feat: add receiver rate limiting (refs #64)

README.md

@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ TTY detection, and security headers are always applied.
 | `METRICS_USERNAME`      | Basic auth username for `/metrics`  | `""`     |
 | `METRICS_PASSWORD`      | Basic auth password for `/metrics`  | `""`     |
 | `SENTRY_DSN`            | Sentry error reporting DSN          | `""`     |
+| `RECEIVER_RATE_LIMIT`   | Receiver requests/minute per IP per entrypoint | `120` |
 
 On first startup, webhooker automatically generates a cryptographically
 secure session encryption key and stores it in the database. This key
@@ -676,17 +677,24 @@ just delayed until the target is healthy again.
 
 ### Rate Limiting
 
-Global rate limiting middleware (e.g., per-IP throttling applied at the
-router level) **must not** apply to webhook receiver endpoints. Webhook
-endpoints receive automated traffic from external services at
-unpredictable rates, and blanket rate limits would cause legitimate
-deliveries to be dropped.
+Global blanket rate limiting middleware (e.g., a per-IP throttle shared
+with the web UI) **must not** apply to webhook receiver endpoints.
+Webhook endpoints receive automated traffic from external services at
+unpredictable rates, and blanket limits shared with other routes would
+cause legitimate deliveries to be dropped.
 
-Instead, each webhook has its own individually configurable rate limit,
-applied within the webhook handler itself. By default, no rate limit is
-applied — webhook endpoints accept traffic as fast as it arrives. Rate
-limits can be configured per-webhook when needed (e.g., to protect
-against a misbehaving sender).
+The receiver instead has its own dedicated abuse limit, scoped to the
+`/webhook/{uuid}` route only and keyed per client IP per entrypoint: one
+misbehaving sender is throttled without affecting other senders of the
+same entrypoint or the same sender's other entrypoints. The limit is
+`RECEIVER_RATE_LIMIT` requests per minute (default 120, generous for
+legitimate webhook senders). Requests over the limit receive HTTP 429
+with a `Retry-After` header. A set-but-invalid `RECEIVER_RATE_LIMIT`
+value aborts startup rather than silently falling back to the default.
+
+Finer-grained per-webhook rate limits (configured in the web UI and
+enforced in the webhook handler) can layer on top of this env-level
+abuse limit later; they are tracked as future work.
 
 ### API Endpoints
 

TODO.md

@@ -10,24 +10,27 @@
 
 # Status
 
-pre-1.0. No git tags exist. main (afe88c6) is a working webhook proxy
+pre-1.0. No git tags exist. main (81413c5) is a working webhook proxy
 with auth, CSRF/SSRF protections, login rate limiting, Slack target,
-policy compliance (#6), and pinned lint tooling (#55). Note: TODO.md was
-deliberately deleted from this repo in f9a9569 (2026-03-01, #6); its
-content was folded into the README TODO section, which this draft
-reconstructs as of 2026-07-06.
+policy compliance (#6), pinned lint tooling (#55), a per-webhook event
+retention reaper (#63), and delivery targets behind a Target interface
+(#77). Work is tracked as Gitea issues (the authoritative TODO); this
+file is a summary. Note: TODO.md was deliberately deleted from this
+repo in f9a9569 (2026-03-01, #6); its content was folded into the
+README TODO section, which this draft reconstructs as of 2026-07-06.
 
 # Next Step
 
-Implement automatic event retention cleanup based on retention_days: a
-periodic maintenance job that deletes Events, Deliveries, and
-DeliveryResults older than the parent webhook's retention_days from each
-per-webhook event database. The field exists on the Webhook model and
-the README promises the behavior, but nothing enforces it, so event
-databases currently grow without bound.
+Manual event redelivery from the web UI (replay is a core promised
+capability in the README rationale).
 
 # Completed Steps
 
+- 2026-08-07 Rate-limit the public webhook receiver per client IP per
+  entrypoint, env-configurable with fail-loud parsing (#64)
+- 2026-08-07 Per-webhook event retention reaper (#63); NoCache
+  middleware for authenticated pages (#61); Target interface refactor
+  (#77)
 - 2026-07-07 Adopted scripts-to-rule-them-all: `script/` entrypoints,
   Makefile shims, README Entrypoints section
 - 2026-03-25 pin golangci-lint Docker image for linting (#55)
@@ -51,12 +54,10 @@ databases currently grow without bound.
 
