Harden operator-set target headers (closes #233) #242
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Closes #233 — the three
review findings from #229 —
and #243, folded in here
because its strip lives in the
CheckRedirectthis PR adds.One rule, both header classes
A redirect hop that leaves the origin the target names carries none
of the headers the delivery is holding on someone else's behalf: not
the operator's configured
headers, not the inbound event headersforwarded from the sender. Same
sameDeliveryOrigincomparison, sameCheckRedirect, one code path.Decision on redirects (finding 1): follow them and strip, not
CheckRedirect: http.ErrUseLastResponse. Refusing redirects outrightis the safer-looking option but it changes behaviour for every
destination that legitimately redirects, and does so silently and
badly: the recorded status becomes the 3xx and the recorded body the
redirect page. 3xx is outside the 2xx success window, so such a target
starts recording failures, burning its
max_retries, and opening itscircuit breaker — a working configuration turns into a permanently
failing one with no message that says why. Stripping keeps those
destinations working and is the rule
net/httpalready applies toAuthorizationandCookie.Following redirects has a cost that the README now states outright: on
a
301,302or303,net/httpturns the POST into a GET and dropsthe event body and its
Content-Type, so the destination the chainends at receives no event while the delivery is still recorded
Deliveredon that hop's2xx. That isnet/http's own semantics andpre-existing behaviour, not something this PR introduces or changes;
what this PR adds is the record of it, since the decision to follow
redirects is what buys it.
The origin comparison is deliberately stricter than Go's: the port
counts, a subdomain does not inherit, and an
httpsorigin steppingdown to
httpis never the same origin.net/http's ten-hop cap isrestated, because supplying a
CheckRedirectreplaces the defaultpolicy including its limit.
The strip is per hop, not permanent.
net/httpre-copies the initialrequest's headers each hop and
via[0].URLis always the configuredorigin, so
A -> B -> Acarries them again on the hop back. That isnet/http's ownAuthorizationbehaviour and it is now stated in theREADME rather than left to be inferred.
Where the stripped set comes from (issue 243)
Not a header-name list.
applyRequestHeadersis now the single sourceof truth: it returns the canonical names of everything it applied on
the sender's or the operator's behalf — the inbound headers it actually
forwarded, plus
cfg.Headers— and the policy strips exactly that.A header added to the forward set is covered off-origin with no second
edit, and one the event never carried is never in the set.
The restructure that made this possible:
applyRequestHeadersreturns[]stringinstead of nothing, with theinbound-forward loop split out into
forwardEventHeaders.clientForConfig(cfg)becomesclientForRequest(cfg, originScoped).The policy is per delivery attempt rather than per config, because
the forwarded set is a property of the event. A request with neither
a per-target timeout nor an origin-scoped header still gets the
shared client.
configuredHeaderRedirectPolicy(map)becomesoffOriginHeaderPolicy([]string).Content-TypeandUser-Agentare the two names excluded from thereported set: they are the delivery path's own headers, not the
sender's.
Content-Typeis set from the event and a307/308preserves the body across hosts, so stripping it would send that body
untyped.
User-Agentis overwritten withwebhooker/1.0after theforwarded headers are applied, so an inbound one never reaches the wire
on any hop; reporting it would strip it off-origin and leave
net/http's ownGo-http-client/1.1in its place. These are namedexceptions, not a strip list — adding a header to the forward set still
does not have to be reflected anywhere.
IPv6 origin collision (rework finding 1)
u.Hostname()unwraps an IPv6 literal's brackets, so re-appending theport with a bare colon rendered two different origins identically:
Each dest differs from its origin in address and in port — the two
properties the comparison exists to distinguish — so a redirect to such
a host kept every configured header. The port is now joined with
net.JoinHostPort, which re-brackets the literal. Both spellings fromthe review, plus a positive IPv6 case, are in
TestSameDeliveryOrigin.Ten-hop cap (rework finding 2)
TestRedirectPolicy_StopsAtHopCapdrives a self-redirectinghttptestserver through the real policy and asserts the destination is hit
exactly
maxDeliveryRedirectstimes and thaterrTooManyRedirectssurfaces to the caller. Verified it fails without the cap: disabling
the
len(via) >= maxDeliveryRedirectsbranch makes the test run untilthe client timeout and fail on the sentinel.
