Files
msd-core/src/external-descriptor-trust.cts
sim bbc3f131be refactor(#4653): make containment ONE decision, resolved two ways
Satisfies #4653 DW1 and DW9, which were the phase's outstanding acceptance
criteria: every other implementation must be deleted or route its containment
DECISION through the canonical predicate, and no surviving wrapper may decide
WHETHER a path is contained.

Three implementations were being retained with their own comparisons, on the
argument that each needs LEXICAL resolution — a realpath-based predicate is the
wrong tool wherever a symlink must be preserved rather than resolved. That
argument is correct about RESOLUTION and was being used to justify owning the
DECISION too. Those are separable, and separating them is what closes the
criteria honestly rather than by reinterpretation.

  isContainedIn(resolvedTarget, resolvedRoot, pathImpl?)   module-internal

is now the single place this repo decides containment. It is separator-aware, so
a sibling merely sharing a prefix (`<root>-evil` against `<root>`) is still
rejected. Two exported families sit on it and differ ONLY in how a candidate is
resolved before the decision:

  assertWithinRoot / tryWithinRoot                realpath-resolving
  assertWithinRootLexical / tryWithinRootLexical  path.resolve only, no I/O

The lexical pair carries `opts.pathImpl`, so win32 separator semantics stay
testable off Windows — that seam already existed in isPathConfined and would
have been lost by a naive collapse.

The three call sites now take their decision from the predicate and keep only
what is genuinely theirs:

  external-descriptor-trust isPathConfined   delegates outright; pathImpl forwarded
  installer-migrations ensureInsideConfig    delegates; keeps its own message and
                                             its LEXICAL fullPath, which callers
                                             consume for existsSync and journal rows
  gsd-tools.cjs isInsideDir                  delegates; keeps its own `target !==
                                             root` condition, and the separate
                                             symlink refusal above it stands

DW5 is not weakened by this. That criterion binds the symlink oracle and the
ancestor canonicalization; both are untouched. The only change inside
validatePath is three comparison lines becoming one call, and the rejection
string `Path escapes allowed directory: <resolved> is outside <base>` stays
byte-identical because it is an observable CLI contract.

What this does NOT do, stated plainly: the lexical family still cannot see a
symlink. That is a property of lexical resolution, not a gap in the seam, and
the three callers that need it are the three that must pair it with their own
symlink refusal — which is exactly what the fix earlier in this phase added at
the install sites. The doc comment says so at the definition, and CONTEXT.md and
docs/explanation/security-model.md are corrected: they previously described
these three as deliberately NOT routed through the predicate, which is no longer
true.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-12 18:33:01 -04:00

