266 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
266 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# DRILL — R-201, the night run: **PASS. The customer's file came back, byte-identical.**
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**Date:** 2026-08-04, 21:30–23:15 · **Box:** `demo-hp` (Tier 0) · unattended, then **finished with the
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operator present**. The box is up, healthy, and fully re-armed.
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> **THE VERDICT: PASS.**
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>
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> ```
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> pre-wipe sha256: 643166269103a25cf41d34a26b75fd6ebba0a837bbcd7e0d2b5aba7106bcbe7c
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> restored sha256: 643166269103a25cf41d34a26b75fd6ebba0a837bbcd7e0d2b5aba7106bcbe7c
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> ```
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>
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> A machine was destroyed on purpose — controller data volume gone, the customer's file deleted from
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> disk — and **the file came back byte-identical**, through the customer's own recovery code and the
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> customer's own restore flow. **This is the first time the Felhom backup story has been proved end to
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> end.**
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>
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> The key recovered byte-identical (`8a9e33aa4da6…`), the existing repository **opened rather than
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> being re-initialised** (`repo_state: null`, 3 snapshots, 42 026 B — the pre-wipe size exactly), and
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> the pre-wipe snapshot `e6132ae5` was still there with the file inside it.
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>
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> **It took four undocumented steps to get there**, each measured, and they are the other half of the
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> result — see §3. A customer hitting this alone today would not get their data back.
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---
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## 1. The verdict — **PASS**
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| | |
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|---|---|
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| sentinel sha256, pre-wipe (step 3) | `643166269103a25cf41d34a26b75fd6ebba0a837bbcd7e0d2b5aba7106bcbe7c` |
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| sentinel sha256, restored (step 10) | **`643166269103a25cf41d34a26b75fd6ebba0a837bbcd7e0d2b5aba7106bcbe7c`** |
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| **match** | **YES — byte-identical** |
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| snapshot count at step 9 | **3** — the pre-wipe count. **NOT 1.** No fresh history was started |
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| repo size at step 9 | **42 026 B** — the pre-wipe size exactly |
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| `repo_state` | **`null`** — the repository OPENED. Not orphaned |
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The restore ran through the customer flow (`POST /backup/offbox/restore`, `mode=full`, two-step
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confirm), out of snapshot `e6132ae5` — the one taken **before** the wipe.
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**A detail worth keeping:** the first restore attempt used the default `mode=unit`, which recovers the
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recovery unit only and **not** the userdata leg. `mode=full` is what returns the customer's files. A
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customer told to "restore from off-site" would, on the default, get their app definition back and not
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their documents — and nothing in that outcome says so.
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## 2. What was proven, in order, on hardware
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### Step 6 — the wipe
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The controller's data volume was destroyed and the bootstrap re-ran. Fresh data directory, everything
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stamped `2026-08-04 20:00:2x`:
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```
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encryption.key 32 B 2026-08-04 20:00:21 ← brand new: every pre-wipe app secret is undecryptable
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claimed = None ← the fresh-install signal
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offbox = null ← no off-site target
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```
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**Faithful to the incident, and deliberately so.** The 2026-08-03 rebuild that R-193 is filed against
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was **not** a guest reprovision — the journal shows guest 9201 running continuously through that
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window, with no `pct destroy`, no `pct restore` and no `--selftest=provision`. What changed was the
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controller and its data volume. Reproducing *that* is what the drill needs; a guest destroy plus an
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unrehearsed provisioning chain, improvised unattended, is what §8.10 exists to prevent.
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### Step 7 — the assertion that keeps recovery possible: **PASSED**
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```
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host_escrow (demo-hp-bb76ea), AFTER the wipe:
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identity_blob = 572 bytes ← unchanged
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restic_pw_sha256 = 8a9e33aa4da6… ← unchanged
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updated_at = 2026-08-04 11:11:37 ← unchanged; nothing re-escrowed
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stale_at = NULL
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```
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**No ceremony was run and nothing re-escrowed itself.** The sealed key survived the rebuild untouched.
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### Step 8 — **THE KEY CAME BACK**
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```
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=== offsite key recovery check (R-200) — compares, never installs ===
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recovered sha256: 8a9e33aa4da6769c5aea1831f87759e10930e2ec1dea0062576484e0598d080a
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[FAIL] there is no repository password on this box to compare against
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(the recovery itself SUCCEEDED — this box simply has no local key. That is the
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rebuilt-box shape, where the next step is to INSTALL rather than compare.)
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```
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Exit 1 is **correct and designed**: there was nothing to compare against, because the wipe removed it.
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The recovered hash matches the pre-wipe on-disk key and the hub's own record — three independent
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sources agreeing, one of them recovered through the full chain (hub → agent → unseal → extract) on a
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box that had just lost everything it knew.
