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Mitigation Strategies Analysis for chroma-core/chroma

Mitigation Strategy: Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for ChromaDB Functionalities at Application Level

  • Description: 1. Define user roles within your application and map them to specific ChromaDB operations. For example: * data_admin role can create collections, insert, delete, and query data. * query_user role can only query existing collections. 2. Implement application-level checks that enforce these roles before allowing any interaction with ChromaDB. This means, before your application code calls ChromaDB client library functions (like chromadb.Client().create_collection(), collection.add(), collection.query()), verify if the current user has the necessary role for that specific operation. 3. Ensure that these RBAC checks are consistently applied across all parts of your application that interact with ChromaDB.
    • Threats Mitigated:
      • Unauthorized Access to ChromaDB Data (High Severity) - Users gaining access to vector embeddings or metadata within ChromaDB collections that they are not authorized to view or manipulate. This is specific to controlling access to ChromaDB data.
      • Unauthorized Modification of ChromaDB Collections (High Severity) - Users creating, deleting, or altering ChromaDB collections or data without proper authorization, leading to data integrity issues or service disruption within ChromaDB.
    • Impact:
      • Unauthorized Access to ChromaDB Data - High Risk Reduction
      • Unauthorized Modification of ChromaDB Collections - High Risk Reduction
    • Currently Implemented: Partially implemented in the application's general user authentication system, which identifies user roles. However, role-based access control is not yet specifically enforced for ChromaDB specific operations.
    • Missing Implementation: RBAC needs to be implemented in the application's data access layer specifically for ChromaDB interactions. This involves adding code to check user roles before executing ChromaDB client library calls for collection management, data manipulation, and querying.

Mitigation Strategy: Encryption at Rest for ChromaDB Persistent Storage

  • Description: 1. Determine if your ChromaDB deployment is using persistent storage (e.g., using the persist_directory option). 2. If using persistent storage, identify the underlying storage mechanism (filesystem). 3. Enable encryption at rest for this underlying storage. This is typically done at the operating system or storage volume level, ensuring that all data written to disk by ChromaDB is encrypted. Consult your operating system or cloud provider documentation for enabling disk encryption.
    • Threats Mitigated:
      • Data Breach from ChromaDB Storage Media Compromise (High Severity) - If the physical storage (disk, SSD, cloud volume) containing ChromaDB's persistent data is compromised (stolen, accessed by unauthorized personnel), the data remains protected due to encryption. This is directly about securing ChromaDB's stored data.
    • Impact:
      • Data Breach from ChromaDB Storage Media Compromise - High Risk Reduction
    • Currently Implemented: Not currently implemented for ChromaDB persistent storage. The filesystem used for persist_directory is not encrypted at rest.
    • Missing Implementation: Encryption at rest needs to be enabled for the storage volume or filesystem where ChromaDB's persist_directory is located. This requires configuring disk encryption at the operating system level.

Mitigation Strategy: Secure Authentication and Authorization for ChromaDB API Endpoints (if exposed)

  • Description: 1. If you are exposing ChromaDB functionalities through a custom API (even internally within your organization), identify all API endpoints that directly interact with ChromaDB (e.g., endpoints for querying collections, adding documents, etc.). 2. Implement strong authentication for these ChromaDB-specific API endpoints. Use methods like API keys, OAuth 2.0, or JWT to verify the identity of clients accessing these endpoints. 3. Implement authorization checks to ensure that authenticated clients are permitted to perform the requested ChromaDB operation on the specific resource (e.g., collection). This should align with the RBAC strategy. 4. Enforce HTTPS for all communication with these ChromaDB API endpoints to protect credentials and data in transit to and from ChromaDB functionalities.
    • Threats Mitigated:
      • Unauthorized Access to ChromaDB API Functionality (High Severity) - Attackers gaining access to ChromaDB operations through unsecured API endpoints, potentially leading to data breaches, data manipulation within ChromaDB, or denial of service targeting ChromaDB.
      • Man-in-the-Middle Attacks on ChromaDB API Communication (Medium Severity) - If API communication with ChromaDB is not encrypted, attackers could intercept credentials or data exchanged with ChromaDB functionalities.
    • Impact:
      • Unauthorized Access to ChromaDB API Functionality - High Risk Reduction
      • Man-in-the-Middle Attacks on ChromaDB API Communication - Medium Risk Reduction
    • Currently Implemented: Partially implemented. API endpoints use basic authentication, but authorization is not granular enough for specific ChromaDB operations and resources. HTTPS is enabled for the API.
    • Missing Implementation: Need to enhance API authentication for ChromaDB endpoints to use a more robust method and implement fine-grained authorization checks based on user roles and the specific ChromaDB operation being requested (e.g., querying collection 'X', but not collection 'Y').