 # Future Steps
 
-- Manual event redelivery from the web UI (replay is a core promised
-  capability in the README rationale)
 - Delivery status and retry management UI
 - Per-webhook rate limiting in the receiver handler (per-webhook config
-  plus handler enforcement; global limits must not apply to receiver
-  endpoints)
+  plus handler enforcement, layered on the env-level receiver limit
+  from #64; global limits must not apply to receiver endpoints)
 - Webhook signature verification for GitHub and Stripe HMAC formats
 - API key authentication for programmatic access (APIKey model exists;
   Bearer token middleware does not)

internal/config/config.go

@@ -31,12 +31,23 @@ const (
 	// defaultRetentionSweepInterval is how often the retention
 	// reaper deletes events older than each webhook's RetentionDays.
 	defaultRetentionSweepInterval = time.Hour
+
+	// defaultReceiverRateLimit is the default number of requests
+	// per minute each client IP may send to a single webhook
+	// receiver entrypoint. Generous for legitimate webhook
+	// senders while bounding abuse of the one unauthenticated,
+	// internet-exposed endpoint.
+	defaultReceiverRateLimit = 120
 )
 
 // ErrInvalidEnvironment is returned when WEBHOOKER_ENVIRONMENT
 // contains an unrecognised value.
 var ErrInvalidEnvironment = errors.New("invalid environment")
 
+// ErrNonPositiveValue is returned when an environment variable that
+// requires a positive integer is set to zero or a negative number.
+var ErrNonPositiveValue = errors.New("value must be positive")
+
 //nolint:revive // ConfigParams is a standard fx naming convention.
 type ConfigParams struct {
 	fx.In
@@ -60,6 +71,10 @@ type Config struct {
 	// RetentionSweepInterval is how often the retention reaper runs.
 	RetentionSweepInterval time.Duration
 
+	// ReceiverRateLimit is the number of requests per minute each
+	// client IP may send to a single webhook receiver entrypoint.
+	ReceiverRateLimit int
+
 	params *ConfigParams
 	log    *slog.Logger
 }
@@ -104,6 +119,38 @@ func envInt(key string, defaultValue int) int {
 	return defaultValue
 }
 
+// envPositiveInt returns the value of the named environment variable
+// parsed as a positive integer. Returns defaultValue if not set. If
+// the variable is set but cannot be parsed, or parses to less than
+// one, it returns a wrapped error naming the key and the bad value,
+// so startup fails loudly rather than silently falling back to the
+// default.
+func envPositiveInt(
+	key string,
+	defaultValue int,
+) (int, error) {
+	v := os.Getenv(key)
+	if v == "" {
+		return defaultValue, nil
+	}
+
+	i, err := strconv.Atoi(v)
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf(
+			"invalid integer for %s: %q: %w", key, v, err,
+		)
+	}
+
+	if i < 1 {
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf(
+			"%w: %s must be at least 1, got %q",
+			ErrNonPositiveValue, key, v,
+		)
+	}
+
+	return i, nil
+}
+
 // envDuration returns the value of the named environment variable
 // parsed as a Go duration (e.g. "1h", "30m"). Returns defaultValue if
 // not set. If the variable is set but cannot be parsed, it returns a
@@ -162,6 +209,17 @@ func New(lc fx.Lifecycle, params ConfigParams) (*Config, error) {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
+	// Parse the receiver rate limit; a set-but-unparseable or
+	// non-positive value is a hard error so fx aborts startup
+	// rather than silently using the default.
+	receiverRateLimit, err := envPositiveInt(
+		"RECEIVER_RATE_LIMIT",
+		defaultReceiverRateLimit,
+	)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
 	// Load configuration values from environment variables
 	s := &Config{
 		DataDir:                envString("DATA_DIR"),
@@ -173,6 +231,7 @@ func New(lc fx.Lifecycle, params ConfigParams) (*Config, error) {
 		Port:                   envInt("PORT", defaultPort),
 		SentryDSN:              envString("SENTRY_DSN"),
 		RetentionSweepInterval: retentionSweepInterval,
+		ReceiverRateLimit:      receiverRateLimit,
 		log:                    log,
 		params:                 &params,
 	}
@@ -197,6 +256,7 @@ func New(lc fx.Lifecycle, params ConfigParams) (*Config, error) {
 		"maintenanceMode", s.MaintenanceMode,
 		"dataDir", s.DataDir,
 		"retentionSweepInterval", s.RetentionSweepInterval.String(),
+		"receiverRateLimit", s.ReceiverRateLimit,
 		"hasSentryDSN", s.SentryDSN != "",
 		"hasMetricsAuth",
 		s.MetricsUsername != "" && s.MetricsPassword != "",

