feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
#!/usr/bin/env bash
feat(users)!: --class human|server becomes --root-door closed|open
The trait was named for who lives on a box; what it decides is whether
root SSH stays open as the control plane's automation door. Those are
different questions, and `dev-server` proved it: an unattended VM-host
appliance nobody lives on, correctly class=human because its root door
must close. After #76 gave `-server` the job of naming the machine
family, that box carried a suffix saying server and a trait saying
human. `dev-server --root-door closed` says what is true, once.
Unlike #76's role rename this field is read back on live machines, so
the compat read is mandatory rather than courteous: one resolver,
root_door_of, reads both vocabularies and every consumer goes through
it — close-root's gate, apply's note, and bootstrap-tenant's
machine-marker guard, which used the presence of `class=` as its "is
this a real fleet machine?" test and would otherwise have let a tenant
converge clobber a live box. New markers are written as `root-door=`
only. Markers carrying both fields in disagreement, or neither, fail
closed with a re-run-bootstrap repair.
Fixture markers are kept deliberately at the retired spelling (the
convention #76's pre-rename-cp fixture established) and pinned at both
consumers; deleting the compat arm turns ten checks red.
Closes #77
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-20 10:02:50 +00:00
# rig users close-root — shut the root SSH door on the boxes whose door is
# meant to shut, once and only once a named admin can already get in. The
# root-door trait decides root SSH's fate (#26, renamed by #77): on
# root-door=closed a root login is unattributable noise, so it goes; on
# root-door=open root IS the control plane's automation identity, so closing it
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
# would sever fleet management — this command refuses there, and no --force
# exists. Convergent: a second run is a no-op and says so.
set -euo pipefail
HERE = " $( cd " $( dirname " $( readlink -f " ${ BASH_SOURCE [0] } " ) " ) " && pwd ) "
# shellcheck source=SCRIPTDIR/lib/users-config.sh
. " $HERE /lib/users-config.sh "
log( ) { printf 'rig-users: %s\n' " $* " ; }
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
warn( ) { printf 'rig-users: WARNING: %s\n' " $* " >& 2; }
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
die( ) { printf 'rig-users: ERROR: %s\n' " $1 " >& 2; exit " ${ 2 :- 1 } " ; }
usage( ) {
cat <<'EOF'
usage: rig users close-root
Shuts the root SSH door: installs /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf
carrying exactly ` PermitRootLogin no` , which beats bootstrap' s drop-in by
first-wins include order.
feat(users)!: --class human|server becomes --root-door closed|open
The trait was named for who lives on a box; what it decides is whether
root SSH stays open as the control plane's automation door. Those are
different questions, and `dev-server` proved it: an unattended VM-host
appliance nobody lives on, correctly class=human because its root door
must close. After #76 gave `-server` the job of naming the machine
family, that box carried a suffix saying server and a trait saying
human. `dev-server --root-door closed` says what is true, once.
Unlike #76's role rename this field is read back on live machines, so
the compat read is mandatory rather than courteous: one resolver,
root_door_of, reads both vocabularies and every consumer goes through
it — close-root's gate, apply's note, and bootstrap-tenant's
machine-marker guard, which used the presence of `class=` as its "is
this a real fleet machine?" test and would otherwise have let a tenant
converge clobber a live box. New markers are written as `root-door=`
only. Markers carrying both fields in disagreement, or neither, fail
closed with a re-run-bootstrap repair.
Fixture markers are kept deliberately at the retired spelling (the
convention #76's pre-rename-cp fixture established) and pinned at both
consumers; deleting the compat arm turns ten checks red.
Closes #77
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-20 10:02:50 +00:00
root-door= closed boxes ONLY. On root-door= open, root SSH is the control plane' s
( Coolify' s) automation identity — closing it severs fleet management — so
close-root refuses there, with no --force. Markers written before #77 name this
trait as class = human| server and are read as closed| open respectively, so a box
bootstrapped before the rename gates exactly as it always did.
