The pre-G-1 config validator accepted CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=jwt and the
startup log faithfully echoed 'authentication enabled type=jwt'.
Reasonable people read that and concluded JWT auth was on. It wasn't.
The auth-middleware wiring at cmd/server/main.go unconditionally routed
every request through the api-key bearer middleware regardless of
cfg.Auth.Type. So CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=jwt quietly compared the incoming
'Authorization: Bearer <token>' against whatever string the operator put
in CERTCTL_AUTH_SECRET — real JWT clients got 401, and operators who
treated CERTCTL_AUTH_SECRET as a *signing* secret (because they thought
they were configuring JWT) had effectively handed an attacker an api-key.
A security finding masquerading as a config option.
We chose the audit-recommended structural fix: remove the option, fail
fast at startup, and add the gateway-fronting pattern as the documented
forward path. Implementing JWT middleware would have meant jwks vs
static-secret rotation, claim mapping, expiry enforcement, audience and
issuer validation, key rollover semantics, and regression coverage at the
same depth as the existing api-key path — a feature, not a fix. Operators
who genuinely need JWT/OIDC front certctl with an authenticating gateway
(oauth2-proxy / Envoy ext_authz / Traefik ForwardAuth / Pomerium /
Authelia) and run the upstream certctl with CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=none. Same
shape works on docker-compose and Helm.
The change is comprehensive across 7 phases — every surface that
mentioned 'jwt' as a certctl-auth-type is updated, plus structural
backstops (typed enum, runtime guard, helm template validation, CI grep
guard) so the lie can't reappear.
Files changed:
Phase 1 — production code (typed enum + jwt removal):
- internal/config/config.go: AuthType typed alias + AuthTypeAPIKey /
AuthTypeNone constants + ValidAuthTypes() helper. Validate() routes
literal 'jwt' through a dedicated multi-line diagnostic naming the
authenticating-gateway pattern, then cross-checks against
ValidAuthTypes(). Secret-required branch simplified to api-key-only.
Field comment on AuthConfig.Type rewritten to drop jwt and point at
the gateway pattern.
- internal/api/middleware/middleware.go: AuthConfig.Type field comment
references the typed config.AuthType constants.
- internal/api/handler/health.go: same treatment for HealthHandler.AuthType.
- cmd/server/main.go: defense-in-depth runtime switch immediately after
config.Load() — exits 1 on any unsupported auth-type that bypassed the
validator. Auth-disabled startup log explicitly names the
authenticating-gateway pattern.
Phase 2 — tests (Red→Green, contract pinning):
- internal/config/config_test.go: TestValidate_JWTAuth_RejectedDedicated
(two table rows pinning the dedicated G-1 error fires regardless of
whether Secret is set), TestValidAuthTypesDoesNotContainJWT (property
guard against future re-introduction),
TestValidAuthTypesIsExactly_APIKey_None (allowed-set contract),
TestValidate_GenericInvalidAuthType (pins non-jwt invalid values still
hit the generic invalid-auth-type error). Removed the prior
TestValidate_JWTAuth_MissingSecret happy-path since its premise is
inverted post-G-1.
- internal/api/handler/health_test.go: removed
TestAuthInfo_ReturnsAuthType_JWT (which baked the silent-downgrade lie
into the regression suite). Pre-existing _APIKey test continues to
cover the api-key happy path.
Phase 3 — spec, docs, env templates:
- api/openapi.yaml: auth_type enum dropped to [api-key, none] with
inline comment naming the G-1 closure.
- .env.example (root): CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE comment block rewritten to drop
jwt and point at the gateway pattern; secret-required conditional
simplified to api-key-only.
- docs/architecture.md: middleware-stack bullet rewritten to drop the
JWT mention; new H3 'Authenticating-gateway pattern (JWT, OIDC, mTLS)'
section explaining the design rationale and listing oauth2-proxy /
Envoy ext_authz / Traefik ForwardAuth / Pomerium / Authelia / Caddy
forward_auth / Apache mod_auth_openidc / nginx auth_request as the
standard fronting options.
- docs/upgrade-to-v2-jwt-removal.md (new ~125 lines): migration guide
with preconditions, what-changes, both recovery paths, complete
docker-compose oauth2-proxy walkthrough, Traefik ForwardAuth and Envoy
ext_authz patterns, rollback posture.
Phase 4 — Helm chart (template validation + docs):
- deploy/helm/certctl/templates/_helpers.tpl: new certctl.validateAuthType
helper mirroring the existing certctl.tls.required pattern. Fails
template render on any server.auth.type outside {api-key, none} with
a multi-line diagnostic.
