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| 1 | +# Security Boundary Model |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +## Purpose |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +This document defines the shared security reasoning model for InKCre。It helps Humans and |
| 6 | +implementations distinguish a vulnerability from an ordinary bug,hardening opportunity, |
| 7 | +operational risk or accepted risk without maximizing controls for their own sake。 |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +A security requirement needs an identified actor,protected asset,intended boundary,credible |
| 10 | +attack path and proportionate control。Exact protocol admission,database grants,rendering, |
| 11 | +credential handling and deployment behavior remain owned by the Unit that implements them。 |
| 12 | +External vulnerability reporting remains owned by the applicable repository `SECURITY.md` and |
| 13 | +organization policy。 |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +## Shared Deployment Model |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +```mermaid |
| 18 | +flowchart LR |
| 19 | + owner["Deployment owner"] -->|"operates and configures"| deployment["InKCre deployment"] |
| 20 | + peer["Admitted Peer"] -->|"admitted protocol"| deployment |
| 21 | + caller["Untrusted caller"] -->|"public or protocol surface"| deployment |
| 22 | + source["External source and untrusted content"] -->|"collection"| deployment |
| 23 | + extension["Reviewed Extension artifact"] -->|"declared runtime capability"| deployment |
| 24 | + deployment -->|"selected requests and data"| provider["External provider"] |
| 25 | + deployment -->|"persists"| infobase["Info-base"] |
| 26 | +``` |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +The arrows are trust and authority boundaries,not a promise that every deployment exposes every |
| 29 | +path。Host isolation,transport termination,backups and provider custody are supplied by the |
| 30 | +selected deployment and must be assessed with its Unit-owned runtime documentation。 |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +## Actors And Authority |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +| Actor | Shared posture | |
| 35 | +| --- | --- | |
| 36 | +| Deployment owner | Trusted administrator of one deployment。Can configure its Peers,inspect deployment-owned persistence and replace deployed artifacts。 | |
| 37 | +| Admitted Peer | Inside the deployment trust domain after satisfying one executable Peer protocol。Peer equality does not imply identical execution capability,but the current product does not promise per-user or per-tenant isolation between admitted Peers。 | |
| 38 | +| Untrusted caller | Has no deployment authority until admitted by the relevant public,Peer or Extension protocol。A public observation grants only its documented result。 | |
| 39 | +| Extension protocol caller | Untrusted until the Extension-owned admission mechanism succeeds。Successful Extension admission grants only that protocol's intended authority。 | |
| 40 | +| External source and collected content | Untrusted data。Collection does not make malformed,adversarial,stale or misleading content executable or trustworthy。 | |
| 41 | +| Reviewed Extension artifact | Trusted application code within the runtime that admits it。An Extension registry is an organization mechanism,not a sandbox or tenant boundary。 | |
| 42 | +| External provider | Outside the deployment boundary。It receives requests and data deliberately sent by configured capability code,subject to its own policy and credentials。 | |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +## Protected Assets |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +- confidentiality and integrity of info-base Blocks,Relations,stored bytes and derived output; |
| 47 | +- credentials and signing material used to admit Peers,Extension callers,Sources,Storages and |
| 48 | + external providers; |
| 49 | +- the deployment owner's control over collection,organization,retrieval,configuration and |
| 50 | + deletion; |
| 51 | +- artifact,migration and dependency integrity; |
| 52 | +- availability where an otherwise untrusted actor can cause meaningful denial,resource exhaustion |
| 53 | + or external cost。 |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +## Shared Boundaries And Invariants |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +### Admission |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +Core,database,Peer and Extension protocols may expose different admission surfaces。Authority |
| 60 | +granted by one surface does not silently grant another surface's authority。Public routes reveal |
| 61 | +only their intentionally public observations。 |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +CORS,obscurity,route naming and possession of a non-secret client identifier are not authorization |
| 64 | +boundaries。Exact claims,roles,credentials and denial behavior belong to the implementing Unit's |
| 65 | +executable contract。 |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +### Persistence And Credentials |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +Persistence operated by the deployment is inside the deployment trust boundary unless a more |
| 70 | +specific topology says otherwise。Persisting a credential in access-controlled deployment |
| 71 | +configuration is not by itself a boundary violation。The relevant questions are whether an |
| 72 | +unauthorized actor can obtain or exercise it through responses,logs,public artifacts,backups or |
| 73 | +unrelated protocols,and whether its replacement and lifetime match the product need。 |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | +Encryption at rest,an external secret manager or non-persistence may become justified when a |
| 76 | +deployment introduces an untrusted persistence operator,independently exposed backups,multiple |
| 77 | +users,delegated administration,regulatory duties or another concrete boundary。They are not |
