# AyaNova v8 security review

Whole-codebase security review requested by John (2026-10-23). Done in passes, one area per
session; each pass ends with its findings written here and committed. **Review only: no code
changes.** Each fix John approves becomes its own case.

Findings in this file describe weaknesses in shipped software. The repository is private;
keep it that way while findings are open.

## Status

| Pass | Area | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Threat model and attack-surface map | Done 2026-10-23 |
| 2 | Unauthenticated routes, login, tokens, password reset, 2FA | Next |
| 3 | Customer contact users: what they can reach and read | |
| 4 | Report rendering (templates, the server-side browser, report data and download routes) | |
| 5 | File handling: attachments, uploads, exports, logs, backups, restore, translations, logo | |
| 6 | Raw SQL: data lists, saved filters, search, KPI, schedule, pick lists | |
| 7 | Staff roles: the authenticated routes without a role check in the action (list below) | |
| 8 | Email and notifications (`direct-smtp`, templates, delivery) | |
| 9 | Client (XSS, token storage, `npm audit` triage), CORS, headers, Swagger UI | |
| 10 | Deployment: installers, Linux setup script, nginx, systemd, config and data permissions | |
| 11 | Sockeye public routes (licence fetch, trial requests) | |

The order is by risk to internet-facing servers. Findings from any pass go in **Findings**.

## Scope

- **In:** the AyaNova server (`raven/server/AyaNova`) and client (`raven-client`); the Windows
  installers and launcher; Linux packages and the hosted subscription server setup script
  (`sockeye-client/src/views/biz-subscription-server.vue`); the configuration templates.
- **Sockeye:** only its public routes (licence fetch and trial requests). Its admin UI is used
  by John alone (revisit if agents use it later).
- **Out:** QBI.

## Threat model

**Deployments**

| Deployment | Reachable by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted subscription droplet (Ubuntu, nginx + Let's Encrypt, `www-data`) | The internet | Most exposed. One company per droplet |
| Self-hosted Windows IIS | Often the internet | The manual recommends IIS when there is internet access |
| Self-hosted Linux server | LAN or internet | Customer's own reverse proxy, if any |
| Windows LAN / Linux desktop | Local network | Runs as the logged-in user (Linux desktop: as root with `sudo ./AyaNova`) |
| Windows standalone | The PC itself | Mostly evaluation (John) |

**Who might attack**

1. **Anyone on the internet** (no login): 14 anonymous routes, the static client, Swagger UI,
   health check.
2. **A customer contact** (customer-user login, roles `Customer`/`CustomerRestricted`):
   should see only its own customer's data. The highest-value question in this review: can
   one customer's login read or change another customer's data, or staff data?
3. **A staff user with limited roles**: should not exceed them (e.g. a restricted tech
   reaching accounting, ops or user admin).
4. **Someone holding a leaked token**: a JWT or a download token (`?t=` in URLs, so it can
   land in browser history and proxy logs).
5. **A local user** on a Windows or Linux machine running AyaNova.
6. **A report template author**: report templates are JavaScript run in a browser on the
   server, with access to report data and the API.

**What is at stake**: customer business data (customers, work orders, invoices,
attachments), user logins and passwords, the company's email reputation (SMTP), the licence,
the server itself (code execution, the database, backups), and availability.

## Attack-surface map

### Authentication and authorisation design

- **Login**: `POST auth` returns a JWT (HS256, `jose-jwt`), signed with `AYANOVA_JWT_SECRET`
  (random per boot if not set). Validation (`Startup.cs:255-279`): signature, issuer
  `ayanova.com`, expiry, zero clock skew; audience not checked.
- **One session per user**: the user's latest token is stored (`CurrentAuthToken`); the
  middleware (`Startup.cs:366-451`) rejects any other valid token with E2004, except on
  `/auth` and `notify/hello`, and except local report-render requests: host `127.0.0.1`,
  `Request.IsLocal()` and an `rpl` claim. Behind the hosted nginx the client address is
  forwarded (`X-Forwarded-For`, `UseForwardedHeaders`), so remote requests are not local.
  The exception skips only the latest-token check, not signature or expiry.
- **Roles** are read from the database on every request (middleware), not from the token.
  **There is no route-level role attribute and no global "login required" policy**: each
  controller has `[Authorize]` (login only) and each action calls `Authorized.Has…Role(...)`
  itself. A missing call means any logged-in user, customer contacts included.
- **Download routes** (`?t=`) take a per-user random download key set at login (`DlKey`,
  with expiry, `AuthController.cs:272-276`) instead of a JWT. Some check only that the key
  belongs to some active user (export, report, translation); others resolve the user and
  check rights (attachments, backups, logs). To verify in passes 4 and 5.
- **CORS**: any origin, any method, any header (`Startup.cs:167-174`). Tokens travel in the
  `Authorization` header, not cookies, which limits the impact; checked in pass 9.
- **Swagger UI** is public at `/api-docs` with the full API description (pass 9).

