From 2d8c6bc449e343a80569e45d4ceae0423616cedd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christophe Besson Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2026 11:54:22 +0200 Subject: fix(hub): a desktop solve reports no hostname at all, not "meshbay" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Registering from the native client failed with `captcha_failed` while the checkbox was green — a worse symptom than the one being fixed, because the widget now looked fine and only the hub's own log said otherwise: captcha solved on an unexpected host ''; allowed: ['localhost', 'meshbay', 'meshbay.org'] The previous commit assumed Google would report the host component of the origin, so `app://meshbay` would come back as `meshbay` and could sit in `allowed_hosts`. It does not. A solve Google cannot attribute to a domain reports an **empty** hostname, and no allowlist entry can match that. An empty entry is not the answer either: a blank in a TOML list is a typo far more often than an intention, and `load_config` drops blanks for that reason — `captcha.allow_unattributed_host` is a named flag instead, so the trade is stated where it is made. What it admits, plainly: every non-web client, not only ours. A file:// page or somebody else's Electron application look identical from here. That is the same bar the client's own origin would have been — main.js already records that `app://meshbay` is not a credential — and it is a bar: the captcha still has to be solved, per token, in something that can render it. What is given up is the origin restriction for non-web clients, not the captcha. Off by default, and a hub without the desktop client should leave it off. The refusal now names which of the two it is, since they need different answers: an unexpected host names the host, an unattributed one says to set the flag. docs/captcha.md §6 said `meshbay` was the value and told operators to add it; it now records what was measured and why the guess was wrong. The packaged example config carries the flag with the same warning. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014UtzVrzM7e2tG9fSpkR9ML --- .../meshbay-hub/tests/test_captcha_host_check.py | 83 +++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 74 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) (limited to 'packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_captcha_host_check.py') diff --git a/packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_captcha_host_check.py b/packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_captcha_host_check.py index bbd6c6d..68cad34 100644 --- a/packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_captcha_host_check.py +++ b/packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_captcha_host_check.py @@ -19,6 +19,13 @@ turning the check off would otherwise open. `allowed_hosts` empty means "do not check", which is what a deployment that left the origin check with Google wants. That is the default, so an existing hub upgrades without its captcha changing behaviour. + +The desktop client needed one more thing, found only by trying it. Its origin +is `app://meshbay`, and the guess was that Google would report the host part, +`meshbay`. It does not: a solve it cannot attribute to a domain comes back +with an **empty** hostname. `allow_unattributed_host` is what admits those, +and it is a named flag rather than an allowlist entry because a blank in a +TOML list is a typo far more often than an intention. """ import json @@ -79,12 +86,44 @@ async def test_a_solve_from_an_expected_host_is_accepted(google): @pytest.mark.asyncio -async def test_the_desktop_client_s_own_host_is_just_another_entry(google): - """`app://meshbay` is what the reported hostname comes from — the reason - any of this exists. Nothing about it is special to the check.""" - google(success=True, hostname="meshbay") - allowed = frozenset({"meshbay.org", "localhost", "meshbay"}) - assert await verify_captcha("s", "t", allowed_hosts=allowed) +async def test_an_unattributed_solve_is_refused_by_default(google): + """What the desktop client actually produces, and what it costs. + + `app://meshbay` does not report `meshbay`. Google attributes the solve to + no domain at all and the hostname comes back **empty** — measured live, + after the first attempt to allowlist `meshbay` failed. Refusing by default + is right: an answer with no hostname must not read as "any hostname". + """ + google(success=True, hostname="") + assert not await verify_captcha( + "s", "t", allowed_hosts=frozenset({"meshbay.org", "localhost"})) + + +@pytest.mark.asyncio +async def test_the_flag_admits_it_and_the_allowlist_is_not_how(google): + """The flag is the only way in, on purpose. + + An empty allowlist entry would be the obvious alternative and is a bad + one: a blank in a TOML list is a typo far more often than an intention, + and `load_config` drops blanks for exactly that reason. So this must not + work by accident from an allowlist alone. + """ + google(success=True, hostname="") + allowed = frozenset({"meshbay.org", "localhost"}) + assert await verify_captcha("s", "t", allowed_hosts=allowed, allow_unattributed=True) + assert not await verify_captcha("s", "t", allowed_hosts=allowed | {""}) + + +@pytest.mark.asyncio +async def test_the_flag_does_not_open_the_allowlist(google): + """It admits *unattributed* solves, not solves from somewhere else. + + A bot on its own web page still reports that page's hostname, which is + still not ours, flag or no flag. + """ + google(success=True, hostname="a-bot-farm.example") + assert not await verify_captcha( + "s", "t", allowed_hosts=frozenset({"meshbay.org"}), allow_unattributed=True) @pytest.mark.asyncio @@ -97,10 +136,12 @@ async def test_a_solve_from_somewhere_else_is_refused(google): @pytest.mark.asyncio -async def test_a_missing_hostname_is_refused_when_checking(google): - """An answer with no hostname at all must not read as "any hostname".""" +async def test_an_absent_hostname_field_reads_like_an_empty_one(google): + """`hostname` missing and `hostname: ""` are the same answer.""" google(success=True) - assert not await verify_captcha("s", "t", allowed_hosts=frozenset({"meshbay.org"})) + allowed = frozenset({"meshbay.org"}) + assert not await verify_captcha("s", "t", allowed_hosts=allowed) + assert await verify_captcha("s", "t", allowed_hosts=allowed, allow_unattributed=True) @pytest.mark.asyncio @@ -143,6 +184,15 @@ async def test_a_transport_failure_is_a_refusal_not_an_exception(monkeypatch): assert not await verify_captcha("s", "t", allowed_hosts=frozenset({"meshbay.org"})) +@pytest.mark.asyncio +async def test_the_flag_alone_checks_nothing_without_an_allowlist(google): + """`allowed_hosts` empty still means "do not check", flag or no flag — + the whole block is skipped and reCAPTCHA is doing the origin check.""" + google(success=True, hostname="somewhere.example") + assert await verify_captcha("s", "t", allow_unattributed=False) + assert await verify_captcha("s", "t", allow_unattributed=True) + + def test_the_config_hands_over_a_set_or_nothing(): """`host_check` is what the caller passes straight through, so "unset" has to arrive as None rather than an empty set that refuses everything.""" @@ -179,6 +229,21 @@ def test_a_hub_toml_without_the_key_checks_nothing(tmp_path): assert load_config(cfg_file).captcha.host_check is None +def test_the_unattributed_flag_comes_from_the_config(tmp_path, monkeypatch): + cfg_file = tmp_path / "hub.toml" + cfg_file.write_text( + '[captcha]\nsite_key = "k"\nsecret_key = "s"\n' + 'allowed_hosts = ["meshbay.org"]\nallow_unattributed_host = true\n') + assert load_config(cfg_file).captcha.allow_unattributed_host is True + + cfg_file.write_text('[captcha]\nsite_key = "k"\nsecret_key = "s"\n') + assert load_config(cfg_file).captcha.allow_unattributed_host is False, ( + "the default has to stay off — it is the looser of the two") + + monkeypatch.setenv("MESHBAY_CAPTCHA_ALLOW_UNATTRIBUTED_HOST", "true") + assert load_config(cfg_file).captcha.allow_unattributed_host is True + + def test_the_environment_can_override_the_list(monkeypatch, tmp_path): """Same shape as MESHBAY_ADMIN_USERS, for a container that has no file.""" monkeypatch.setenv("MESHBAY_CAPTCHA_ALLOWED_HOSTS", "meshbay.org, meshbay ,") -- cgit v1.2.3