sec-design.md

BUSINESS POSTURE

This project aims to provide a robust, scalable, and fault-tolerant NoSQL database solution. The primary business priority is to offer a reliable data storage and retrieval system that can be used in a wide range of applications, from web applications to mobile apps and IoT devices. Key business goals include:

• Providing a flexible and schema-less data model.
• Ensuring high availability and data durability.
• Offering easy scalability to handle growing data volumes and user traffic.
• Supporting offline and mobile applications through replication capabilities.
• Enabling efficient data querying and indexing.

The most important business risks that need to be addressed are:

• Data loss due to system failures or disasters.
• Unauthorized access to sensitive data.
• Data corruption or integrity issues.
• Performance bottlenecks and service disruptions.
• Compliance violations with data privacy regulations.

SECURITY POSTURE

Existing security controls:

• security control: Access control lists (ACLs) for database and document level authorization. (Implemented within CouchDB core)
• security control: Authentication mechanisms including username/password and cookie-based authentication. (Implemented within CouchDB core)
• security control: HTTPS support for encrypted communication. (Requires external configuration of web server or load balancer)
• security control: Role-based access control (RBAC). (Implemented within CouchDB core)
• security control: Input validation on API endpoints to prevent injection attacks. (Implemented within CouchDB core)
• accepted risk: Reliance on external infrastructure for network security and physical security of servers.
• accepted risk: Complexity of configuration can lead to misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities.

Recommended security controls:

• security control: Implement audit logging to track access and modifications to data and system configurations.
• security control: Integrate with external authentication providers (e.g., LDAP, OAuth 2.0) for centralized user management.
• security control: Regularly perform security vulnerability scanning and penetration testing.
• security control: Implement database encryption at rest to protect data stored on disk.
• security control: Enhance input validation and sanitization to cover a wider range of potential injection vectors.

Security requirements:

• Authentication:

  • Requirement: The system must authenticate users before granting access to data or administrative functions.
  • Requirement: Support for strong password policies and multi-factor authentication should be considered.
  • Requirement: Securely store and manage user credentials.

• Authorization:

  • Requirement: The system must enforce granular access control to ensure users can only access data and perform actions they are authorized for.
  • Requirement: Role-based access control should be implemented to simplify user management and authorization.
  • Requirement: Principle of least privilege should be applied to all users and processes.

• Input Validation:

  • Requirement: All user inputs, especially those from external sources (API requests, user interfaces), must be validated to prevent injection attacks (e.g., SQL injection, NoSQL injection, command injection).
  • Requirement: Input validation should be performed on both the client-side and server-side.
  • Requirement: Sanitize user inputs before storing them in the database to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

• Cryptography:

  • Requirement: Sensitive data in transit must be encrypted using HTTPS.
  • Requirement: Consider encryption at rest for sensitive data stored in the database.
  • Requirement: Use strong cryptographic algorithms and protocols.
  • Requirement: Securely manage cryptographic keys.

DESIGN

C4 CONTEXT

graph LR
    subgraph "Organization"
        C[CouchDB]
    end
    A[User Applications] --> |Uses API| C
    B[Administrators] --> |Manages| C
    D[Operating System] --> |Runs on| C
    E[Network Infrastructure] --> |Provides network| C
    F[Monitoring System] --> |Monitors| C
    G[Backup System] --> |Backups| C

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Context Diagram Elements:

• Element:

  • Name: User Applications
  • Type: System
  • Description: Applications developed by users or third-parties that utilize CouchDB to store and retrieve data. These applications can be web applications, mobile apps, or backend services.
  • Responsibilities: Interacting with CouchDB API to perform CRUD operations on data, presenting data to end-users, and enforcing application-level business logic.
  • Security controls: Application-level authentication and authorization, input validation, secure coding practices.

