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PaperClipAI/tests/runner-e2e/SECURITY.md
T
Dotta af3023f1e3 fix(runner): repair paid provider startup paths (#12769)
## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip manages AI agents that perform work.
> - Paperclip Runner connects durable task runs to local provider
processes.
> - The full-stack paid matrix exposed failures after the runner
integrity repair.
> - Verified JavaScript entrypoints lost their relative module graph
when Linux executed them through descriptor paths.
> - Returned provider startup errors also remained pending and became
indeterminate after recovery.
> - Sparse Codex tool lifecycle events lost the `write_document`
identity before task transcript projection.
> - This pull request repairs those three boundaries and makes the
structured-question fixture deterministic.
> - The benefit is repeatable provider startup, exact failure replay,
and correct inline Plan placement.

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

Refs #12721 and #12700.

**What happened?**

The paid runner matrix failed ACPX and OpenCode startup before provider
session creation. The runner journal then replaced the original startup
error with an indeterminate recovery result. Native Codex saved a Plan
but rendered it only as a fallback card. A legacy Claude waiting reply
could also echo the reserved terminal marker before the answer arrived.

**Expected behavior**

Verified JavaScript providers must start from immutable
descriptor-backed artifacts. Returned startup failures must persist as
terminal failed command results. Native tool lifecycle updates must
preserve the `write_document` boundary. Pre-answer fixture output must
not contain the reserved terminal marker.

**Steps to reproduce**

1. Run the local provider cells in the Runner Full-Stack E2E workflow.
2. Observe ACPX and OpenCode fail during `session.open` before provider
execution.
3. Observe recovery report `execution_indeterminate` instead of the
original startup error.
4. Run the native Codex Plan cell and observe the fallback Plan card
after the tool activity row.
5. Run the legacy Claude structured-question resume cell and observe an
early marker echo in waiting prose.

**Paperclip version or commit**

`0f9452101740835ce0b1488a204bf48acd5bafc3`

**Deployment mode**

Local development with the paid GitHub Actions acceptance workflow.

## What Changed

- Bundle the ACPX sidecar and OpenCode proxy as self-contained Node ESM
entrypoints before hashing and verified descriptor launch.
- Anchor ACPX dynamic provider package resolution at a
controller-derived provider-pack root and keep that root out of the
provider child environment.
- Persist executor-returned startup errors as redacted durable failed
command results while retaining indeterminate recovery for true process
death.
- Coalesce sparse native tool items by stable ID so a late
`write_document` name, input, and result reach the transcript boundary
once.
- Forbid the structured-question fixture from spelling or announcing its
reserved terminal marker before the user answers.

## Verification

- Rust and TypeScript regression tests cover durable failed replay, true
crash ambiguity, bundle closure, package-root derivation, environment
filtering, exact Codex tool lifecycle coalescing, and prompt
determinism.
- Local execution is intentionally limited to formatters and static diff
checks. GitHub Actions will run tests, type checks, builds, and security
checks.
- After ordinary CI is green, scoped paid cells will validate one ACPX
launch, one OpenCode launch, native Codex Plan projection, and legacy
Claude structured resume before a complete matrix rerun.
- Prior failing matrix:
https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/33682434315

## Risks

- Bundling changes the bytes covered by provider launch hashes.
Provider-pack generation already hashes the final built files.
- ACPX still loads qualified provider packages dynamically. The
controller supplies a normalized package root, while existing version,
digest, path, and descriptor checks remain active.
- Durable `failed` is terminal. Replays return the same redacted result
and do not execute the provider effect twice.

> For core feature work, check [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md) first and
discuss it in `#dev` before opening the PR. Feature PRs that overlap
with planned core work may need to be redirected — check the roadmap
first. See `CONTRIBUTING.md`.

## Model Used

OpenAI Codex based on GPT-5 with agentic reasoning, repository
inspection, code editing, Git, parallel subagents, and GitHub Actions
coordination. The exact deployed snapshot and context-window size are
not exposed to this task.

