boma/docs/decisions/002-security.md

ADR-002 — Security baseline

Context

Every managed host must reach a defined security baseline before any services are deployed. This baseline is applied by the base role and is non-negotiable — it runs first, on every host, every time.

The goal is a principled, maintainable baseline appropriate for a homelab with some public-facing services — not a compliance exercise.

Baseline components

Access & authentication

• SSH key authentication only — password auth disabled
• Root login disabled — PermitRootLogin no
• Dedicated ansible user with locked-down sudo (NOPASSWD for automation)
• No shared user accounts — per-person SSH keys in group_vars/all/vars.yml

Firewall

• nftables (native on Debian 13, replaces iptables)
• Default policy: deny inbound, allow established/related, allow loopback
• Rules managed entirely by Ansible — never edited manually on hosts
• Port definitions live in group_vars/ so rules stay in sync with deployed services
• Docker's own iptables rules are disabled — nftables manages all filtering

Note on Docker + nftables: Docker historically bypassed iptables-based firewalls. This is addressed by setting "iptables": false in Docker daemon config and managing all rules via nftables explicitly. See docs/decisions/004-docker-model.md.

Intrusion deterrence

• fail2ban monitoring SSH (and optionally reverse proxy logs)
• Configured to ban after 5 failed attempts, 1-hour ban

Updates

• unattended-upgrades enabled for security patches only
• Full system upgrades triggered deliberately via Ansible (make deploy PLAYBOOK=upgrade)
• No automatic reboots — reboots are a conscious operational decision

Minimal attack surface

• No unnecessary packages installed
• Docker daemon TCP socket disabled — Unix socket only
• No open ports beyond those explicitly defined in firewall rules

Audit trail

• auditd installed and running with a baseline ruleset
• Logs shipped to a central location if a log aggregation service is available

Secrets management

• Ansible Vault for all secrets (API keys, passwords, certificates)
• Vault password stored outside the repo (.vault_pass gitignored)
• New collaborators receive vault password via a separate secure channel
• See docs/runbooks/rotate-secrets.md for rotation procedure

What this baseline does not include

• Full CIS benchmark hardening — adds complexity for marginal gain at this scale
• SELinux / AppArmor — not applied by default, revisit if threat model changes
• Intrusion detection (IDS) — out of scope for now

Decision

This baseline was chosen to be:

• Effective against the realistic threat model (exposed services, shared repo)
• Maintainable by a small team without security expertise overhead
• Automated — no manual steps should be needed to reach baseline state