• Element:

  • Name: Administrators
  • Type: Person
  • Description: Individuals responsible for installing, configuring, managing, and maintaining the CouchDB system.
  • Responsibilities: System installation, configuration, user management, performance monitoring, backups, security patching, and troubleshooting.
  • Security controls: Strong authentication credentials, role-based access control to administrative functions, audit logging of administrative actions.

• Element:

  • Name: CouchDB
  • Type: System
  • Description: The Apache CouchDB NoSQL database system, providing document storage, retrieval, and management capabilities.
  • Responsibilities: Storing and managing JSON documents, providing API for data access, handling data replication, indexing data for efficient queries, and ensuring data consistency and availability.
  • Security controls: Authentication, authorization, input validation, HTTPS support, access control lists, role-based access control.

• Element:

  • Name: Operating System
  • Type: System
  • Description: The underlying operating system (e.g., Linux, Windows, macOS) on which CouchDB is installed and runs.
  • Responsibilities: Providing system resources (CPU, memory, disk), managing processes, handling network communication, and providing basic security features.
  • Security controls: Operating system hardening, access control, security patching, firewall, intrusion detection system.

• Element:

  • Name: Network Infrastructure
  • Type: System
  • Description: The network infrastructure (routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers) that connects CouchDB to users and other systems.
  • Responsibilities: Providing network connectivity, routing traffic, load balancing, and enforcing network security policies.
  • Security controls: Firewall rules, network segmentation, intrusion prevention system, DDoS protection.

• Element:

  • Name: Monitoring System
  • Type: System
  • Description: A system used to monitor the health, performance, and security of the CouchDB system and its underlying infrastructure.
  • Responsibilities: Collecting metrics, logging events, alerting administrators to issues, and providing dashboards for visualization.
  • Security controls: Secure access to monitoring data, secure communication channels, access control for monitoring system.

• Element:

  • Name: Backup System
  • Type: System
  • Description: A system responsible for backing up CouchDB data to ensure data recovery in case of failures or disasters.
  • Responsibilities: Regularly backing up CouchDB data, storing backups securely, and providing mechanisms for data restoration.
  • Security controls: Encryption of backups, secure storage of backups, access control to backups.

C4 CONTAINER

graph LR
    subgraph "CouchDB System"
        A[Erlang Runtime]
        B[Database Server]
        C[Query Engine]
        D[Replication Engine]
        E[HTTP API]
        F[Admin Interface]
        G[Storage Engine]
    end
    A --> B
    A --> C
    A --> D
    A --> E
    A --> F
    A --> G
    E --> B
    F --> B
    C --> G
    D --> G
    B --> G

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Container Diagram Elements:

• Element:

  • Name: Erlang Runtime
  • Type: Container
  • Description: The Erlang virtual machine that provides the runtime environment for CouchDB, handling concurrency, distribution, and fault tolerance.
  • Responsibilities: Process management, memory management, inter-process communication, and providing core Erlang libraries.
  • Security controls: Operating system level security controls, resource limits, security updates for Erlang runtime.

• Element:

  • Name: Database Server
  • Type: Container
  • Description: The core CouchDB server process responsible for managing databases, documents, and user requests.
  • Responsibilities: Handling API requests, managing database metadata, enforcing access control, coordinating with other containers, and managing data consistency.
  • Security controls: Authentication, authorization, input validation, access control lists, role-based access control, audit logging.

• Element:

  • Name: Query Engine
  • Type: Container
  • Description: Component responsible for processing queries against the stored data, including MapReduce and search queries.
  • Responsibilities: Parsing queries, optimizing query execution, retrieving data from storage engine, and returning query results.
  • Security controls: Query sanitization, resource limits for queries, access control to query functions.

• Element:

  • Name: Replication Engine
  • Type: Container
  • Description: Handles data replication between CouchDB instances, enabling high availability and data distribution.
  • Responsibilities: Synchronizing data between databases, handling conflict resolution, and ensuring data consistency across replicas.
  • Security controls: Secure replication protocol (HTTPS), authentication and authorization for replication, encryption of data during replication.

