replace http basic auth for web interfaces with session cookie & csrf-based auth

the http basic auth we had was very simple to reason about, and to implement.
but it has a major downside:

there is no way to logout, browsers keep sending credentials. ideally, browsers
themselves would show a button to stop sending credentials.

a related downside: the http auth mechanism doesn't indicate for which server
paths the credentials are.

another downside: the original password is sent to the server with each
request. though sending original passwords to web servers seems to be
considered normal.

our new approach uses session cookies, along with csrf values when we can. the
sessions are server-side managed, automatically extended on each use. this
makes it easy to invalidate sessions and keeps the frontend simpler (than with
long- vs short-term sessions and refreshing). the cookies are httponly,
samesite=strict, scoped to the path of the web interface. cookies are set
"secure" when set over https. the cookie is set by a successful call to Login.
a call to Logout invalidates a session. changing a password invalidates all
sessions for a user, but keeps the session with which the password was changed
alive. the csrf value is also random, and associated with the session cookie.
the csrf must be sent as header for api calls, or as parameter for direct form
posts (where we cannot set a custom header). rest-like calls made directly by
the browser, e.g. for images, don't have a csrf protection. the csrf value is
returned by the Login api call and stored in localstorage.

api calls without credentials return code "user:noAuth", and with bad
credentials return "user:badAuth". the api client recognizes this and triggers
a login. after a login, all auth-failed api calls are automatically retried.
only for "user:badAuth" is an error message displayed in the login form (e.g.
session expired).

in an ideal world, browsers would take care of most session management. a
server would indicate authentication is needed (like http basic auth), and the
browsers uses trusted ui to request credentials for the server & path. the
browser could use safer mechanism than sending original passwords to the
server, such as scram, along with a standard way to create sessions.  for now,
web developers have to do authentication themselves: from showing the login
prompt, ensuring the right session/csrf cookies/localstorage/headers/etc are
sent with each request.

webauthn is a newer way to do authentication, perhaps we'll implement it in the
future. though hardware tokens aren't an attractive option for many users, and
it may be overkill as long as we still do old-fashioned authentication in smtp
& imap where passwords can be sent to the server.

for issue #58
This commit is contained in:
Mechiel Lukkien
2024-01-04 13:10:48 +01:00
parent c930a400be
commit 0f8bf2f220
50 changed files with 3560 additions and 832 deletions

View File

@ -413,10 +413,11 @@ func sseGet(id int64, accountName string) (sse, bool) {
// ssetoken is a temporary token that has not yet been used to start an SSE
// connection. Created by Token, consumed by a new SSE connection.
type ssetoken struct {
token string // Uniquely generated.
accName string
address string // Address used to authenticate in call that created the token.
validUntil time.Time
token string // Uniquely generated.
accName string
address string // Address used to authenticate in call that created the token.
sessionToken store.SessionToken // SessionToken that created this token, checked before sending updates.
validUntil time.Time
}
// ssetokens maintains unused tokens. We have just one, but it's a type so we
@ -434,11 +435,11 @@ var sseTokens = ssetokens{
// xgenerate creates and saves a new token. It ensures no more than 10 tokens
// per account exist, removing old ones if needed.
func (x *ssetokens) xgenerate(ctx context.Context, accName, address string) string {
func (x *ssetokens) xgenerate(ctx context.Context, accName, address string, sessionToken store.SessionToken) string {
buf := make([]byte, 16)
_, err := cryptrand.Read(buf)
xcheckf(ctx, err, "generating token")
st := ssetoken{base64.RawURLEncoding.EncodeToString(buf), accName, address, time.Now().Add(time.Minute)}
st := ssetoken{base64.RawURLEncoding.EncodeToString(buf), accName, address, sessionToken, time.Now().Add(time.Minute)}
x.Lock()
defer x.Unlock()
@ -456,17 +457,17 @@ func (x *ssetokens) xgenerate(ctx context.Context, accName, address string) stri
}
// check verifies a token, and consumes it if valid.
func (x *ssetokens) check(token string) (string, string, bool, error) {
func (x *ssetokens) check(token string) (string, string, store.SessionToken, bool, error) {
x.Lock()
defer x.Unlock()
st, ok := x.tokens[token]
if !ok {
return "", "", false, nil
return "", "", "", false, nil
}
delete(x.tokens, token)
if i := slices.Index(x.accountTokens[st.accName], st); i < 0 {
return "", "", false, errors.New("internal error, could not find token in account")
return "", "", "", false, errors.New("internal error, could not find token in account")
} else {
copy(x.accountTokens[st.accName][i:], x.accountTokens[st.accName][i+1:])
x.accountTokens[st.accName] = x.accountTokens[st.accName][:len(x.accountTokens[st.accName])-1]
@ -475,9 +476,9 @@ func (x *ssetokens) check(token string) (string, string, bool, error) {
}
}
if time.Now().After(st.validUntil) {
return "", "", false, nil
return "", "", "", false, nil
}
return st.accName, st.address, true, nil
return st.accName, st.address, st.sessionToken, true, nil
}
// ioErr is panicked on i/o errors in serveEvents and handled in a defer.
@ -506,7 +507,7 @@ func serveEvents(ctx context.Context, log mlog.Log, w http.ResponseWriter, r *ht
http.Error(w, "400 - bad request - missing credentials", http.StatusBadRequest)
return
}
accName, address, ok, err := sseTokens.check(token)
accName, address, sessionToken, ok, err := sseTokens.check(token)
if err != nil {
http.Error(w, "500 - internal server error - "+err.Error(), http.StatusInternalServerError)
return
@ -515,6 +516,10 @@ func serveEvents(ctx context.Context, log mlog.Log, w http.ResponseWriter, r *ht
http.Error(w, "400 - bad request - bad token", http.StatusBadRequest)
return
}
if _, err := store.SessionUse(ctx, log, accName, sessionToken, ""); err != nil {
http.Error(w, "400 - bad request - bad session token", http.StatusBadRequest)
return
}
// We can simulate a slow SSE connection. It seems firefox doesn't slow down
// incoming responses with its slow-network similation.
@ -594,7 +599,7 @@ func serveEvents(ctx context.Context, log mlog.Log, w http.ResponseWriter, r *ht
out = httpFlusher{out, flusher}
// We'll be writing outgoing SSE events through writer.
writer = newEventWriter(out, waitMin, waitMax)
writer = newEventWriter(out, waitMin, waitMax, accName, sessionToken)
defer writer.close()
// Fetch initial data.