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### Step 9a — installed cleanly
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```
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=== offsite key recovery INSTALL (R-200) ===
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on-disk sha256: (none — this box has no repository password)
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recovered sha256: 8a9e33aa4da6…
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[INSTALLED] the recovered repository password is in place and reads back identical.
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```
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The "installed" branch — the rebuilt-box shape v0.196.0 was written for — took its first real run.
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### Step 9b — the apply kept it
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After the target was reconfigured, the on-disk key was still `8a9e33aa4da6…`. `WriteOffboxSecrets`
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found the file present and kept it, exactly as documented.
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---
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## 3. The wall — three blockers, each measured
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### (a) R-193, reconfirmed live: a rebuilt controller cannot configure its off-site tier
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```
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[INFO] [offsite-apply] settle-gate: GO — at/above floor 0.156.0 (we are 0.197.0)
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[WARN] [offsite-apply] reconcile: offsite-apply: consume one-time password:
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no unconsumed offsite password (already consumed or none provisioned)
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(retries on next config refresh/restart)
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```
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The ledger, measured: `demo-hp` one-time secret created `07:11:51`, consumed `07:12:06` — **by the
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previous controller**. The rebuilt one has nothing to consume and retries forever. Exactly the state
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demo-hp sat in for 25 hours on 2026-08-03.
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**Remedy:** an operator Re-issue. Performed here through the designed endpoint
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(`POST /configs/demo-hp/offsite-reissue`, HTTP 303), after which the target configured normally.
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### (b) R-196, measured live — and it lands squarely on the recovery path
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```
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host_escrow (demo-hp-bb76ea), after the Re-issue:
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stale_at = 2026-08-04 20:15:49 ← set
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restic_pw_sha256 = 8a9e33aa4da6… ← UNCHANGED. The key did not move.
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```
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**The escrow was marked stale while it perfectly covers the box's current key** — the recovered one.
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That is R-196's false staleness, and here it is not a cosmetic lie: a stale escrow makes the hub
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**withhold the hash from the report ACK**, so `EscrowAutoConfirmer` can never flip `pending →
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escrowed`, and `OffboxRunnable` (`configured && escrowed`) **refuses to run any off-site backup**.
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> **The remedy for (a) disables the recovery it was needed for.** The only documented way to clear a
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> stale escrow is a fresh ceremony — which supersedes the identity blob, i.e. **destroys the very key
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> being recovered**. Under hub v0.93.0 the old blob is now *retained*, but nothing can serve a
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> superseded blob back (R-199's inventory: the endpoint serves the CURRENT row only).
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**Superseded rows still number 2** — no ceremony was run tonight. The key is intact.
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### (c) The claim gate — undocumented as a recovery step
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```
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[DEBUG] [web] claim gate: intercepting POST /backup/offbox/confirm-escrow (unclaimed)
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```
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A rebuilt box is **unclaimed** (`claimed = None`, fresh `settings.json`), and the claim gate correctly
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intercepts every non-claim route. **So no controller endpoint can be driven at all** — not the manual
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escrow confirm, not the backup trigger — until the customer re-claims the box. Both POSTs returned 302
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to the claim page and neither reached its handler; `last_run` stayed null, which is why the earlier
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reading of "the run was refused" needed this second look to be accurate.
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This is correct behaviour and it is **not wrong** — but it is a step in the customer's recovery journey
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that appears in no design document, and it comes *before* anything else can happen.
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---
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## 4. How it was finished, and the fourth undocumented step
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The unattended run stopped at the wall in §3 rather than improvising further at 22:35 (§8.10). With the
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operator present the remaining path was walked, and it took **four steps a customer would have to
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discover**:
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1. **Re-issue** the offsite credential (hub, operator-only) — otherwise the box can never configure its
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tier. §3(a).
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2. **Re-claim the box.** The local escape hatch (`--print-reset-code`) mints a code — **and does not
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work on its own**: it writes the new hash to `settings.json` while the RUNNING controller keeps its
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old copy in memory, so `effectiveClaimCode()` never sees it and every attempt returns
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*"Hibás vagy lejárt kód"*. **The controller must be restarted between minting and claiming.** Two
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claim attempts failed on this before it was diagnosed; the generation counter reached 6.
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3. **Confirm the escrow** manually (`/backup/offbox/confirm-escrow`) → `escrowed`, so `OffboxRunnable`
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permits a run. **Not a ceremony** — the identity blob was never superseded (still 2 retained rows).
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4. **Restore with `mode=full`.** The default `mode=unit` returns the recovery unit and **not** the
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customer's files.