• Element:

  • Name: HTTP API
  • Type: Container
  • Description: Provides the primary interface for interacting with CouchDB, exposing RESTful API endpoints for data access and management.
  • Responsibilities: Receiving HTTP requests, routing requests to appropriate components, handling authentication and authorization, and returning HTTP responses.
  • Security controls: HTTPS encryption, input validation, rate limiting, API authentication and authorization.

• Element:

  • Name: Admin Interface
  • Type: Container
  • Description: A web-based interface for administrative tasks such as database management, user management, and configuration.
  • Responsibilities: Providing a user-friendly interface for administrators to manage CouchDB, performing administrative actions based on user input.
  • Security controls: Authentication, authorization, secure session management, input validation, protection against cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF).

• Element:

  • Name: Storage Engine
  • Type: Container
  • Description: Responsible for the physical storage of data on disk, including indexing and data retrieval.
  • Responsibilities: Writing data to disk, reading data from disk, managing indexes, ensuring data durability and consistency at the storage level.
  • Security controls: File system permissions, disk encryption, data integrity checks.

DEPLOYMENT

Deployment Solution: Clustered Deployment on Virtual Machines

Description: CouchDB is deployed as a cluster across multiple virtual machines (VMs) in a cloud environment. A load balancer distributes traffic across the CouchDB nodes. Each VM runs a CouchDB instance and relies on the underlying cloud infrastructure for networking and storage.

graph LR
    subgraph "Cloud Environment"
        subgraph "Load Balancer"
            LB[Load Balancer]
        end
        subgraph "Virtual Machines"
            VM1[VM 1]
            VM2[VM 2]
            VM3[VM 3]
        end
        Internet --> LB
        LB --> VM1
        LB --> VM2
        LB --> VM3
        subgraph "VM 1"
            CDB1[CouchDB Instance]
        end
        subgraph "VM 2"
            CDB2[CouchDB Instance]
        end
        subgraph "VM 3"
            CDB3[CouchDB Instance]
        end
        VM1 --> CDB1
        VM2 --> CDB2
        VM3 --> CDB3
        DataStorage[Persistent Storage] --> CDB1
        DataStorage --> CDB2
        DataStorage --> CDB3
    end

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Deployment Diagram Elements:

• Element:

  • Name: Load Balancer
  • Type: Infrastructure
  • Description: A load balancer distributes incoming traffic across multiple CouchDB instances to ensure high availability and scalability.
  • Responsibilities: Distributing traffic, health checking CouchDB instances, and providing a single entry point to the CouchDB cluster.
  • Security controls: HTTPS termination, DDoS protection, access control lists, security monitoring.

• Element:

  • Name: VM 1, VM 2, VM 3
  • Type: Infrastructure
  • Description: Virtual machines running in a cloud environment, each hosting a CouchDB instance.
  • Responsibilities: Providing compute resources, network connectivity, and isolation for CouchDB instances.
  • Security controls: VM hardening, security patching, access control, security monitoring.

• Element:

  • Name: CouchDB Instance (CDB1, CDB2, CDB3)
  • Type: Container Instance
  • Description: Instances of the CouchDB software running within each virtual machine.
  • Responsibilities: Storing and managing data, handling API requests, participating in cluster replication, and providing database services.
  • Security controls: CouchDB security configurations (authentication, authorization, etc.), operating system level security controls within the VM.

• Element:

  • Name: Persistent Storage
  • Type: Infrastructure
  • Description: Persistent storage volumes attached to the VMs to store CouchDB data.
  • Responsibilities: Providing durable storage for CouchDB data, ensuring data persistence across VM restarts.
  • Security controls: Storage encryption, access control lists, data backups.