internal/config/config_test.go

@@ -258,3 +258,109 @@ func TestDefaultDataDir(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestReceiverRateLimit(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		name        string
+		set         bool
+		value       string
+		expectError bool
+		expected    int
+	}{
+		{
+			name:     "unset uses default",
+			set:      false,
+			expected: 120,
+		},
+		{
+			name:     "valid value is parsed",
+			set:      true,
+			value:    "30",
+			expected: 30,
+		},
+		{
+			name:        "unparseable value fails startup",
+			set:         true,
+			value:       "not-a-number",
+			expectError: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name:        "zero fails startup",
+			set:         true,
+			value:       "0",
+			expectError: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name:        "negative fails startup",
+			set:         true,
+			value:       "-5",
+			expectError: true,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			// Cannot use t.Parallel() here because t.Setenv
+			// is incompatible with parallel subtests.
+			t.Setenv("WEBHOOKER_ENVIRONMENT", "dev")
+
+			if tt.set {
+				t.Setenv("RECEIVER_RATE_LIMIT", tt.value)
+			} else {
+				require.NoError(t, os.Unsetenv(
+					"RECEIVER_RATE_LIMIT",
+				))
+			}
+
+			if tt.expectError {
+				testReceiverRateLimitError(t)
+			} else {
+				testReceiverRateLimitSuccess(t, tt.expected)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func testReceiverRateLimitError(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	var cfg *config.Config
+
+	app := fx.New(
+		fx.NopLogger,
+		fx.Provide(
+			globals.New,
+			logger.New,
+			config.New,
+		),
+		fx.Populate(&cfg),
+	)
+
+	assert.Error(t, app.Err())
+}
+
+func testReceiverRateLimitSuccess(
+	t *testing.T,
+	expected int,
+) {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	var cfg *config.Config
+
+	app := fxtest.New(
+		t,
+		fx.Provide(
+			globals.New,
+			logger.New,
+			config.New,
+		),
+		fx.Populate(&cfg),
+	)
+	require.NoError(t, app.Err())
+
+	app.RequireStart()
+
+	defer app.RequireStop()
+
+	assert.Equal(t, expected, cfg.ReceiverRateLimit)
+}

internal/middleware/ratelimit.go

@@ -14,6 +14,11 @@ const (
 
 	// loginRateInterval is the time window for the rate limit.
 	loginRateInterval = 1 * time.Minute
+
+	// receiverRateInterval is the time window for the webhook
+	// receiver rate limit. The configured limit is expressed in
+	// requests per minute.
+	receiverRateInterval = 1 * time.Minute
 )
 
