turnstone/docs/security.md

Security and Authentication

Turnstone uses a layered authentication system with three token types, hierarchical scopes, and a split architecture where the console manages credentials while individual server nodes validate JWTs locally.

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Token Types

Config-file tokens

Static tokens defined in config.toml or the TURNSTONE_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable. Validated in-memory using hmac.compare_digest (timing-safe). Each token maps to a role that determines its scopes.

[[auth.tokens]]
value = "tok_legacy"
role = "full"     # full → {read, write, approve}

Role mappings: "read" → {read}, "full" → {read, write, approve}.

Config tokens are sent directly as Authorization: Bearer tok_legacy on every request. No JWT exchange is needed.

API tokens

Database-backed tokens prefixed with ts_. Created via the admin CLI (turnstone-admin create-token) or the console admin API. Stored as SHA-256 hashes — the raw token is shown exactly once at creation and never persisted in plaintext.

$ turnstone-admin create-token --user abc123 --scopes read,write --name "CI bot"
Token created: ts_a1b2c3d4e5f6...
(save this — it will not be shown again)

API tokens can be used directly as Bearer ts_xxx headers or exchanged for a JWT via the login endpoint.

JWTs

Short-lived session tokens (24 hours by default). Issued after authenticating with username/password or by exchanging an API token. HS256-signed with a shared secret. Validated locally on every service node — no database call per request.

Claims:

Claim	Description
sub	User ID
scopes	Comma-separated scope list (read,write,approve)
src	Token source (password, api_token, config)
iss	Issuer — always turnstone
aud	Audience — turnstone-server or turnstone-console
iat	Issued-at timestamp
exp	Expiry timestamp

The aud claim prevents cross-service token reuse — a JWT issued for the console cannot be used to authenticate against a server node, and vice versa. Tokens without an aud claim are accepted during the rollout window when audience validation is not specified.

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Scope Model

Scopes are hierarchical — higher scopes imply all lower ones.

Scope	Grants	Implies
read	View workstreams, saved workstreams, history	—
write	Send messages, create/close workstreams	read
approve	Approve tool calls, admin endpoints	read, write

Path-to-scope mapping

Method	Path pattern	Required scope
GET	Any protected path	read
POST	/api/send, /api/plan, /api/command	write
POST	/api/workstreams/new, /api/workstreams/close	write
POST	/api/cluster/workstreams/new	write
POST	/api/approve	approve
Any	/api/admin/*	approve

Public paths bypass authentication entirely: /, /health, /metrics, /static/*, /shared/*, /docs, /openapi.json, /api/auth/login, /api/auth/logout, /api/auth/status, /api/auth/setup.

RBAC (Granular Permissions)

See also: Governance documentation

Scopes provide coarse endpoint-level access control. For finer-grained enforcement, the governance layer adds 15 named permissions checked per-endpoint by require_permission(). Permissions are bundled into roles; users are assigned roles via the user_roles join table.

At login, _load_user_permissions() aggregates all permissions from the user's assigned roles. _permissions_to_scopes() derives legacy scopes for backward compatibility (e.g., any admin.* permission implies the approve scope). The JWT carries both scopes and permissions claims.

Three built-in roles are seeded by migration 008:

Role	Permissions
admin	All 15 permissions
operator	read, write, workstreams.create, workstreams.close
viewer	read

Custom roles can be created with any subset of the valid permissions. Role creation and update validate permissions against a static allowlist. Self-assignment is blocked, and assigning a role requires the caller to hold a superset of the target role's permissions.

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Login Flows

Username and password

POST /v1/api/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

{"username": "admin", "password": "s3cret"}

Returns a JWT in the response body and sets an HttpOnly session cookie.

API token exchange

POST /v1/api/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

{"token": "ts_a1b2c3d4e5f6..."}

The API token is hashed, looked up in the database, and exchanged for a JWT with the token's scopes. This is the recommended flow for SDKs and automated clients that need cookie-based sessions.

Config-file tokens (direct)

Config tokens are validated per-request via hmac.compare_digest. No login exchange is needed — include the token as a Bearer header:

Authorization: Bearer tok_legacy

First-time setup

When no users exist in the database:

1. GET /v1/api/auth/status returns {"setup_required": true}
2. The UI presents a setup wizard
3. POST /v1/api/auth/setup creates the first admin user and returns a JWT in one atomic step (no auth required — this is a public endpoint)
4. The endpoint returns 409 Conflict if setup has already been completed (i.e. users already exist in the database)
5. Subsequent admin requests require approve scope

The /api/auth/setup endpoint is available on both the server and console. It validates input before creating the user:

• username: 1-64 ASCII characters
• display_name: required (non-empty)
• password: minimum 8 characters

POST /v1/api/auth/setup
Content-Type: application/json

{"username": "admin", "display_name": "Admin", "password": "strongpass"}

Response:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "user_id": "u_abc123",
  "username": "admin",
  "role": "full",
  "scopes": "approve,read,write",
  "jwt": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs..."
}

The response also sets an HttpOnly session cookie containing the JWT, so the browser is immediately authenticated after setup completes.

