Non-members already can't mint invite codes (permissions resolve to zero for them since 85e1975f), but hasPermission reports it as a missing CREATE_INVITE permission, which is misleading. Return 'Space membership required' for the non-member case instead.
Message wording from #12 by BadAtCaptchas.
Co-authored-by: BadAtCaptchas <2359196+BadAtCaptchas@users.noreply.github.com>
Six S2S-HMAC endpoints repeated the same inbound-auth preamble verbatim
(parse federation headers -> resolve active peer -> optional per-peer rate
limit -> verify HMAC signature -> nonce replay protection). Extract it into
authenticateS2SPeer() so the trust boundary has a single, tested definition.
Adopters (preamble only; every post-auth side effect, body validation, and
response is unchanged):
- DELETE /api/federation/identity (no rate limiter; warns on missing nonce)
- POST /api/federation/relay (relay limiter; warns; keeps in-handler
epoch-baseline populate + nonce ratchet)
- POST /api/federation/sync (no limiter; warns with the [sync] tag;
keeps in-handler nonce ratchet)
- POST /api/federation/users/lookup (lookup limiter, Retry-After 60)
- POST /api/federation/users/by-home-id (same)
- POST /api/federation/verify-attach-proof(shares lookup bucket, Retry-After 60)
Deliberate non-adopters, each keeping a load-bearing gate the helper would
flatten (documented at each site + in the helper docstring):
- POST /api/federation/epoch gates status != 'revoked' (peer recovery),
400 on missing headers, no nonce check
- POST /api/federation/peer/rotate active-only but no nonce check
- POST /api/federation/peer/denied awaiting_approval gate (404/409), synthetic
no-grace secret verify
Behavior-preserving. The rate limiter is injected (plain { limited, retryAfter }),
so the limit still fires BEFORE signature verification. The only ordering change:
/relay's opportunistic epoch-baseline populate now runs just after the shared
preamble (i.e. after the nonce check) instead of between signature and nonce.
This is provably equivalent for every reachable honest-peer state (a duplicate
nonce means the baseline is already non-null; a valid-signature-but-no-nonce
request from a nonce-supporting peer is unreachable in transit and carries no
security/correctness consequence) and the populate is documented as not
affecting relay accept/reject.
Adds a dedicated unit test covering the full decision table (headers, peer
status, rate-limit + Retry-After, rate-limit-before-signature ordering,
signature, nonce duplicate/missing, log flag + context suffix, success). Full
server suite green (804 tests).
Phase C cleanup follow-up to the routes/federation split (#9). Behavior-
preserving; full server suite (790 tests) green.
A) rateLimits.ts: the four near-identical sliding-window limiters
(accept/relay/lookup/ensure) and their duplicated prune loops collapse
into one createLimiter(windowMs, max) factory. Per-call and periodic-
sweep semantics are preserved exactly, including that lookup buckets are
pruned per-call but never swept (unchanged from before). 177 -> 101 lines.
B) Extract sendSignedJson(reply, payload, hmacSecret) — the single
definition of how this instance signs an S2S JSON response — and use it
in the /epoch and /verify-attach-proof|reattach handlers, replacing two
copies of the build-headers-and-send boilerplate.
routes/federation.ts had grown to 7.6k lines, spanning HTTP route
registration, federated identity resolution, ~30 inbound relay event
processors, DM reconciliation, and rate-limiting internals — too large
to review or hold in context, and awkward to change safely.
Split the implementation into 18 focused modules under routes/federation/
(helpers, events/, handlers/) and keep routes/federation.ts as a thin
barrel that re-exports the public API and composes the HTTP registrars
into federationRoutes(). No import paths change anywhere else.
Pure move, no behavior change:
- 61/61 named functions byte-identical; only deltas are 2 dynamic-import
paths adjusted for the new directory depth
- public export surface unchanged (barrel re-exports all 22 symbols)
- all 30 endpoints preserved (identical verb+path set)
- typecheck, build, and full server suite (790 tests) green
Docs: update federation.md source-file map; add split design doc.
GitHub is deprecating the Node 20 runtime for JS actions; every run printed a
warning that actions/checkout@v4, actions/setup-node@v4 and pnpm/action-setup@v4
were being force-run on Node 24. Bump each to its first Node 24 major (v5) across
all workflows — the smallest jump that clears the warning, avoiding the extra
behavior changes in checkout v6/v7 (credential persistence, fork-PR blocking)
that don't apply here. Our checkout jobs use push/pull_request, not
pull_request_target/workflow_run, so none are affected regardless.
