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mesh-catalog/modules/mesh-reads/README.md
T
jochen c36677b9e5 mesh-reads: read a node's files and accounts as an account that holds no secret (hq ADR 0310, issue 418)
Reading a file, searching one, listing a directory, the owner and mode of each
component of a path and looking up an account went through the login shell's
execute as the operator's account, which sees the operator's keys and the
agent's credentials, and execute is not served on the control-node. This module
holds node-reads on every node, runs as mesh-reads (no login, no group beside
its own), refuses the node's secret places by name before any read (the
controller's list and the known credential files), withholds any line shaped
like a secret through mesh-sdk's outward rule, and bounds every answer.
2026-10-12 14:04:12 +02:00

3.2 KiB

mesh-reads

A node's files and accounts, read through the mesh (novox/hq ADR 0310, extending ADR 0268 §5; hq to-be 41 WP8; issue 418). It holds the node seat node-reads on every node, the control-node included, so reading a file, searching one, listing a directory, the owner and mode of each component of a path and looking up an account or a group never go through the login shell's execute, and an approval is asked for an act, never for a read.

Who it reads as

The account mesh-reads, which this module makes on every node (runs-as, ADR 0259 §8): no login shell, a home of its own under /var/lib, and no group beside its own. The tool runner serves it in a runtime of its own, on its own bus credential, never the machine's runtime, which runs as the operator's account. So the node's file modes bound what it sees: a file only the operator, root or a module's own account may read is refused by its mode, and the answer says so. It refuses every read when it finds itself running as root.

What it refuses by name

Before any read, whatever the file modes would allow (ADR 0310 §5):

  • The places the mesh keeps a secret on this node, which the controller composes from the manifests and gives it as MESH_SECRET_PLACES: the directory of every module's own secret (its bus credential among them), every credential file and grant directory, the vault's directories, and where the operator-sealed secrets are kept. Without that list the module does not start.
  • The known credential files of a machine's programs (refuse.go): an account's .ssh, .gnupg, .aws, .kube; the agent's .credentials.json, .netrc, .pgpass, .git-credentials; private key names (id_ed25519, *.key, ssh_host_*_key); /etc/shadow; /etc/ssl/private, /etc/wireguard and the network manager's connections.

A link is judged by where it leads as well as by its name. stat and readlink say a secret place's owner and mode, and mark it, because those are not its content; list, read and search refuse it.

The content rule

Every answer passes the content rule's secret class, from mesh-sdk's outward package (ADR 0310 §4): a line of a file or a matching line shaped like a secret is withheld and its number said, as is a link target or an account's words. A path and an entry's name are not judged: they are what the caller named or what the file system calls a thing, and the rule would take a temporary directory's or a container layer's name for a token.

Its verbs and their bounds

verb replaces bounds
stat stat, ls -ld, namei -l, findmnt -T 200 paths, 64 components each; links followed only with follow
readlink readlink, readlink -f, realpath one path
list ls, ls -la 2000 entries, cut and said
read cat, head, tail, less 64 KiB, or up to 256 KiB when asked; cut at a line and said; text only
search grep, grep -r, grep -F a fixed string; 100 matches (500 asked), 4 deep (8 asked), 5000 files, 4 MiB a file, 20 seconds; the bound met is said
account getent passwd, getent group, id, groups 2000 accounts and groups; never a password field

No answer is larger than 1 MiB. Nothing here writes a file.