hamlab/BUGS.md

# Bug bash — 2026-09-18

Discovery only; nothing here is fixed yet. Found by a headless Chromium pass (iPhone and
1440px desktop viewports) over every page on the hub and on each remote machine, an
offline-node scenario (wyse stopped for the test, then restarted), direct API probing
with hostile inputs, and a code read. Ordered by severity within each group.

## Security / robustness

1. ✅ **RESOLVED 2026-09-18** — only regular files are readable; the byte cap applies to what is sent, not to `stat`. `/dev/zero`, `/dev/null` and FIFOs answer 400 in 30 ms; `/proc/cpuinfo` still reads. **Reading a special file hangs the request forever.** `GET /api/files/read?path=/dev/zero`
   never ends: the `max` cap compares against `stat` size, which is 0 for device files,
   so the cap never triggers and the handler streams `/dev/zero` until the client gives
   up. Same for FIFOs (blocks on open) and `/proc/self/mem`. Opening one in the Files
   viewer would hang the tab. Needs: refuse non-regular files for read/edit, and cap the
   copy with `io.LimitReader` regardless of `stat`.
2. ✅ **RESOLVED** — per-client buckets (first X-Forwarded-For hop or the peer) with the same 5-strike schedule, plus a global backstop of 100 failures per 5 min → 1 min. Verified: core's public IP locked while grid logged in fine. **Login lockout is global, not per client.** Five bad passwords from anyone on the
   internet lock the real user out for up to 10 minutes (`auth.Limiter` is one bucket).
   The bash locked the hub for the full 10 minutes twice. Also locks `POST /api/tokens`,
   so hub pairing fails during a lockout. Needs per-IP buckets with a modest global cap.
3. ✅ **RESOLVED** — server rejects refreshMs outside 100–60000 and non-identifier themes (400); client ignores out-of-range rates from any source. **UI prefs from the server are not validated.** A stored `refreshMs` of `-5` made the
   client call `setInterval(-5)` on every live view: a request storm that took the
   browser to `ERR_INSUFFICIENT_RESOURCES` and hammered the daemon. `theme` is validated
   only by falling back. Needs range checks on load (and on save server-side).
4. ✅ **RESOLVED** — every response carries X-Frame-Options DENY, CSP frame-ancestors none, nosniff, no-referrer. **No anti-framing / CSP headers.** Only HSTS (from NPM). A root-capable console should
   send `X-Frame-Options: DENY`, `Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'none'`,
   `Referrer-Policy: no-referrer`, `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff` on every response.
5. ✅ **RESOLVED** — kernel threads (empty cmdline) and the daemon's own PID are refused. **Signals can be sent to kernel threads.** `POST /api/procs/2/signal` (kthreadd)
   returns 204. Harmless in practice, but the guard should refuse PIDs with an empty
   cmdline (kernel threads) and our own PID.
6. **Journal spam from the daemon's own sudo calls.** Every sudo'd `journalctl`, `smartctl`
   or `pwrstat` writes three `pam_unix(sudo:session)` lines into the journal *under
   `hamlab.service`*: 839 lines in 10 minutes at a 250 ms refresh, and the journal is
   already 4 GB. It also buries Ham Lab's own log entries. Fix options: add the service
   user to `systemd-journal` (and `adm`) so journal reads don't need sudo, and/or a
   sudoers `Defaults!/usr/bin/journalctl !syslog, !pam_session` line in the installer.
7. **Uploading over an existing file silently overwrites it.** No confirmation, no
   "replace?" prompt. Same for "+ file" when the name exists (server refuses; UI just
   shows the error, fine) — upload is the gap.
8. **`/api/<anything>/../../x` falls through to the SPA** and returns `index.html` with
   200 instead of a JSON 404. Harmless, but sloppy for an API prefix.