### Routes

Generated with `devdocs/modernization/security/routemap.py` (`python -I routemap.py
<Controllers folder> <out.tsv>`): **460 actions** in 71 controllers. Regenerate it in later
passes rather than trusting these counts if the code has changed.

| Access | Actions |
|---|---|
| Anonymous (`[AllowAnonymous]`) | 14 |
| Download key only (no attribute; check `?t=`) | 2 (`attachment/download/{id}`, `backup/download/{fileName}`) |
| Login required (`[Authorize]`) | 444 |

Controllers without a class-level `[Authorize]` (`Attachment`, `Backup`, `ServiceBank`) were
checked: every action has its own `[Authorize]` or is a download-key route; `ServiceBank` is
entirely commented out.

**Anonymous routes** (pass 2 unless noted)

| Route | Action |
|---|---|
| `GET /` (API root) | Index |
| `POST auth` | PostCreds (login) |
| `POST auth/tfa-authenticate` | TfaAuthenticate |
| `POST auth/reset-password` | ResetPassword |
| `GET export/download/{fileName}` | DownloadAsync (download key; pass 5) |
| `GET health` | Get |
| `POST license/lc` | lc |
| `GET log-file/download/{logname}` | DownloadLog (download key; pass 5) |
| `GET logo/{size}` | DownloadLogo |
| `GET notify/hello` | GetPreLoginPing |
| `GET report/download/{fileName}` | DownloadAsync (download key; pass 4) |
| `GET report/export/{id}` | DownloadTemplate (download key; pass 4) |
| `POST translation/subset/{id}` | SubSet |
| `GET translation/download/{id}` | DownloadTranslation (download key; pass 5) |

**Logged-in routes with no role or user-type check in the action itself** (53, heuristic:
the check may sit in the business layer, or the route may be harmless, such as lists,
own settings or own notifications). Each is resolved in pass 7 unless an earlier pass covers
it: `GET server-info`, `GET role-rights`, `GET build-mode`, `POST auth/change-password`,
`GET auth/totp`, `POST auth/totp-validate`, `GET authorization-roles/list`,
`GET/POST/DELETE data-list-column-view…`, `GET data-list/listkeys`, `GET data-list/listfields`,
`GET/PUT/POST/DELETE data-list-filter…`, `GET enum-list/list/{enumkey}`,
`GET enum-list/listkeys`, `GET form-field-reference/{key}`, `GET global-biz-setting/client`,
`GET job-operations/status|progress|logs/{gid}`, `POST job-operations/request-cancel`,
`POST kpi`, `POST license/permanently-erase-all-data[-keep-tax-codes]`,
`GET notify/new-count`, `GET notify/app-notifications`, `DELETE notify/{id}`,
`POST notify/direct-message`, `POST notify/direct-smtp`, `GET notify-subscription/list`,
`GET pick-list/template/list`, `GET pick-list/template/listfields/{ayaType}`,
`POST report/data`, `POST report/upload`, `POST schedule/svc`, `POST schedule/user`,
`POST search`, `GET server-state`, `GET tag-list/list`, `GET tag-list/cloudlist`,
`GET translation/{id}`, `GET translation/list`, `GET translation/translationkeycoverage`,
`POST translation/subset`, `POST translation/upload`, `POST trial/seed`, `GET user/amsu`,
`GET workorder/customer/{id}`.

Already resolved from that list in pass 1:
- `license/permanently-erase-all-data[-keep-tax-codes]`: SuperUser only (user id 1) plus the
  typed confirmation `i understand` (`LicenseController.cs:248-275`). OK.
- `trial/seed`: only with a trial licence and an empty database (only SuperUser exists then)
  (`TrialController.cs`). OK.
- `notify/direct-smtp` and `notify/direct-message`: see F3 and F4.

**Highest-interest leads for later passes**: `POST search` and `POST kpi` (do they filter by
role and customer?), `POST report/data` and the report routes (pass 4), `GET
workorder/customer/{id}` (customer users reaching other customers' work orders?), `POST
schedule/svc|user`, `GET user/amsu`, `POST report/upload` and `POST translation/upload` (who
may upload; what the content can do), `job-operations/*` (another user's job logs?).