## Checklist

- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked
them above
- [x] I have either linked related public work or described the bug in
this PR
- [x] I have not referenced internal or instance-local Paperclip issues
or links
- [x] My branch name describes the change and contains no internal
ticket id
- [ ] I have run tests locally and they pass (intentionally deferred to
GitHub Actions)
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] No documentation change is required for this runtime repair
- [x] I have considered and documented the risks above
- [ ] All Paperclip CI gates are green
- [ ] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
2026-09-04 07:58:44 -05:00

10 KiB

Runner E2E security for a public repository

This suite can spend provider money, expose four API credentials to isolated test processes, publish a container, retain private visual evidence, and write public structured evidence. Treat changes to the workflow, harness, fixture prompts, evidence packager, and publisher as security-sensitive production changes.

GitHub authorization

Set RUNNER_E2E_ALLOWED_ACTOR_IDS to a non-empty JSON array of numeric GitHub user IDs. Keep the list equal to the owners of .github/** in .github/CODEOWNERS. For example, use [123456,789012]. Resolve each ID from the authenticated CLI and verify the login before adding it:

gh api users/LOGIN --jq '{login,id}'

The paid workflows reject manual dispatches when the workflow definition does not come from the default branch. A trusted dispatcher may name any branch in paperclipai/paperclip as the code under test. The authorization job resolves that branch through the GitHub API and passes only its immutable commit SHA to a credential-free target-lock job. That job checks out the commit, regenerates pnpm-lock.yaml once with lifecycle scripts disabled and lockfile-only mode, then uploads the file under a run-attempt-scoped artifact ID. Catalog, image, shared-build, provider-pack, and paid test jobs download that exact artifact by ID, verify its recorded SHA-256, and restore it before setup or a frozen dependency install. The lock resolver receives no provider credentials and must never run repository lifecycle scripts. The shared-build and provider-pack jobs also receive no provider credentials and disable dependency lifecycle scripts; they package outputs with SHA-256 sidecars that consumers verify before extraction. The paid test job installs with lifecycle scripts disabled, and materializes the exact pinned OpenCode executable from its lockfile-verified optional package without invoking package lifecycle code. Provider secrets are scoped only to the final test step rather than dependency setup. Report sanitization and AWS history publication explicitly use the trusted workflow commit and do not consume the target lockfile. Never run the workflow definition from the target branch.

The workflows verify both the original actor and triggering actor for every scheduled or manual attempt, including human reruns. Every secret-bearing job repeats this check as its first step so GitHub's partial-job rerun feature cannot bypass a successful predecessor authorization job. The legacy manually dispatched E2E workflow uses the same gate. Numeric IDs are stable across username changes and prevent lookalike-name authorization.

The full-stack and live campaigns have one Sunday UTC schedule each and also support explicit manual dispatch. Their legacy-named nightly repository variables remain independent kill switches. Neither paid workflow accepts pull-request, push, workflow-run, or reusable-workflow triggers.

Protect the default branch, require review for workflow/harness paths, restrict workflow dispatch permission, and restrict repository variable/environment administration to the same trusted maintainers. Configure the organization to allow only approved GitHub Actions. A malicious change merged into the default branch executes with the same authority as the suite.

Every external action in the paid workflow is pinned to a full commit SHA. Keep the adjacent major-version comment for update tooling, and resolve and review a new immutable SHA before upgrading an action. The credential-free security test rejects mutable tag or branch references.

Secrets and protected environments

Create runner-e2e-paid, restrict deployments to the default branch, and put only OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENROUTER_API_KEY, and DAYTONA_API_KEY in it. Do not duplicate these credentials as repository- or organization-level Actions secrets: environment scoping is the boundary that prevents branch or pull-request jobs from requesting them. Require approval from an account in RUNNER_E2E_ALLOWED_ACTOR_IDS for this environment and disable administrator bypass. The authorize, target-lock, catalog, image, report, history, and Pages jobs receive none of these secrets. Each full-stack matrix cell receives only its selected profile credential, plus Daytona only for Daytona cells. Secret-bearing and OIDC jobs use frozen installs without a shared dependency cache. The Paperclip server process also receives none; the browser posts each value once to the encrypted company secret API and agents/environments retain only secret references.

Create runner-e2e-history, also default-branch-only, for the OIDC publishing job. It contains no long-lived AWS key. Required reviewers may be added when a human approval on every nightly publication is acceptable; otherwise rely on the actor gate, environment branch restriction, and protected default branch.