It also refuses without a role marker ( re-run
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
rig bootstrap; never shut the root door blind) and refuses while no rig-admin
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
member holds a login this box would actually honor. Per candidate, in order:
the StrictModes shape ( authorized_keys present and non-empty, home/.ssh/keys
owned by the user and not group/world-writable, a real login shell, account
not expired) , then two reachability proofs ( #17) — `sudo -n true` under
runuser must answer ( NOPASSWD sudo is effective, not merely written) , and
` sshd -T -C user = ...` must resolve a per-user effective config that accepts
fix(close-root): DenyUsers judged fail-closed — patterns and USER@HOST flag
All three reviewers, same substance, and they were right that it was
lockout-adjacent: the literal grep passed a candidate whom a DenyUsers
PATTERN really denies ('DenyUsers dan*' vs admin 'dan'), and the door
closed on a false proof. The judgment now lives in the lib as a pure
deny_verdict: a literal hit flags, and so does ANY pattern or
host-qualified token — a token the check cannot prove irrelevant counts
as a hit, never as a pass. The asymmetry with AllowUsers is now the
same direction on both sides: every error closes toward repair, never
toward a welded-shut door.
Also (claude-bot): the -C probe resolves Match blocks against a
synthetic addr=127.0.0.1, so Match Address is out of the local proof's
scope — named in --help, the README, and the gate's comment, so the
separate-session advisory reads as load-bearing, not ceremony.
Regressions ride the sourced lib: wildcard (the review's dan* case),
'?', USER@HOST, literal hit, irrelevant-literals pass, plus a grep
guard that the shipped gate consults deny_verdict.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 17:02:48 +00:00
the login ( pubkeyauthentication yes, no DenyUsers hit — where any pattern or
2026-07-18 17:17:39 +00:00
host-qualified Deny entry counts as a hit, fail closed — AllowUsers, if set,
names them literally, and the same pair of rules for DenyGroups/AllowGroups
judged against the admin' s actual groups from id -Gn) . The refusal names
which check failed, per candidate. Run rig users apply first; never close
the only door.
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
Before running, verify your admin login in a SEPARATE session — ` ssh
<admin>@<box>` while this one stays open. Root SSH is the door being welded
fix(close-root): DenyUsers judged fail-closed — patterns and USER@HOST flag
All three reviewers, same substance, and they were right that it was
lockout-adjacent: the literal grep passed a candidate whom a DenyUsers
PATTERN really denies ('DenyUsers dan*' vs admin 'dan'), and the door
closed on a false proof. The judgment now lives in the lib as a pure
deny_verdict: a literal hit flags, and so does ANY pattern or
host-qualified token — a token the check cannot prove irrelevant counts
as a hit, never as a pass. The asymmetry with AllowUsers is now the
same direction on both sides: every error closes toward repair, never
toward a welded-shut door.
Also (claude-bot): the -C probe resolves Match blocks against a
synthetic addr=127.0.0.1, so Match Address is out of the local proof's
scope — named in --help, the README, and the gate's comment, so the
separate-session advisory reads as load-bearing, not ceremony.
Regressions ride the sourced lib: wildcard (the review's dan* case),
'?', USER@HOST, literal hit, irrelevant-literals pass, plus a grep
guard that the shipped gate consults deny_verdict.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 17:02:48 +00:00
shut; the admin door must be proven, not presumed. This is not ceremony: the
local probe resolves Match blocks against a synthetic loopback client
( addr = 127.0.0.1) , so a ` Match Address` rule that treats real inbound clients
differently is invisible to it — only a real login proves the real door.
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
Run as root. Convergent: once root is closed, a re-run is a clean no-op.
EOF
}
# --- args (validated before the root check, so errors are testable) ---------
while [ $# -gt 0 ] ; do
case " $1 " in
-h| --help) usage; exit 0 ; ;
*) die " unknown flag: $1 " 2 ; ;
esac
done
# --- guards ------------------------------------------------------------------
[ " $( id -u) " -eq 0 ] || die "must run as root"
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
# Identity management gates its INVOKER, not just its uid: %rig's sudoers rule
# is binary-scoped but not argument-scoped, so without this gate a rig-role
# user could reshape who enters this box as whom — the scoped grant silently
# root-equivalent through the users family. Direct root (no SUDO_USER:
# bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
if [ -n " ${ SUDO_USER :- } " ] && [ " $SUDO_USER " != "root" ] \
&& ! id -nG " $SUDO_USER " 2>/dev/null | tr ' ' '\n' | grep -qx rig-admin; then
die " the users family changes who holds root — only rig-admin members (or root itself) may run it; role rig grants operational rig use, not identity management (invoker: $SUDO_USER ) "
fi
feat(users)!: --class human|server becomes --root-door closed|open
The trait was named for who lives on a box; what it decides is whether
root SSH stays open as the control plane's automation door. Those are
different questions, and `dev-server` proved it: an unattended VM-host
appliance nobody lives on, correctly class=human because its root door
must close. After #76 gave `-server` the job of naming the machine
family, that box carried a suffix saying server and a trait saying
human. `dev-server --root-door closed` says what is true, once.