• Element:

  • Name: Internet
  • Type: External
  • Description: Represents external users and applications accessing CouchDB over the internet.
  • Responsibilities: Sending requests to CouchDB, receiving responses, and interacting with the CouchDB API.
  • Security controls: Client-side security controls, secure communication protocols (HTTPS).

BUILD

graph LR
    A[Developer] --> B{Code Changes}
    B --> C[GitHub Repository]
    C --> D[GitHub Actions CI]
    D --> E{Build Process}
    E --> F{Unit Tests}
    F --> G{SAST Scanners}
    G --> H{Dependency Check}
    H --> I{Build Artifacts}
    I --> J[Artifact Repository]

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Build Process Description:

1. Developer: Developers write code and make changes.
2. Code Changes: Code changes are committed and pushed to the GitHub repository.
3. GitHub Repository: The central repository hosting the CouchDB source code.
4. GitHub Actions CI: GitHub Actions is used as the CI/CD system to automate the build process.
5. Build Process: The build process compiles the code, builds binaries, and packages the software. This includes compiling Erlang and C code, and building JavaScript components.
6. Unit Tests: Automated unit tests are executed to ensure code quality and functionality.
7. SAST Scanners: Static Application Security Testing (SAST) scanners are used to analyze the source code for potential security vulnerabilities.
8. Dependency Check: Dependencies are checked for known vulnerabilities using dependency scanning tools.
9. Build Artifacts: Successful build process produces build artifacts, such as binaries, packages (e.g., Debian packages, RPM packages), and Docker images.
10. Artifact Repository: Build artifacts are stored in an artifact repository (e.g., GitHub Packages, Docker Hub, or a dedicated artifact repository).

Build Security Controls:

• security control: Secure coding practices are followed by developers.
• security control: Code reviews are performed to identify potential security issues and code quality problems.
• security control: Automated build process using GitHub Actions to ensure consistency and repeatability.
• security control: Unit tests to verify functionality and prevent regressions.
• security control: Static Application Security Testing (SAST) scanners integrated into the build pipeline to detect vulnerabilities in source code.
• security control: Dependency scanning to identify and manage vulnerable dependencies.
• security control: Build environment security - using secure and hardened build agents.
• security control: Signing of build artifacts to ensure integrity and authenticity.
• security control: Access control to the artifact repository to restrict access to authorized users and systems.
• security control: Regular security updates of build tools and dependencies.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Critical business processes we are trying to protect:

• Data storage and retrieval for user applications.
• Data replication for high availability and disaster recovery.
• Database administration and management.
• Software updates and patching.

Data we are trying to protect and their sensitivity:

• User data stored in documents: Sensitivity varies depending on the application, could include Personally Identifiable Information (PII), financial data, health records, etc. Sensitivity level: High to Confidential.
• Database credentials and access keys: Used for authentication and authorization. Sensitivity level: Critical.
• System configuration data: Sensitive information about system setup and security configurations. Sensitivity level: High.
• Audit logs: Contain information about user activity and system events, potentially sensitive for compliance and security monitoring. Sensitivity level: Medium to High.
• Backup data: Contains copies of all data, inherits the sensitivity of the original data. Sensitivity level: High to Confidential.

QUESTIONS & ASSUMPTIONS

Questions:

• What are the specific compliance requirements for CouchDB deployments (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS)?
• What are the expected performance and scalability requirements for the CouchDB system?
• What are the specific use cases and applications that will be using CouchDB?
• What is the organization's risk appetite regarding data security and system availability?
• Are there any existing security policies or standards that CouchDB deployment must adhere to?
• What are the preferred methods for monitoring and logging within the organization?

Assumptions:

• CouchDB will be used to store sensitive user data.
• High availability and data durability are critical requirements.
• Security is a high priority for the organization.
• The organization has a cloud-first strategy and prefers cloud-based deployments.
• The organization has a mature DevOps practice and utilizes CI/CD pipelines.
• The organization is willing to invest in security controls to mitigate identified risks.