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fix(cache)!: secure.wrap() fails closed when encryption is not configured (LAB-513) - #123

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lab-513-secure-wrap-fails-closed
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lab-513-secure-wrap-fails-closed

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@27Bslash6 27Bslash6 commented Sep 16, 2026

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Summary

This PR fixes a security vulnerability (LAB-513, CWE-311) where secure.wrap() would silently cache plaintext when encryption was not configured, instead of failing safely.

Problem

Every cache built via the intent helpers (minimal, production, io) or plain createCache({ backend }) is typed as SecureCache, so the .secure property is always present. Both cache.secure.wrap and the request-scoped cache.withExecutionContext(ctx).secure.wrap were bare delegates to wrap(). On a cache created without encryption, registering a function as "secure" would store plaintext data with no error, warning, or type error — exposing sensitive data (e.g., PII) that callers reasonably expected to be encrypted.

Change

  • Fails closed at wrap time: A new private secureWrap() method on CacheImpl now throws a ConfigurationError immediately when the cache has no encryption configured — before the wrapped function is ever called or anything is stored.
  • Consistent across both sites: The guard is applied to both cache.secure.wrap and the withExecutionContext view, since both delegate to the shared method.
  • No unencrypted escape hatch: There is deliberately no opt-in to run secure.wrap() unencrypted. Callers wanting unencrypted caching must use the plain wrap() method (which is unaffected).
  • Cross-language contract parity: This matches the behavior of cachekit-py (raises at decoration time) and cachekit-rs (secure() returns Err).

Details

  • Updated the SecureCache type documentation to describe the new fail-closed behavior.
  • Added a regression test (cache.secure-wrap.test.ts) that verifies both sites throw ConfigurationError at wrap time without invoking the function or writing to the backend, and confirms that with encryption configured, only ciphertext (never the canary plaintext) is stored.

Impact

This is a breaking change (fix(cache)!): code that relied on secure.wrap() silently storing plaintext without encryption will now throw a ConfigurationError.


Summary

Fixes a security vulnerability (LAB-513, CWE-311) where secure.wrap() could silently store plaintext data at rest when encryption was not configured on the cache.

Problem

Every createCache() call and intent (minimal, production, io) returns the SecureCache type, meaning .secure is always present — even on caches built without an encryption configuration. Previously, calling secure.wrap() on such an unencrypted cache would store plaintext with no error, warning, or type error, defeating the purpose of the security-labelled API.

Changes

  • Fail-closed enforcement: secure.wrap() now routes both the instance and the withExecutionContext (Workers) view through secureWrap, which throws a ConfigurationError at wrap time when no encryption is configured. There is deliberately no opt-in to run unencrypted under the secure path. This matches the contract in the Python (raises at decoration) and Rust (secure() returns Err) implementations.

  • Refactored secure.wrap binding: The instance's secure.wrap is now a simple closure delegating to secureWrap, typed against SecureCache['secure'].

  • Documentation: Updated the SecureCache interface docs to clarify that encryption is enforced by secure.wrap at wrap time, not by the type.

Tests

  • Verifies secure.wrap() throws ConfigurationError at wrap time (referencing createCache.secure()) before the wrapped function is ever called, for both the instance and the Workers view.
  • Adds a test confirming the Workers view's secure.wrap forwards the request-scoped waitUntil handle to wrap() (SWR plumbing), since the view's secure.wrap is now its own closure rather than inheriting from wrapWith.
  • Disables compression in the test cache so the canary-substring assertion is not defeated by LZ4 tokenization — ensuring "canary absent" reliably means "encrypted."
  • Strengthens the plaintext control test to assert the canary probe actually detects plaintext when present, proving the ciphertext assertions are not vacuous.

Summary

This PR ensures secure.wrap() fails closed when encryption is not configured (LAB-513), preventing sensitive data from being written to the backend in plaintext when a secure wrapper is used without encryption.

Changes

The changes in this file are focused on the test suite (cache.secure-wrap.test.ts):

Test Infrastructure Improvements

  • Type safety in viewOf: Replaced an unsafe as unknown as CacheImpl cast with a proper instanceof CacheImpl runtime check that throws a descriptive error if createCache() returns an unexpected type.
  • L1 cache configuration support: Extended makeCache() to accept an optional l1 (CacheOptions['l1']) parameter, enabling tests to configure L1 behavior.
  • New test constant: Added ALWAYS_STALE_L1 (swrThresholdRatio: 2) to force every L1 entry to be treated as stale on its first hit, which allows exercising the stale-while-revalidate (SWR) path deterministically.

Test Behavior Rewrite for Workers SWR Contract

  • Replaced a spy-based test (which mocked CacheImpl.prototype.wrap and manually invoked the waitUntil handle) with an integration-style test that drives the real stale-while-revalidate path:
    • First call is a miss (compute + store).
    • Second call is a stale hit (serves cached value, schedules a background refresh).
    • Verifies that the request's waitUntil is called exactly once with the refresh Promise, and that awaiting it triggers the actual refresh (compute count increments to 2).
  • This confirms that the view's secure.wrap correctly forwards the request waitUntil handle for SWR in a Workers environment, now that it is its own closure rather than inheriting from wrapWith.
  • Removed the vi.restoreAllMocks() call from afterEach since the test no longer relies on spies.

