admin listener does not become reachable again until it authenticates.** That reorders the UI
work: auth on the listener first, everything else after.
### Open: encrypted uploads, where the operator cannot read the data
Not built. Recorded because the shape is decided by a few early choices, and the current design
happens to leave the door open.
The goal: hand someone an account, let them upload, and be unable to read what they uploaded.
Sketch: a random per-account **master key**, generated on the first device and wrapped under a
key derived from a passphrase (PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 — stdlib on both sides). The wrapped key is
stored server-side as an opaque blob, so a new device signs in, fetches it, and unwraps locally;
the server never sees either key. Runs are encrypted client-side with AES-256-GCM, fresh nonce per
run. All of this is stdlib in Go and `javax.crypto` in Kotlin — no dependency either side.
Four consequences that decide whether it is worth it:
1. **What stays readable determines what the UI can do.** The server builds its index by *parsing*
the document — verdict, finding count, started_at. An opaque payload means the client supplies
that metadata or the index disappears, and with it retention-by-verdict and any "runs with
findings" view. The honest version supplies only run id, timestamp and size, and moves the rest
client-side.
2. **Lose the passphrase, lose the data.** That is the feature working, and also the support
burden. It needs a recovery code printed at setup, not a reset flow — there is nothing to reset.
3. **Metadata is not hidden.** The operator still sees which account uploaded, when, how often and
how large. "Cannot see it" is about content, not existence, and saying otherwise would oversell.
4. **It makes `min_anonymization` unenforceable** — a server cannot check a level it cannot read.
That is not a conflict so much as a redundancy: the anonymization floor exists to protect the
user from the operator, and encryption does that better. The two should not both be demanded of
one upload.
What keeps this possible: uploads are already stored byte-for-byte as received, and every index
field is derived in one function (`runs.Put`). The thing to avoid is admin features that *require*
reading content — those would have to be unbuilt later.