fix(tunnel): break the expired-leaf renewal deadlock

`POST /renew` is authenticated by mTLS with the very leaf it renews, so once
that leaf lapsed the host could never renew it and the tunnel stayed down until
an operator re-paired by hand. Production hit exactly this: the Mac slept
through its 8h renewal window, the 24h leaf expired, and the agent then logged
`client certificate has expired; renew before dialling` 6380 times over 8 days
without recovering.

Three layers independently refused an expired leaf, so all three had to move:

- agent `buildTlsOptions` gains an opt-in `expiredGraceMs`. Absent/0 keeps the
  historical fail-closed behaviour, and the TUNNEL dial never passes it — only
  the renew transport does. Past the window it throws the new
  `CertExpiredBeyondGraceError`.
- agent rotator routes an already-expired leaf to a separate recovery endpoint
  and treats "beyond grace" as TERMINAL: report once via `onExhausted`, stop
  retrying, and name the fix (re-pair) instead of spamming warnings forever.
- control-plane `assertPresentedCertTrusted` grants a bounded grace on
  `notAfter` only. Chain validation, SPIFFE identity, `notBefore`, and the
  registry `active`/account checks are all unchanged, so revocation still bites.
- new `deploy/nginx/recover-mtls.conf` (:8472). The strict enroll vhost cannot
  host this: under `ssl_verify_client optional` nginx answers a bare 400 as soon
  as a presented cert fails verification, so an expired leaf never reaches the
  location — and the directive is server-level, not per-location.

Grace defaults to 30 days on both ends and is configurable (`RECOVER_URL`,
`expiredRenewGraceMs`). The honest trade is recorded in the code: a stale stolen
leaf stays reusable for the window, which widens an existing exposure (an
unexpired stolen leaf already renews indefinitely) rather than opening a new one.

Verified: agent 296/296, control-plane 286/286, tsc clean on both.
This commit is contained in:
Yaojia Wang
2026-07-29 09:41:03 +02:00
parent b1bc50ccd1
commit f3f4d8baa6
11 changed files with 643 additions and 16 deletions

View File

@@ -8,9 +8,11 @@ import { openKeystore } from '../src/keys/keystore.js'
import {
computeRenewDelayMs,
createCertRotator,
recoveryRenewalUrlFor,
renewCert,
renewalUrlFor,
} from '../src/certs/rotation.js'
import { CertExpiredBeyondGraceError } from '../src/transport/dial.js'
import { createBackoff } from '../src/transport/backoff.js'
import { FakeTimer } from './fixtures/fakes.js'
@@ -159,3 +161,121 @@ describe('createCertRotator (T13)', () => {
rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true })
})
})
/**
* Expired-leaf recovery (production deadlock, 2026-07): `/renew` is mTLS-authenticated by the leaf
* it renews, so a lapsed leaf can never renew itself. Recovery needs BOTH a different endpoint (the
* strict nginx vhost rejects an expired client cert with a bare 400 before any location runs) and a
* terminal signal when even the grace window is spent, so the agent stops retrying forever.
*/
describe('expired-leaf recovery routing', () => {
it('derives the recovery endpoint from an `enroll.` host', () => {
expect(recoveryRenewalUrlFor({ ...CFG, enrollUrl: 'https://enroll.terminal.example.com/enroll' })).toBe(
'https://recover.terminal.example.com/renew',
)
})
it('honours an explicit recoverUrl over the derivation', () => {
expect(
recoveryRenewalUrlFor({
...CFG,
enrollUrl: 'https://enroll.terminal.example.com/enroll',
recoverUrl: 'https://elsewhere.example.com/renew',
}),
).toBe('https://elsewhere.example.com/renew')
})
it('is null when the enroll host carries no `enroll.` label (nothing to derive)', () => {
expect(recoveryRenewalUrlFor(CFG)).toBeNull()
})
it('posts to the NORMAL endpoint while the leaf is still valid', async () => {
const { dir, ks } = enrolledKs()
const timer = new FakeTimer()
const urls: string[] = []
const rotator = createCertRotator(
{ ...CFG, enrollUrl: 'https://enroll.terminal.example.com/enroll' },
ks.loadIdentity()!,
ks,
{
timer,
renewBeforeMs: 1000,
fetchImpl: (async (u: string) => {
urls.push(u)
return jsonRes(200, { cert: 'NEWCERT', caChain: ['NEWCA'] })
}) as unknown as typeof fetch,
now: () => new Date(0),
parseCert: () => new Date(2000), // still valid at now=0
},
)
rotator.start()
timer.advance(1000)
await flush()
expect(urls).toEqual(['https://enroll.terminal.example.com/renew'])
rotator.stop()
rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true })
})
it('posts to the RECOVERY endpoint once the leaf has already expired', async () => {
const { dir, ks } = enrolledKs()
const timer = new FakeTimer()
const urls: string[] = []
const rotator = createCertRotator(
{ ...CFG, enrollUrl: 'https://enroll.terminal.example.com/enroll' },
ks.loadIdentity()!,
ks,
{
timer,
renewBeforeMs: 1000,
fetchImpl: (async (u: string) => {
urls.push(u)
return jsonRes(200, { cert: 'NEWCERT', caChain: ['NEWCA'] })
}) as unknown as typeof fetch,
now: () => new Date(10_000),
parseCert: () => new Date(2000), // expired 8s ago ⇒ delay clamps to 0
},
)
rotator.start()
timer.advance(0)
await flush()
expect(urls).toEqual(['https://recover.terminal.example.com/renew'])
rotator.stop()
rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true })
})
it('fires onExhausted and STOPS retrying when the grace window is spent', async () => {
const { dir, ks } = enrolledKs()
const timer = new FakeTimer()
let attempts = 0
const rotator = createCertRotator(CFG, ks.loadIdentity()!, ks, {
timer,
renewBeforeMs: 1000,
retryBackoff: createBackoff({ baseMs: 500, jitter: false }),
fetchImpl: (async () => {
attempts += 1
throw new CertExpiredBeyondGraceError(40 * 86_400_000, 30 * 86_400_000)
}) as unknown as typeof fetch,
now: () => new Date(0),
parseCert: () => new Date(2000),
})
const errors: unknown[] = []
let exhausted: CertExpiredBeyondGraceError | null = null
rotator.onError((e) => errors.push(e))
rotator.onExhausted((e) => {
exhausted = e
})
rotator.start()
timer.advance(1000)
await flush()
expect(attempts).toBe(1)
expect(exhausted).toBeInstanceOf(CertExpiredBeyondGraceError)
// Terminal: no retry is armed, because only a re-pair can help — retrying forever is the log
// spam that buried the real signal in production (6380 identical warnings).
expect(errors).toHaveLength(0)
timer.advance(60_000)
await flush()
expect(attempts).toBe(1)
rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true })
})
})