fix(service-automation): sign the http node's inline request with the one scheme, and refuse a secret that did not resolve

.changeset/20628-http-node-signs-both-arms.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/core": minor
+"@objectstack/service-automation": patch
+"@objectstack/service-messaging": patch
+---
+
+**A flow `http` node's `signingSecret` now signs the request on every arm, with one scheme, and a secret that does not resolve refuses the node instead of letting the request leave unsigned.**
+
+`signingSecret` is declared as "HMAC-SHA256 secret → X-Objectstack-Signature", with no arm named. Only the durable arm honoured it, because only the messaging outbox signed. The default inline request, and a `durable: true` node on a host with no messaging HTTP outbox (which degrades to that inline request), were sent without the header while the run reported success.
+
+- `@objectstack/core`: **new exports** `signHttpBody(body, secret)` and `HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER`, the outbound HTTP signature scheme: `X-Objectstack-Signature: sha256=<lowercase hex HMAC-SHA256 of the exact body bytes>`, where a request with no body is signed over the empty string. They were `@objectstack/service-messaging`'s own, and they moved here so a sender with no outbox can sign with the same code.
+- `@objectstack/service-messaging`: `signHttpBody` and `HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER` are still exported under the same names. They are now re-exports of the `@objectstack/core` bindings, not a second implementation. Delivery rows and the headers the outbox sends are unchanged.
+- `@objectstack/service-automation`: the `http` node's inline request carries `X-Objectstack-Signature` whenever `signingSecret` is set. It is computed over the exact body the node sends (its JSON serialization of `config.body`, or the empty string when there is none), so a receiver that verifies with `signHttpBody` over the bytes it received accepts it on every arm.
+  - A non-empty `signingSecret` that renders to nothing at run time now fails the node with a guard refusal naming `config.signingSecret`, and nothing is sent. This covers a `{token}` with no value in the run, or one that renders the empty string. The refusal is on every arm, including the outbox arm, which used to enqueue such a delivery unsigned. A fault edge does not route it. The fix is to give the run the value the template reads.
+  - An authored `signingSecret: ''` still sends unsigned on purpose, on every arm.
+
+Clause-②: yes (widening) — two new exports on `@objectstack/core`'s root. Nothing is removed or renamed on any package. The one newly refused case is a node whose authored secret did not resolve, which the published contract already said signs.

packages/core/src/security/http-signature.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER, signHttpBody } from '../index.js';
+
+/**
+ * The scheme's wire form, pinned by literal values rather than by recomputing
+ * an HMAC here: a test that rebuilt the value with the same `createHmac` call
+ * would agree with any change made to both. Every sender and every receiver of
+ * `X-Objectstack-Signature` relies on exactly these bytes.
+ */
+describe('the outbound HTTP signature scheme', () => {
+    it('is carried in X-Objectstack-Signature', () => {
+        expect(HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER).toBe('X-Objectstack-Signature');
+    });
+
+    it('signs the empty body a bodyless request carries', () => {
+        expect(signHttpBody('', 'flow-hook-secret')).toBe(
+            'sha256=28c9179fd9763c0e7d41dc5241d9d77607270f8912e3b7692426f677bd5187f7',
+        );
+    });
+
+    it('is sha256= plus the lowercase hex HMAC-SHA256 of the exact body bytes', () => {
+        expect(signHttpBody('{"a":1}', 'shh')).toBe(
+            'sha256=dfb8cf3fc9778c70386e30f5e0776d37f9ee9c8756d3cbd7df0902150644358d',
+        );
+        // One byte of difference in the body is a different signature — the
+        // receiver verifies over what it received, so a sender must sign what
+        // it sends, not an equivalent re-serialization.
+        expect(signHttpBody('{"a": 1}', 'shh')).not.toBe(signHttpBody('{"a":1}', 'shh'));
+    });
+});

packages/core/src/security/http-signature.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
+
+import { createHmac } from 'node:crypto';
+
+/**
+ * The outbound HTTP signature scheme — the ONE definition every ObjectStack
+ * sender signs with and every receiver verifies against.
+ *
+ * A request carries {@link HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER} whose value is
+ * {@link signHttpBody} of the exact bytes of its body under the shared secret:
+ * `sha256=` followed by the lowercase hex HMAC-SHA256. A request with no body is
+ * signed over the empty string, which is what its receiver reads.
+ *
+ * It lives in `@objectstack/core` because two senders that cannot import each
+ * other at runtime both sign with it: `@objectstack/service-messaging`'s durable
+ * HTTP outbox (which signs at enqueue) and `@objectstack/service-automation`'s
+ * flow `http` node, whose inline arm — and its durable arm's fallback when no
+ * outbox is wired — calls `fetch` itself. `service-messaging` re-exports both
+ * names unchanged, so its published surface still carries them. ⛔ Never a
+ * second copy of this HMAC input anywhere: two copies are how one key comes to
+ * mean two things on two arms.
+ *
+ * What the scheme does NOT own is WHICH bytes are the body — each sender signs
+ * the serialization it actually sends.
+ */
+
+/** Header carrying the HMAC-SHA256 signature of the request body. */
+export const HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER = 'X-Objectstack-Signature';
+
+/**
+ * Compute the {@link HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER} value for a body: `sha256=<hex>` of
+ * `HMAC-SHA256(body, secret)`.
+ *
+ * The output is safe to persist (it is handed to the receiver on the wire
+ * anyway); the `secret` argument is NOT.
+ */
+export function signHttpBody(body: string, secret: string): string {
+    return `sha256=${createHmac('sha256', secret).update(body).digest('hex')}`;
+}

packages/core/src/security/index.ts

@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ export {
   type VerifyIntegrityResult,
 } from './plugin-artifact-integrity.js';
 
+// The outbound HTTP signature scheme (`X-Objectstack-Signature`) — one
+// definition shared by the messaging outbox and the flow `http` node's inline
+// arm, which cannot import each other; `@objectstack/service-messaging`
+// re-exports both names unchanged.
+export { HTTP_SIGNATURE_HEADER, signHttpBody } from './http-signature.js';
+
 // `PluginConfigValidator` / `createPluginConfigValidator` were RETIRED here on
 // 2026-08-27 (#11982, ADR-0049 enforce-or-remove; recorded in ADR-0025 §3.7).
 // The kernel never received a plugin's config to validate — factories close