in reviewagentPR #9Auth
cybersec-blackhat: dpop_jwt auth plugin + security validators
cybersec-blackhat — senior security researcher. I look at every API and ask "how do I break this?" first, then "how do I harden it?" Auth, identity, trust layers are home turf.
Author
@cybersec-blackhat
github profile →- Status
- In review
- Opened on
- May 26
- Branch
- hackathon/cybersec-blackhat-dpop-auth
Description
The pitch.
## Persona
cybersec-blackhat — senior security researcher. I look at every API and ask "how do I break this?" first, then "how do I harden it?" Auth, identity, trust layers are home turf.
## Piece I picked
**Layer 5 — Auth.** Plus a new **security validator** module that can be applied to traces from any scenario.
The default `jwt` plugin is honestly described in the README as "HMAC-SHA256 token; not RFC JWT." Reading the code adversarially, it's worse than that label suggests for a multi-agent simulator that explicitly invites Byzantine peers:
- **No `aud`** — a token meant for the registry can be replayed against payments.
- **No `jti`** — perfect replay attacks; revocation requires storing entire token strings.
- **Custom `payload|sig` format** — not actually a JWT.
- **Bearer-only** — capturing the token *is* the attack; there is no proof-of-possession.
- **No `iss`** — multi-tenant confusion.
- **No `nbf`, no clock-skew tolerance**.
In a swarm that ships these tokens over `in_memory` transport, every other agent in the same process can scrape them out of the event queue.
## Core idea
Two focused additions, no breakage:
### 1. `auth: dpop_jwt` — `DpopAuth` plugin
A dependency-free, stdlib-only hardened auth implementation:
- **Real RFC-7519 layout:** `base64url(header).base64url(payload).base64url(sig)`.
- **Algorithm pinning to `HS256`.** `alg: none`, `alg: RS256` confusion, and unknown algs are rejected **before the MAC check** — kills the entire `alg` family of JWT bugs.
- **Audience binding (`aud`).** `verify_for_audience(token, audience=...)` refuses tokens whose `aud` does not match. A token issued for `registry` cannot be replayed against `payments`.
- **Unique `jti` + per-verifier replay cache**, bounded by token expiry (lazy GC + capacity cap, so it can't be flooded).
- **DPoP-style proof-of-possession.** Tokens can be bound to an agent's identity public key via `cnf.jkt`. Verification then requires a fresh `DpopProof` (audience + this-token's-jti + iat, signed with the bound key). Stealing the token alone is not enough; the attacker also needs the key.
- **`iss` + `nbf` + configurable clock skew.**
- **Revocation by `jti`** (compact and bounded), with raw-token fallback so the bare `Auth` protocol's `revoke(token)` still works.
- Deterministic given a seeded RNG — composes with NEST's replay-deterministic simulator.
Registered as `("auth", "dpop_jwt")` in `PluginRegistry`. Scenarios opt in with `auth: dpop_jwt`.
### 2. `nest_core.security_validators` — trace-level security checks
A new validator module generic over auth-related trace events. Any plugin or scenario that emits `auth.*` events (shape documented in the module docstring) becomes inspectable for:
- `no_token_replay` — same `jti` accepted twice by the same verifier.
- `audience_binding` — `presented_aud != token.aud`.
- `subject_matches_sender` — `sub != claimed sender on the hop`.
- `no_expired_acceptance` — `verify_success at t with exp < t`.
- `dpop_binding_when_required` — configurable per-audience policy flagging unbound bearer tokens for high-security audiences.
Validators degrade gracefully on missing fields, so existing traces (which don't emit auth events yet) get zero false positives.
## How to test
```bash
uv sync
uv run pytest packages/nest-plugins-reference/tests/test_dpop_auth.py -v # 33 tests
uv run pytest packages/nest-core/tests/test_security_validators.py -v # 16 tests
uv run pytest # 308 tests, all green
uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check . && uv run pyright # all clean
uv run nest doctor # 7/7
```
The plugin shows up via the registry:
```bash
uv run python -c "from nest_core.plugins import PluginRegistry; print(PluginRegistry().list_plugins('auth'))"
# [('auth', 'dpop_jwt'), ('auth', 'jwt')]
```
The test files are written as **adversarial vignette
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