// Composing the bus's own configuration. // // On AMQP an account was made by calling the broker's management API (management.go). On NATS it // is *composed*: the controller writes accounts, users and per-subject permissions into one file // the host keeps current, and the server reloads it in place (novox/hq ADR 0106 — never through a // management API; design 25 §4). // // Everything here is pure. Given the principals, it returns the file's text — so the whole of the // mesh's authority model is testable as strings, with no server, which is what management.go's // `modulePermissions` already did for the half of it that could be. // // **NATS closes a gap AMQP left open.** management.go records it plainly: LavinMQ has no topic // permissions, so an emitting module is granted the events exchange whole, and ADR 0042's origin // reservation — a module publishes only under its own name — is "stamped by the sdk, not enforced // here". NATS permissions are per subject, so that reservation becomes something the server // refuses rather than something a library promises. package broker import ( "fmt" "regexp" "sort" "strings" ) // A Kind is what a principal is, which decides the shape of its authority rather than its // contents: a module's comes from its declaration, a host's from its node, and the controller's // and the enrolment user's are fixed. type Kind string const ( KindModule Kind = "module" KindNode Kind = "node" KindController Kind = "controller" KindEnrolment Kind = "enrolment" ) // Seat is a role on the bus as a principal relates to it: the subjects it accepts, and those it // emits (novox/hq ADR 0118, design 29 §5). type Seat struct { Name string Accepts []string Emits []string Serves []string Versions []string // protocol versions served beside the current one; empty for v1 only } // A Principal is one user of the bus. Its permissions are derived from what it declares and // nothing else (novox/hq ADR 0043), over the three namespaces of design 29 §2: its own, the seats // it holds, and the seats it uses. type Principal struct { Kind Kind Node string Module string Emits []string Consumes []string Serves []string Holds []Seat Uses []Seat // PasswordHash is the bcrypt hash the mesh minted. The plaintext is sealed to the principal // and never appears here: this file is written to a node's disk and read by a server, and a // secret that can be read from a configuration file is a secret with a wider blast radius // than the one it protects (novox/hq design 29 §10). PasswordHash string } // safeSubject refuses anything that would change the meaning of a subject rather than sit inside // one. A name carrying a dot would silently widen a permission by adding a token; a name carrying // `>` or `*` would widen it to a wildcard, which is the whole authority model gone. var safeSubject = regexp.MustCompile(`^[A-Za-z0-9_-]+$`) // Username is how a principal is named to the server. The node is part of it, so the same module // on two machines holds two users, each sealed to its own — the rule management.go already // applies, kept. func (p Principal) Username() string { switch p.Kind { case KindModule: return p.Node + "." + p.Module case KindNode: return "node." + p.Node case KindController: return "controller" case KindEnrolment: return "enrolment" } return "" } // inbox is a principal's own reply space. No user is ever granted a bare `_INBOX.>` (design 25 // §4): with one account, inbox privacy is the permission list or it is nothing, so each user's // inbox is derived from its own identity and its permissions name that prefix and no other. func (p Principal) inbox() string { return "_INBOX." + p.Username() + ".>" } // Permissions is what a principal may publish and subscribe, and whether it may answer. type Permissions struct { Publish []string Subscribe []string // AllowResponses lets a principal reply to a request it received, on the reply subject that // request carried, once. // // **This is what makes scoped inboxes possible at all**, and design 25 §4 did not say it. If // every user's inbox is private to it, a module serving a tool cannot publish the answer — // the answer goes to the *caller's* inbox, which the responder has no permission for. The two // ways out are granting responders `_INBOX.