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Token Detection Order

The auth middleware inspects the Authorization: Bearer <token> header and classifies the token:

1. Contains . → JWT → validate HS256 signature and expiry
2. Starts with ts_ → API token → SHA-256 hash, database lookup
3. Otherwise → config-file token → hmac.compare_digest against each configured token

If a session cookie is present and no Authorization header is sent, the cookie value is treated as a JWT (step 1).

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Password Storage

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt using a random salt per password. Plaintext passwords are only accepted over HTTPS in production deployments.

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Cookie Security

Attribute	Value	Purpose
HttpOnly	true	Prevents JavaScript access
SameSite	Lax	CSRF protection
Path	/	Available to all routes
Max-Age	24 hours	Matches JWT expiry
Secure	true (default)	Always set unless explicitly disabled for dev

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JWT Configuration

Setting	Config key	Env var	Default
Signing secret	[auth] jwt_secret	TURNSTONE_JWT_SECRET	Auto-generated ephemeral (warning logged)
Expiry	[auth] jwt_expiry_hours	—	24 hours
Algorithm	—	—	HS256 (not configurable)
Minimum secret length	—	—	32 characters (warning if shorter)

All service nodes that need to validate JWTs must share the same signing secret. If no secret is configured, an ephemeral key is generated at startup and a warning is logged — JWTs will not survive restarts or work across nodes.

The bridge and console require TURNSTONE_JWT_SECRET when no --auth-token is provided. They exit with an error if the secret is missing, since ephemeral secrets would silently break inter-service communication.

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Admin API Endpoints

All admin endpoints require approve scope.

Users

Method	Path	Description
POST	/v1/api/admin/users	Create user (username, display_name, password)
GET	/v1/api/admin/users	List all users
DELETE	/v1/api/admin/users/{user_id}	Delete user and cascade tokens

API tokens

Method	Path	Description
POST	/v1/api/admin/users/{user_id}/tokens	Create API token (returns raw value once)
GET	/v1/api/admin/users/{user_id}/tokens	List tokens (prefix only, no hashes)
DELETE	/v1/api/admin/tokens/{token_id}	Revoke token

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CLI Administration

The turnstone-admin command provides offline user and token management:

turnstone-admin create-user --username admin --name "Admin" [--password] [--token]
turnstone-admin create-token --user <user_id> --scopes read,write --name "CI bot"
turnstone-admin list-users
turnstone-admin list-tokens
turnstone-admin revoke-token <token_id>

When --password is omitted, the CLI prompts interactively. When --token is passed to create-user, an API token is created alongside the user and printed to stdout.

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Database Schema

CREATE TABLE users (
    user_id    TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
    username   TEXT NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    display_name TEXT NOT NULL,
    password_hash TEXT NOT NULL,
    created    TEXT NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE api_tokens (
    token_id     TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
    token_hash   TEXT NOT NULL,       -- SHA-256 of raw token
    token_prefix TEXT NOT NULL,       -- first 8 chars for display
    user_id      TEXT NOT NULL REFERENCES users(user_id),
    name         TEXT NOT NULL,
    scopes       TEXT NOT NULL,       -- comma-separated
    created      TEXT NOT NULL,
    expires      TEXT                 -- nullable, ISO 8601
);

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ix_api_tokens_hash ON api_tokens(token_hash);

CREATE TABLE channel_users (
    channel_type    TEXT NOT NULL,
    channel_user_id TEXT NOT NULL,
    user_id         TEXT NOT NULL REFERENCES users(user_id),
    created         TEXT NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (channel_type, channel_user_id)
);

The sessions and workstreams tables have a nullable user_id column for attribution when auth is enabled.

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Revocation

• API tokens: Deleting a token via the admin API or CLI prevents new JWTs from being issued with that token. Existing JWTs derived from the token remain valid until they expire (at most 24 hours).
• Config-file tokens: Remove the token from config.toml and restart the service. No JWTs are involved, so revocation is immediate.
• JWTs: Cannot be individually revoked. Rely on short expiry (24h) and revoke the underlying credential to prevent renewal.