Findings 2 and 3 from issue 233 (unchanged in this rework)
TrailerjoinsisReservedTargetHeader—net/httpstrips it fromthe request it writes, so a configured one was accepted, stored, and
provably never sent. The invalid-header-name error no longer quotes
rawName; that text is only a name if it parses as one, and when itdoes not, a pasted value whose own colon split the line put half a
token into the 400 body.
TestParseTargetHeaders_ErrorsNeverQuoteAValuenow covers thebefore-the-colon case.
Tests
TestDelivery_CrossOriginRedirectDropsOriginScopedHeaders— a realhttptest302 driven throughprocessNewTask, the engine's actualdelivery path, reaching the second server under loopback's other name
so the hop differs in hostname as well as port. Asserts the
destination saw neither the configured
X-Api-Keynor the forwardedinbound
X-Hub-Signature, that the redirect was still followed, andthat the final hop's 200 is the recorded result.
TestDelivery_SameOriginRedirectKeepsOriginScopedHeaders— theconverse for both classes, so the strip cannot quietly grow into
"drop on every redirect".
TestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNames— the reported setis exactly the two classes: a non-forwardable
Hostis absent, andso are
Content-Typeand the inboundUser-Agentthe fixture nowcarries (every real sender sends one); both probes are present.
TestRedirectPolicy_StopsAtHopCap,TestSameDeliveryOrigin(IPv6cases added),
TestClientForRequest_HeadersKeepSSRFGuard,TestParseTargetHeaders_RejectsTrailer.Each new assertion was checked against a mutant: reverting
net.JoinHostPortto the bare colon fails both IPv6 cases; droppingthe forwarded names from the reported set fails
TestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNamesand the cross-origindelivery test; removing
delete(originScoped, "User-Agent")makes thesame test fail with
["User-Agent", "X-Api-Key", "X-Hub-Signature"]against an expected two names; disabling the hop cap fails the cap
test. No other test in the suite moved.
SSRF guard
Confirmed, not restructured. The guard is a dial hook
(
ssrfDialContexton the shared*http.Transport), so it runs perconnection rather than per request — every cross-host hop needs a fresh
dial and is therefore checked.
clientForRequestreusest.client.Transportexactly as the timeout override already did, andTestClientForRequest_HeadersKeepSSRFGuardasserts the identity.Docs
README's Target section states one rule over both header classes,
adjacent to the configured-
headerssentence, including the per-hop(not permanent) nature of the drop, why
Content-TypeandUser-Agentalways travel, and what a
301/302/303costs the event body. Italso carries the
httpconfig keys, the 300-second timeout ceiling,and the reserved-header list. The target edit form's hint carries
Trailerand the off-origin note.Markdown wrapped by hand to the surrounding 72 columns
(#215). No new Tailwind
utility classes, so
static/css/tailwind.cssis unchanged.Gate
Rebased onto current
nextat03cd185(the egress CIDR allowlist,#217, landed under this
branch; the only conflict was the
net/netipvsnet/urlimport ininternal/delivery/export_test.go, resolved by keeping both) andamended to one commit,
24af4b4. The gate below was re-run after thatrebase.
docker build --no-cache-filter=lint --no-cache-filter=builder --progress=plain .— exit 0.
