Amendment batch (no new decisions, all doc-level): - A-4: done-round boundary set is the recognized subset — request haves filtered through common_haves, the same honest-boundary rule as the ack rounds (never honor an unverified have); amendment clause in ADR-014 §2, same rule restated in transport.md §fetch. - D-2: amendment note on ADR-007 step 3 — the per-repo check is ADR-011's authorize policy function (static ACL engine fails closed on None identity); step order unchanged. - D-3: authorized-repo marker added to both substrate input tuples in transport.md and to backend.md's public-API list (ADR-007's type-level enforcement promise is now findable from the transport spec). - N-1: advertisement ref cap is fail-closed (breach is an error, never a silent truncation) — transport.md §Limits. - N-2: RegistryError::NotFound and authorization failure collapse to the same wire error at the variant→wire mapping — transport.md §error taxonomy. - review 001: A-4/D-2/D-3/N-1/N-2 marked resolved. Verification: cargo doc --no-deps, cargo test — clean.
3.4 KiB
ADR-007: ACL runs before any advertisement or ref line
Status
Accepted
Context
Ref names leak repository existence (and structure). The advertisement is the first thing a client sees; if ACL runs after advertisement begins, a denied caller has already learned that a repo (or a ref within it) exists. The vision's visible-surface = authorized-surface invariant requires the check to run before the first byte of git protocol content.
POC-1 observed the natural enforcement point on the git:// path: the repo
name arrives in-band in the first request line, before any ref data — so
the resolve-then-authorize step sits structurally ahead of the first
emitted line. POC-3 noted the http extra-routes are registered permissive
by default (the gateway bearer layer does not cover them) — making the
http-side check an explicit door responsibility (alkhttp git feature), not an inherited
one.
Decision
Every session/request performs, in order, before any protocol output:
- Extract the wire repo name (git:// first-request line; ssh exec command string; http path segment).
- Resolve it against the registry to (repo id, storage root) — reject unknown repos with the same error as unauthorized ones (no existence oracle) (ADR-008).
- Run alkcall
AccessControl::check(peer_identity)against the repo's required access. Read access covers the whole fetch surface: advertisement, ref listing, and pack transfer alike — anonymous access on explicitly-public repos grants the same full read path (vision §"Primary deployment target" makes anonymous clone first-class; the "advertisement is the only anonymous surface" line in the same doc's principle 1 is read as the minimum boundary, and this decision sets the operative rule). (Mechanism amended by ADR-011 §3 (review 001 D-2): the static ACL engine fails closed onidentity: None, so it cannot express anonymous-public fetch. The per-repo check is alkgit-core'sauthorizepolicy function evaluated on the registry record; the alkcall registry gate still applies where the op has scopes. The step order — resolve, then authorize, before any protocol output — is unchanged.) - Only then hand the session to transport.
Adapters embed this sequence; transport asserts it (the session entry points take an authorized-repo marker — a type the adapter constructs only after step 3 passes — so skipping the check is a type error, not a runtime log) but does not re-check — authorization evaluation lives in one place, alkcall, and invocation/wiring lives in one place, the adapter.
Push is always authenticated on every repo, no exceptions (vision § "Primary deployment target").
Consequences
- No ref/capability line is ever emitted for a repo a caller cannot see; the gitea-class "enforcement elsewhere" bug is structurally excluded.
- Unknown-repo and unauthorized errors are indistinguishable to callers.
- The check is cheap (registry lookup + ACL check) and runs before any expensive protocol work.
- http adapters must wire ACL explicitly for their routes (POC-3 showed alkhttp extra routes default permissive) — doors.md encodes this.
References
docs/research/vision.md§"Guiding principles" 1–2, §"Immediate threat-model notes"docs/research/poc-1-findings.mdfollow-up 4;docs/research/poc3-findings.md§"does NOT settle" (auth)- alkcall ADR-017 (privilege model)
- ADR-008 (repo identity), doors.md (door auth mechanics)