>`, which is precisely the blanket grant §4 // refuses, or this: the server itself permits one reply to the subject of a message the user // actually received, and nothing else. The authority is bounded by having been asked. AllowResponses bool } // PermissionsFor derives a principal's authority. Pure, and the only place authority is decided: // a permission that cannot be derived from a declaration is a permission nobody can explain. func PermissionsFor(p Principal) (Permissions, error) { for _, part := range []struct{ what, value string }{ {"node", p.Node}, {"module", p.Module}, } { if part.value == "" { continue } if !safeSubject.MatchString(part.value) { return Permissions{}, fmt.Errorf( "%q cannot be part of a subject: a permission is a subject pattern, and this would widen it", part.value) } } var pub, sub []string switch p.Kind { case KindController: // The controller owns the mesh's own traffic and the streams. It is the only writer of // stream definitions (design 25 §3), so it alone reaches the JetStream API. pub = []string{"mesh.control.>", "mesh.node.>", "mesh.build.>", "$JS.API.>"} sub = []string{"mesh.control.>", "mesh.build.>", "$JS.API.>"} case KindEnrolment: // A leaked token is useless for anything but enrolling: it cannot read a declaration, hear // an event, or subscribe any inbox but the one its own token derives (design 25 §6). pub = []string{"mesh.control.enrol"} sub = []string{} case KindNode: // A host publishes its own node's control traffic and subscribes its own declaration — // and nothing of any other node's. pub = []string{"mesh.control." + p.Node + ".>"} sub = []string{"mesh.node." + p.Node + ".declare"} case KindModule: // 1. Its own namespace: it publishes its events there and serves its tools there. Nothing // else may publish into it, so an event's source is a fact the server enforces rather // than a claim in the body (design 29 §2). own := "mesh.mod." + p.Module for _, e := range p.Emits { pub = append(pub, own+".event."+e) } for _, t := range p.Serves { sub = append(sub, own+".tool."+t) } // 2. What it consumes, by the emitter's own subject — an event is addressed to its // emitter, because the emitter's identity is the meaning (ADR 0118). for _, c := range p.Consumes { emitter, event, ok := strings.Cut(c, ".") if !ok { return Permissions{}, fmt.Errorf( "%q does not name an emitter and an event: a consumed event is .", c) } sub = append(sub, "mesh.mod."+emitter+".event."+event) } // 3. Seats it holds: full participation. for _, s := range p.Holds { for _, a := range s.Accepts { sub = append(sub, seatSubject(s, "accept", a)) } for _, e := range s.Emits { pub = append(pub, seatSubject(s, "event", e)) } for _, t := range s.Serves { sub = append(sub, seatSubject(s, "tool", t)) } } // 4. Seats it uses: publish only, and only the accepts half. A caller cannot subscribe a // seat's inbound subject and watch other modules' traffic, nor publish its outbound // events and lie about outcomes (design 29 §2). for _, s := range p.Uses { for _, a := range s.Accepts { pub = append(pub, seatSubject(s, "accept", a)) } for _, t := range s.Serves { pub = append(pub, seatSubject(s, "tool", t)) } } } if p.Kind == KindModule || p.Kind == KindNode || p.Kind == KindController { // Its own reply space, and nothing wider. sub = append(sub, p.inbox()) // Acking a JetStream delivery is a publish to that consumer's own ack address — a // different subject from anything the consumer subscribes. Without it every message a // module received would be redelivered forever, refused by the permission list it already // has (design 25 §4). Scoped to this principal's own consumer name, so it can ack its own // deliveries and no other's. pub = append(pub, "$JS.ACK."+consumerName(p)+".>") } sort.Strings(pub) sort.Strings(sub) return Permissions{ Publish: pub, Subscribe: sub, // Only something that serves is ever answering. A pure consumer is granted nothing here. AllowResponses: p.Kind == KindModule && (len(p.Serves) > 0 || len(p.Holds) > 0) || p.Kind == KindController, }, nil } // seatSubject places a seat's verb under the kind of traffic it is. // // **The kind token is load-bearing, not decoration.