- deploy/helm/certctl/templates/server-deployment.yaml,
server-configmap.yaml, server-secret.yaml: invoke the helper at the
top of each template that depends on .Values.server.auth.type.
- deploy/helm/certctl/values.yaml: auth: block comment expanded with the
G-1 rationale and gateway-pattern cross-reference.
- deploy/helm/CHART_SUMMARY.md: server.auth.type table row now surfaces
the allowed set and points at the upgrade doc.
- deploy/helm/certctl/README.md: new 'JWT / OIDC via authenticating
gateway' section with a Kubernetes-flavored oauth2-proxy + certctl
walkthrough.
Phase 5 — release surface:
- CHANGELOG.md: new [unreleased] top entry with Breaking / Removed /
Added / Changed sections; explicit pointer at
docs/upgrade-to-v2-jwt-removal.md from the Breaking subsection.
Phase 6 — CI guardrail:
- .github/workflows/ci.yml: new 'Forbidden auth-type literal regression
guard (G-1)' step. Scoped patterns catch the actual regression shapes
(map literal, slice literal, switch case, OpenAPI enum, env-file
default, AuthType('jwt') cast). Comments and the dedicated rejection
branch are intentionally exempt; connector-package JWT references
(Google OAuth2 / step-ca) are exempt as out-of-scope external
protocols. Verified locally: the guard passes on the actual tree and
fires on all 4 synthetic regression patterns.
Out of scope (explicitly untouched):
- internal/connector/discovery/gcpsm/gcpsm.go — Google OAuth2 service-
account JWT (external protocol).
- internal/connector/issuer/googlecas/googlecas.go — same.
- internal/connector/issuer/stepca/stepca.go — step-ca's provisioner
one-time-token JWT for /sign API.
- docs/test-env.md, docs/connectors.md, docs/features.md — describe
external CAs' use of JWT, not certctl's auth shape.
- Implementing actual JWT middleware. Feature, not a fix.
Verification (all gates pass):
- go build ./... — clean
- go vet ./... — clean
- go test -short ./... — every package green
- go test -short -race ./internal/config/... ./internal/api/... — clean
- govulncheck ./... — no vulnerabilities in our code
- helm lint deploy/helm/certctl/ — clean
- helm template with auth.type=api-key — renders OK
- helm template with auth.type=none — renders OK
- helm template with auth.type=jwt — fails with validateAuthType
diagnostic (exit 1)
- python3 yaml.safe_load on api/openapi.yaml — parses
- CI guardrail mirror — clean on real tree, fires on all 4 synthetic
regression patterns
- Smoke test: 'CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=jwt ./certctl-server' exits non-zero
with: 'Failed to load configuration: CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=jwt is no
longer accepted (G-1 silent auth downgrade): no JWT middleware ships
with certctl. To use JWT/OIDC, run an authenticating gateway
(oauth2-proxy / Envoy ext_authz / Traefik ForwardAuth / Pomerium) in
front of certctl and set CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=none on the upstream.
See docs/architecture.md "Authenticating-gateway pattern" and
docs/upgrade-to-v2-jwt-removal.md for the migration walkthrough'
config pkg coverage: ValidAuthTypes 100%, Validate 94.7%, total 75.5%.
Refs: coverage-gap-audit-2026-04-24-v5/unified-audit.md
§2 P1 cluster, cat-g-jwt_silent_auth_downgrade
Audit recommendation followed verbatim: 'Remove jwt from
validAuthTypes until middleware ships'.
CI failure on master (commit 4536147) — staticcheck ST1020:
internal/api/middleware/middleware.go:125:1: ST1020: comment on exported
function NewAuthWithNamedKeys should be of the form
"NewAuthWithNamedKeys ..." (staticcheck)
When NewAuth was renamed to NewAuthWithNamedKeys during the M-002 auth
unification, the leading godoc sentence was left pointing at the old name.
Rewrite the comment so its first sentence starts with the new function
name, and expand the body to describe the named-key + admin-flag contract
introduced in 4536147.
Also gitignore /.gopath/ — session-scoped tool install cache, same
category as /.gocache/ and /.gomodcache/.
Verification:
go vet ./internal/api/middleware/... — clean
go build ./internal/api/middleware/... — clean
go test ./internal/api/middleware/... — PASS (0.245s)
staticcheck -checks=all,<project exclusions> — clean across
middleware, handler, service, domain, cmd/server, scheduler
Closes: CI failure on 4536147.
