incredigo/docs/ROTATION-PROOFS.md

Rotation cutover proofs

This file is the human-facing mirror of internal/rotate/proofs.go. That Go table is the single source of truth (incredigo rotate surfaces it as the PROOF column); this document explains what each level means and records the basis for every driver's level. Keep the two in sync — if you change one, change the other.

Why this exists

Every Rotator in internal/rotate contains only real rotation code: it talks to a real service (HTTP API, DB client, SSH, local files). None of them contain simulation branches or test awareness — the only thing a test injects is an endpoint / HTTPClient / binary path, which a real deployment also configures.

What differs between drivers is how their real-cutover path has been validated. That is data, not behaviour, so it lives in one table (here + proofs.go) instead of as prose scattered through — and easily confused with — the driver code. This is the guardrail that stops a mock-only driver from ever being mistaken for a live one.

Levels

Ordered lowest → highest (a higher level is a strictly stronger cutover proof):

Level	Meaning
UNPROVEN	No cutover proof recorded (e.g. the dry-run noop helper).
MOCK-ONLY	Cutover proven only against an emulator — our own httptest / in-process SSH server, or a third-party mock (e.g. moto for AWS). NOT proven against the real target service.
LIVE-VM	Cutover proven against the real target software running in the sandbox VM (real PostgreSQL / MariaDB / Redis / wg / Gitea / local files).
LIVE-REAL	Cutover proven against a real, host-owned credential at the real provider (not the VM, not an emulator) — recorded only after an authorized per-credential rotation on the safe-candidate ladder (ROADMAP M2). No driver carries this yet.

Honesty note: running in the VM does not automatically make a driver LIVE-VM. AWS ran in the VM but only against moto (a mock AWS), so it is MOCK-ONLY. LIVE-VM means the real target software validated the cutover.

Execute-time proof gate

rotate --execute runs a driver only if its proof is ≥ LIVE-VM (MinExecuteProof in proofs.go). MOCK-ONLY and UNPROVEN drivers are skipped — their Rotate/Verify/RevokeOld are never called, so the old secret is left fully intact — unless the operator passes the explicit --allow-mock-proven opt-in. This closes the last structural gap where a driver proven only against an emulator could touch a real credential unattended.

Current status

LIVE-VM — proven against real target software in the sandbox VM

Driver	Real target	Provisioner
postgres	real PostgreSQL	lab-provision-pg.sh
mysql	real MariaDB	lab-provision-dbclones.sh
redis	real redis-server	lab-provision-dbclones.sh
wireguard	real wg	lab-provision-wg.sh
gitea	real Gitea	lab-provision-gitea.sh
appsecret	real local files	lab-provision-appsec.sh
mongo	real mongod 8.0	lab-provision-mongo.sh
k8s	real k3s v1.35 kube-apiserver	lab-provision-k8s.sh

k8s live-POC note (auth-cache timing): the real kube-apiserver caches successful token authentications for ~10s (cachedTokenAuthenticator). After RevokeOld deletes the legacy token Secret, the old token keeps authenticating until that cache entry expires — so the POC polls the old token for up to 30s and asserts it flips to 401 (it does, ~7s). The httptest emulator invalidates instantly, so this delay only surfaced against real k3s — exactly what a live POC is for. The driver needed real-CA TLS to talk to the apiserver, so the blob gained ca= (base64 PEM, pinned as the only trusted root) and an insecure=1 lab-only escape hatch; neither is test-awareness — a real deployment configures the same CA.

MOCK-ONLY — proven only against an emulator / mock

Driver	Emulator	Why not (yet) LIVE-VM
aws	moto mock AWS in VM	real AWS never hit
sshkey	in-process SSH server	live VM POC not run
openwrt	in-process SSH server	live QEMU deferred
mullvad	httptest emulator	needs a paid account
cloudflare	httptest emulator	no self-host
ghactions	httptest emulator (holds the libsodium box keypair, decrypts the sealed PUT)	no self-host
gitlab	httptest emulator	GitLab CE too heavy for the VM
npm	httptest registry emulator	real registry never hit (see caveat below)
gcp	httptest IAM emulator (verifies the driver's RS256 JWT against the key's public key)	no self-host
twilio	httptest emulator (Basic-auth Keys resource)	no self-host
flyio	httptest GraphQL emulator	no self-host
resend	httptest emulator (Bearer /api-keys resource)	no self-host
vercel	httptest emulator (Bearer /v3/user/tokens resource)	no self-host
sendgrid	httptest emulator (Bearer /v3/api_keys resource, scope clone + /v3/scopes auth proof)	no self-host

What the MOCK-ONLY emulators actually prove

The emulators are not stubs that rubber-stamp success — each enforces the real protocol so the test exercises the driver's true cutover logic:

• gitlab — self/rotate mints a new PAT and revokes the caller's old one; the test asserts Verify(old) fails after Rotate, proving the revoke really happened.
• cloudflare — PUT .../value rolls the value for the same token id and invalidates the previous value; the test asserts the id is unchanged and Verify(old) fails.
• ghactions — the emulator owns a real NaCl box keypair, serves the public key, and on PUT decrypts the sealed value and stores the plaintext; the test asserts the decrypted value equals the new value the driver put in the rebuilt blob — proving the sealed-box encryption is correct, not simulated.
• npm / twilio / resend / vercel — each emulator enforces credential validity (a token/key authenticates only while it exists) and the test asserts the old credential is dead after RevokeOld while the new one still authenticates — proving the create→verify→revoke cutover really happened. (Resend and Vercel additionally prove Verify(new) by listing keys/tokens with the new Bearer token and asserting the new id is present — auth success and the credential exists.)
• sendgrid — the emulator enforces Bearer validity and records each key's scopes; the driver clones the old key's scopes onto the new one (GET /v3/api_keys/<id> → reuse on POST /v3/api_keys) so rotation is a faithful replacement, not a privilege downgrade. The test asserts the minted key carries the seeded scopes, that Verify(new) (a GET /v3/scopes auth proof) succeeds, and that the old key stops authenticating after RevokeOld while the new key still does — old key dead, new one alive with the same scopes.
• gcp — the emulator verifies the RS256 JWT signature the driver mints against the public key recorded for the key's kid; it only issues an access token for a JWT that actually verifies, and DELETE removes the key — so the test proves real service-account self-auth (genuine crypto/rsa signing) and the cutover (revoked key can no longer mint a token).
• flyio — a managing token mints/deletes the deploy token over GraphQL; the deploy token authenticates the app query only while it exists, so the test proves the managing-token → deploy-token rotation and that the revoked deploy token stops working.

npm caveat (why it is not just "pending a VM run"): the public registry.npmjs.org is not self-hostable, and the classic POST /-/npm/v1/tokens create-token call on real npm requires the account password in the request body (it is the non-interactive form of npm token create, which prompts for your password). The driver authenticates the create with the old token as Bearer only, which the emulator accepts but real npmjs does not. So npm stays MOCK-ONLY pending either (a) a self-hosted registry that implements the token API faithfully, or (b) adding password-in-body support to the create call. This is exactly the kind of contract gap a live-POC attempt is meant to surface.

Promoting the rest to LIVE-VM only requires standing up the real service (a self-hosted GitLab CE / a real Cloudflare token / a throwaway GitHub repo) and re-running the same driver against it — no driver code changes. (k8s and mongo have already made this jump; see the LIVE-VM table above.)