abrown38andClaude Opus 5.5
2880f7ddc9
Changesets, as in Jarl: configuration changes are operations that can be staged in a changeset, checked as they are added (validation and nft -c), reviewed with the diff of the ruleset, and applied together as one history entry, then on probation like any change made over the network. The web UI collects edits for review by default (pending rows, a bar with Review and Apply now, a Changes page, a switch for live edits); hc stages with -C ID or HOUSECARL_CHANGESET (checked like JARL_CHANGESET) and has hc changeset create/list/show/diff/apply/discard/remove. Undo, import and takeover refuse a changeset. --dry-run shows the ruleset's diff. Bandwidth and quotas: rate limits in bytes, per source or destination; quotas per rule or per address that reset daily, weekly, monthly on a day, or by hand, with their usage carried across reloads, saved for reboots, shown by hc quotas and on the rules page, and reset with hc rule reset-quota. Rules that count traffic are checked before established connections are accepted (so they see every packet) and can't accept. Per-address limits group IPv6 by /64 by default (--group-v4/-v6). Per-source rate meters use update. The importer turns meters, byte rates and quotas into these fields. The examples in the web UI, hc's help and the docs use documentation addresses and generic names instead of the maintainer's network. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
3.5 KiB
Users, permissions and tokens
Users
Administrators may do everything, including managing users. Everyone
else gets grants, resource:access:
| Resource | read | write |
|---|---|---|
config |
settings, zones, sets, services, rules, NAT, the ruleset, history, interfaces, probation, changesets (the web UI shows the forms locked) | change them, stage and apply changesets (your own, or anyone's for administrators), undo, import, confirm and roll back |
sets |
dynamic sets' entries | add and remove entries |
log |
hit counters and the log | – |
audit |
the audit log | – |
* |
all of the above |
A sets grant can name the sets it covers: sets:write:guests may
change the entries of the set guests and no other;
sets:read:guests,blocked may read two. That is the grant for another
program, such as Steward's captive portal, which should be able to let a
client in and nothing more. A dynamic set's entries need a sets grant
even for those with config:write.
Only administrators may delete other tables (hc takeover), and manage
users and the certificate (hc cert, Server → Certificate).
Roles are ready-made sets of grants:
| Role | Grants |
|---|---|
viewer |
config:read sets:read log:read |
operator |
config:write sets:write log:read audit:read |
log |
log:read, e.g. for a monitoring script |
hc user add sam --role operator
hc user add portal --no-password --grant sets:write:guests # tokens only
hc user update sam --grant config:read --grant log:read
The last administrator can't be removed, demoted or disabled.
API tokens
A token has its user's permissions, or fewer. A token made with --role
or --grant can do only that, even if its user can do more:
hc token create portal --user portal --grant sets:write:guests --expires 365d
The secret is shown once; only its hash is stored. A restricted token can only create tokens with a subset of its own grants. The web UI only offers roles within what your account may do; a token with more would get no more than its user anyway.
Rotating gives a token a new secret, keeping its ID, name and permissions, so only the programs that use it need updating:
hc token rotate 7 --grace 1h # the old secret works for another hour
hc token rotate --current --save # this CLI's own token
A token that expires gets its lifetime again, from now (--expires 90d
or never to change it). Without --grace the old secret stops at once:
use that when it may have leaked. Using an old secret during its grace
period is logged, naming the token and the address, so you can find the
programs still to update. A restricted token may rotate itself and tokens
no wider than itself. hc token list shows when each token was last
used, and from where. hc token revoke ID stops one at once.
The local socket
On the firewall, /run/housecarl/housecarl.sock lets root and the
housecarl user act as administrator without a token, and their changes
aren't on probation. The audit log shows them by their system user name.
Both can already change the machine's firewall, so this adds convenience,
not power. Anyone else on the socket needs a token, and their changes are
on probation like any other.
The audit log
Logins (and failed ones), users, tokens, every configuration change (with
its history entry), changesets created, applied and discarded,
confirmations and rollbacks, imports, takeovers and
dynamic set entries are recorded with who, from where and how: session,
token or socket.