Unlike #76's role rename this field is read back on live machines, so
the compat read is mandatory rather than courteous: one resolver,
root_door_of, reads both vocabularies and every consumer goes through
it — close-root's gate, apply's note, and bootstrap-tenant's
machine-marker guard, which used the presence of `class=` as its "is
this a real fleet machine?" test and would otherwise have let a tenant
converge clobber a live box. New markers are written as `root-door=`
only. Markers carrying both fields in disagreement, or neither, fail
closed with a re-run-bootstrap repair.
Fixture markers are kept deliberately at the retired spelling (the
convention #76's pre-rename-cp fixture established) and pinned at both
consumers; deleting the compat arm turns ten checks red.
Closes #77
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-20 10:02:50 +00:00
# Marker gate — the policy lives in assert_marker_closes_root (lib) so the
# harness can prove its refusals against fixture markers as non-root;
# RIG_ROLE_MARKER exists for the same reason: it keeps the command's own gate
# pointable at fixtures instead of only at the real /etc/rig/role. The gate
# reads the pre-#77 class= spelling too — see root_door_of for why that compat
# read is load-bearing rather than courteous.
if ! WHY = " $( assert_marker_closes_root " ${ RIG_ROLE_MARKER :- /etc/rig/role } " ) " ; then
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
die " $WHY "
fi
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
# Admin-door gate — never close the only door. Root SSH goes away below, so
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
# at least one rig-admin member must hold a login this box would actually
# HONOR — a non-empty authorized_keys alone proves a file exists, not a door:
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
# StrictModes rejects keys behind wrongly-owned or group/world-writable
# paths, a nologin shell never logs in, and an expired account fails PAM
# before the key is read. So every candidate is checked for the StrictModes
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
# shape, and then for REACHABILITY (#17): the shape checks prove the door
# SHOULD open, these prove what can be proven from inside — that NOPASSWD
# sudo actually answers (`sudo -n true` under runuser; a sudoers drop-in
# that never landed is a shape the file checks cannot see), and that sshd's
# per-user EFFECTIVE config would accept the login (`sshd -T -C user=...` —
# an AllowUsers or Match block elsewhere can quietly exclude the admin while
# every file looks right). The refusal names, per candidate, WHICH check
# failed — an operator staring at a refusal must see the repair. Honestly:
# the one thing no local check can prove is that the operator HOLDS the
# private key — the verify-in-a-separate-session advisory in --help stays
# load-bearing.
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
today = $(( $( date +%s) / 86400 ))
