Rate limit login attempts per client address (closes #66)

POST / had no limit, so the signing key could be guessed at no cost. It
is now limited to LoginAttemptsPerMinute (5) attempts per minute per
client by a new RateLimit middleware on github.com/go-chi/httprate. It
counts by the address the ClientIP middleware resolved through
trusted_proxies, an IPv6 client by its /64, and answers an attempt over
the limit with 429 and Retry-After. It runs after the body-size and CSRF
checks, so every attempt that reaches the key comparison is counted. The
image routes can reuse it. README states the limit; TODO narrows the
per-IP item to the image routes.

Model: opus-5-5

README.md

@@ -100,6 +100,13 @@ than once, is refused with 400.
 - `<format>`: one of `orig`, `png`, `jpeg`, `webp`
 - `<size>`: `orig` or `<width>x<height>` (e.g. `800x600`)
 
+The login form (`POST /`) is limited to 5 attempts per minute per client
+address, counting an IPv6 client by its /64; an attempt over the limit is
+refused with 429 and a `Retry-After` header. Behind a reverse proxy the client
+address comes from `X-Forwarded-For` only when the proxy's address is in
+`trusted_proxies`; otherwise all users behind the proxy are counted as one
+client.
+
 ### Source Hosts
 
 Source hosts may be allowlisted in the configuration. Non-allowlisted

TODO.md

@@ -30,6 +30,14 @@ exhaustion
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-09-28 rate limit the login form (closes #66): `POST /` is limited to 5
+  attempts per minute per client address, and an attempt over the limit is
+  refused with 429 and a `Retry-After` header; the address is the one
+  `internal/clientip` resolves through `trusted_proxies`, and an IPv6 client is
+  counted by its /64; the limit is a `RateLimit` middleware in
+  `internal/middleware` on `github.com/go-chi/httprate`, which the image routes
+  can reuse; the library keeps counts for the current and the previous minute
+  only; documented in `README.md`.
 - 2026-09-28 refuse an unparseable `exp` on `/v1/image/` and log swallowed
   cache errors (closes #72): an `exp` in the URL that is not a whole
   number, an empty `exp=` included, is a 400 naming `exp` and the value,
@@ -245,7 +253,7 @@ exhaustion
 - P1: strip EXIF and other metadata from processed images (privacy)
 - P2: security
     - referer blacklist
-    - per-IP rate limiting
+    - per-IP rate limiting on the image routes
     - per-origin rate limiting
 - P2: HTTP response handling
     - Last-Modified headers

go.mod

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/getsentry/sentry-go v0.40.0
 	github.com/go-chi/chi/v5 v5.2.3
 	github.com/go-chi/cors v1.2.2
+	github.com/go-chi/httprate v0.16.0
 	github.com/gorilla/csrf v1.7.3
 	github.com/gorilla/securecookie v1.1.2
 	github.com/prometheus/client_golang v1.23.2
@@ -91,6 +92,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/inconshreveable/mousetrap v1.1.0 // indirect
 	github.com/josharian/intern v1.0.0 // indirect
 	github.com/json-iterator/go v1.1.12 // indirect
+	github.com/klauspost/cpuid/v2 v2.2.10 // indirect
 	github.com/kylelemons/godebug v1.1.0 // indirect
 	github.com/mailru/easyjson v0.7.7 // indirect
 	github.com/mattn/go-colorable v0.1.13 // indirect
@@ -113,6 +115,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/tidwall/match v1.1.1 // indirect
 	github.com/tidwall/pretty v1.2.0 // indirect
 	github.com/x448/float16 v0.8.4 // indirect
+	github.com/zeebo/xxh3 v1.0.2 // indirect
 	go.etcd.io/etcd/api/v3 v3.6.2 // indirect
 	go.etcd.io/etcd/client/pkg/v3 v3.6.2 // indirect
 	go.etcd.io/etcd/client/v3 v3.6.2 // indirect

