Each of the eight tour docs (README, DESIGN, docs/CRYPTO, docs/FORMATS, docs/SECURITY, crates/relicario-core/ARCHITECTURE, crates/relicario-cli/ARCHITECTURE, extension/ARCHITECTURE) now declares its scope in a blockquote under its H1 and ends with a single-line "Next:" pointer to the next doc in the canonical reading order: README → DESIGN → CRYPTO → FORMATS → SECURITY → core → cli → extension. Also trimmed README's mid-section "Architecture" stub to a one- paragraph pointer at DESIGN.md (was duplicating cross-codebase content and referencing a non-existent docs/architecture/ tree). Renamed docs/CRYPTO.md's H1 from "Relicario — Architecture" to "Relicario — Crypto Pipeline" to match the file's renamed scope. Spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-30-doc-structure-redesign-design.md
111 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
111 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
# Relicario Security Model
|
|
|
|
> **Audience:** auditors and curious users. This doc owns the threat model, attacker-scenarios table, device-authentication model, env-var trust surface, and known limitations. **Does NOT own:** crypto primitive details (see [CRYPTO.md](CRYPTO.md)), wire formats (see [FORMATS.md](FORMATS.md)), or implementation (see [../crates/relicario-core/ARCHITECTURE.md](../crates/relicario-core/ARCHITECTURE.md) and [../crates/relicario-cli/ARCHITECTURE.md](../crates/relicario-cli/ARCHITECTURE.md)).
|
|
|
|
## Cryptographic Protection
|
|
|
|
Relicario uses two-factor vault decryption:
|
|
1. **Passphrase** — user-memorized, zxcvbn score ≥3 required
|
|
2. **Reference image** — JPEG carrying 256-bit secret via DCT steganography
|
|
|
|
Key derivation: Argon2id (64 MiB memory, 3 iterations, 4 parallelism)
|
|
Encryption: XChaCha20-Poly1305 (192-bit nonce, 256-bit key)
|
|
|
|
## Manifest Integrity
|
|
|
|
The manifest (`manifest.enc`) is encrypted with AEAD, which provides:
|
|
|
|
- **Confidentiality**: Contents unreadable without master key
|
|
- **Integrity**: Any modification detected and rejected on decrypt
|
|
- **Authenticity**: Only master key holders can create valid ciphertexts
|
|
|
|
### What AEAD Does NOT Protect
|
|
|
|
- **Item deletion**: An attacker with write access can delete `.enc` files
|
|
or git-revert commits. The manifest decrypts successfully but won't
|
|
contain the deleted items.
|
|
|
|
- **Rollback attacks**: An attacker can replace `manifest.enc` with an
|
|
older valid version. AEAD accepts any ciphertext created with the key.
|
|
|
|
### Mitigation
|
|
|
|
Item deletion and rollback are detectable via **git history**:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
git log --oneline items/
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
For environments where git history could be rewritten (force-push):
|
|
|
|
1. Enable device authentication (commit signing + pre-receive hook)
|
|
2. Use a git server that rejects non-fast-forward pushes
|
|
3. Regular backups with `relicario backup export`
|
|
|
|
## Device Authentication
|
|
|
|
When enabled, device authentication provides:
|
|
|
|
- **Commit authorship**: All commits signed by registered device keys
|
|
- **Push access control**: Deploy keys managed via Gitea API
|
|
- **Instant revocation**: One command cuts off both signing and push
|
|
|
|
Enforcement requires deploying the `relicario-server` pre-receive hook
|
|
on the vault remote. The crate provides two subcommands:
|
|
|
|
- `relicario-server generate-hook` — emits the hook script to install at
|
|
`<repo>/hooks/pre-receive`
|
|
- `relicario-server verify-commit <sha>` — checks one commit's signature
|
|
against `.relicario/devices.json` and `.relicario/revoked.json` as of
|
|
that commit; the hook calls this for every pushed ref
|
|
|
|
Without the server hook, signed commits provide authorship metadata only
|
|
— any process with push access can land an unsigned commit, since
|
|
verification is otherwise advisory.
|
|
|
|
See `docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-02-device-authentication-design.md`.
|
|
|
|
## Access Control
|
|
|
|
Without device authentication, access control is transport-layer only:
|
|
|
|
- **CLI**: SSH key authentication to git remote
|
|
- **Extension**: Git credentials in browser storage
|
|
|
|
Device registration is optional but recommended for shared vaults.
|
|
|
|
## Configuration env vars
|
|
|
|
Relicario reads the following environment variables. Each is a trust
|
|
boundary: an attacker who can set them in the user's environment can
|
|
influence Relicario's behavior. They are listed here for security
|
|
reviewers to audit the surface in one place.
|
|
|
|
### User-facing (active in all builds)
|
|
|
|
| Variable | Purpose | Trust |
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
|
| `RELICARIO_IMAGE` | Override the reference-image JPEG path used during vault unlock. | Trusted: filesystem path under the user's control. Read-only; its bytes feed `imgsecret::extract_secret`. |
|
|
| `RELICARIO_GITEA_URL` | Gitea API base URL for `relicario device add`. Equivalent to `--gitea-url`. | Trusted: HTTPS URL. Used only in the device-add code path. |
|
|
| `RELICARIO_GITEA_TOKEN` | Gitea personal-access token. Equivalent to `--gitea-token`. | **Secret**: anyone who can read this env var can manage the user's deploy keys via the Gitea API. The CLI never logs it. |
|
|
| `RELICARIO_GITEA_OWNER` | Gitea repository owner (e.g. `alee`). Equivalent to `--owner`. | Trusted: opaque string. |
|
|
| `RELICARIO_GITEA_REPO` | Gitea repository name (e.g. `vault`). Equivalent to `--repo`. | Trusted: opaque string. |
|
|
|
|
### Debug-only (compiled out of `cargo build --release`)
|
|
|
|
The following variables are gated behind `cfg(debug_assertions)` and
|
|
are **no-ops** in release builds. The env-var lookup is removed by the
|
|
optimiser from any binary built without debug assertions (i.e. the
|
|
standard `--release` profile).
|
|
|
|
| Variable | Purpose |
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
| `RELICARIO_NO_GROUPS_CACHE` | Suppress the plaintext `groups.cache` write. Developer debugging tool for the cache logic. |
|
|
| `RELICARIO_TEST_PASSPHRASE` | Bypass the `rpassword` prompt during integration tests. |
|
|
| `RELICARIO_TEST_ITEM_SECRET` | Bypass the `rpassword` prompt for item-secret fields during integration tests. |
|
|
| `RELICARIO_TEST_BACKUP_PASSPHRASE` | Bypass the `rpassword` prompt for backup export/restore passphrases during integration tests. |
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
**Next:** [../crates/relicario-core/ARCHITECTURE.md](../crates/relicario-core/ARCHITECTURE.md) — implementation, starting with the platform-agnostic core.
|