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
# runuser ships in util-linux on Debian — rig's target — but the gate must
# not die on a box without it: skip the live sudo proof with a loud warning
# rather than block close-root on a missing prover. Warned once, not per
# candidate.
HAVE_RUNUSER = 0
if command -v runuser >/dev/null 2>& 1; then
HAVE_RUNUSER = 1
else
warn "runuser not found; skipping the live NOPASSWD-sudo proof — verify 'sudo -n true' as your admin by hand before trusting the closed door"
fi
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
# path_strict <path> <uid> <label> — flag the two StrictModes complaints
flag( ) { bad = " ${ bad : + $bad , } $1 " ; }
path_strict( ) {
local p = " $1 " uid = " $2 " l = " $3 " o m
o = " $( stat -c '%u' " $p " 2>/dev/null) " || return 0
m = " $( stat -c '%a' " $p " 2>/dev/null) "
if [ " $o " != " $uid " ] ; then flag " $l not owned by the user " ; fi
if [ $(( 8# $m & 8#022 )) -ne 0 ] ; then flag " $l is group/world-writable (mode $m ) " ; fi
}
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
ADMIN_OK = 0
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
CANDIDATES = 0
DETAIL = ""
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
while IFS = read -r a; do
[ -n " $a " ] || continue
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
CANDIDATES = $(( CANDIDATES + 1 ))
bad = ""
uid = " $( id -u " $a " 2>/dev/null) " || { DETAIL = " $DETAIL ; $a : no such user " ; continue ; }
ent = " $( getent passwd " $a " ) "
h = " $( printf '%s' " $ent " | cut -d: -f6) "
shell = " $( printf '%s' " $ent " | cut -d: -f7) "
if [ ! -d " $h " ] ; then
flag "home directory missing"
else
path_strict " $h " " $uid " "home"
if [ ! -d " $h /.ssh " ] ; then
flag ".ssh directory missing"
else
path_strict " $h /.ssh " " $uid " ".ssh directory"
if [ ! -s " $h /.ssh/authorized_keys " ] ; then
flag "authorized_keys missing or empty"
else
path_strict " $h /.ssh/authorized_keys " " $uid " "authorized_keys"
fi
fi
fi
case " $shell " in
*/nologin| */false) flag " login shell $shell never logs in " ; ;
esac
# shadow field 8 is the expiry in days-since-epoch; empty means never.
exp = " $( getent shadow " $a " 2>/dev/null | cut -d: -f8) "
if [ -n " $exp " ] && [ " $exp " -le " $today " ] 2>/dev/null; then
flag "account expired"
fi
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
# Reachability proof 1 — NOPASSWD sudo answers for real. `sudo -n` never
# prompts: with the %rig-admin NOPASSWD rule effective it exits 0, and a
# sudoers drop-in that failed to land (or a sudo that is simply absent)
# exits non-zero right here instead of after root is welded shut.
if [ " $HAVE_RUNUSER " -eq 1 ] ; then
if ! runuser -u " $a " -- sudo -n true >/dev/null 2>& 1; then
flag "sudo -n true fails as this user (NOPASSWD sudo not effective — re-run rig users apply)"
fi
fi
# Reachability proof 2 — sshd's per-user EFFECTIVE config accepts them.
# `sshd -T -C user=...` resolves Match blocks for exactly this login, so an
# exclusion the global `sshd -T` never shows is caught. Allow/Deny entries
fix(close-root): DenyUsers judged fail-closed — patterns and USER@HOST flag
All three reviewers, same substance, and they were right that it was
lockout-adjacent: the literal grep passed a candidate whom a DenyUsers
PATTERN really denies ('DenyUsers dan*' vs admin 'dan'), and the door
closed on a false proof. The judgment now lives in the lib as a pure
deny_verdict: a literal hit flags, and so does ANY pattern or
host-qualified token — a token the check cannot prove irrelevant counts
as a hit, never as a pass. The asymmetry with AllowUsers is now the
same direction on both sides: every error closes toward repair, never
toward a welded-shut door.
Also (claude-bot): the -C probe resolves Match blocks against a
synthetic addr=127.0.0.1, so Match Address is out of the local proof's
scope — named in --help, the README, and the gate's comment, so the
separate-session advisory reads as load-bearing, not ceremony.
Regressions ride the sourced lib: wildcard (the review's dan* case),
'?', USER@HOST, literal hit, irrelevant-literals pass, plus a grep
guard that the shipped gate consults deny_verdict.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 17:02:48 +00:00