Closes the remaining P1 gaps from coverage-gap-audit.md (M-001/M-002/M-003/M-006)
on top of the C-001/C-002 ownership + agent-FK contract fixes landed in
5c01c7f. The work lands as a single commit spanning server, docs, tests,
and the React client.
M-002 — Named API keys with per-key actor propagation
* Migration 000014 adds the 'api_keys' table (id, name, hash,
principal, role, created_at, last_used_at, disabled_at) so every
credential carries an identifiable principal instead of the
opaque 'anonymous'/'api-key' sentinel.
* Auth middleware now rotates through configured keys, performs
constant-time hash comparison, stamps 'last_used_at', and emits
an actor struct via contextWithActor(). The audit middleware,
bulk-revocation handler, approval handlers, and MCP tool layer
now read the principal off the context and persist it on every
audit_events row.
* Regression coverage:
- internal/api/middleware/audit_test.go — actor propagation,
principal redaction for disabled keys, anonymous fallback for
unauthenticated endpoints.
- internal/api/handler/bulk_revocation_handler_test.go,
job_handler_test.go — principal-on-audit assertions.
M-003 — Authorization gates (Phase B)
* Approval handler rejects self-approval / self-rejection with 403
when the actor principal equals the job's requested_by field.
* Bulk revocation is gated behind the 'admin' role; operators and
viewers receive 403.
* Regression coverage:
- internal/service/job_test.go — TestApproveJob_NotSelf,
TestRejectJob_NotSelf.
- internal/api/handler/bulk_revocation_handler_test.go —
TestBulkRevoke_RequiresAdmin, TestBulkRevoke_AdminSucceeds.
M-006 — RFC-compliant CRL/OCSP on the unauthenticated .well-known mux
* Per RFC 8615, relying parties cannot reasonably be asked to
authenticate against the issuing certctl instance to retrieve
revocation material. CRL and OCSP move off the authenticated
'/api/v1/crl*' and '/api/v1/ocsp/*' paths onto:
GET /.well-known/pki/crl/{issuer_id}
Content-Type: application/pkix-crl (RFC 5280 §5)
GET /.well-known/pki/ocsp/{issuer_id}/{serial}
Content-Type: application/ocsp-response (RFC 6960)
* Non-standard JSON CRL shape is removed; only DER is served.
* Short-lived certificate exemption (profile TTL < 1h → skip
CRL/OCSP) is preserved; the response simply omits the serial.
* Routes are registered on the unauthenticated 'finalHandler' mux
in cmd/server/main.go alongside EST ('/.well-known/est/*') and
SCEP ('/scep'). Legacy authenticated paths return 404.
* Regression coverage:
- internal/api/handler/certificate_handler_test.go — content
type, DER parseability, 404 for unknown issuer.
- internal/api/handler/adversarial_path_test.go — unauthenticated
access asserted for CRL, OCSP, EST, SCEP.
- internal/api/router/router_test.go — route-table assertion
that '.well-known/pki/*', '.well-known/est/*', and '/scep' are
mounted on the unauthenticated branch.
M-001 — Auto-closed by M-002
EST and SCEP were already registered on the unauthenticated
'finalHandler' mux; the router comment at
internal/api/router/router.go:247 now matches reality. The
adversarial-path tests above lock the behavior in.
Verification (all gates green):
* go vet ./... — clean
* go build ./... — ok
* go test -short ./... (55+ packages) — all pass
* web/ : npm test (225 Vitest tests) — all pass
* web/ : npx tsc --noEmit — clean
* grep sweep for '/api/v1/(crl|ocsp)' — 13 surviving hits,
all intentional M-006 tombstone/relocation comments.
Documentation:
* coverage-gap-audit.md — status flips M-001/M-002/M-003/M-006 →
Fixed, with per-finding resolution paragraphs citing regression
test IDs. (Audit file lives outside this repo; see cowork root.)
* CLAUDE.md Project Status line updated with the auth-unification
closure note.
* docs/features.md, docs/architecture.md, docs/quickstart.md,
docs/concepts.md, docs/connectors.md, docs/test-env.md,
docs/testing-guide.md, docs/compliance-*.md, docs/demo-advanced.md
— refreshed for the new '.well-known/pki/*' namespace and named
API keys.
* api/openapi.yaml — documents the new unauthenticated endpoints
and removes the legacy '/api/v1/crl*' + '/api/v1/ocsp/*' paths.
.gitignore: adds '/.gocache/' and '/.gomodcache/' for the session-
scoped Go caches so they never enter the tree.