Every step of the
lintandbuilderstages carries a real duration;none is
CACHED. The onlyCACHEDlines in the build are the twopinned base-image pulls (
#7,#8) and the unrelatedstage-2alpinesteps (
#28-#30). ZeroFAILin the whole log and zero(cached)package lines.
internal/deliveryshowsok sneak.berlin/go/webhooker/internal/delivery 5.622swith--- PASS: TestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNames.Disclosure: BuildKit clipped
#25's output at its 2 MiB log limit nearthe end of the run, so 16 of the package result lines are visible and
the tail is not.
make testrunsgo test ./..., which exits non-zeroon any package failure, and
#25 DONE 74.8sis a zero exit, so nopackage failed.
The image the gate built was removed (
docker rmi), anddocker ps -alists nothing of this session's.
TODO.mduntouched (#112),.golangci.ymluntouched.FAIL —
needs-rework. Gate, merge, scope, commit hygiene and the other two findings all check out; two defects ininternal/delivery/redirect.go.1.
originHostPort(redirect.go:82-95) renders two different IPv6 origins identically, so configured headers survive a hop that leaves the origin.u.Hostname()strips the brackets from an IPv6 literal, then the port is re-appended with a bare:. A bracketed host with an explicit port therefore renders the same string as a different address whose final group is that port:Each dest differs from its origin in address and in port — the two properties the function's own doc comment claims to distinguish ("the port is part of the comparison ... a different port is a different service"). A redirect to such a host keeps every configured header.
Severity is low, on the record so this is not over-read: the colliding address always falls inside the configured target's own compressed prefix (
2001:db8::1:8080is in2001:db8::/64alongside2001:db8::1), the operator must have configured the target as a bare IPv6 literal on a non-default port, andssrfDialContextstill refuses private and reserved ranges. It is nonetheless a false "same origin" in the one comparison this PR exists to add.Acceptable: build the key with
net.JoinHostPort(host, port), which re-brackets the literal and keeps the two strings distinct, or compare a(hostname, effectivePort)tuple instead of concatenating. Add both spellings above toTestSameDeliveryOrigin.2. The ten-hop cap (redirect.go:47-52) is correct but has no test.
Verified at runtime: it stops after exactly 10 hops with
too many redirects: stopped after 10, hop-for-hop identical tonet/http's default policy. But nothing in this PR exercises it anderrTooManyRedirectsis referenced by no test. Installing aCheckRedirectis precisely what discards Go's built-in limit, so this is the one line in the file whose silent removal is an unbounded-redirect DoS, and the one line with no regression guard. Acceptable: a test driving a self-redirecting server through the policy, asserting the chain stops and the error surfaces.Non-blocking:
A -> B -> A: the header is stripped on the hop toBand restored on the hop back toA, becausenet/httpre-copies the initial request's headers each hop andvia[0].URLis always the configured origin. That is correct and matchesnet/http's ownAuthorizationrule, but README's "dropped as soon as a hop leaves the origin" reads as permanent. One clause would fix it.Checked and passing: DoD items 2 and 3 (
Trailerrejected naming the header; the invalid-name error verified non-vacuous by restoring%q+rawNameand watching both new before-the-colon cases fail); the other reserved names,User-Agent, andContent-Type's correct absence unchanged; SSRF guard reused on everyclientForConfigpath and confirmed to run per hop; default-port normalisation both schemes;https-to-httprefused andhttp-to-httpsallowed; subdomain, parent, suffix (evil-example.com), case, trailing-dot, punycode and userinfo cases all correct or fail-safe; README and form hint; no new Tailwind class tokens (token diff,tailwind.csscorrectly untouched); one commit, title closes the issue, basenext,TODO.mdand.golangci.ymluntouched; no attribution references; merges intonextcleanly (tested locally); gatedocker build --no-cache-filter=lint --no-cache-filter=builderexit 0 with#19lint0 issues.54.6s,#17make fmt-check,#32make test91.1s,#33make build48.5s,#37static build 7.6s, zero(cached)and zeroFAILmarkers, host load average 16.8.2a3d260ee9to4d048bcb78Rework of the two blocking findings from #242 (comment), plus #243 folded in. One squashed commit, rebased onto
nextatf0512f1.Finding 1 (IPv6 collision).
originHostPortnow joins withnet.JoinHostPort, so an IPv6 literal is re-bracketed andhttps://[2001:db8::1]:8080no longer renders ashttps://[2001:db8::1:8080]. Both spellings you gave, plus a positive IPv6 case, are inTestSameDeliveryOrigin; reverting to the bare colon fails exactly those two.Finding 2 (hop cap).