# are judged fail-closed in BOTH directions: AllowUsers must name the admin
# literally (a pattern that would in fact admit them still flags — the
# operator proves patterns by hand), and DenyUsers flags on a literal hit
# OR on any pattern/host-qualified token (deny_verdict, in the lib) —
# 'DenyUsers dan*' really denies admin 'dan', and a token this check cannot
# prove irrelevant must count as a hit, never as a pass. What no local
# probe can resolve is a Match on the CLIENT's address — the -C probe pins
# addr=127.0.0.1 — which is why the separate-session verification stays
# load-bearing.
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
if perT = " $( sshd -T -C " user= $a ,host= $( hostname) ,addr=127.0.0.1 " 2>/dev/null) " ; then
if ! printf '%s\n' " $perT " | grep -qx 'pubkeyauthentication yes' ; then
flag "sshd resolves pubkeyauthentication != yes for this user"
fi
fix(close-root): DenyUsers judged fail-closed — patterns and USER@HOST flag
All three reviewers, same substance, and they were right that it was
lockout-adjacent: the literal grep passed a candidate whom a DenyUsers
PATTERN really denies ('DenyUsers dan*' vs admin 'dan'), and the door
closed on a false proof. The judgment now lives in the lib as a pure
deny_verdict: a literal hit flags, and so does ANY pattern or
host-qualified token — a token the check cannot prove irrelevant counts
as a hit, never as a pass. The asymmetry with AllowUsers is now the
same direction on both sides: every error closes toward repair, never
toward a welded-shut door.
Also (claude-bot): the -C probe resolves Match blocks against a
synthetic addr=127.0.0.1, so Match Address is out of the local proof's
scope — named in --help, the README, and the gate's comment, so the
separate-session advisory reads as load-bearing, not ceremony.
Regressions ride the sourced lib: wildcard (the review's dan* case),
'?', USER@HOST, literal hit, irrelevant-literals pass, plus a grep
guard that the shipped gate consults deny_verdict.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 17:02:48 +00:00
deny_line = " $( printf '%s\n' " $perT " | grep -i '^denyusers ' | head -n1) "
if [ -n " $deny_line " ] ; then
# shellcheck disable=SC2086 # word-splitting the tokens is the point
deny_reason = " $( deny_verdict " $a " ${ deny_line #* } ) "
[ -n " $deny_reason " ] && flag " $deny_reason "
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
fi
2026-07-18 17:17:39 +00:00
# The group directives close the same door through the other hinge: sshd
# enforces Allow/DenyGroups against the candidate's ACTUAL membership, so
# the gate resolves id -Gn and judges both with the same fail-closed
# discipline as the *Users pair. id failing yields no groups, which makes
# a set AllowGroups flag — the safe direction.
a_groups = " $( id -Gn -- " $a " 2>/dev/null) "
denyg_line = " $( printf '%s\n' " $perT " | grep -i '^denygroups ' | head -n1) "
if [ -n " $denyg_line " ] ; then
# shellcheck disable=SC2086 # word-splitting the tokens is the point
denyg_reason = " $( group_deny_verdict " $a_groups " ${ denyg_line #* } ) "
[ -n " $denyg_reason " ] && flag " $denyg_reason "
fi
allowg_line = " $( printf '%s\n' " $perT " | grep -i '^allowgroups ' | head -n1) "
if [ -n " $allowg_line " ] ; then
# shellcheck disable=SC2086 # word-splitting the tokens is the point
allowg_reason = " $( group_allow_verdict " $a_groups " ${ allowg_line #* } ) "
[ -n " $allowg_reason " ] && flag " $allowg_reason "
fi
feat(users): close-root proves the door opens, not that it should — sudo -n and per-user sshd -T join the gate
The StrictModes-shaped gate reads files, and files can all look right while
the door stays shut: a sudoers drop-in that never landed, an AllowUsers or
Match block elsewhere in sshd's config. #17 names the two checks that
interrogate behavior instead, and they now run per candidate, additively,
before the drop-in installs: 'runuser -u <admin> -- sudo -n true' (NOPASSWD
sudo answers or it does not — -n never prompts; a missing runuser skips the
proof with a loud warning rather than blocking the door on a missing
prover), and 'sshd -T -C user=<admin>,host=...,addr=...' (the per-user
EFFECTIVE config — pubkeyauthentication yes, no literal DenyUsers hit,
AllowUsers if set must name them; Allow/Deny patterns match literally, fail
closed). The one thing no local check can prove remains possession of the
private key — the separate-session advisory stays load-bearing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 14:53:50 +00:00
if printf '%s\n' " $perT " | grep -qi '^allowusers ' \
&& ! printf '%s\n' " $perT " | grep -i '^allowusers ' | tr ' ' '\n' | grep -qx " $a " ; then
flag "sshd AllowUsers is set and does not name this user"
fi
else
flag " sshd -T -C user= $a failed — cannot resolve the per-user config sshd would apply "
fi
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
if [ -z " $bad " ] ; then ADMIN_OK = 1; break; fi
DETAIL = " $DETAIL ; $a : $bad "
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
done < <( getent group rig-admin | cut -d: -f4 | tr ',' '\n' )
fix(users): review findings — invoker gate, real SSH revocation, StrictModes-shaped close-root gate, trait-aware box role
Seven review findings on the users family, each with the harness check that
would have caught it:
- Invoker gate (apply + close-root): %rig's sudoers rule is binary-scoped but
not argument-scoped, so `sudo rig users apply --file <me-as-admin>` made
role rig silently root-equivalent through the very command that granted it.