Final PR in the six-commit M-2 sequence (PR-A: CertificateService cluster
ad2734c, PR-B: IssuerService+TargetService 20b0e75, PR-C: Policy/Profile/
Owner/Team e5a7b45, PR-D: Job/Notification/Audit c2e9ebf, PR-E: AgentService
6b2d137, PR-F: this commit). PR-A through PR-E collapsed the service-layer
shim methods and deleted every in-production context.Background() /
context.TODO() call from internal/service/; this PR completes the sweep
across the non-service tiers (HTTP middleware + ACME connector) and wires
the contextcheck linter so regressions fail CI.
Three narrow edits land the D-3 pattern (context.WithoutCancel for
subsidiary async writes and deferred shutdown contexts):
- internal/api/middleware/audit.go -- async audit goroutine now runs
on auditCtx := context.WithoutCancel(r.Context()) instead of
context.Background(). Preserves request-scoped values (trace ID, auth)
while detaching from the request's cancellation so the audit write
does not get killed when the response completes. Goroutine is still
tracked via a.wg (M-1 shutdown drain) so Flush(ctx) behaviour is
unchanged. CWE-770 Missing Release (goroutine leak potential) +
CWE-400 Resource Exhaustion (missed cancellation propagation).
- internal/api/middleware/middleware.go -- Recovery panic path now
logs via slog.ErrorContext(ctx, ...) instead of log.Printf. Request-
scoped trace/auth metadata now carries through the panic log, matching
every other request log. D-3 non-bypass: the context is r.Context()
captured before the defer, so even a panic mid-handler propagates
the ctx's trace ID into the ERROR log line.
- internal/connector/issuer/acme/acme.go (HTTP-01 challenge server
shutdown) -- defer shutdown context derived from
context.WithTimeout(context.WithoutCancel(ctx), 5s) instead of
context.Background(). Preserves parent ctx values, detaches from
parent cancellation so Shutdown always gets its full 5-second
budget even when the parent was cancelled. Matches the same pattern
applied in ACME's solveAuthorizationsDNS01 and solveAuthorizationsDNSPersist01.
Linter wiring: .golangci.yml adds `contextcheck` to the enabled set.
golangci-lint v2.11.4 now fails CI on any function that takes a
context.Context parameter but calls into context.Background() or
context.TODO() instead of propagating -- regression guard for all five
prior PRs.
Verification (CI parity, GOCACHE=/tmp/gocache GOMODCACHE=/tmp/gomodcache
GOLANGCI_LINT_CACHE=/tmp/lintcache):
- go build ./... -> 0
- go vet ./... -> 0
- golangci-lint run (contextcheck enabled) -> 0 issues
- go test -race -short ./internal/api/middleware/... -> PASS
- go test -race -short ./internal/scheduler/... -> PASS
- go test -race -short ./internal/connector/issuer/acme/... -> PASS
- go test -race -short ./internal/service/... -> PASS
- rg "context\.(Background|TODO)\(\)" internal/service/ internal/scheduler/
internal/connector/ internal/api/middleware/ -> 0 non-test hits
(one pedagogical godoc reference in audit.go documenting why
context.Background() would be wrong remains intentional)
Wire-format invariants preserved: 0 API routes, 0 SQL migrations, 0
frontend bytes, 0 OpenAPI bytes, 0 connector interface signature changes,
0 new env vars, 0 new external dependencies (pure context stdlib). The
AuditRecorder interface signature, the body-hash algorithm (SHA-256 16
hex chars), the excluded-path short-circuit, the actor-extraction path,
the responseWriter status-capture wrapper, the AuditServiceAdapter, and
all 116 API routes under /api/v1/, /.well-known/est/, /scep, /health,
/auth are byte-identical.
M-2 aggregate across PR-A through PR-F: 57 files, +635 / -613 (PR-A 12f
+227/-237, PR-B 9f +150/-146, PR-C 17f +156/-148, PR-D 11f +67/-63,
PR-E 4f +9/-15, PR-F 4f +26/-4). With M-2 closed, 8 of 10 Medium
findings resolved; M-9, M-10, L-1..L-4, I-1..I-8 remain post-v2.1.0
hardening batch.
Audit complete. Commit: 855124a9d9. Sections: 12. Findings: 2/7/10/4/6.
Audit events spawned from the HTTP middleware ran in detached goroutines
using context.Background(). On SIGTERM the DB pool was closed before
those goroutines finished writing, silently dropping audit events
(CWE-662 Improper Synchronization / CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource
Consumption).