TestRedirectPolicy_StopsAtHopCapdrives a self-redirectinghttptestserver through the real policy and asserts the destination is hit exactlymaxDeliveryRedirectstimes witherrTooManyRedirectssurfacing to the caller. Disabling thelen(via) >= maxDeliveryRedirectsbranch makes it fail.Non-blocking (return-to-origin). Behaviour unchanged, documented in one clause in the README's redirect paragraph: the drop is per hop, so
A -> B -> Acarries the headers again on the hop back, exactly asnet/httptreatsAuthorization.Issue 243 (strip inbound too). Same
CheckRedirect, samesameDeliveryOrigin, one code path. The set is not a name list:applyRequestHeadersnow returns the canonical names of everything it applied on the sender's or operator's behalf, and the policy strips exactly that. Restructure that required:applyRequestHeadersreturns[]stringwith the forward loop split intoforwardEventHeaders;clientForConfig(cfg)becomesclientForRequest(cfg, originScoped), because the forwarded set is a property of the event rather than the config;configuredHeaderRedirectPolicy(map)becomesoffOriginHeaderPolicy([]string). Tests: the cross-origin and same-origin delivery tests now assert both anX-Api-Keyand a forwardedX-Hub-Signature, andTestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNamespins the reported set.Deviation to flag:
Content-Typeis excluded from the origin-scoped set. It is the delivery path's own header (set fromevent.ContentType) and a307/308preserves the body across hosts, so stripping it would put an untyped body on the wire. That is one named exception, not a strip list — a header added to the forward set is still covered with no second edit.User-Agentis excluded for the same reason. Both stated in the README.Also, unrelated and not touched here:
applyRequestHeaderssetsContent-Typefromevent.ContentTypeand thenAdds the inboundContent-Typethe event also carries, so an outbound delivery can leave with the value twice. Pre-existing, outside this PR's scope; say the word and I will file it.Gate:
docker build --no-cache-filter=lint --no-cache-filter=builder --progress=plain .exit 0. Lint#17 DONE 49.9s,0 issues.;make test#25 DONE 77.3s;make build#26 DONE 44.6s. NoCACHEDon anylintorbuilderstep (only the two pinned base pulls and thestage-2alpine steps), 16oklines with zero(cached)and zeroFAIL. Gate image removed,docker ps -aclean.TODO.mdand.golangci.ymluntouched.FAIL —
needs-rework. Both previously-blocking findings from #242 (comment) are genuinely fixed and mutation-verified non-vacuous, and #243 is genuinely closed. One new defect, plus a documentation gap in the paragraph that records the redirect decision.1.
