Shadow mode: Housecarl beside the firewall in force, changing nothing

shadow.enabled in housecarl.yaml loads Housecarl's ruleset so that it
blocks, rejects and translates nothing: drops and rejects count and
accept (an accept only ends Housecarl's chain), policies accept and log
what they would drop, NAT only counts, MSS clamping and the flowtable
are left out, and raw rules that do more than accept, drop or reject are
left out with a warning. Comments mark what would happen ([would drop]).
Filter chains run after the other firewall's (+10) or before (-10); NAT
chains always first. Every change is checked by nftables in both forms.
No probation; takeovers and closing connections are refused. The boot
fallback filters nothing. internal/tablewatch puts the table back after
a flush ruleset. Mode in status, healthz, whoami, the web UI, the log
and the tracer; hc ruleset --enforcing. docs/shadow.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

internal/nft/nft_test.go

@@ -365,3 +365,75 @@ func TestBootInContainer(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("the fallback stayed after an apply: %+v %v", tb, err)
 	}
 }
+
+// TestShadowInContainer: in shadow mode a drop counts but doesn't drop,
+// the ruleset for leaving shadow mode is checked too, and the boot files
+// are shadow mode's.
+func TestShadowInContainer(t *testing.T) {
+	image := os.Getenv("HOUSECARL_NFT_IMAGE")
+	if image == "" {
+		t.Skip("HOUSECARL_NFT_IMAGE not set")
+	}
+	name := "housecarl-nft-shadow-test"
+	exec.Command("docker", "rm", "-f", name).Run()
+	if out, err := exec.Command("docker", "run", "-d", "--name", name, "--cap-add", "NET_ADMIN", image, "sleep", "300").CombinedOutput(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("starting the container: %v %s", err, out)
+	}
+	t.Cleanup(func() { exec.Command("docker", "rm", "-f", name).Run() })
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+	fw := &Firewall{Runner: &Runner{Command: []string{"docker", "exec", "-i", name, "nft"}}, Shadow: true, BootFile: filepath.Join(dir, "ruleset.nft")}
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	st := model.NewState()
+	st.Settings.OutputPolicy = model.PolicyDrop
+	st.Settings.InputPolicy = model.PolicyAccept
+	st.Settings.Builtins.Loopback = false // it would accept the ping first
+	st.Rules = []*model.Rule{{ID: 3, Chain: model.ChainOutput, Position: 1, Action: model.ActionReject, Match: model.Match{Destinations: []string{"127.0.0.2"}}}}
+	if err := fw.Apply(ctx, st); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("apply: %v", err)
+	}
+	ping := func() error {
+		return exec.Command("docker", "exec", name, "ping", "-c", "2", "-W", "1", "127.0.0.2").Run()
+	}
+	if err := ping(); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("shadow mode blocked a ping: %v", err)
+	}
+	tb, err := fw.Table(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if tb.Counters["r3"].Packets == 0 {
+		t.Errorf("what would be rejected isn't counted: %+v", tb.Counters)
+	}
+	// A rule shadow mode leaves out, which nftables refuses when enforcing.
+	broken := st.Clone()
+	broken.Rules = append(broken.Rules, &model.Rule{ID: 4, Chain: model.ChainInput, Position: 1, Raw: "tcp dport 22 jump nowhere", Comment: "jump"})
+	if err := fw.Check(ctx, broken); err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "shadow mode is off") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "input #4 (jump)") {
+		t.Errorf("the ruleset for leaving shadow mode wasn't checked: %v", err)
+	}
+	// Enforcing, the same rule rejects.
+	enforcing := &Firewall{Runner: fw.Runner}
+	if err := enforcing.Apply(ctx, st); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if ping() == nil {
+		t.Error("enforcing didn't reject")
+	}
+	// The boot files: both load, and filter nothing.
+	if err := fw.SaveBoot(st); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, f := range []string{"ruleset.nft", "ruleset-fallback.nft"} {
+		b, _ := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(dir, f))
+		c := exec.Command("docker", "exec", "-i", name, "nft", "-f", "/dev/stdin")
+		c.Stdin = strings.NewReader(string(b))
+		if out, err := c.CombinedOutput(); err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("%s doesn't load: %v %s", f, err, out)
+		}
+		if err := ping(); err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("%s blocked a ping: %v", f, err)
+		}
+	}
+	if tb, err := fw.Table(ctx); err != nil || !tb.Fallback {
+		t.Errorf("the shadow fallback isn't recognised: %+v %v", tb, err)
+	}
+}