Also bump the GitHub Pages actions in deploy-pages.yml (configure-pages v5->v6,
upload-pages-artifact v3->v5, deploy-pages v4->v5), which were likewise on Node
20. Inputs are unchanged; pnpm still pinned to 10.34.3 via the version input and
the packageManager field.
The three test/ files boot real federated instances and drive S2S over HTTP,
with several tests deliberately waiting on log matchers (e.g. logMatched(...,
1_000) per remote). Vitest's 5s default per-test timeout is meant for unit tests
and is too tight here: under CI load the multi-remote fan-out tests in
federation-identity-deletion intermittently timed out (observed on the post-merge
main run), producing a flaky red check.
Set a file-level testTimeout of 30s in each of the three harness-based suites via
vi.setConfig. Scoped per-file so unit tests keep the strict 5s default; a genuine
hang still trips the 30s ceiling well before the 90s hook budget. No test logic
changed.
* ci: run typecheck, build & tests on PRs and main
Add a GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/ci.yml) that installs on
Node 20 (the pinned runtime), builds shared/server/web, typechecks desktop,
and runs the full vitest suite across all packages on every pull request and
push to main. The repo already had 500+ tests but only ever ran them locally.
Also wires up the missing test/typecheck plumbing this exposed:
- web package had 55 test files but no test script — add test/test:watch/typecheck
- add root-level test and typecheck aggregate scripts
- fix a latent web type error the new typecheck surfaced: reference
vite-plugin-pwa/react types so virtual:pwa-register/react is typed
(useRegisterSW callback params were implicit any; the tsc half of the web
build script has been failing, masked by vite build ignoring type errors)
* test: fix two latent failures surfaced by CI on Node 20
- server: exclude dist/** from vitest. Vitest 4's default exclude dropped
dist/, so after `pnpm build` emits compiled .test.js files, vitest ran those
stale copies alongside src/*.test.ts and they failed (compiled vi.mock paths
resolve differently).
- web: polyfill Blob.prototype.stream in the jsdom test setup. jsdom's Blob has
no .stream() on Node 20 (Node 25 provided one, masking this locally); undici's
Response constructor calls blob.stream(), so new Response(blob) threw
'object.stream is not a function'.
deploy.sh now sources ./.deploy.local at runtime if it exists, letting a
maintainer point the script at their own hosts without committing them — the
tracked defaults stay placeholders. .deploy.local and .deploy-local/ are
gitignored so real hostnames/IPs never land in the repo.
computePermissions() returned the space @everyone role's permissions without
verifying the caller had joined the space. Because CREATE_INVITE is in
DEFAULT_EVERYONE_PERMISSIONS, any authenticated user could mint an invite code
for a request-only space — whose id is listed by /api/spaces/explore — and then
self-join via /api/spaces/:id/join, bypassing the join-request approval flow.
The same gap let non-members read message history and search default channels.
Root cause:
- computePermissions now returns 0n for non-members (space owner and instance
admin still short-circuit first, so they are unaffected).
Defense in depth (request-only spaces are approval-gated, never invite-joinable):
- both invite-code join endpoints reject visibility='request' (private stays
invite-joinable — its only entry path; public too).
- POST /api/spaces/:id/invite refuses to hand out a code for request spaces.
- POST /api/dm/space-invite refuses to card a local request space, checked by
space id against the local table so a spoofed spaceInstanceOrigin can't slip
past it.
- InviteModal hides the invite affordances for request spaces.
Also removes the unused computeCategoryPermissions(), which duplicated the
resolution algorithm without the membership gate.
Adds unit + route + component tests covering non-member/member/owner/admin
resolution and the request/private/public visibility matrix.
