feat(security): move secret env out of podman inspect and Quadlet unit files

Secret env used to merge into manifest.app.environment, landing in
'podman inspect' Config.Env on the API backend and — worse — as
plaintext Environment= lines in Quadlet unit files on disk. Now:

- expand_and_partition_env (container crate, pure + tested) expands
  ${KEY} placeholders and splits env into plain entries and
  secret-bearing pairs. Plain entries that interpolate a secret
  (btcpay's Password=${BTCPAY_DB_PASS} connection strings) are
  tainted and travel as secrets too. Secret values themselves are
  never expanded (a generated value containing '${' passes verbatim).
- values register as podman secrets: stdin (never argv/tempfile),
  --replace, content-hash label to skip no-op rewrites; a per-app hash
  cache in the orchestrator makes steady-state reconciles free of
  podman secret calls. Registration goes through the runtime trait
  (default no-op keeps mocks/docker inert).
- containers reference secrets by name: secret_env map in the libpod
  create spec, Secret=<name>,type=env,target=<KEY> in Quadlet units.
  Verified empirically on fleet podman 5.4.2: value absent from
  inspect Config.Env, runtime injection works rootless.
- rotation detection: io.archipelago.secret-env-hash container label
  (API) / the changed unit bytes (Quadlet). Pre-upgrade containers
  lack the label, so every secret-bearing app recreates ONCE on the
  first reconcile after deploy — deliberate, it scrubs the plaintext
  secrets out of existing container configs. Data dirs untouched.
- docker dev fallback keeps plain -e injection (no secret store);
  podman secrets persist across uninstall, matching the
  preserve-credentials invariant (reinstall re-registers by hash).

In-container /proc/<pid>/environ is unchanged — env remains the
app-compat contract; the closed leaks are inspect output and unit
files on disk.

Tests: archipelago-container 61/61 (3 new: taint partition, verbatim
secrets, hash order-independence), archipelago container:: 160/160
(fedimint install test now asserts the secret arrives as a ref, not
env; quadlet render test asserts Secret=/Label= lines). NEEDS the
on-node gate re-run before the item counts as verified.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
archipelago
2026-07-05 13:55:15 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent eed830e1ee
commit 4665e497d7
8 changed files with 467 additions and 35 deletions
+84
View File
@@ -82,6 +82,18 @@ pub trait ContainerRuntime: Send + Sync {
/// `create_container` / `image_exists` calls. Stdout/stderr are collected
/// and included in the error on failure; on success they are discarded.
async fn build_image(&self, config: &BuildConfig) -> Result<()>;
/// Register the app's resolved secret-env entries in the runtime's
/// secret store (idempotent — skips entries whose content hash already
/// matches). Called before `create_container` for manifests with
/// `secret_env_refs`, so the create can reference secrets by name and
/// the values never appear in inspect output or unit files. Default is
/// a no-op for runtimes without a secret store (mocks, docker — the
/// docker fallback injects plain env in `create_container` instead).
async fn ensure_env_secrets(&self, refs: &[crate::manifest::SecretEnvRef]) -> Result<()> {
let _ = refs;
Ok(())
}
}
pub struct PodmanRuntime {
@@ -131,6 +143,68 @@ impl ContainerRuntime for PodmanRuntime {
self.client.pull_image(image, signature).await
}
async fn ensure_env_secrets(&self, refs: &[crate::manifest::SecretEnvRef]) -> Result<()> {
use crate::manifest::{secret_env_content_hash, SECRET_HASH_LABEL};
use tokio::io::AsyncWriteExt;
for r in refs {
let hash = secret_env_content_hash(&[(r.env_key.clone(), r.value.clone())]);
// Skip the write when the stored secret already has this content
// (label round-trip beats rewriting the secret store every
// reconcile). Any inspect failure just falls through to create.
let fmt = format!("{{{{ index .Spec.Labels \"{SECRET_HASH_LABEL}\" }}}}");
if let Ok(out) = self
.podman_cli(&["secret", "inspect", &r.secret_name, "--format", &fmt])
.await
{
if out.status.success()
&& String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stdout).trim() == hash
{
continue;
}
}
// Value goes via stdin — never argv, never a temp file.
let mut cmd = TokioCommand::new("podman");
cmd.args([
"secret",
"create",
"--replace",
"--label",
&format!("{SECRET_HASH_LABEL}={hash}"),
&r.secret_name,
"-",
]);
cmd.stdin(std::process::Stdio::piped());
cmd.stdout(std::process::Stdio::piped());
cmd.stderr(std::process::Stdio::piped());
cmd.kill_on_drop(true);
let mut child = cmd
.spawn()
.with_context(|| format!("spawning podman secret create {}", r.secret_name))?;
{
let mut stdin = child
.stdin
.take()
.context("podman secret create stdin unavailable")?;
stdin.write_all(r.value.as_bytes()).await?;
// drop closes the pipe so podman sees EOF
}
let out = tokio::time::timeout(PODMAN_CLI_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT, child.wait_with_output())
.await
.with_context(|| format!("podman secret create {} timed out", r.secret_name))??;
if !out.status.success() {
anyhow::bail!(
"podman secret create {} failed: {}",
r.secret_name,
String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stderr)
);
}
}
Ok(())
}
async fn create_container(
&self,
manifest: &AppManifest,
@@ -621,6 +695,12 @@ impl ContainerRuntime for DockerRuntime {
for env in &manifest.app.environment {
cmd.arg("-e").arg(env);
}
// Dev-only fallback: docker has no rootless secret store, so secret
// env rides as plain env here. The podman path (production) passes
// these by secret reference instead — see ensure_env_secrets.
for r in &manifest.app.container.secret_env_refs {
cmd.arg("-e").arg(format!("{}={}", r.env_key, r.value));
}
// Resource limits
if let Some(cpu) = manifest.app.resources.cpu_limit {
@@ -893,6 +973,10 @@ impl ContainerRuntime for AutoRuntime {
self.runtime.pull_image(image, signature).await
}
async fn ensure_env_secrets(&self, refs: &[crate::manifest::SecretEnvRef]) -> Result<()> {
self.runtime.ensure_env_secrets(refs).await
}
async fn create_container(
&self,
manifest: &AppManifest,