Identity management now refuses any sudo invoker outside rig-admin; direct
root (bring-up, a root shell) proceeds.
- Offboarding revokes SSH, not just the password: a '!'-locked password is
not a closed door under UsePAM — Debian sshd still honors the pubkey. A
dropped user's account is now expired (usermod -L -e 1, the switch PAM
actually enforces) and authorized_keys is renamed to
authorized_keys.revoked-by-rig — access revoked, data kept, convergence
never destroys. Present users get their expiry cleared idempotently, so a
re-added user comes back to life.
- The ledger remembers: two-field lines ('name active' / 'name revoked',
legacy bare names read as active), so dropped users no longer vanish from
rig's memory on the next rewrite. status now reports the ledger state
corroborated by the account's real expiry — passwd -S read L for everyone
(apply locks all passwords always), so its locked/active was meaningless —
and flags a mismatch loudly as drift.
- Perms are part of the converged state: ~/.ssh and authorized_keys ownership
and mode converge on every run, not only when content changes — StrictModes
treats them as load-bearing, so drifted perms were a broken login that
"already converged" lied about. Only the content write stays cmp-guarded.
- close-root's admin-door gate checks the StrictModes shape per candidate —
ownership, group/world-writability of home/.ssh/authorized_keys, a real
login shell, an unexpired account — and names which check failed. It proves
the door SHOULD open, not that it does; the separate-session advisory stays
load-bearing.
- Usernames are validated in the parser's one-pass refusal matrix
(^[a-z_][a-z0-9_-]{0,31}$): 'fo|o' corrupted the parser's own '|'-delimited
stream, and a leading '-' read as a useradd flag mid-convergence.
- The box role is trait-aware: on a host=no box an absent incus group skips
the role with a warning and converges everything else — one box-role user
in a fleet-wide file must not abort apply everywhere VMs don't live.
host=yes still dies pointing at box setup-host; a classless marker warns
toward a bootstrap re-run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 20:01:19 +00:00
if [ " $ADMIN_OK " -ne 1 ] ; then
if [ " $CANDIDATES " -eq 0 ] ; then
die "no admin user with a key on this box — run rig users apply first; never close the only door"
fi
die " no rig-admin member would pass sshd's door ${ DETAIL } — repair, prove the login in a separate session, then re-run; never close the only door "
fi
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
# --- the drop-in --------------------------------------------------------------
# The NAME is the entire mechanism: sshd_config is FIRST-wins ("for each
# keyword, the first obtained value will be used" — sshd_config(5)), Include
# expands its glob in lexical order, and '-' (0x2D) sorts before '.' (0x2E),
# so 00-rig-users.conf is read BEFORE bootstrap's 00-rig.conf and this
# PermitRootLogin beats its prohibit-password. Rename the file and it silently
# loses that fight — the harness asserts the comparison the glob makes.
DROPIN = /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf
TMP = " $( mktemp) "
printf 'PermitRootLogin no\n' > " $TMP "