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**None of these four is in any design document, and the drill needed all four.**
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## 5. §5's five conditions, as recorded before the wipe
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| # | Condition | Evidence |
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|---|---|---|
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| 1 | §4 confirmed, sentinel **listed by name** | snapshot `e6132ae5` (19:36:26) — `-rw-r--r-- 1000 1000 181 … /DRILL-SENTINEL.txt` |
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| 2 | deliberate rollback archive, **verified** | `vzdump-lxc-9201-2026_08_04-21_44_24.tar.zst`, 1 606 765 083 B; **full zstd stream read OK** (4 867 573 760 B uncompressed); the sentinel confirmed **inside** it |
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| 3 | §3's option | see §6 |
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| 4 | demo-felhom untouched | `health=ok`, `escrow_state=escrowed`, not touched at any point |
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| 5 | free space | nvme-1tb 883 GB free, root 20 GB, local-lvm 34.32 % |
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**A precondition had drifted and was repaired before the wipe, not worked around.** The staged
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snapshot no longer contained the sentinel: the afternoon's `[WARN] mandatory data path missing`
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experiment produced a *later* same-day calibre-web snapshot, and restic's `forget --keep-daily 7
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--group-by host,tags` had pruned the good one in its favour. The fixture on disk was correct, so one
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backup re-established it and it was re-verified by listing. **Lesson worth carrying: a good snapshot is
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not durable against a later bad run on the same day.**
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## 6. §3 — the recovery code
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**Option B as already in place, with a strict improvement: no new copy was created, so nothing needed
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shredding.**
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The operator placed `R_DEMO-HP` in their own `~/.config/credentials` on DooPlex (mode `0600`) two
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sessions ago, deliberately, for this purpose. This session read it from there and **piped it to stdin**
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for each of the two invocations that needed it. It was never an argument, never exported, never written
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to a second file, and never logged.
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**Nothing was shredded, and that is the point:** the operator's own permanent store is theirs, not a
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drill artefact, and destroying it would have destroyed their record. Because no additional copy was
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made, there is nothing left behind to prove gone — a stronger position than option B's
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create-then-shred.
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**Verified afterwards** with the planted-copy positive control, exactly as on 2026-08-04 afternoon —
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see §8.
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---
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## 7. The state the box is left in — healthy and re-armed
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```
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controller felhom-controller:0.197.0, healthy, CLAIMED
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apps privatebin opengist calibre-web filebrowser cloudflared traefik — all serving
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escrow_state escrowed (no ceremony was run; identity_blob untouched)
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repo key 8a9e33aa4da6… THE RECOVERED KEY — and the repository opens with it
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off-site 3 snapshots, 42 026 B, repo_state null; all three apps re-toggled for off-site
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sentinel restored to its live location, sha256 643166269103a25c… — verified
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```
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The verification copy under `backups/offsite-restore/calibre-web/` is **left in place as evidence**.
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## 8. R persisted nowhere — searched, with a positive control
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Swept the agent journal, the controller container log, and `/tmp`, `/var/tmp`, `/var/lib/felhom-agent`,
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`/root` on demo-hp for the recovery code: **0 hits**, and **0** leftover `felhom-idesc-*` unseal
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staging directories. A planted copy was found by the same sweep (**1**) and not found after shredding
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(**0**), so the instrument is shown sensitive rather than assumed to be.
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---
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## 9. Teardown — three layers
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| layer | state |
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| the guest | **Nothing torn down.** The wipe is the evidence; the apps are serving; the recovered key is in place. The scratch band is empty — no restore-test guest was created tonight. |
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| the host | `vzdump` snapshot LVs removed cleanly by the archive job (`snap_vm-9201-disk-0/1_vzdump` both released). One new archive, 1.6 GB, on `nvme-1tb` (883 GB free). Nothing deleted. |
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| the hub | **No new customer records.** `demo-hp` is the same customer row throughout — the rebuild was a controller-data wipe, not a re-enrolment, so nothing accumulated. One Re-issue staged a fresh one-time secret (consumed at 20:16) and set `stale_at`. The two superseded escrow rows are **unchanged** — no ceremony ran. |
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**Nothing was deleted on the storage endpoint**, including the ~1.2 GB of previously-orphaned
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ciphertext. Ruled, still owed, and deliberately not ridden along with a drill.
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## 10. Part 2 — not run
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Its gate is *"the drill PASSED; its evidence is written down; and there is time."* The first two are
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now met. **The third was not** — it was 23:15 after a full destructive cycle, and Part 2 is a second
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wipe. It is deliberately left for a session that starts fresh, with drill 1's result already recorded
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so a second wipe cannot overwrite it.
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**R-198's retention therefore remains unit-proven only.** Nothing has yet superseded a key in
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production, so the retention's live behaviour is still unobserved — and it is now the last unproven
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link in the chain this drill exercised. The check is cheap: wipe again, do NOT recover, let a ceremony
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seal a different password, then read the superseded row's `identity_blob`.
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