NewAuditLog now returns an *AuditMiddleware struct that tracks every
spawned goroutine with sync.WaitGroup. Callers wire the middleware via
its Middleware method value (preserves the existing
func(http.Handler) http.Handler shape) and drain the WaitGroup with
Flush(ctx), which blocks until in-flight recordings complete or the
provided context is cancelled — mirroring scheduler.WaitForCompletion.
Flush is invoked in cmd/server/main.go between http.Server.Shutdown
(no new requests accepted) and db.Close (pool torn down), with a
timeout returning ErrAuditFlushTimeout wrapping ctx.Err().
Request-derived inputs (method, path, status) are snapshotted before
the goroutine spawn so the worker does not race with http.Server
reusing r after the handler returns.
Tests:
TestAuditLog_FlushDrainsInFlightGoroutines
TestAuditLog_FlushTimeoutReturnsErrAuditFlushTimeout
Verification:
go build ./... : 0
go vet ./... : 0
go test -race -short ./... : 0 (all packages)
go test -cover ./internal/api/middleware : 81.4%
golangci-lint run : 0 issues
govulncheck ./... : 0 vulns in called code
Close coverage gaps identified by dual-audit (qualitative + quantitative).
New test files for config (0%→98%), router (0%→100%), handler validation,
health, audit, response helpers, webhook notifier (0%→88%), email notifier,
middleware (recovery, rate limiter), domain profile, service nil-safety,
config helpers, issuer bootstrap, and server bootstrap wiring. Expanded
existing tests for ACME (34%→42%), step-ca (42%→52%), F5, SSH, agent
(43%→63%), scheduler (88%→99%), renewal service, and issuerfactory.
All tests pass: go test -short, go vet, go test -race clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Implements 3 deferred security tickets (TICKET-003, TICKET-007, TICKET-010)
and performs comprehensive documentation audit to eliminate drift between
code and docs.
Code changes:
- TICKET-003: Repository integration tests with testcontainers-go (50+ subtests)
- TICKET-007: CertificateService decomposition into RevocationSvc + CAOperationsSvc
- TICKET-010: Request body size limits via http.MaxBytesReader middleware
- Fix missing slog import in certificate.go after service decomposition
Documentation updates:
- README: Fix endpoint count (97→93), expand env var reference (15→39 vars)
- CLAUDE.md: Fix OpenAPI operation count (85→93), update file locations
- architecture.md: Add body size limits section, middleware chain ordering
- CONTRIBUTING.md: New contributor guide with architecture conventions,
test patterns, middleware ordering, CI thresholds
- SECURITY_REMEDIATION.md: Removed from repo (moved to cowork, gitignored)
- Test files: Add doc comments to all new test files
Documentation that should exist but doesn't yet:
- Architecture diagrams (C4 model or similar)
- Threat model document
- Testing philosophy guide
- Disaster recovery runbook
- Upgrade guide (migration between versions)
- API versioning strategy document
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The audit middleware records events asynchronously via goroutines. Tests previously
used time.Sleep(50ms) to wait for audit recording, which is unreliable.
Implemented waitableAuditRecorder wrapper that:
- Wraps mockAuditRecorder to intercept RecordAPICall invocations
- Signals via buffered channel when recording completes
- Provides Wait(timeout) method for tests to synchronously wait
- Returns true on successful wait, false on timeout
Replaced all 7 time.Sleep(50ms) calls with recorder.Wait(1*time.Second) calls,
improving test reliability and reducing flakiness.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Added TestSlack_ClientHasTimeout to verify 10-second timeout
- Added TestTeams_ClientHasTimeout to verify 10-second timeout
- Added TestPagerDuty_ClientHasTimeout to verify 10-second timeout
- Added TestOpsGenie_ClientHasTimeout to verify 10-second timeout
- All notifiers already configured with 10 second timeout in New()
- Tests verify timeout is set and matches expected value
M19: HTTP middleware records every API call to the immutable audit trail
with method, path, actor, SHA-256 body hash, status, and latency. Best-effort
async recording via goroutine. Health/ready probes excluded.
M16a: Four pluggable notifier connectors — Slack (incoming webhook), Teams
(MessageCard), PagerDuty (Events API v2), OpsGenie (Alert API v2). Each
enabled by config env var. 30 new tests across middleware and connectors.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add SHA-256 API key authentication with constant-time comparison, configurable
token bucket rate limiter, CORS origin allowlist middleware, and React auth
context with login page. Auth info endpoint bootstraps GUI without credentials.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