Purpose

These test changes validate the corrected behavior around secure wrapping and its interaction with the Workers stale-while-revalidate refresh mechanism, using real execution paths rather than mocks for stronger guarantees.

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • Bug Fixes

    • Secure caching now consistently requires encryption before registration.
    • Secure cache operations use the request’s execution context for background refreshes.
    • Encrypted values are cached and decrypted correctly, while plaintext storage is prevented.
    • Plain caching remains available without encryption.
  • Documentation

    • Clarified that secure wrapping throws a configuration error when encryption is unavailable.
  • Tests

    • Added coverage for secure wrapping, request-scoped secure caching, encryption, and plaintext protection.

…ured (LAB-513)

Both `cache.secure.wrap()` and the `withExecutionContext(ctx)` view's
`secure.wrap()` were bare delegates to `wrap()`. Every intent is typed
`SecureCache`, so on a cache built without `encryption` a "secure"
registration silently cached plaintext (CWE-311) while the interface doc
claimed it "always encrypts".

One private guard, `CacheImpl.secureWrap`, now throws `ConfigurationError`
at wrap time when no encryption manager is configured; both sites delegate
to it. Encrypted caches are unchanged. Matches cachekit-py (raises at
decoration time) and cachekit-rs (`secure()` returns `Err`). Deliberately
no opt-in to run unencrypted: callers who want plaintext call `wrap()`.

BREAKING CHANGE: `cache.secure.wrap()` and `withExecutionContext(ctx).secure.wrap()`
now throw `ConfigurationError` at wrap time when the cache has no `encryption`
configured, instead of silently caching plaintext. Use `createCache.secure()` /
pass `encryption`, or call `wrap()` for unencrypted caching.
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📒 Files selected for processing (3)
  • packages/cachekit/src/cache-core.ts
  • packages/cachekit/src/cache.secure-wrap.test.ts
  • packages/cachekit/src/types/cache.ts

Walkthrough

Secure wrapping now fails at registration when encryption is absent. Both secure wrapping paths use the shared encrypted wrapper, while request-scoped calls retain waitUntil. Tests and documentation define encrypted-only behaviour.

Changes

Secure wrapping enforcement

Layer / File(s) Summary
Secure wrapper enforcement
packages/cachekit/src/cache-core.ts
Both secure wrapping paths now use secureWrap. The wrapper rejects missing encryption and preserves the request-scoped waitUntil handler.
Secure wrapping contract and regression coverage
packages/cachekit/src/types/cache.ts, packages/cachekit/src/cache.secure-wrap.test.ts
Documentation defines wrap-time ConfigurationError behaviour. Tests cover unencrypted rejection, encrypted caching and decryption, ciphertext storage, and ordinary wrap() operation.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to 24f47

Scoped secure stale refreshes require execution-context lifetime registration in Workers. The implementation forwards that callback, but a focused stale-refresh test should protect this behavior before merge.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Docstring Coverage ⚠️ Warning Docstring coverage is 50.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 2 functions across 3 files. Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.
✅ Passed checks (4 passed)
Check name Status Explanation
Description Check ✅ Passed Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check ✅ Passed The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: secure.wrap() now fails closed when encryption is not configured. It also identifies the breaking change and issue reference.
Linked Issues check ✅ Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check ✅ Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
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Comment thread packages/cachekit/src/cache.secure-wrap.test.ts Outdated

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@packages/cachekit/src/cache.secure-wrap.test.ts`:
- Around line 47-109: Add a scoped `secure.wrap` stale-while-revalidate test
using an observable execution context instead of the no-op callback in `viewOf`,
then create a stale entry and invoke the wrapped function. Assert that
`ctx.waitUntil` receives the secure refresh promise passed through
`withExecutionContext(...).secure` to
`BackgroundRefreshManager.scheduleRefresh`, while preserving the existing miss
and hit coverage.

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📒 Files selected for processing (3)
  • packages/cachekit/src/cache-core.ts
  • packages/cachekit/src/cache.secure-wrap.test.ts
  • packages/cachekit/src/types/cache.ts

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Comment thread packages/cachekit/src/cache.secure-wrap.test.ts
…e ciphertext probe (LAB-513)

Review findings on the first commit:

- The view's secure.wrap used to BE wrapWith and inherited the Workers SWR
  coverage; as its own closure, dropping the third argument passed every
  test while silently disabling SWR for secure wrappers on Workers. A spy on
  CacheImpl.prototype.wrap now pins the handle through to ctx.waitUntil.
- With default compression on, LZ4 alone removed the canary substring from
  the stored bytes, so the "stores only ciphertext" assertion also passed on
  an unencrypted store. Compression is off in this suite and the plain
  wrap() case now doubles as the plaintext control.
- SecureCache's outer doc said "with encryption" though every intent returns
  it; the secureWrap JSDoc repeated history that lives in the commit and
  test header. Both trimmed to the contract. `secure` is typed off the
  interface instead of restating the generics.
@kodus-27b

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Comment thread packages/cachekit/src/cache.secure-wrap.test.ts Outdated
…ith instanceof (LAB-513)

Replaces the CacheImpl.prototype.wrap spy with the real stale-while-revalidate path: an always-stale L1 on an encrypted cache, wrapped through withExecutionContext(ctx).secure.wrap, must hand its refresh promise to ctx.waitUntil and that promise must be the recompute. Fails when the waitUntil forward in secureWrap is dropped. The viewOf helper narrows with instanceof CacheImpl instead of a double cast.
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