myxce/.wolf/bugs/bug-1945.md

id	status	status_updated	status_note	component	severity	timestamp	last_seen	occurrences	files	tags	related	fix_commits	gitea_issue	gitea_synced_status	gitea_synced_hash
bug-1945	fixed	2026-10-10		apiserver	security	2026-10-10T08:14:59Z	2026-10-10T08:14:59Z	1	src/frontend/apiserver/config/app.yaml src/frontend/apiserver/utils/config.go	apiserver security jwt		19a1a6f0	376	fixed	12d5779fe5f2

bug-1945: apiserver signs and accepts JWTs with the shipped default secret when XCE_JWT_SECRET is unset

Description

Observed: (source reading, .kiro/reviews/project-gap-review-2026-10-10.md (P0); to be confirmed by a failing test before the fix) config/app.yaml:17 ships the secret xce-api-key; utils/config.go:315-320 uses XCE_JWT_SECRET when set and otherwise keeps the default without any warning.

Expected: The apiserver never runs with a publicly known signing secret. Impact: Security: anyone can forge tokens for any user on a deployment that did not set the environment variable. Found by: review: .kiro/reviews/project-gap-review-2026-10-10.md (P0)

Environment

• OS: no /etc/os-release; Docker container; NixOS kernel; kernel Linux 6.18.33 x86_64
• libc: glibc 2.42-47 (interpreter /nix/store/wb6rhpznjfczwlwx23zmdrrw74bayxw4-glibc-2.42-47/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2)
• Toolchain: gcc (GCC) 15.2.0, meson 1.9.1
• Build: asan (xce.build)
• Code: scheduler-framework @ 94472ee3-dirty
• Deployment: any (found by source reading; the failing test that confirms it is named in Verification)

Reproduction

1. Start the apiserver without XCE_JWT_SECRET.
2. Sign a token with xce-api-key for user admin: it is accepted.

• Frequency: deterministic (by code reading; confirmed by the RED test of the fix)
• Evidence: the code sites quoted in Description; no logs kept.

Root cause

resolveJWTSecret() (utils/config.go) fell back to the shipped xce-api-key when XCE_JWT_SECRET was unset.

Fix

Empty or the old default secret (env or config) counts as unset: the apiserver generates a random 256-bit per-process secret and logs a warning (tokens do not survive restart; apiservers behind one endpoint must share XCE_JWT_SECRET); the secret is never logged; app.yaml ships secretKey: "". Docs updated in 27ef5060.

Verification

• Test: TestResolveJWTSecret_NeverUsesKnownDefaultOrEmpty, TestShippedAppYAML_NoJWTSecret, TestInitConf_NoJWTSecretGeneratesAndWarns (utils/config_test.go): RED (... = "xce-api-key": must be a generated secret), GREEN after.
• Suites: xce-build.sh all asan xce.build --incremental on the merged branch, 2026-10-10: all C suites Ok 155 / Fail 0, frontend Go unit tests ok, xceadmin tests ok; apiserver CGO_ENABLED=0 go test ./... (incl. middleware, router, cmd) ok
• Live: n/a: unit/fixture-level verification only; no live deployment was run (follow-up)

References

• Fix commit: 19a1a6f0 (on scheduler-framework; worker-branch original in the merge)
• Review: .kiro/reviews/project-gap-review-2026-10-10.md
• docs: 27ef5060