go.sum

@@ -114,6 +114,8 @@ github.com/go-chi/chi/v5 v5.2.3 h1:WQIt9uxdsAbgIYgid+BpYc+liqQZGMHRaUwp0JUcvdE=
 github.com/go-chi/chi/v5 v5.2.3/go.mod h1:L2yAIGWB3H+phAw1NxKwWM+7eUH/lU8pOMm5hHcoops=
 github.com/go-chi/cors v1.2.2 h1:Jmey33TE+b+rB7fT8MUy1u0I4L+NARQlK6LhzKPSyQE=
 github.com/go-chi/cors v1.2.2/go.mod h1:sSbTewc+6wYHBBCW7ytsFSn836hqM7JxpglAy2Vzc58=
+github.com/go-chi/httprate v0.16.0 h1:8V5DH9j6pSK6UQoBsTpvMyFxycqaKEIToyPKzHJjUa8=
+github.com/go-chi/httprate v0.16.0/go.mod h1:A8lo+qRhk+s9LiuP5saS7XCGDXRXMcrueq0NfIuCa/I=
 github.com/go-errors/errors v1.4.2 h1:J6MZopCL4uSllY1OfXM374weqZFFItUbrImctkmUxIA=
 github.com/go-errors/errors v1.4.2/go.mod h1:sIVyrIiJhuEF+Pj9Ebtd6P/rEYROXFi3BopGUQ5a5Og=
 github.com/go-jose/go-jose/v4 v4.0.5 h1:M6T8+mKZl/+fNNuFHvGIzDz7BTLQPIounk/b9dw3AaE=
@@ -251,6 +253,8 @@ github.com/kisielk/errcheck v1.5.0/go.mod h1:pFxgyoBC7bSaBwPgfKdkLd5X25qrDl4LWUI
 github.com/kisielk/gotool v1.0.0/go.mod h1:XhKaO+MFFWcvkIS/tQcRk01m1F5IRFswLeQ+oQHNcck=
 github.com/klauspost/compress v1.18.0 h1:c/Cqfb0r+Yi+JtIEq73FWXVkRonBlf0CRNYc8Zttxdo=
 github.com/klauspost/compress v1.18.0/go.mod h1:2Pp+KzxcywXVXMr50+X0Q/Lsb43OQHYWRCY2AiWywWQ=
+github.com/klauspost/cpuid/v2 v2.2.10 h1:tBs3QSyvjDyFTq3uoc/9xFpCuOsJQFNPiAhYdw2skhE=
+github.com/klauspost/cpuid/v2 v2.2.10/go.mod h1:hqwkgyIinND0mEev00jJYCxPNVRVXFQeu1XKlok6oO0=
 github.com/konsorten/go-windows-terminal-sequences v1.0.1/go.mod h1:T0+1ngSBFLxvqU3pZ+m/2kptfBszLMUkC4ZK/EgS/cQ=
 github.com/kr/logfmt v0.0.0-20140226030751-b84e30acd515/go.mod h1:+0opPa2QZZtGFBFZlji/RkVcI2GknAs/DXo4wKdlNEc=
 github.com/kr/pretty v0.1.0/go.mod h1:dAy3ld7l9f0ibDNOQOHHMYYIIbhfbHSm3C4ZsoJORNo=
@@ -396,6 +400,10 @@ github.com/x448/float16 v0.8.4/go.mod h1:14CWIYCyZA/cWjXOioeEpHeN/83MdbZDRQHoFcY
 github.com/yuin/goldmark v1.1.27/go.mod h1:3hX8gzYuyVAZsxl0MRgGTJEmQBFcNTphYh9decYSb74=
 github.com/yuin/goldmark v1.2.1/go.mod h1:3hX8gzYuyVAZsxl0MRgGTJEmQBFcNTphYh9decYSb74=
 github.com/yuin/goldmark v1.4.13/go.mod h1:6yULJ656Px+3vBD8DxQVa3kxgyrAnzto9xy5taEt/CY=
+github.com/zeebo/assert v1.3.0 h1:g7C04CbJuIDKNPFHmsk4hwZDO5O+kntRxzaUoNXj+IQ=
+github.com/zeebo/assert v1.3.0/go.mod h1:Pq9JiuJQpG8JLJdtkwrJESF0Foym2/D9XMU5ciN/wJ0=
+github.com/zeebo/xxh3 v1.0.2 h1:xZmwmqxHZA8AI603jOQ0tMqmBr9lPeFwGg6d+xy9DC0=
+github.com/zeebo/xxh3 v1.0.2/go.mod h1:5NWz9Sef7zIDm2JHfFlcQvNekmcEl9ekUZQQKCYaDcA=
 go.etcd.io/etcd/api/v3 v3.6.2 h1:25aCkIMjUmiiOtnBIp6PhNj4KdcURuBak0hU2P1fgRc=
 go.etcd.io/etcd/api/v3 v3.6.2/go.mod h1:eFhhvfR8Px1P6SEuLT600v+vrhdDTdcfMzmnxVXXSbk=
 go.etcd.io/etcd/client/pkg/v3 v3.6.2 h1:zw+HRghi/G8fKpgKdOcEKpnBTE4OO39T6MegA0RopVU=