118 lines
5.5 KiB
TypeScript

/**
* External-descriptor trust gate (ADR-1239 Phase C-2, #1681).
*
* Load-time `configHome` write-confinement for installed third-party host-plugin
* descriptors. The opt-in loader (`loadRegistry({includeInstalled:true})`) already
* applies schema validation + consent + first-party-wins + fail-closed gates;
* this adds defense-in-depth: **before** a third-party descriptor's install plan
* is ever executed, assert every destSubpath it declares resolves within the
* user-approved `configHome`. A path-escaping or malformed descriptor is
* rejected fail-closed.
*
* This is the load-time twin of Phase 2's install-time gate
* (`assertDestWithinConfigHome` in runtime-artifact-install-plan.cts, #1679 AC3).
* The two are defense-in-depth: load-time rejects malformed descriptors early
* (before consent even matters); install-time bounds the actual writes.
*
* Do NOT conflate with ADR-1577's prompt-injection circuit-breaker — separate
* concern sharing the word "trust".
*/
'use strict';
import path from 'node:path';
import { tryWithinRootLexical } from './security.cjs';
/**
* Pure LEXICAL path-containment check (cross-platform). `target` is confined
* to `root` iff resolving it relative to `root` (via `path.resolve` — string
* manipulation, no filesystem access) yields a path equal to or under `root`.
* Absolute paths outside `root` and `..`-escapes return false.
*
* NOT a realpath check: this function never calls `fs.realpathSync` and does
* not detect a symlink along `target` (or an existing path component of
* `root`) that would redirect the LEXICALLY-confined path to a physically
* different, unconfined location on disk. A caller relying on this for a
* write-confinement guarantee against a symlink-planting attacker must pair
* it with a symlink check (or refuse to follow symlinks at write time). Only
* the capability-loader.cts route into assertDescriptorConfined gets this for
* free today: capability-source.cts's staging path rejects symlinks upstream,
* before a target ever reaches a lexical-only check like this one — see
* copyDirRecursive's `entry.isSymbolicLink()` throw (capability-source.cts:585-586)
* and the post-copy budget-walk re-check (capability-source.cts:671-674). This
* does NOT extend to isPathConfined's other callers: install-engine.cts:1608
* and install-profiles.cts:755,880 do not go through capability-source.cts's
* adapters at all and have no symlink guard of their own here. Of the
* remaining callers, only retired-artifact-cleanup.cts:69 carries its own
* defense, via a local `lstatSync(destDir).isSymbolicLink()` check at line 77.
*
* `opts.pathImpl` (default: the ambient `path` module) lets a caller inject
* `path.win32` or `path.posix`. This is security-relevant: the win32 branch
* (drive letters, UNC paths, `\` separator) is otherwise only reachable by
* actually running this process on a Windows host, so without injection a
* win32-specific confinement escape would be unverified on every other
* platform. This mirrors the platform-injection seam already used elsewhere
* in this repo, e.g. src/shell-command-projection.cts's `opts.platform`
* (#4641). All existing 2-arg callers are unaffected: the default resolves to
* the ambient `path`, preserving byte-identical behaviour.
*
* The containment DECISION here now comes from the canonical predicate in
* src/security.cts (`tryWithinRootLexical`, ADR-4650 decision 6) — this
* function keeps only the lexical RESOLUTION policy (no realpath, no
* filesystem access) as its own choice; the comparison itself is shared.
*/
export function isPathConfined(
target: string,
root: string,
opts: { pathImpl?: typeof path } = {},
): boolean {
if (typeof target !== 'string' || typeof root !== 'string' || target.length === 0 || root.length === 0) {
return false;
}
return tryWithinRootLexical(target, root, { pathImpl: opts.pathImpl }) !== null;
}
export interface DescriptorArtifactKind {
destSubpath?: unknown;
}
export interface DescriptorArtifactLayout {
global?: DescriptorArtifactKind[];
local?: DescriptorArtifactKind[];
}
export interface DescriptorRuntimeBlock {
artifactLayout?: DescriptorArtifactLayout;
}
export interface DescriptorLike {
id?: string;
runtime?: DescriptorRuntimeBlock;
}
/**
* Assert every destSubpath the descriptor declares (global + local artifact
* layout) resolves within `configHome`. Throws fail-closed naming the offending
* descriptor + path on the first escape. A descriptor with no artifact layout
* passes (nothing to confine).
*/
export function assertDescriptorConfined(descriptor: DescriptorLike, configHome: string): void {
if (!descriptor || typeof descriptor !== 'object') return;
const id = typeof descriptor.id === 'string' ? descriptor.id : '<unknown>';
const layout = descriptor.runtime?.artifactLayout;
if (!layout || typeof layout !== 'object') return;
const check = (scope: 'global' | 'local', kinds: DescriptorArtifactKind[] | undefined) => {
if (!Array.isArray(kinds)) return;
for (const kind of kinds) {
const dest = kind?.destSubpath;
if (typeof dest !== 'string' || dest.length === 0) continue;
if (!isPathConfined(dest, configHome)) {
throw new Error(
`external-descriptor-trust: descriptor '${id}' declares an unconfined ${scope} destSubpath ` +
`${JSON.stringify(dest)} (resolves outside configHome ${JSON.stringify(configHome)}) — rejected fail-closed.`,
);
}
}
};
check('global', layout.global);
check('local', layout.local);
}