Files
minstrel/docs/security.md
T
bvandeusenandClaude Opus 5.5 9d324ab2d0
release / web (push) Failing after 15s
release / govulncheck (push) Successful in 16s
release / go (push) Failing after 41s
release / integration (push) Failing after 3m29s
release / android (push) Successful in 4m7s
release / Attach APK to the Release (tag releases only) (push) Canceled after 0s
release / Build + push container image (push) Canceled after 0s
release / Verify release artifacts (tag releases only) (push) Canceled after 0s
release / Build signed APK (push) Canceled after 5m34s
feat: Minstrel backs itself up nightly to a folder or an S3 bucket, off until an admin switches it on (#6773)
Admin › Backups shows a verdict first (off, not set up, waiting, backed up,
overdue, failing since when), Back up now, Test destination and the latest
runs, with the settings beside them.

- backup.Service: one run at a time, bounded at 30 minutes; the schedule
  ticks every 5 minutes, catches up a slot missed while the server was down,
  and retries a failure after an hour and then after as long as it has been
  failing. Runs are recorded in backup_runs, pruned after 90 days; a run cut
  off by a shutdown is marked failed at the next start.
- A folder destination writes database/minstrel-<UTC stamp>.tar and refuses
  a folder that isn't there. An S3 destination stages the file, hashes it,
  and uploads it under database/ through a throttled reader (4 MiB/s by
  default, 0 for no limit).
- Test destination checks the form as typed and only lists.
- The bucket secret is sealed like every stored credential; backup_settings
  and backup_runs are left out of the backup itself.
- The panel polls only while a run is going, capped at the run limit plus
  five minutes.

The music switch named in the task is left to #6774, so no control ships
that does nothing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-11-02 14:50:55 -05:00

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6.3 KiB
Markdown

# Security notes
What Minstrel does to protect accounts, and the reasoning behind the
decisions that look odd at first. For deployment steps, see
[hosting](./hosting.md).
## Accounts and sessions
- **Passwords** are stored as bcrypt hashes.
- **Login, registration and password reset are rate-limited:** 10 failed
sign-ins per account and 50 per address per 15 minutes, with similar limits
on register, forgot-password and reset. The Subsonic `/rest` API shares the
login limits. An unknown username takes as long to reject as a wrong
password, so timing doesn't reveal which accounts exist.
- **Sessions** are random 256-bit tokens; the server stores only their
SHA-256. A session ends after 30 days unused or 365 days in total. Changing
your password signs out your other devices; a password reset, or an admin
resetting it, signs out all of them.
- **API keys** (the OpenSubsonic `apiKey`) are stored as SHA-256 too, so a
key is shown once, when you generate it in Settings, and can only be
replaced after that.
- **The first account** on an empty server needs the setup token from the
server log (see [hosting](./hosting.md#first-account)).
- **Password-reset links** are built only from the configured public address,
never from the request's `Host` header.
## Requests
- Request bodies are capped at 4 MiB and must arrive within 30 seconds.
Streams and the live-event connection are unaffected.
- Every response carries `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff`,
`Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin`, a restrictive
`Permissions-Policy` and `X-Frame-Options: DENY`. The web app also gets a
`Content-Security-Policy` that allows only its own scripts, by hash.
- Media responses are `Cache-Control: private`, so a shared cache never keeps
one user's audio or artwork for another.
## CSRF: SameSite cookies plus JSON-only writes
There are no CSRF tokens. The session cookie is `SameSite=Strict`, so
browsers don't send it with requests that start on another site. That leaves
one gap: SameSite treats every subdomain of the same registrable domain as the
same site, so a different app on `other.example.com` could still send a
request carrying the cookie. To close it, any state-changing `/api` request
authenticated by the cookie must have a JSON body (`Content-Type:
application/json`) or no body at all. An HTML form or a script on another
origin can't send JSON without a CORS preflight, and Minstrel answers no
cross-origin preflight. Requests authenticated with a bearer token or the
Subsonic query parameters carry nothing a browser attaches on its own, so
they aren't checked.
## Credentials Minstrel has to read back
Some credentials can't be hashed, because Minstrel has to send or compare the
value itself:
- the API keys and passwords for indexers, Prowlarr and download clients;
- the AcoustID key, and the cover-art and tag provider keys;
- the SMTP password;
- the secret key of the S3 bucket backups go to;
- each user's ListenBrainz token and Subsonic password.
These are encrypted in the database (AES-256-GCM). Each column has its own key,
derived from the stream secret (`MINSTREL_STREAM_SECRET`, or the
`stream_secret` file in the data directory), and each value is bound to its
row. The stream secret is never stored in the database, so a copy of the
database alone doesn't reveal any of them. None of them is ever sent back to a
browser: Settings only shows whether one is set.
**Keep the stream secret with the data directory, and don't change it
casually.** If it changes, every stored credential reads as not set, and each
one has to be entered again in Settings (Subsonic passwords generated again).
Minstrel logs a warning for each one that no longer opens.
## Subsonic sign-in
Classic Subsonic clients sign in with `t` and `s`: the MD5 of the password
followed by a random salt. To check that, the server has to know the password
itself, so supporting this sign-in method means storing a password Minstrel
can read: the Subsonic password, encrypted as described above.
- **The recommended way in is the API key.** Clients that support the
OpenSubsonic `apiKey` should use it. The key is stored hashed and can be
replaced at any time in Settings.
- **The Subsonic password is never your login password.** Minstrel generates
it (**Settings → Subsonic password**), shows it once, and lets you replace
or turn it off. Because it is random, even someone holding both the database
and the stream secret gains access to this server's Subsonic API and nothing
else: it can't be a password you also use somewhere else.
- **`t`/`s` and `p=` sign-in are off for an account until it has a Subsonic
password.** Plain `p=` sign-in is additionally off server-wide unless
`subsonic.allow_plaintext_password` is enabled.
- `minstrel admin reset-password` changes only the login password. Older
versions also copied it into the Subsonic password; upgrading clears every
Subsonic password once, so those copies are gone. An account that used
`t`/`s` sign-in needs a new Subsonic password generated in Settings.
## Android allows plain HTTP
The Android app permits cleartext connections, for two reasons that can't be
narrowed to a list of hosts. The server address is whatever the user types,
and many self-hosted servers run plain HTTP on a LAN. And UPnP, DLNA and
Sonos speakers are controlled over plain HTTP at addresses that are only
known once they're discovered. The reasoning lives in
`android/app/src/main/res/xml/network_security_config.xml`.
This doesn't weaken app updates: an APK altered in transit fails the
platform's signature check. It does mean a server reached over plain HTTP
across the internet exposes the session cookie in transit, which is why the
[hosting guide](./hosting.md) puts public servers behind HTTPS.
On the phone, the session cookie is encrypted with a key held in the Android
Keystore, so a copy of the app's files doesn't yield a usable session.
## Build pipeline
Nothing is published unless every check passes: the Go, integration, web and
Android test suites, `govulncheck` against the toolchain that builds the
image, and `npm audit` on every web dependency, build tooling included. See
`.gitea/workflows/release.yml`.
## Reporting a problem
Open an issue on the
[repository](https://git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/minstrel/issues), or
contact the maintainer privately first if it's something that shouldn't be
public until fixed.