### Other ways in

- **Report templates**: user-authored JavaScript and Handlebars run in a headless Chrome on
  the server (`biz/ReportBiz.cs`), with report data, a server-issued token for API calls from
  the template (`rpl` claim), and helpers such as `ayPutToAPI` (pass 4).
- **Raw SQL**: data-list filters and sorts (`DataList/*`; case 4676 fixed the numeric and role
  values), saved filters, search, KPI, schedules (pass 6).
- **Files**: attachments (upload, download, move, maintenance), exports, report files and
  templates, translation upload and download, logo, log files, backups and their deletion
  (passes 4 and 5).
- **Background jobs**: backup (`pg_dump`, fixed in this release to run without a shell),
  notifications, licence fetch (outbound to the licence servers), report rendering, seeding.
- **Email**: SMTP settings, notification templates, `direct-smtp` (pass 8).
- **Configuration and secrets**: `config.json` (database password, JWT secret), logs (do
  they contain tokens or passwords?), the boot log's config line (password redacted).
- **Deployment**: Windows installers (folder permissions), the launcher, the hosted setup
  script, nginx headers, the systemd unit (no hardening options), Linux desktop running as
  root (pass 10).

## Findings

Severity: **Critical** (remote, no login, or full takeover) · **High** (any login, or one
customer reaching another's data; or serious abuse of the company's resources) · **Medium**
(needs a specific role, local access or an unusual setup) · **Low** (hardening, information).
Status: *candidate* (seen in code, not yet confirmed), *confirmed*, *fixed in case NNNN*,
*accepted*.

| ID | Severity | Status | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | High | candidate | Placeholder JWT secret in the LAN/IIS and Linux server config templates |
| F2 | Medium | candidate | Windows installers give all local users modify rights on the program and data folders |
| F3 | High | candidate | Any logged-in user, customer contacts included, can send arbitrary email through the company's SMTP server |
| F4 | Low | candidate | Any logged-in user can send an in-app notification to any user |

### F1 Placeholder JWT secret (from the 8.3.0 installer test)

`dist/assets/lan-install-config.json` and `dist/assets/linux-server/config.json` ship
`AYANOVA_JWT_SECRET` set to a placeholder that is also printed in the manual. The manual
tells users to change it (Linux: "optional but recommended"). An installation that keeps it
signs logins with a publicly known secret: anyone who knows it can mint a token for any user
id, including SuperUser, as far as the signature goes. What else such a forged token needs
(the per-user latest-token check, `CurrentAuthToken`) is to be confirmed in pass 2, as it may
limit this considerably. Hosted droplets are not affected (the setup script generates a
random secret since `64d8f62`; droplets created earlier: to check). Fix options: generate a
random secret at install time; refuse to boot with the placeholder; or treat the placeholder
as unset (random per boot).

### F2 Windows folder permissions (from the 8.3.0 installer test)

`lan.iss` and `standalone.iss` set `Permissions: users-modify` on `{app}` (the program
folder) and on `{commonappdata}\ayanova` (data: database for standalone, backups,
attachments, logs). Any local Windows user can therefore replace program files that run as
the user who starts AyaNova or as the IIS application pool, and can read the database files
and backups. Matters on shared or terminal-server machines. The program-folder permission
originally let the report browser download beside the app; since 8.3.0 it downloads under
the data folder, so `{app}` may no longer need it. To confirm in pass 10.

### F3 `notify/direct-smtp` open to every logged-in user

`NotifyController.SendNotifySmtpDirectMessage`: no role or user-type check; the code comment
says this is intentional (Customer form, and API users emailing rendered reports, case 4310).
Any logged-in user, customer contacts included, can send an email with any recipient
(`ToAddress`), subject and HTML body through the company's configured SMTP server, from its
address. On a hosted or internet-facing server one customer-contact login is enough to send
phishing or spam under the company's name. To confirm in pass 8: which callers the client
actually has, and the narrowest check that keeps them working (staff roles only; or
recipient restricted to the object's own address).

### F4 `notify/direct-message` open to every logged-in user

Any logged-in user can add a general notification, with the sender's name and any text, for
any user id. Low on its own (in-app only); relevant with F3 for social engineering of staff
by a customer contact. Pass 8.

## Pass log

| Date | Pass | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-23 | 1 Threat model and map | Scope agreed with John. Middleware, JWT validation, role model, download keys, CORS and Swagger read. Route map generated (460 actions; script kept in `security/routemap.py`). No route lacks authentication by accident. 53 logged-in routes have no role check in the action: 3 resolved (erase data, trial seed: OK; direct SMTP: F3), the rest assigned to later passes. Local-request exception not reachable through the hosted nginx. Findings F1 to F4 recorded as candidates |