## Functional bugs

9. ✅ **RESOLVED** — 401 carries the server message; the form shows "wrong password" (verified headless). **Wrong password gives no feedback at all.** The 401 is thrown as `Unauthenticated`
   with an empty message, and the login form only renders `err` when non-empty. The
   button just re-enables. Reproduced on phone and desktop.
10. **Switching machines while on Settings or Machines keeps showing the hub's page.**
    `switchMachine` only resets the view for Machines; Settings stays, so "mac" shows
    core's account/token/about panels. Both are hub-only pages and should bounce to the
    dashboard (or be clearly labelled as hub pages).
11. **Machines add-form `pattern` is an invalid regex in Chromium.** `[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*`
    fails under the `v` flag ("Invalid character class"), logs a console error and the
    browser skips validation. Needs `[a-z0-9][a-z0-9\-]*`.
12. **Updates tab on dnf hosts shows nonsense.** Mac: "Index refreshed 561d ago" (mtime of
    `/var/cache/dnf`, which Fedora 41+ no longer uses; `libdnf5` is the live cache) and
    "Last upgrade never · from apt history" (label and source are apt-specific). Needs
    `dnf history` for last upgrade, metadata timestamps for refresh, and neutral labels.
13. **Cron overview is slow: 3.6 s per request on core.** At any refresh rate the page
    is constantly busy. The 30-day, 20 000-line journal scan for "last run" is rebuilt
    every 5 s; timers make three `systemctl` calls. Needs an incremental journal cursor
    and a single `systemctl` call. Services list is 0.6 s for the same reason (two calls).
14. **Daemon memory grows.** RSS on core went 22 → 85 → 216 MB during the day (136 MB at
    rest after the bash). Suspects: per-pid caches in the process table (`procInfo` only
    prunes on the next walk), task output buffers, SMART cache, xterm scrollback rings
    that are never freed for exited sessions. Needs a heap profile under load.
15. **Version string is always `-dirty`.** `make deploy` builds before the commit, so
    every installed binary reports e.g. `v0.1.0-32-ga372378-dirty`, and the Machines page
    compares with `-dirty` stripped. Build after commit, or tag releases.
16. **View resets to Dashboard on reload; no deep links; browser Back leaves the app.**
    The selected machine survives a reload (sessionStorage) but the tab does not, and
    there is no URL routing at all. Needs hash or path routing (`/#/grid/services`).
17. **Cron log tab lists oldest first and starts at the top.** 200 lines from Sep 10 with
    the newest at the bottom, off-screen. Should show newest first or scroll to the end.
18. **Processes: empty filter result shows nothing.** No "nothing matches" message.
19. **Terminals accumulate.** Nothing ever reaps exited or idle sessions; the bash left
    several "bug-bash-term" shells on the hub until deleted by hand. Exited sessions
    should auto-remove after a while; idle ones at least be counted somewhere.
20. **Self-update restarts without warning running work.** A push to a node kills its
    open terminals and any running task (upgrade in progress). The hub should refuse or
    warn when the node reports a running task or attached terminals.
21. ✅ **RESOLVED** — PathError and LinkError are unwrapped to the bare reason. **Error text leaks raw Go errors.** e.g. rename shows "rename /tmp/x /tmp/y: no such
    file or directory". Fine for a lab, ugly for a product; strip the syscall prefix.

## Mobile / UX

22. **Tap targets under 28 px on phone:** header ⏻ (25), logout (22), customize ▲ ▼ hide
    (23), terminal leaf ✎ ✕ (24), chips (25), table headers (27). Apple's guideline is
    44 pt. Systemic: the small `.btn`/`.chip`/`.icon-btn` sizes need a touch variant.
23. **Power dialog on the Mac asks you to type `5ce91ee54af6`.** The confirmation uses
    the node's hostname, which on the Mac is the unset default. Should offer the machine
    name (`mac`) as the confirmation word on remote machines.
24. **Dashboard shows dead interfaces and empty modules.** wlp1s0 (down) gets a full
    sparkline block of flat lines; "Fans: no fan sensors" is a permanent empty card on
    hosts without fans. Down interfaces should collapse to one line; empty modules should
    auto-hide unless customizing.
25. **Header load average is unlabelled** ("1.39 1.56 1.55" floating in the header).
26. **Files list on desktop is a narrow strip in a sea of empty space** for small
    folders; the row menu opens off the right edge of the row. Cosmetic.
27. **Offline machine keeps polling every view at the refresh rate**, producing a 502
    per request per page (and console errors). The UI copes — badge, message — but the
    hub should back off to the prober's cadence while a node is down.
28. **Services logs are noise.** The default view of `hamlab.service` logs is the sudo
    session spam from bug 6, three lines per poll.

## Confirmed working under abuse (for the record)

Path traversal in files, services, cron, ZFS, procs and updates all rejected. `/etc`
and `/` protected from delete/rename as root. Unit, pool, dataset, snapshot and
package names validated. Token issue refused with a wrong password. Oversized prefs
rejected. Duplicate machine add refused. Unicode + spaces in file names round-trip.
Upload byte-exact. Terminal scrollback survives switching. Offline node: switcher and
header show it, pages show the reason. Remote terminals, logs, tasks and files through
the proxy all work on all three nodes.