** A stream is defined by a subject filter, so // without it a stream over a seat or a module's namespace would capture that namespace's *tool* // traffic too — and a tool call must never be persisted (design 25 §3: tools stay on core NATS). // Found while defining the streams: the first draft of design 29 had one namespace per module // with no kind, which reads well and cannot be filtered. // // A seat serving more than its current protocol version carries the version as a token // (design 29 §8): the seat stays one role, and v1 and v2 run beside each other until nothing is // bound to the old one. func seatSubject(s Seat, kind, verb string) string { return "mesh.seat." + s.Name + "." + kind + "." + verb } // consumerName is the durable consumer the controller derives for this principal. It is here // rather than in the caller because the permission and the consumer must agree by construction — // two places deriving the same name is how a module ends up unable to ack its own deliveries. func consumerName(p Principal) string { switch p.Kind { case KindModule: return "EVENTS." + p.Node + "_" + p.Module case KindNode: return "NODES." + p.Node case KindController: return "CONTROL.controller" } return "" } // Server is everything the composed file needs that is not a principal. type Server struct { // ClientPort carries TLS itself; there is no plaintext port beside it, which is where this // differs from the AMQP broker's 5671/5672 pair. ClientPort int MonitoringPort int TLSCert string TLSKey string TLSCA string // StoreDir is a host directory bind, not a named volume — issue 115 is resolved and converted // four modules away from named volumes; the bus's own data is not the place to bring one back. StoreDir string } // Compose renders the server's whole configuration. The order is stable and the output is // deterministic, because the file's digest is what the module's entrypoint watches to decide // whether to reload: a composer that reordered a map on each run would signal a reload every time // the controller restarted, for a file that had not changed. func Compose(s Server, principals []Principal) (string, error) { sorted := append([]Principal(nil), principals...) sort.Slice(sorted, func(i, j int) bool { return sorted[i].Username() < sorted[j].Username() }) var b strings.Builder b.WriteString("# Composed by the mesh controller. Do not edit: the next composition overwrites it.\n") b.WriteString("# Accounts and permissions are derived from what each module declares and nothing\n") b.WriteString("# else (novox/hq ADR 0043, design 29 §2).\n\n") fmt.Fprintf(&b, "port: %d\n", s.ClientPort) fmt.Fprintf(&b, "http: 127.0.0.1:%d\n\n", s.MonitoringPort) b.WriteString("tls {\n") fmt.Fprintf(&b, " cert_file: %q\n", s.TLSCert) fmt.Fprintf(&b, " key_file: %q\n", s.TLSKey) fmt.Fprintf(&b, " ca_file: %q\n", s.TLSCA) b.WriteString(" verify: true\n") b.WriteString("}\n\n") b.WriteString("jetstream {\n") fmt.Fprintf(&b, " store_dir: %q\n", s.StoreDir) b.WriteString("}\n\n") // One account for the mesh: accounts in NATS isolate subject spaces entirely, and the mesh is // one space (design 25 §4). The cost of that — that permissions are the only isolation — is // paid above, in the scoping of every inbox and every ack subject. b.WriteString("accounts {\n MESH {\n users = [\n") for _, p := range sorted { perms, err := PermissionsFor(p) if err != nil { return "", err } if p.PasswordHash == "" { return "", fmt.Errorf("%s has no password hash: a user without one is a user anybody is", p.Username()) } fmt.Fprintf(&b, " { user: %q, password: %q, permissions: {\n", p.Username(), p.PasswordHash) fmt.Fprintf(&b, " publish: { allow: [%s] }\n", quoted(perms.Publish)) fmt.Fprintf(&b, " subscribe: { allow: [%s] }\n", quoted(perms.Subscribe)) if perms.AllowResponses { b.WriteString(" allow_responses: { max: 1, ttl: \"1m\" }\n") } b.WriteString(" } }\n") } b.WriteString(" ]\n }\n}\n") return b.String(), nil } func quoted(values []string) string { if len(values) == 0 { return "" } out := make([]string, len(values)) for i, v := range values { out[i] = fmt.Sprintf("%q", v) } return strings.Join(out, ", ") }