fix(auth): block privilege escalation via role/user management

The dynamic-RBAC management routes are themselves grantable (role:* and
user:*), so a non-admin holding them could self-escalate: edit their own
role to add a permission they lack, mint a privileged role, assign someone
the admin role, or reset/delete a more-privileged account. Found by the
commit security review (2× HIGH).

Fix — enforce the RBAC invariant "you cannot grant beyond yourself":
- roles.ts: role:create/update reject any permission not held by the caller
  (escalates()). An admin holds the full set, so it stays unrestricted.
- users.ts: user:create/update reject assigning a role whose permissions
  exceed the caller's; update/password-reset/delete reject acting on a user
  whose current role exceeds the caller's (exceedsCaller()).

The existing no-lockout + builtin-admin protections are unchanged.

Verified: 10-assertion inject test — manager (role:* + user:* but no
tariff:update, not admin) gets 403 on self-grant, minting a privileged role,
assigning/resetting/deleting an admin; admin stays unrestricted; the manager
can still create peers + in-scope roles (not over-blocked). Full build green.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Xcm6ikLgGoCxxHrxtjkk5V
This commit is contained in:
2026-06-19 01:27:02 +02:00
parent d0841c8601
commit ef0ecadff9
3 changed files with 72 additions and 4 deletions
+6
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@@ -37,6 +37,12 @@ Authentication and authorization, kept **fully local** — a direct consequence
**last user holding admin** — administration can never be locked out of the appliance.
- `event:void` is a permission, NOT a ledger delete: the append-only signed chain is untouched; the
permission only gates who may APPEND a void event (there is no void API route yet — forward seam).
- **No privilege escalation through the RBAC system itself.** `role:create`/`role:update` and
`user:create`/`user:update` are themselves grantable, so a non-admin could otherwise self-escalate.
Guards (`routes/roles.ts`, `routes/users.ts`): a caller may only put permissions on a role that
they *already hold*, and may only assign/modify users whose role is a SUBSET of the caller's own
(so no minting a privileged role, handing out the admin role, or resetting/deleting a more-
privileged account). An admin holds the full set, so it is unrestricted — the intended behaviour.
## Cookie session (browser auth)