User-AgentIS origin-scoped whenever the sender supplied one, so the stated rule is false.internal/delivery/target_http.go:500-510(isForwardableHeader) does not excludeUser-Agent, soforwardEventHeaderscopies an inbound one and reports it.applyRequestHeadersdeletes onlyContent-Typefrom the set (:543); nothing deletesUser-Agent, even though:537overwrites the value withwebhooker/1.0so the sender's value never reaches the wire on any hop.Measured on
4d048bcwith an inboundUser-Agent: GitHub-Hookshot/abc123:Real senders always send a
User-Agent, so this is the normal path, not a corner. It fails safe — nothing leaks — but:README.md:1084, the commit body ("Content-Type and User-Agent are the delivery path's own and always travel") and the assertion message inTestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNames(redirect_test.go:376-379) all state a two-name exception. The code has a one-name exception. This repo squash-merges, so the commit body is the permanent record of a rule that is not the rule.target_http.go:512-518: "the canonical names of every header in it that is scoped to the configured origin ... applied on the sender's or the operator's behalf"). TheUser-Agentactually on the wire is applied on neither's behalf.User-Agentbecomes nondeterministic —webhooker/1.0orGo-http-client/1.1depending on what the sender happened to send.User-Agentin its inbound fixture, so the claim in its own failure message is unexercised.Acceptable:
delete(originScoped, "User-Agent")beside theContent-Typedelete, and add"User-Agent"to the inbound fixture inTestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNamesso the claim is tested. (Dropping theUser-Agentclaim from README, commit body and message instead would also be consistent, but then the delivery path's own header is stripped off-origin for no stated reason.)2.
README.md:1073-1090omits that a301/302/303drops the event body, and that the delivery is still recordedDelivered.net/httpconverts the POST to a GET across a 302 and drops the body andContent-Type. Verified on the head: the far side of the cross-origin 302 receives noContent-Typeand no body, andprocessNewTaskrecords the final 200 asDelivered. A destination that redirects therefore produces a successful-looking delivery of an event it never received the body for. Following redirects is a deliberate decision and this behaviour is pre-existingnet/httpsemantics — the defect is that this paragraph is the record of that decision (a DoD item of #233) and reads as though the event is delivered. The PR'sContent-Typerationale is likewise only about307/308, while302is the common case. One clause fixes it.Gate, on
4d048bcin a fresh clone:docker build --no-cache-filter=lint --no-cache-filter=builder --progress=plain .exit 0. Lint chain#15 make fmt-check0.8s,#16 golangci-lint config verify0.3s,#17 golangci-lint run50.6s →0 issues.; builder chain#25 make test72.9s,#26 make build44.1s,#27 static build3.5s. ZeroCACHEDin either chain (the onlyCACHEDlines are#7/#8, the two pinned base pulls, and thestage-2alpine steps). 16okpackage lines, zero(cached), zeroFAIL;script/testruns-race, so the per-attempt policy closure is race-covered. Merges intonextatf0512f1as a fast-forward; CI green; one commit; title closes 233 and body closes 243;TODO.mdand.golangci.ymluntouched; no attribution references anywhere.Non-vacuity, by mutation in the pinned container on a throwaway copy: bare-colon join restored → exactly the two IPv6 cases fail; hop-cap branch disabled →
TestRedirectPolicy_StopsAtHopCapfails on the sentinel after the client timeout, i.e. it does not pass for the timeout reason; forwarded names not reported → cross-origin delivery test and reported-set test fail, same-origin passes;cfg.Headersnot reported → the same two fail;sameDeliveryOriginforced false → same-origin test fails;clientForRequestforced to the shared client → cross-origin, SSRF-guard and hop-cap tests fail.Client sharing and policy leakage: no derived client is cached anywhere.