Reported-by: BadAtCaptchas (#2)
Make Backspace self-hostable in any homelab environment, not just a clean host
that owns ports 80/443.
install.sh is now mode-aware and auto-detects which fits:
- allinone (default): bundled Caddy + auto-HTTPS — unchanged behavior
- proxy: behind your own reverse proxy (nginx / Traefik / Caddy / Nginx Proxy
Manager / SWAG) — app published on 127.0.0.1:APP_PORT, no bundled Caddy,
prints paste-ready proxy snippets
- tunnel: behind a tunnel (Cloudflare / Tailscale) — same, plus a 90MB upload
cap (under Cloudflare's 100MB body limit) and voice force-disabled (WebRTC
over UDP can't traverse a tunnel)
Port detection is Docker-aware (consults `docker ps` published ports, not just
`ss`), so a host whose proxy already owns 80/443 via iptables DNAT — with no
listening socket for `ss` to see — is correctly detected as "taken" instead of
dead-ending.
docker-compose.proxy.yml is a small overlay, layered via COMPOSE_FILE (written
into .env so no `-f` flags are ever needed), that publishes the loopback port and
parks Caddy in an inert profile. The base compose file is untouched, so All-in-One
behaves exactly as before.
Prebuilt image: .github/workflows/docker-publish.yml builds and pushes a
multi-arch (linux/amd64 + linux/arm64) image to ghcr.io/thezwiss/backspace on
release tags (and manual dispatch), so weak/ARM hosts skip the ~1.6GB local build
(the Vite build OOMs small ARM boxes). install.sh and docker-compose.yml default
to pulling it, fall back to an image already present on the host, and finally to a
from-source build — AGPL §13 commit stamping preserved on every path. Kept
deliberately separate from the desktop-installer workflow (release.yml).
Docs: README gains a "Deployment modes" section (all three modes, nginx / Caddy /
Traefik snippets, GUI-proxy field-by-field, cloudflared ingress, the update path,
and voice-per-mode caveats); docs/systems/deployment.md updated to match.
Verified live on a throwaway VM: proxy + all-in-one end-to-end through install.sh
(with a real Let's Encrypt cert), tunnel config generation, loopback-only binding,
and the local-image fallback path.
The @backspace/desktop postinstall runs `electron-rebuild -f -w uiohook-napi`,
which compiles a native module from source and needs a C++ toolchain
(make/g++/python3). On a bare host without those — a typical VPS a self-hoster
clones onto — that failure took the ENTIRE `pnpm install` down (exit 255), so the
server never installed either, even though uiohook-napi is desktop-only and
irrelevant to hosting.
Make the rebuild non-fatal: on failure it now prints a clear one-line warning and
continues. Machines with build tools (CI, desktop devs) are byte-identical — the
fallback never fires; only toolless boxes (which aren't building the desktop app
anyway) skip it. Verified on a bare x86 box: full `pnpm install` now exits 0 and
the server builds and boots from source. Docs note the build-tool requirement for
desktop work and point self-hosters at the Docker installer.
Spell out that JWT_SECRET is required and must be a strong 32+ char value, and
that the empty default is intentional (docker compose fails fast rather than the
server boot-looping). Pairs with the compose-level guard added in 028005d.
Without JWT_SECRET the server throws at boot (config.ts) and `restart:
unless-stopped` turns that into an endless crash loop that is invisible unless
you run `docker compose logs backspace`. Guard it exactly like DOMAIN already is,
so `docker compose up` stops immediately with an actionable message. install.sh
generates the secret before bringing the stack up, so this only affects the
manual `cp .env.example .env && docker compose up` path.
Unpinned `pnpm@latest` in the Dockerfile made fresh builds non-reproducible:
`latest` now resolves to pnpm 11, but the committed lockfile targets pnpm 10, so
`pnpm install --frozen-lockfile` fails with ERR_PNPM_LOCKFILE_CONFIG_MISMATCH on
a clean host. Pin pnpm to 10.34.3 across the Dockerfile, the `packageManager`
field, and the release workflow; pin Node to 20 (LTS) via `.nvmrc` and `engines`
so Docker, CI, and from-source builds all use the same tested toolchain.
Also corrects the docs: the lockfile is v9.0 (requires pnpm 10, not "pnpm 8+"),
and "Node 20+" implied untested newer majors were supported.
CI run 2: mac/win/linux-x64 green, but linux-arm64 failed packaging .deb —
electron-builder's bundled fpm is x86_64-only and can't execute on the arm64
runner (Exec format error). The arm64 AppImage built fine; only fpm/.deb broke.
Install fpm natively on the Linux runners and set USE_SYSTEM_FPM=true so both
arches package .deb with a host-native fpm. Preserves arm64 .deb (the reason
the arm64 runner was added — Raspberry Pi users).