2026-07-17 20:49:12 +00:00
# Convergence needs two proofs, and matching bytes are only half of one. The
# file can be right while the DOOR is still open: a prior run that died
# between install and restart leaves a daemon that never read this file, and
# `sshd -T` cannot tell — it re-parses disk, it does not interrogate the
# running daemon. The only proof the running sshd carries this config is a
# (re)start AFTER the last change to anything sshd reads: the main config,
# the drop-in dir itself (creates/deletes/renames inside touch its mtime, so
# a since-removed override is caught), and every drop-in. So the no-op is
# taken only when the bytes match AND systemd says sshd started strictly
# after the newest of those mtimes; anything less restarts, and the
# effective-config assertion at the bottom runs on EVERY path — claiming
# "already closed" from file bytes is exactly what let bootstrap's
# first-wins bug ship green.
RESTART = 1
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
BACKUP = ""
2026-07-17 20:49:12 +00:00
INSTALLED = 0
if cmp -s " $TMP " " $DROPIN " 2>/dev/null; then
newest = " $( stat -c '%Y' /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf 2>/dev/null | sort -rn | head -n1) "
started = " $( systemctl show ssh -p ExecMainStartTimestamp --value 2>/dev/null) " || started = ""
if [ -n " $started " ] && started_s = " $( date -d " $started " +%s 2>/dev/null) " \
&& [ -n " $newest " ] && [ " $started_s " -gt " $newest " ] ; then
RESTART = 0
fi
else
[ -e " $DROPIN " ] && { BACKUP = " $( mktemp) " ; cp -a " $DROPIN " " $BACKUP " ; }
install -m 0644 " $TMP " " $DROPIN "
INSTALLED = 1
fi
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
rm -f " $TMP "
2026-07-17 20:49:12 +00:00
if [ " $RESTART " -eq 1 ] ; then
# Validate the MERGED config BEFORE bouncing the daemon (the bootstrap
# shape): on a box whose only door is SSH — exactly what this box is about
# to become — restarting into a config the daemon refuses to parse leaves
# no listener and no way back in. Roll back (when we installed anything)
# and stop rather than shut the door on a maybe.
if ! sshd -t 2>/dev/null; then
if [ " $INSTALLED " -eq 1 ] ; then
if [ -n " $BACKUP " ] ; then cp -a " $BACKUP " " $DROPIN " ; else rm -f " $DROPIN " ; fi
rm -f " $BACKUP "
die "sshd rejects the merged config; drop-in rolled back, daemon untouched. Run 'sshd -t' to see which file is bad."
fi
die "sshd rejects the current config; daemon untouched. Run 'sshd -t' to see which file is bad."
fi
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
rm -f " $BACKUP "
2026-07-17 20:49:12 +00:00
systemctl restart ssh
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
fi
# Assert the EFFECTIVE config, not the file's existence — a drop-in sorting
# even earlier would win the first-wins fight silently. `sshd -T` is what the
2026-07-17 20:49:12 +00:00
# daemon actually resolved, and it gates the no-op claim too: "already
# closed" is a statement about the door, never about the file.
feat(users): close-root — shut the human-class root door once an admin key works
class decides root SSH's fate, and this is human's: install
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-rig-users.conf (PermitRootLogin no), where the NAME
is the mechanism — sshd_config is first-wins, the Include glob expands
lexically, and '-' sorts before '.', so it is read before bootstrap's
00-rig.conf and wins. Gated three ways, no --force: a marker must exist
(never shut the root door blind), it must say class=human (on a server root
is the control plane's automation identity — closing it severs fleet
management), and some rig-admin member must already hold a non-empty
authorized_keys (never close the only door). The gate's policy lives in the
lib as assert_marker_human so the harness proves every refusal against
fixture markers as non-root; RIG_ROLE_MARKER keeps the command pointable at
the same fixtures. Apply is bootstrap's validate-then-apply shape verbatim —
cmp-guard, sshd -t on the merged config before the restart with rollback,
then the sshd -T effective assertion. Bootstrap's own permitrootlogin
assertion widens to accept 'no': the closed door is strictly harder, never
broken, and by first-wins bootstrap cannot reopen it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 19:28:25 +00:00
eff = " $( sshd -T 2>/dev/null) " || die "sshd -T failed; refusing to claim root is closed"
echo " $eff " | grep -qx 'permitrootlogin no' \
|| die " sshd still resolves permitrootlogin != no — a drop-in is beating ${ DROPIN } ; check ls /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/ "
2026-07-17 20:49:12 +00:00
if [ " $RESTART " -eq 0 ] ; then
log "root already closed (sshd -T resolves permitrootlogin no); nothing to do"
else
log "root door closed (sshd -T resolves permitrootlogin no); humans enter as themselves now"
fi