clientForRequestallocates a fresh*http.Clientper attempt, and the single shared client (engine.go:177) never hasCheckRedirectassigned — the only assignment in the tree istarget_http.go:467, on a freshly allocated client. No path can reuse a client carrying another delivery's header set. The closure captures a per-attempt slice built inapplyRequestHeaders; no shared map or slice is mutated across deliveries.Also checked and passing: DoD items of #233 and #243, SSRF transport reused on every
clientForRequestpath and per-hop by construction,Trailerreserved, invalid-name error quotes nothing (reserved-name error quotes only a validated token), origin comparison cases including the new bracketed spellings, no new bracket collision reachable (Go's URL parser rejects a bracketed non-IPv6 host), no scope creep, inclusive terminology, no set-but-unparseable config path introduced.Disclosures: BuildKit clipped
#25at 2 MiB, so I did not read everymake testline — the tail rests on the stage's exit status. The mutation runs above usedgo test -rundirectly inside the pinnedgolang:1.26.1-bookwormcontainer rather thanmake test, to avoid a whole-suite run per mutant; all execution was in Docker, nothing on the host.4d048bcb78to24af4b4200PASS —
needs-review. Independent re-review in a fresh clone at24af4b4: theUser-Agentdelete, the README301/302/303clause, the rebase resolution and the commit body all check out, and the SSRF guard is still attached to the per-attempt client after the rebase.Gate, fresh clone,
docker build --no-cache-filter=lint --no-cache-filter=builder --progress=plain .— exit 0.#15 make fmt-check0.4s,#16 golangci-lint config verify0.3s,#17 golangci-lint run48.8s →0 issues.;#25 make test69.8s,#26 make build, image exported. ZeroFAIL, zero(cached).--- PASSobserved forTestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNames,TestRedirectPolicy_StopsAtHopCap,TestClientForRequest_HeadersKeepSSRFGuard,TestDelivery_CrossOriginRedirectDropsOriginScopedHeaders;ok .../internal/delivery 4.118s. CI green on24af4b4; fast-forward ontonextat03cd185; one commit;TODO.mdand.golangci.ymluntouched; no attribution references.Probes run (not just confirmations):
delete(originScoped, "User-Agent")on a throwaway copy failsTestApplyRequestHeaders_ReportsOriginScopedNamesand only that test, and fails for the right reason —actual: []string{"User-Agent", "X-Api-Key", "X-Hub-Signature"}vsexpected: []string{"X-Api-Key", "X-Hub-Signature"}. The fixture now carries an inboundUser-Agent: curl/8.7.1, so the claim is exercised.301/302/303clause checked against the pinnedgo1.26.1stdlib rather than taken on trust:redirectBehaviorreturnsincludeBody=falsefor301/302/303and rewrites a non-GET/HEAD method toGET;copyHeaders(req, stripSensitiveHeaders, !includeBody)then skips the body headers,Content-Typeamong them. TheDeliveredhalf matchesattempt()(successfrom the final response's 2xx) andfireAndForget/withRetry. Clause is accurate.nextis 9 files, allinternal/delivery,README.mdandtemplates/target_edit.html— nothing extra rode in.export_test.go's import block is the disclosed resolution,"net/url"added besidenext's"net/netip", nothing else.NewSSRFSafeTransportis aDialContexthook,clientForRequestcopiest.client.Transportby pointer on both the timeout and the header path, andTestClientForRequest_HeadersKeepSSRFGuardassertsSameon it. Every cross-host hop needs a fresh dial, so every hop is still guarded.Trailerreservation verified against the stdlib:reqWriteExcludeHeaderinnet/http/request.godoes containTrailer. README's reserved list matchesisReservedTargetHeaderexactly.(closes #233), body carriesCloses #243, and theContent-Type/User-Agentsentence now matches the code.Non-blocking nit:
internal/delivery/target_http.go:11adds"sort"forsort.Strings(names)— the only"sort"import in the tree. The repo usesslices.Sorteverywhere else, includinginternal/delivery/target_headers.goandinternal/delivery/target_redact.goin this same package. Not worth a rework round on its own.Disclosures: BuildKit clipped
#25at its 2 MiB limit — 16 of the 20 test packages' result lines are visible, the tail is not;#25 DONE 69.8sis a zero exit fromgo test ./..., so nothing failed.#32(COPY --from=builder) and the otherstage-2steps showCACHEDbecausemake buildreproduced a byte-identical binary; thelintandbuildersteps themselves all carry real durations, and the only otherCACHEDlines are the two pinned base pulls (#7,#8). The mutation run wasdocker build --target builderon a throwaway copy, so it re-ran the pinned lint and the full-racesuite in Docker; nothing was run on the host. Gate image and mutant removed,docker ps -aclean.