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Architecture

Console (cluster-wide)              Server (per-node)
┌──────────────────────┐           ┌──────────────────────┐
│ User/Token CRUD (DB) │           │ JWT validation only  │
│ Login: creds → JWT   │           │ (shared signing key) │
│ Admin API endpoints  │           │ Config tokens: hmac  │
│ Storage: users,      │           │ No auth DB needed    │
│   api_tokens tables  │           │                      │
└──────────────────────┘           └──────────────────────┘

The console owns the credential database and handles all user/token CRUD. Individual server nodes only need the JWT signing secret to validate session tokens. Config-file tokens are validated locally without any database.

Proxy auth forwarding

When the console proxies requests to server nodes (via /node/{id}/... routes), it uses a dedicated service proxy token with aud: turnstone-server and write scope. The user's console JWT (which has aud: turnstone-console) is not forwarded — it would be rejected by the server's audience validation.

The proxy token is managed by a ServiceTokenManager that auto-rotates 1-hour JWTs, refreshing at 80% of lifetime. If --auth-token is provided, that static token is used instead.

Service-to-service authentication

The bridge and console collector use ServiceTokenManager for auto-rotating JWTs when communicating with server nodes:

Service	Identity	Scope	Audience	Purpose
Bridge	bridge	approve	turnstone-server	Tool approval proxy, message relay
Console collector	console-collector	read	turnstone-server	Node health polling
Console proxy	console-proxy	write	turnstone-server	Proxied API calls
Channel notify	system	write	turnstone-channel	Notification delivery to channel gateway

Service tokens use 1-hour expiry with automatic refresh via ServiceTokenManager. The bridge injects auth headers per-request via httpx event hooks to ensure rotated tokens are picked up on SSE reconnects.

Note that the channel gateway uses a distinct JWT audience (turnstone-channel) from the server (turnstone-server) and console (turnstone-console). A server-scoped JWT cannot authenticate to the channel gateway endpoint, and vice versa.

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Configuration Reference

config.toml

[auth]
enabled = true
jwt_secret = "your-secret-key-here"
jwt_expiry_hours = 24

[[auth.tokens]]
value = "tok_legacy"
role = "full"

Environment variables

Variable	Description
TURNSTONE_AUTH_ENABLED=1	Enable authentication
TURNSTONE_AUTH_TOKEN=tok_xxx	Register a config-file token with full access
TURNSTONE_JWT_SECRET=xxx	JWT signing secret (must match across nodes)
TURNSTONE_CORS_ORIGINS=	CORS allowed origins (comma-separated; empty = same-origin only)

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Login Rate Limiting

The /api/auth/login endpoint is protected by a dedicated LoginRateLimiter (separate from the general API rate limiter). Limits are enforced per-IP and per-username with a sliding window:

• 5 attempts per 5-minute window per key
• Failed logins record against both ip:{client_ip} and user:{username}
• Returns 429 Too Many Requests with Retry-After header when exceeded
• Successful logins do not consume the budget

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CORS Policy

By default, no CORS headers are sent (same-origin only). To allow cross-origin requests, set TURNSTONE_CORS_ORIGINS:

# Allow specific origins
TURNSTONE_CORS_ORIGINS=https://app.example.com,https://admin.example.com

# Allow all origins (development only)
TURNSTONE_CORS_ORIGINS=*

When the variable is empty or unset, the CORS middleware is not added and browsers enforce same-origin policy.

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Security Properties

• Timing-safe comparison for config-file tokens via hmac.compare_digest — no timing side-channel.
• Hash-based lookup for API tokens — the database stores only SHA-256 hashes, eliminating timing attacks on token comparison.
• Local JWT validation — no network call or database query needed per request on server nodes.
• One-time display of raw API tokens at creation. The plaintext is never stored; token_hash never appears in API responses or logs.
• Structured logging audit trail — ctx_user_id is set on every authenticated request and injected into all log events.
• Scope enforcement at the middleware layer before any handler executes. Path-to-scope mapping is defined statically.
• JWT audience isolation — server and console JWTs have distinct aud claims, preventing cross-service token reuse.
• Login brute-force protection — per-IP and per-username rate limiting on the login endpoint.
• Secure cookies by default — Secure flag set unconditionally; 24-hour max-age matches JWT expiry.
• CORS restriction — no CORS headers by default (same-origin only).
• Service JWT auto-rotation — 1-hour expiry with transparent refresh, eliminating long-lived static tokens for inter-service auth.
• Secret strength validation — warning logged when JWT secret is shorter than 32 characters.