First real CI run failed on 3 of 4 platforms in postinstall (electron-rebuild
of uiohook-napi):
- Linux (x64+arm64): missing X11 dev headers — 'Xrandr.h: No such file'. Add the
full libuiohook header set (libxrandr-dev, libxinerama-dev, libx11-xcb-dev,
libxkbfile-dev, libxkbcommon-x11-dev) derived from its #include list.
- Windows: node-gyp on the windows-latest image can't detect VS 18
('unknown version undefined'). Pin to windows-2022 (VS 2022 / v17).
macOS built cleanly and is unaffected.
A reset peer reaches needs_attention via the auth-failure path (HMAC desynced by
the new incarnation) without passing through unreachable, so the 5s recovery
probe never saw it — detection waited up to a full 15-min health-check cycle
before 'Re-peer & heal' surfaced. Extract detectResetForPeer() and fire it
event-driven at the transition, plus a startup sweep for already-stuck peers.
15-min tick remains the backstop.
Also add the positive companion assertion (folded in from a Task 3 review
Minor): findFederatedUser tier-2 STILL returns a NON-detached (orphaned=0)
same-name federated row, locking that the eq(federation_home_orphaned, 0)
clause discriminates on the flag alone and never over-filters legitimate
replicated identities.
All three behaviors pass against the shipped Task 1-3 code; no product-code
change was required.
Finding 1: handleReactionAdd/Remove now drop reactions on a dead 1-on-1
(isDeadOneOnOne) — previously a survivor could react on a Deleted-User
thread and the relay fanned out to all peers via undefined target-origins.
Client Message.tsx withdraws add/toggle reaction affordances for dead DMs
(existing reactions still display read-only).
Finding 2: dmMembership purge test now runs with foreign_keys=ON (matches
prod) and asserts dm_members/dm_messages cascade cleanup on channel purge.
Finding 3: tombstone group-DM ownership transfer filters isDeleted=0 so
ownership can never move to a tombstoned member; covered by a new test.
#1 control passes (harness validated); #2 fails (200 vs expected 409 — false success);
#4 fails (s2sHealthy false — Re-peer reports success on dead peering). Turned green by the fixes.
lookupRemoteUser now maps peer HTTP failures (403/5xx, malformed body) to a
structured {ok:false,reason:'unreachable'} instead of throwing, and the
federated friend-add wraps the call in try/catch as defense-in-depth. A
desynced/unreachable peer no longer surfaces as a raw 500 on a user action.
README.md left unstaged.
Detects when a federated peer is factory-reset on the same domain (via a
persistent instance epoch), routes it to needs_attention (detection-only,
never auto-rekeys), and after an admin re-peer soft-tombstones the dead
incarnation's replicated stubs — clearing stale friendships/DMs while
preserving message history. 12 tasks + a needs_attention detection fix;
server suite 1201/1201. Phase 2 (login-hijack guard, real-account
quarantine, admin Reset-cleanup UI) deferred — see design spec.
Deployed + verified live on nova (Pi) and orbit (VM), commit d8fec00.
A reset peer can reach needs_attention via the auth-failure path (HTTP up,
401/403 from a new incarnation crossing AUTH_FAILURE_THRESHOLD) without ever
passing through unreachable, so the unreachable-only recovery probe never
observes its epoch change and no reset journal is created — leaving a later
manual Re-peer with nothing to heal.
Add detectResetOnNeedsAttentionPeers() to the 15-minute health-check tick:
probe needs_attention peers with a non-null baseline (excluding those already
peer_reset_detected) and call markPeerReset on an observed epoch mismatch.
Detection only — never recovers a needs_attention peer to active; baseline
(peer_instance_id) and hmac_secret untouched.
Add healResetIncarnation (federationReset.ts): fires from onPeerActivated after
an authenticated re-peer to soft-tombstone the flagged pure S2S stubs of a reset
peer's dead incarnation, clearing stale friendships/DMs so the reported bug is
fixed. Two mandatory guards: a reason gate (allow-list of 8 genuine handshake
activation reasons; excludes health_check_recovery + startup_bootstrap so their
stale baseline can never silently resolve a journal without healing) and an
epoch comparison (dead_epoch === newEpoch => false alarm, no tombstone). Uses
tombstoneUser(uid, { purgeContent: false }); real federated accounts are left
flagged + intact for Phase 2. Runs outside any transaction. Wire into
onPeerActivated before the mutation-log re-sync.
Jannis Braun