saltstack / saltstack/salt

[DOCS] Introduce a Security and Threat Model documentation

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documentation security and optimization severity-medium time-estimate-long-term
Dominant language
Python
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description
Currently, SaltStack doesn't have a Security and Treat Model docs. It's unfortunate, especially after so many critical CVEs in the past.

Salt has a tiny security doc here: https://docs.saltproject.io/en/getstarted/system/communication.html
And a hardening guide that is a bit strange without Security and Threat Model docs: https://docs.saltproject.io/en/latest/topics/hardening.html

Suggested Fix
I'd say we need to write a doc that:

  • Describe Salt networking communications
  • Describe(in detail!) Salt custom AES keys system
  • Describe key signing, revocation, rotating
  • Describe Salt Auth system for: CLI, API, Engines
  • Describe Salt Authz system
  • Describe Pillars and Secrets handling
  • Describe possible security differences between 0MQ and TCP transports
  • Describe possible security implications of using Syndic\MoM.
  • Describe the SaltStack threat model

Type of documentation
Security docs

Additional context
A good example of such doc: https://www.nomadproject.io/docs/internals/security

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading Salt's existing communication documentation and hardening guide, then compare their coverage with the Nomad security documentation example. Define the threat model and document networking, AES keys, key lifecycle, authentication, authorization, pillars and secrets, transport differences, and Syndic/MoM implications. Done means a reviewed security and threat model document covering these areas.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
documentation, security
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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