Add docs about security contact and threat model#20529
Add docs about security contact and threat model#20529JanZerebecki wants to merge 1 commit intocockpit-project:mainfrom
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I have linked to the good blog post as a starting point. That specific file name in the Git root is now used by various tools. For future reference what a threat model documentation looks like, a few links from my bookmarks are: - https://github.com/TryQuiet/quiet/wiki/Threat-Model - https://docs.openprivacy.ca/cwtch-security-handbook/risk.html - https://code.briarproject.org/briar/briar/-/wikis/threat-model
| The post is not exactly clear on this, but there could be a security boundary | ||
| between cockpit-ws running on one host and another host where cockpit-bridge is | ||
| spawned via ssh, where if the second host was infected with malware it should | ||
| be prevented from harming the first. |
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I'm not satisfied with this last sentence, because it doesn't give a decision. But I'm not in a situation to suggest one way or another. Nor have I reviewed the security.
Any suggestion if this should say it currently is or is not treated as a security boundary?
@mmartinv I think we talked about this?
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With directly logging into a remote host from the login page, there is a strong security boundary, exactly the same as with ssh remotehost. I.e. a malicious remotehost can't influence the source host.
However, this completely breaks down when using the "Add new host" functionality. This is somewhere between "extremely hard" and "impossible" to fix, so we are now considering to entirely remove that functionality. See https://issues.redhat.com/browse/COCKPIT-870 for details. Until we figure out how to do that without breaking existing customers, the text here should point out this distinction.
This hopefully makes it to: https://cockpit-project.org/.well-known/security.txt See also: cockpit-project/cockpit#20529
This hopefully makes it to: https://cockpit-project.org/.well-known/security.txt See also: cockpit-project/cockpit#20529
martinpitt
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Thanks, and sorry for the very late reply! I'm afraid we've been completely swamped recently. This is just a sketch for now, and will take a few hours of writing and refinement to become actually useful. There's a Red Hat internal document about cockpit's threat model and in-depth analysis. If you want to work on this further, I can ask the authors if it can be shared with you.
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| # Reporting Security Issues | |||
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I'd prefer this to go into README.md, so that it gets rendered in the default github project view. It also creates clutter in the project root dir. It does seem fairly common, though -- which tools look at this? If this is about .well-known/security.txt, that could just point to an anchor in README or a file in doc/.
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IMO we can create a https://github.com/cockpit-project/.github with a SECURITY.md and then just have a standard security contact (or have it copied) in the README.md of the project.
Checking the GitHub docs it does recommend one of three places
SECURITY.md.github/SECURITY.mddocs/SECURITY.md
However, I don't think we should be tied to GitHub specific features unless other forges also take this into account. Quick check of Forgejo didn't reveal any specific file recommendations, so I'd stick with just having it in README.md and then putting GitHub specific contact in https://github.com/cockpit-project/.github
Can see an example of .github repo in Packit for example
- Security text: https://github.com/packit/.github/blob/main/SECURITY.md
- Visible in other repos under tab and in sidebar https://github.com/packit/dashboard?tab=security-ov-file#readme
| Until there is a more concise explanation here about the threat model (what it | ||
| defends against) and assurance case (why it is secure), one should be able to | ||
| get the necessary informaion from this blog post: | ||
| https://cockpit-project.org/blog/is-cockpit-secure.html |
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This paragraph is a placeholder, and the blog post is rather dated -- the screenshots don't match current versions any more, and the video is gone. The text is still current, though. Perhaps we should copy the text here then? But that's still not the format of a threat model, "just" a description.
| The post is not exactly clear on this, but there could be a security boundary | ||
| between cockpit-ws running on one host and another host where cockpit-bridge is | ||
| spawned via ssh, where if the second host was infected with malware it should | ||
| be prevented from harming the first. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
With directly logging into a remote host from the login page, there is a strong security boundary, exactly the same as with ssh remotehost. I.e. a malicious remotehost can't influence the source host.
However, this completely breaks down when using the "Add new host" functionality. This is somewhere between "extremely hard" and "impossible" to fix, so we are now considering to entirely remove that functionality. See https://issues.redhat.com/browse/COCKPIT-870 for details. Until we figure out how to do that without breaking existing customers, the text here should point out this distinction.
| @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ | |||
| Until there is a more concise explanation here about the threat model (what it | |||
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Does this really have to be a separate file? Both SECURITY.md and threat-model.md are tiny, this feels like over-splitting.
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I fixed this recently by creating https://github.com/cockpit-project/.github/blob/main/SECURITY.md Should now be visible next to README as it's own tab, when creating an issue, and going to https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit/security/policy Thanks for helping me kick this off |
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I have linked to the good blog post as a starting point.
That specific file name in the Git root is now used by various tools.
For future reference what a threat model documentation looks like, a few links from my bookmarks are: