Technical Design: security-hardening-addendum

Technical Design: security-hardening-addendum

Metadata

• Feature: security-hardening-addendum
• Status: APPROVED
• Created: 2026-02-15
• Author: Factory Design Mode
• Parent Branch: fix/codeql-scanning-alerts

1. Overview

1.1 Summary

Apply 4 defense-in-depth hardening fixes across 2 files: sanitize PR titles at output boundaries in pr_engine.py (2 locations) and eliminate temp file permission race windows in history_engine.py (2 locations). All changes are minimal, non-behavioral, and use existing patterns/functions already in the codebase.

1.2 Goals

• PR title sanitized at output boundary (consistency with body sanitization)
• Temp rebase scripts created with 0o700 from the start (no race window)

1.3 Non-Goals

• Refactoring _sanitize_pr_content() itself
• Adding new tests (existing suite covers these paths)
• Addressing any other security findings

2. Architecture

2.1 High-Level Design

No architectural changes. Two localized hardening patterns applied to existing code:

PR Title Flow (BEFORE):
  raw title → subprocess.run() args list
  raw title → draft markdown file

PR Title Flow (AFTER):
  raw title → _sanitize_pr_content() → subprocess.run() args list
  raw title → _sanitize_pr_content() → draft markdown file

Temp Script Flow (BEFORE):
  NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False) → write → os.chmod(0o700)
  [race window: default umask permissions until chmod]

Temp Script Flow (AFTER):
  mkstemp() → os.fchmod(fd, 0o700) → os.fdopen(fd) → write
  [no race window: permissions set before any content written]

2.2 Component Breakdown

2.3 Data Flow

• PR title: pr_data["title"] → _sanitize_pr_content() → html.escape() → safe string
• Temp script: tempfile.mkstemp() returns (fd, path) → os.fchmod(fd, 0o700) → os.fdopen(fd, "w") → write script content

3. Detailed Design

3.1 PR Title Sanitization (pr_engine.py)

Location 1 — create() method, line 509:

# BEFORE:
title = pr_data.get("title", "Update")

# AFTER:
title = _sanitize_pr_content(pr_data.get("title", "Update"))

Location 2 — _save_draft() method, line 586:

# BEFORE:
content = f"# {pr_data.get('title', 'PR Draft')}\n\n{pr_data.get('body', '')}"

# AFTER:
content = f"# {_sanitize_pr_content(pr_data.get('title', 'PR Draft'))}\n\n{pr_data.get('body', '')}"

3.2 Temp File Permission Hardening (history_engine.py)

Location 1 — _squash_commits(), lines 546-570:

# BEFORE:
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(
    mode="w", suffix=".py", delete=False, prefix="zerg_rebase_",
) as script_file:
    script_path = script_file.name
    # ... write content ...
os.chmod(script_path, 0o700)

# AFTER:
fd, script_path = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix=".py", prefix="zerg_rebase_")
os.fchmod(fd, 0o700)
with os.fdopen(fd, "w") as script_file:
    # ... write content (unchanged) ...
# os.chmod removed — permissions already set via fchmod

Location 2 — _reorder_commits(), lines 633-662:

# BEFORE:
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(
    mode="w", suffix=".py", delete=False, prefix="zerg_reorder_",
) as script_file:
    script_path = script_file.name
    # ... write content ...
os.chmod(script_path, 0o700)

# AFTER:
fd, script_path = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix=".py", prefix="zerg_reorder_")
os.fchmod(fd, 0o700)
with os.fdopen(fd, "w") as script_file:
    # ... write content (unchanged) ...
# os.chmod removed — permissions already set via fchmod

4. Key Decisions

4.1 Use _sanitize_pr_content() for Title (Not a New Function)

Context: PR title needs sanitization. Could create a title-specific function or reuse existing.

Decision: Reuse _sanitize_pr_content() — it uses html.escape() which is safe for all text.

Rationale: Function already exists, is well-tested via body path, and provides consistent behavior.

4.2 Use mkstemp + fchmod (Not opener Kwarg)

Context: Need atomic secure file creation. Options: mkstemp+fchmod, os.open+os.fdopen, or open(opener=...).

Decision: mkstemp + fchmod — simplest, most explicit, stdlib-only.

Rationale: mkstemp returns an fd, fchmod sets permissions before any content is written. Clear pattern, no race window.

5. Implementation Plan

5.1 Phase Summary

5.2 File Ownership

5.3 Dependency Graph

TASK-001 [PR title sanitization] ──┐
                                    ├──▶ TASK-003 [CHANGELOG + verify]
TASK-002 [Temp file hardening]  ───┘

6. Risk Assessment

7. Testing Strategy

7.1 Verification

• python -m pytest tests/ --timeout=120 — full suite green
• ruff check zerg/git/pr_engine.py zerg/git/history_engine.py — clean

7.2 No New Tests Required

Existing test suite covers PR creation and history engine paths. Changes are non-behavioral.

8. Parallel Execution Notes

8.1 Safe Parallelization

• TASK-001 and TASK-002 modify different files — fully parallel
• TASK-003 depends on both completing

8.2 Recommended Workers

• Minimum: 1 worker (sequential)
• Optimal: 2 workers (one per file)
• Maximum: 2 workers

8.3 Estimated Duration

• Single worker: ~5 min
• With 2 workers: ~3 min
• Speedup: 1.7x

9. Approval