internal/middleware/middleware.go

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	basicauth "github.com/99designs/basicauth-go"
 	"github.com/go-chi/chi/v5/middleware"
 	"github.com/go-chi/cors"
+	"github.com/go-chi/httprate"
 	metrics "github.com/slok/go-http-metrics/metrics/prometheus"
 	ghmm "github.com/slok/go-http-metrics/middleware"
 	"github.com/slok/go-http-metrics/middleware/std"
@@ -88,6 +89,22 @@ func (s *Middleware) ClientIP() func(http.Handler) http.Handler {
 	}
 }
 
+// RateLimit returns a middleware that limits each client to requestLimit
+// requests per window and refuses a request over the limit with 429 Too Many
+// Requests and a Retry-After header. Clients are told apart by the address
+// the ClientIP middleware stored in the request context, so ClientIP must
+// run first. An IPv6 client is counted by its /64, which one client usually
+// holds whole. Counts are kept only for the current and the previous
+// window, so memory stays bounded.
+func (s *Middleware) RateLimit(
+	requestLimit int, window time.Duration,
+) func(http.Handler) http.Handler {
+	return httprate.LimitBy(requestLimit, window,
+		func(r *http.Request) (string, error) {
+			return httprate.CanonicalizeIP(clientip.FromContext(r.Context())), nil
+		})
+}
+
 type loggingResponseWriter struct {
 	http.ResponseWriter
 

internal/server/routes.go

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package server
 
 import (
 	"net/http"
+	"time"
 
 	sentryhttp "github.com/getsentry/sentry-go/http"
 	"github.com/go-chi/chi/v5"
@@ -12,6 +13,10 @@ import (
 	"sneak.berlin/go/pixa/internal/static"
 )
 
+// LoginAttemptsPerMinute is how many login attempts (POST /) one client may
+// make per minute; the next is refused with 429 Too Many Requests.
+const LoginAttemptsPerMinute = 5
+
 // SetupRoutes configures all HTTP routes.
 func (s *Server) SetupRoutes() {
 	s.router = chi.NewRouter()
@@ -50,11 +55,14 @@ func (s *Server) SetupRoutes() {
 	// token cookie is independent of the session cookie, so it also
 	// covers the login POST, where no session exists yet. LimitBody caps
 	// the POST body ahead of CSRF, which reads its token from that body.
+	// The login POST is rate limited per client after both, so every
+	// attempt that reaches the signing key comparison is counted.
 	s.router.Group(func(r chi.Router) {
 		r.Use(s.h.LimitBody(handlers.MaxFormBytes))
 		r.Use(s.h.CSRF())
 		r.Get("/", s.h.HandleRoot())
-		r.Post("/", s.h.HandleRoot())
+		r.With(s.mw.RateLimit(LoginAttemptsPerMinute, time.Minute)).
+			Post("/", s.h.HandleRoot())
 		r.Post("/generate", s.h.HandleGenerateURL())
 	})