| 78 | +automatic requirements without that boundary。 |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +### Data And Code |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +Collected content,filenames,metadata,provider responses,resolver input and AI input are data |
| 83 | +controlled partly or wholly by external parties。They must not become code,filesystem paths,SQL, |
| 84 | +templates,privileged commands or authorization decisions without an explicit validating boundary。 |
| 85 | + |
| 86 | +Storing or interpreting adversarial content is not itself a vulnerability。Executing it,letting it |
| 87 | +escape its intended data context or allowing it to drive privileged behavior may be one。Each |
| 88 | +presentation Unit remains responsible for safe rendering and interaction at its own boundary。 |
| 89 | + |
| 90 | +### Extensions And Artifacts |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | +A reviewed Extension shares the authority of the runtime or Peer that loads it unless that runtime |
| 93 | +explicitly supplies a stronger isolation boundary。Runtime installation of unreviewed code is not |
| 94 | +part of the current shared product contract。Artifact construction,dependency admission and release |
| 95 | +integrity remain owned and enforced by the delivering repository。 |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +### Privileged Operators |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +The deployment owner,host administrator,migration authority and anyone able to replace a running |
| 100 | +artifact already hold high authority within their scope。Protecting a deployment from its own fully |
| 101 | +privileged operator is not a default product goal;a deployment that separates these roles must |
| 102 | +document the new boundary explicitly。 |
| 103 | + |
| 104 | +## Security Classification |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +A vulnerability requires both security harm and a credible attack path。Examples include an actor |
| 107 | +crossing an intended boundary to: |
| 108 | + |
| 109 | +- read,create,change or delete protected data without the authority granted by the relevant |
| 110 | + protocol; |
| 111 | +- forge or bypass admission and gain materially greater authority; |
| 112 | +- cause attacker-controlled data to execute code or privileged commands; |
| 113 | +- expose credentials or private content through responses,logs,artifacts,caches,backups or |
| 114 | + providers; |
| 115 | +- compromise artifact,migration or dependency integrity in a way that reaches users; |
| 116 | +- cause material denial of service or external cost from an otherwise untrusted position。 |
| 117 | + |
| 118 | +A surprising behavior,best-practice deviation,missing defense-in-depth layer or hypothetical |
| 119 | +consequence without a boundary crossing is insufficient by itself。It may still be an ordinary bug, |
| 120 | +privacy issue,hardening opportunity,operational risk or accepted risk。 |
| 121 | + |
| 122 | +## Common Non-Boundaries |
| 123 | + |
| 124 | +Unless another topology introduces a different actor or authority boundary,the following are not |
| 125 | +vulnerabilities by themselves: |
| 126 | + |
| 127 | +- a deployment owner reading or changing its own configuration,persistence,backups or process |
| 128 | + memory; |
| 129 | +- one admitted Peer exercising a capability intentionally shared with admitted Peers; |
| 130 | +- reviewed Extension code reaching resources intentionally available to its runtime; |
| 131 | +- a credential being persisted within access-controlled deployment configuration; |
| 132 | +- absence of encryption at rest or an extra authentication layer without a demonstrated |
| 133 | + unauthorized reader or caller; |
| 134 | +- malformed or hostile collected content being stored as inert data; |
| 135 | +- an architectural hardening proposal without an exploit path or user harm; |
| 136 | +- behavior requiring prior host-administrator,migration-authority or artifact-replacement access。 |
| 137 | + |
| 138 | +Accurate classification does not prohibit improvement。It prevents reliability,privacy or |
| 139 | +hardening work from borrowing false urgency from the word “vulnerability”。 |
| 140 | + |
| 141 | +## Proportionality Method |
| 142 | + |
| 143 | +Before requiring a control or classifying a report,establish: |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | +1. **Actor and capability**:who acts,and what authority do they already possess? |
| 146 | +2. **Asset and harm**:what protected interest changes,leaks,executes or becomes unavailable? |
| 147 | +3. **Boundary**:what intended separation is crossed? |
| 148 | +4. **Attack path**:what reproducible or technically credible steps connect actor to harm? |
| 149 | +5. **Existing controls**:which executable,deployment or operational mechanisms already reduce |
| 150 | + the risk? |
| 151 | +6. **Control cost**:what dependency,obscurity,failure mode,user friction or operational burden |
| 152 | + would the proposed control introduce? |
| 153 | +7. **Classification**:vulnerability,ordinary bug,hardening,operational risk or accepted risk? |
| 154 | + |
| 155 | +Prefer the least complex control that materially changes the identified risk。Re-evaluate when an |
| 156 | +actor,asset,deployment assumption or trust boundary changes;do not preserve a conditional answer |
| 157 | +as a timeless rule。 |
| 158 | + |
| 159 | +## Ownership |
| 160 | + |
| 161 | +- Shared actors,assets,boundaries and classification method:this document。 |
| 162 | +- Product authority and cross-Unit topology:[System State And Authority](system-state-and-authority.md) |
| 163 | + and [Unit Topology](unit-topology.md)。 |
| 164 | +- Exact admission,persistence,rendering,runtime and deployment mechanics:the implementing Unit's |
| 165 | + executable contract and local durable documentation。 |
| 166 | +- External vulnerability reporting:the applicable repository `SECURITY.md` and organization policy。 |
| 167 | + |
| 168 | +Update this model when a shared actor,asset,deployment assumption or trust boundary changes。Do |
| 169 | +not duplicate Unit-local mechanics here merely because they are security-relevant。 |
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