Runner fleet isolation

When RUNNER_E2E_AWS_ENABLED=true, paid matrix cells use the exact RunsOn fleet selector runs-on/fleet=paperclip-public-pr-x64/env=public-ci, matching the AWS fleet selected by pr-trusted.yml only after its stable numeric-ID trust gate. Any other or missing toggle value falls back to the GitHub-hosted ubuntu-latest runner and its lower concurrency ceiling. The workflow chooses between those two reviewed literal labels; it never evaluates a configured runner label.

Keep both runner targets restricted to paperclipai/paperclip and workflows that independently authorize trusted source revisions. Never let a fork or untrusted pull-request workflow target them. The RunsOn fleet must launch a fresh ephemeral instance for every job, prohibit persistent runner reuse, and disable interactive SSH/debug access unless a separate incident procedure explicitly authorizes it.

Changing the runner does not widen who can authorize secret access. The paid workflow still has only schedule and manual triggers, requires its trusted definition to come from the protected default branch, requires allowlisted stable actor IDs before checkout, and repeats that authorization as the first matrix step. Provider credentials come only from the protected runner-e2e-paid environment. The fleet selector is an exact workflow literal; the only repository-controlled routing input is its boolean rollout switch, so configuration cannot redirect a secret-bearing job to an arbitrary runner.

The optional target branch is code, not workflow authority. A CODEOWNER who dispatches a target branch explicitly authorizes that branch's selected test process to receive the cell's scoped provider credential. The workflow resolves the target only inside the same repository, pins one SHA for the campaign, and checks it out only after authorization. Target-controlled code cannot replace the report sanitizer or the AWS history publisher. Fork refs and target-controlled workflow definitions do not enter this path.

AWS OIDC and S3

The AWS role trust policy should accept only GitHub's OIDC audience and the publishing environment subject:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "Federated": "arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT_ID:oidc-provider/token.actions.githubusercontent.com"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "token.actions.githubusercontent.com:aud": "sts.amazonaws.com",
          "token.actions.githubusercontent.com:sub": "repo:paperclipai/paperclip:environment:runner-e2e-history"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Grant only List on the bucket prefix and Get/Put on its objects. Do not grant Delete, ACL, bucket-policy, or wildcard-resource permissions:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "s3:ListBucket",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET",
      "Condition": {
        "StringLike": { "s3:prefix": ["runner-e2e", "runner-e2e/*"] }
      }
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET/runner-e2e/*"
    }
  ]
}

Enable S3 versioning, default encryption, and Block Public Access. Disable object ACLs. CloudFront receives read-only access through Origin Access Control; the bucket itself stays private. Log S3 data writes and alert on attempts to write outside the prefix or assume the role with a different subject.

Campaign prefixes are content-digested and immutable. The publisher refuses a different digest at an existing campaign key. Only the compact history and latest pointers are mutable, and S3 versioning makes those updates recoverable.

Public evidence boundary

CloudFront and GitHub Pages are public. Fixture identifiers, timing, token usage, costs, normalized results, and allowlisted inert structured per-attempt evidence are expected public data. Screenshots, video, archives, generated Playwright/blob/HTML report trees, credentials, Paperclip homes, databases, workspaces, master keys, raw/unredacted logs, and unallowlisted files are not. Only allowlisted .log copies that passed exact-value/key-shape scanning and redaction may cross the public boundary.

The packaged evidence uploaded as a 30-day GitHub Actions artifact has a different, access-controlled boundary. Text is exact-value and key-shape scanned and redacted. PNG and WebM are raw-byte scanned but cannot be inspected for credentials rendered as pixels, so they remain only in local evidence and the access-controlled artifact. SVG is rejected during packaging because it is active content.

Before permanent publication, the campaign publisher prunes raster/video files, archives, and generated report trees. It then regenerates the dashboard from the remaining allowlisted .json, .log, .md, and .txt evidence and accepts only that dashboard, normalized JSON/JUnit/summary, fixed branding assets, and the inert structured evidence paths. Per-attempt XML is excluded because browsers can process XML/XSLT; the only public XML is the root junit.xml, which the report aggregator constructs from fixed markup and XML-escaped fields. The same pruned tree feeds both S3/CloudFront history and the optional GitHub Pages artifact. A leak fails the cell and withholds the unsafe file.

Rotate the affected credential immediately if a secret-scanning failure or unexpected public object is observed. Preserve the access-controlled Actions artifact and S3 object versions for incident analysis; do not weaken scanning to make a campaign publish.