[Bug]: Phase 2 — High Priority: Rate Limiting, Request Size, Webhook Auth, Event Dedup, Trust & Symlinks (H-1 through H-10)

[initializ-mk]

Component

forge-core (registry, tools, security, channels, LLM), forge-cli (commands, TUI wizard, runtime), forge-plugins (channel plugins, markdown converter), forge-skills (skill parser, compiler, analyzer, trust)

Description

Eight high priority security vulnerabilities identified via cross-reference with OpenClaw 2026.2.19 / 2026.2.20. Exploitable under specific conditions or represent significant hardening gaps.

Re-verified 2026-03-12 against latest main (commit 7d2148b). Key changes from original analysis:

• H-4 downgraded: Slack uses Socket Mode (WebSocket), not HTTP webhooks. No replay/dedup protection exists at all (previously thought HMAC was in place).
• H-8 downgraded: cli_execute.go is secure, but custom_tool.go has unvalidated entrypoint paths — now tracked as a partial fix needing completion.

Reference: FORGE-SECURITY-UPDATE.md — Phase 2

Steps to reproduce

H-1. A2A Server Missing Rate Limiting

• File: forge-cli/server/a2a_server.go
• No rate limiting middleware exists. Handler chain (lines 124-130) includes only CORS and optional auth. Send unlimited requests to any endpoint.

H-2. A2A Server Missing Request Size Limits

• File: forge-cli/server/a2a_server.go
• handleJSONRPC() (line 196) uses json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&req) with no http.MaxBytesReader. HTTP server config (lines 132-136) does not set MaxHeaderBytes. Send a multi-GB payload to cause OOM.

H-3. Telegram Webhook Missing Signature Verification

• File: forge-plugins/channels/telegram/telegram.go (lines 125–142)
• makeWebhookHandler() reads raw body and calls NormalizeEvent() without any token verification. No Content-Type enforcement. Binds to 0.0.0.0 (line 106-109). POST any JSON to the webhook port to inject fake messages.

H-4. Slack Socket Mode — Missing Event Deduplication

• File: forge-plugins/channels/slack/slack.go
• Slack uses Socket Mode (WebSocket), not HTTP webhooks. The readLoop() (lines 258-391) processes all events immediately after acknowledging the envelope (lines 280-285) with no deduplication or replay protection. Duplicate events from Slack retries are processed multiple times.

H-5. Custom Tool npx ts-node Runtime Downloads

• File: forge-core/tools/custom_tool.go (line 56)
• return "npx", []string{"ts-node"} — downloads from npm if not installed. No --no-install flag, no sandboxing, no integrity validation.

H-6. Default Trust Policy Accepts Unsigned Local Skills

• File: forge-skills/trust/types.go (lines 15–20)
• DefaultTrustPolicy() returns MinTrustLevel: contract.TrustLocal, RequireChecksum: false, RequireSignature: false.

H-7. Skill Scanner Symlink Handling

• File: forge-skills/local/scanner.go (lines 13–106)
• Scan() uses fs.ReadDir() and fsys.Open(). No filepath.EvalSymlinks(). Directly concatenates name + "/SKILL.md" (line 33). Symlinks can point outside the skill directory.

H-8. Custom Tool Entrypoint Validation Gap

• Files: forge-core/tools/custom_tool.go, forge-cli/tools/cli_execute.go
• cli_execute.go is secure (explicit args, shell blocklist, argument validation). However, custom_tool.go (line 48) passes the entrypoint to the executor without validating the file path or checking arguments from JSON input.

H-10. Token/Secret Reuse Detection

• Files: forge-core/types/config.go, forge-core/secrets/, forge-cli/runtime/runner.go
• Startup flow (runner.go lines 117-142) calls ResolveAuth() and overlaySecrets() with no validation that secrets/tokens are unique across subsystems. chain_provider.go returns first match without dedup.

Expected behavior

• H-1: Per-IP rate limiting with 429 Too Many Requests responses.
• H-2: Request bodies limited to 2 MiB with 413 on excess.
• H-3: Telegram webhook verifies X-Telegram-Bot-Api-Secret-Token, enforces JSON Content-Type, binds to localhost.
• H-4: Duplicate Slack events detected by envelope_id and skipped.
• H-5: npx --no-install ts-node prevents runtime downloads; clear error if not installed.
• H-6: RequireChecksum: true by default; warnings on unsigned skills.
• H-7: Symlinks resolved and validated to stay within trusted root.
• H-8: Entrypoint validated as regular file within skill directory.
• H-10: Startup rejects configs where distinct-purpose secrets are identical.

Actual behavior

• H-1: Unlimited requests accepted — DoS risk.
• H-2: Unlimited payload size — OOM risk.
• H-3: Any HTTP client can inject fake Telegram messages.
• H-4: Duplicate events processed multiple times causing duplicate bot responses.
• H-5: npx downloads packages from npm registry at runtime.
• H-6: Unsigned, unchecked skills accepted by default.
• H-7: Symlinks followed without boundary checks.
• H-8: Arbitrary entrypoint paths accepted without validation.
• H-10: No duplicate token detection at startup.

Tasks

H-1. Rate Limiting

• Add per-IP rate limiting middleware (golang.org/x/time/rate or token bucket)
• Default: 60 req/min reads, 10 req/min writes
• Return 429 with Retry-After header
• Make limits configurable
• Add tests

H-2. Request Size Limits

• Wrap body reads with http.MaxBytesReader(w, r.Body, maxBytes)
• Default: 2 MiB prompts, 10 MiB uploads
• Return 413 on excess
• Add tests for oversized payloads

H-3. Telegram Webhook Auth

• Use setWebhook with secret_token (Bot API 6.1+)
• Verify X-Telegram-Bot-Api-Secret-Token header
• Enforce Content-Type: application/json
• Bind to 127.0.0.1 by default
• Add per-path rate limiting
• Add tests for valid/invalid/missing token

H-4. Slack Event Deduplication

• Add event-ID dedup cache (in-memory map with TTL)
• Track envelope_id or event payload hash as dedup key
• Skip processing for duplicates (acknowledge but don't act)
• Add TTL-based eviction to prevent memory growth
• Add tests for duplicate event rejection

H-5. npx Safety

• Change to return "npx", []string{"--no-install", "ts-node"}
• Or resolve ts-node binary path directly and fail if not found
• Log clear error if not installed
• Add test verifying --no-install present

H-6. Trust Policy Defaults

• Change to RequireChecksum: true
• Consider RequireSignature: true for production
• Log warnings on unsigned skills
• Add --trust-unsigned CLI flag for dev use

H-7. Symlink Handling

• Resolve paths with filepath.EvalSymlinks()
• Verify resolved path within trusted root
• Reject paths resolving outside root
• Log warnings on symlinks
• Add tests for symlink escape

H-8. Entrypoint Validation

• Validate entrypoint is a regular file (not symlink, device)
• Ensure entrypoint resolves within expected skill directory
• Validate JSON arguments for injection patterns
• Add tests for malicious entrypoint paths

H-10. Token Reuse Detection

• Collect all tokens/secrets at startup
• Reject configs with duplicate secret values across subsystems
• Log clear error identifying colliding tokens
• Add test for duplicate detection