Mitigation Strategy: Input Validation and Sanitization for Data Injected into ChromaDB for Vectorization

  • Description: 1. Pinpoint the application code that takes user-provided data and uses it to create vector embeddings that are then stored in ChromaDB. 2. Implement rigorous input validation before this data is processed by the embedding model and added to ChromaDB. Validate data types, formats, and expected content. Reject invalid input. 3. Sanitize the validated input data to remove or neutralize potentially harmful content before it becomes part of the vector embedding and is stored in ChromaDB. This could involve encoding special characters, removing scripts, or other sanitization techniques relevant to the data type.
    • Threats Mitigated:
      • Data Integrity Issues within ChromaDB (Medium Severity) - Storing unsanitized or invalid data in ChromaDB can lead to unexpected behavior in vector searches and application logic that relies on ChromaDB data.
      • Potential for Indirect Injection Attacks (Low to Medium Severity) - While direct injection into vector databases is less common, crafted input data could potentially influence vector similarity results in unintended ways or, in rare cases, exploit vulnerabilities in the embedding model or ChromaDB's indexing or querying mechanisms.
    • Impact:
      • Data Integrity Issues within ChromaDB - Medium Risk Reduction
      • Potential for Indirect Injection Attacks - Low to Medium Risk Reduction
    • Currently Implemented: Basic input validation exists for data types, but comprehensive sanitization of data before vectorization and insertion into ChromaDB is not fully implemented.
    • Missing Implementation: Need to implement robust sanitization routines specifically for user inputs that are destined to be vectorized and stored in ChromaDB. This should be applied before calling ChromaDB's collection.add() or similar functions.

Mitigation Strategy: Input Sanitization for User-Controlled ChromaDB Queries

  • Description: 1. Identify all parts of your application where users can influence queries to ChromaDB, such as search filters, metadata filters, or free-text query inputs that are passed to ChromaDB's collection.query() function. 2. Sanitize user-provided query parameters before they are used to construct and execute ChromaDB queries. This includes: * Escaping special characters that might have special meaning in ChromaDB's query syntax (if any). * Validating the format and type of query parameters against expected values to prevent unexpected query behavior within ChromaDB. 3. Use parameterized queries or safe query building methods provided by the ChromaDB client library if available to avoid directly embedding user input into query strings sent to ChromaDB.
    • Threats Mitigated:
      • Query Manipulation Attacks against ChromaDB (Medium Severity) - Although vector databases are less prone to traditional SQL injection, malicious user input in queries could potentially be crafted to bypass intended query logic, access unintended data subsets within ChromaDB collections, or cause unexpected query execution.
    • Impact:
      • Query Manipulation Attacks against ChromaDB - Medium Risk Reduction
    • Currently Implemented: Basic validation of query parameters is in place to ensure correct data types, but sanitization against potential query manipulation attacks targeting ChromaDB queries is not fully implemented.
    • Missing Implementation: Need to implement input sanitization specifically for user-provided query parameters that are used in ChromaDB queries. This should focus on preventing manipulation of query logic and unintended data access within ChromaDB.