 // LoginRateLimit returns middleware that enforces per-IP rate
@@ -62,3 +67,37 @@ func (m *Middleware) LoginRateLimit() func(http.Handler) http.Handler {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+// ReceiverRateLimit returns middleware that rate-limits the
+// public webhook receiver endpoint per client IP per request
+// path (the path contains the entrypoint UUID, so each sender
+// is limited per entrypoint without affecting other senders or
+// other entrypoints). The limit is Config.ReceiverRateLimit
+// requests per minute. Requests over the limit receive a 429;
+// httprate adds the Retry-After header (RFC 6585). IP
+// extraction honours X-Forwarded-For, X-Real-IP, and
+// True-Client-IP headers for reverse-proxy setups.
+func (m *Middleware) ReceiverRateLimit() func(http.Handler) http.Handler {
+	return httprate.Limit(
+		m.params.Config.ReceiverRateLimit,
+		receiverRateInterval,
+		httprate.WithKeyFuncs(
+			httprate.KeyByRealIP,
+			httprate.KeyByEndpoint,
+		),
+		httprate.WithLimitHandler(http.HandlerFunc(
+			func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+				m.log.Warn(
+					"webhook receiver rate limit exceeded",
+					"path", r.URL.Path,
+				)
+				http.Error(
+					w,
+					"Too many requests. "+
+						"Please slow down.",
+					http.StatusTooManyRequests,
+				)
+			},
+		)),
+	)
+}

internal/middleware/ratelimit_test.go

@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@ package middleware_test
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"log/slog"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/http/httptest"
+	"os"
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
@@ -145,3 +147,94 @@ func TestLoginRateLimit_IndependentPerIP(t *testing.T) {
 		"different IP should not be affected",
 	)
 }
+
+// receiverLimitedHandler builds a ReceiverRateLimit-wrapped
+// handler with the given per-minute limit.
+func receiverLimitedHandler(
+	t *testing.T, limit int,
+) http.Handler {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	log := slog.New(slog.NewTextHandler(
+		os.Stderr,
+		&slog.HandlerOptions{Level: slog.LevelDebug},
+	))
+
+	m := middleware.NewForTest(
+		log,
+		&config.Config{ReceiverRateLimit: limit},
+		nil,
+	)
+
+	return m.ReceiverRateLimit()(http.HandlerFunc(
+		func(w http.ResponseWriter, _ *http.Request) {
+			w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
+		},
+	))
+}
+
+// receiverPost sends one POST to the handler from the given IP
+// and path and returns the recorder.
+func receiverPost(
+	handler http.Handler, ip, path string,
+) *httptest.ResponseRecorder {
+	req := httptest.NewRequestWithContext(
+		context.Background(),
+		http.MethodPost, path, nil,
+	)
+	req.RemoteAddr = ip
+
+	w := httptest.NewRecorder()
+	handler.ServeHTTP(w, req)
+
+	return w
+}
+
+func TestReceiverRateLimit_LimitsPerIPAndPath(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	const limit = 3
+
+	handler := receiverLimitedHandler(t, limit)
+
+	// The first limit requests from one IP to one entrypoint
+	// pass.
+	for i := range limit {
+		w := receiverPost(
+			handler, "9.9.9.9:1234", "/webhook/uuid-a",
+		)
+		assert.Equal(
+			t, http.StatusOK, w.Code,
+			"request %d should pass", i,
+		)
+	}
+
+	// The next request over the limit is rejected with a 429
+	// carrying a Retry-After header.
+	w := receiverPost(
+		handler, "9.9.9.9:1234", "/webhook/uuid-a",
+	)
+	assert.Equal(t, http.StatusTooManyRequests, w.Code)
+	assert.NotEmpty(
+		t, w.Header().Get("Retry-After"),
+		"429 must carry a Retry-After header",
+	)
+
+	// The same IP is not limited on a different entrypoint.
+	w = receiverPost(
+		handler, "9.9.9.9:1234", "/webhook/uuid-b",
+	)
+	assert.Equal(
+		t, http.StatusOK, w.Code,
+		"a different entrypoint must not be affected",
+	)
+
+	// A different IP is not limited on the same entrypoint.
+	w = receiverPost(
+		handler, "8.8.8.8:1234", "/webhook/uuid-a",
+	)
+	assert.Equal(
+		t, http.StatusOK, w.Code,
+		"a different client IP must not be affected",
+	)
+}

internal/server/routes.go

@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ func (s *Server) setupSourceRoutes() {
 }
 
 func (s *Server) setupWebhookRoutes() {
-	s.router.HandleFunc(
+	s.router.With(s.mw.ReceiverRateLimit()).HandleFunc(
 		"/webhook/{uuid}",
 		s.h.HandleWebhook(),
 	)