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chain-studio/docs/reviewer-identity.md
flemming-it ebc668d28d feat(approvals,audit): record the reviewer as the unchecked claim it is 
The hub copies the reviewer string a client sends straight into
decided_by (DecideApproval, ClearEventLog); nothing on the wire ties
it to the authenticated caller. Studio filled it from the OS account,
so an export read like non-repudiation while being an arbitrary
client claim — the legal finding of the 2026-07-26 usertest panel.

The real fix is hub-side (derive decided_by from CALLER_IDENTITY);
that contract is written down in docs/reviewer-identity.md and needs
a hub release. Until then Studio does the one thing it can do
honestly and marks its own claim as a claim, inside the record:

- data/reviewer_identity.dart is the single place that produces and
  reads the value; wire() is idempotent, so page and HubService may
  both normalise. Every write path funnels through HubService, so no
  surface can send a bare handle.
- The inbox states before the decision who will be recorded, what
  that attribution is worth on this hub (from AuthStatus), and the
  literal string that lands in decided_by. An unreadable auth policy
  stays unreadable — never optimistic.
- Reading back: a marked value shows its plain name plus an
  unchecked flag; an unmarked one (legacy row, CLI decision, or a
  future hub-derived identity) is not classified either way.
- The audit wipe seeds the same kind of marked attribution into its
  chain.reset marker.

When the hub starts deriving the value it overwrites the field and
the prefix disappears by itself — no Studio release needed.

Guards: reviewer_identity_test (the value) and
approvals_reviewer_identity_test (every surface that writes or
renders it, against the hermetic fake hub). Visual proof for both
themes via the dialog-shot harness.

Signed-off-by: flemming-it <stefan.a.flemming@googlemail.com>
2026-08-03 23:50:34 +02:00

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Reviewer identity — what decided_by is worth

The problem

The hub copies the reviewer string a client sends straight into decided_by:

  • DecideApproval — who approved or rejected a paused flow step
  • ClearEventLog — who wiped the audit log, recorded in the seeded chain.reset marker

Nothing on the wire ties that string to the authenticated caller. Studio fills it from the OS account ($USER@studio); any other client can send any string at all, including someone else's name.

The legal review of the approvals page (usertest panel, 2026-07-26) graded this HIGH: a value that reads like an identity but is an unchecked client claim lends the audit trail a non-repudiation it does not have. An export, a court-facing report or an auditor reading the database sees stefan@studio and has no way to tell whether the hub checked anything.

This is not a leak and not remote-exploitable on its own — the finding is about what the record proves, not about access.

What Studio does today (0.81.0)

Studio marks its own claim as a claim, inside the recorded value:

decided_by = "unverified:stefan@studio"
  • lib/data/reviewer_identity.dart is the single place that produces and reads that value. ReviewerIdentity.wire() is idempotent, so both the page and HubService may normalise.
  • Every write path funnels through HubService.approve / reject / clearEventLog, so no surface can send a bare handle.
  • The approvals inbox states before the decision who will be recorded, what the attribution is worth on this hub (derived from AuthStatus.anonymous_allowed), and the literal string that will be stored.
  • Reading back: a marked value is shown by its name with an "unchecked" flag; an unmarked value (legacy row, a CLI decision, or a future hub-derived identity) gets no badge at all — Studio does not know its provenance and must not classify it.

Guards: test/reviewer_identity_test.dart (the value itself) and test/approvals_reviewer_identity_test.dart (every surface that writes or renders it, against the hermetic fake hub).

This is honest, but it is a label, not a fix. It does not stop a client from sending unverified:someone.else@studio.

The actual fix — hub side

decided_by must be derived server-side from the verified caller and the client-supplied reviewer ignored:

  1. In the DecideApproval and ClearEventLog handlers, take the identity from the same source _caller comes from (CALLER_IDENTITY) rather than from the request message.
    • static validator: the configured token's name
    • jwt-rs256 validator: the JWT subject
    • anonymous call: no identity — record anonymous explicitly (never a client-supplied name), or refuse the decision on channels where the operator requires attribution.
  2. Keep accepting the request field for one release (ignored) so older Studios and CLIs keep working; log a deprecation when it is present and differs from the derived value.
  3. Once the hub derives the value, it overwrites the field and the unverified: prefix disappears from new records by itself — no Studio release is needed to stop labelling. Studio's reader already treats an unmarked value as "provenance unknown", so a hub-derived value renders cleanly.
  4. Old rows keep the prefix. That is correct: they were unchecked.

Open product decision for step 1: whether an anonymous hub may decide approvals at all, or whether approvals require an authenticated caller. Studio surfaces the anonymous case today; it does not block it.

Related

  • lib/data/reviewer_identity.dart — the Studio-side contract
  • Backlog T014, point 1 (usertest 2026-07-26, legal persona)
  • Points 2–7 of that finding (hash-chain-backed history, deeplink, sealed slugs, UTC offsets, auto-refresh) are untouched by this.