HERMES_DELEGATED_CHILD_CONTEXT=1 is deliberately carried into every shell/
execute_code subprocess a delegate_task child spawns (the fence must survive
exec so a grandchild `hermes kanban complete` cannot promote itself). But the
readers treated the bare flag as "fence every Kanban DB": kanban_db_connect
opened ANY board ?mode=ro and write_txn refused ANY mutation. A subagent
running a Kanban reproduction against a scratch HERMES_HOME therefore got a
silently read-only board with a misleading "descendants require an
initialized board" error; only one lane in the retrospective ever discovered
why (deleg_15dac332), every earlier kanban repro ran degraded.
The marker's value is now the fenced board ROOT (kanban_home() at spawn) and
readers deny only paths under that root or the dispatcher-pinned
HERMES_KANBAN_DB (kanban_path_is_fenced). In-process children and a legacy
"1" marker still fence everything; an inherited path marker is never
re-derived, so a grandchild that moved HERMES_HOME cannot unfence the real
board. Owner-gate tests (test_kanban_descendant_scope, cron env isolation,
kanban CLI exit status) are unchanged and green.
The descendant fence now keeps HERMES_KANBAN_DB/BOARD/WORKSPACE so a
fenced child can still read the board it belongs to; only worker identity
(TASK, RUN_ID, CLAIM_LOCK) is scrubbed. Three pre-existing tests still
asserted the DB var was dropped and went red on CI.
Buzz platform agents could not use the `buzz` CLI from the terminal tool:
the BUZZ_* vars (BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY, BUZZ_AUTH_TAG, BUZZ_RELAY_URL, and the
other BUZZ_* names) are added to _HERMES_PROVIDER_ENV_BLOCKLIST from the
buzz plugin.yaml (messaging category), and env_passthrough refuses to
re-allow anything in the blocklist (GHSA-rhgp-j443-p4rf). In the reported
`hermes acp` scenario the Buzz adapter's register() is never invoked, so
the agent runs in-process and its terminal uses _make_run_env directly —
there was no path for the platform credentials to reach terminal children.
Fix: a terminal-only, first-party carve-out in the scrub paths themselves
(not adapter registration). BUZZ_* vars pass through to foreground
(_make_run_env) and background/PTY (_sanitize_subprocess_env) terminal
children via a new prefix predicate (_TERMINAL_FIRST_PARTY_ENV_PREFIXES).
Everything else stays sealed and unchanged: the blocklist itself, the
env_passthrough refusal, execute_code scrubbing, hermes_subprocess_env
(browser/TUI-host/copilot-executor spawns), and docker children. The
GHSA-rhgp-j443-p4rf seal is preserved because no registration path is
opened; skills/config still cannot register these names.
Follow-up hardening from review:
- First-party matches use the merged env value directly instead of
_resolve_passthrough_value: under multiplex with no profile secret scope
installed the resolver raised UnscopedSecretError (fail-closed) at call
sites like the webhook-filter script runner, a regression where the
script previously ran without the var. The vars are the process's own
env values and are never scope-resolved.
- LocalEnvironment now excludes first-party terminal env names from the
shared login-shell snapshot (_additional_profile_scoped_passthrough_names
override): BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY can never be in the get_all_passthrough()
exclusion set (env_passthrough refuses blocklisted names), so without
this a multiplexed gateway would dump profile A's key into
hermes-snap-<id>.sh and profile B sharing the collapsed LocalEnvironment
would source it — a cross-profile nsec leak. The names are now excluded
from the dump and save/restored per command.
- Docs now name the _sanitize_subprocess_env consumers (search workers
like ddgs, computer-use driver, user-script runners) that also receive
first-party platform vars.
Fixes#78026
Co-authored-by: factory-droid[bot] <138933559+factory-droid[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Second, deeper pass over tools/gateway/hermes_cli plus first pass over
the trees wave 1 missed (acp, acp_adapter, skills, computer_use, docker,
dashboard, conformance, monitoring, secret_sources, hermes_state,
providers). Same rubric as wave 1 (AGENTS.md test policy); security,
alternation/caching invariants, issue-number regressions, and E2E kept.
Real test-quality fixes found and rooted out along the way:
- tests/tools/test_command_guards.py made real auxiliary-LLM HTTPS calls
(DEFAULT_CONFIG smart-approval leaked in) — pinned approval
mode=manual via autouse fixture: 17.4s → 0.4s.
- test_model_switch_custom_providers.py / test_user_providers_model_switch.py
silently probed live provider catalogs (~2s/test) — stubbed
cached_provider_model_ids/provider_model_ids/fetch_api_models.
- test_telegram_noise_filter.py: 15-platform copy-paste matrix over
shared gateway.run logic → 3 representative platforms (55s → 3.9s).
- test_gateway_shutdown.py: stop()'s 5s interrupt-deadline loop spun on
MagicMock agents — interrupt.side_effect now clears _running_agents
(22s → 1.0s).
- test_gateway_inactivity_timeout.py poll-harness timings shrunk 3-5x
(24s → 1.1s); test_mcp_stability.py backoff/SIGTERM-grace sleeps
patched (15.4s → 2.5s); test_async_delegation.py negative-drain wait
5s → 0.5s.
- test_telegram_init_deadline.py: loop-block margin restored to 1.0s
with rationale comment — the watchdog-dump assertion needs the loop
blocked well past deadline+grace under parallel load (flaked once in
the 40-worker verification run at a 0.2s margin).
Verification: full hermetic suite via scripts/run_tests.sh —
2,438 files, 21,718 tests passed, 0 failed, 293.9s wall.
Suite totals vs original baseline: 46,820 → 19,757 test functions
(−57.8%), wall 583.5s → 293.9s (−50%), subprocess CPU 13,564s → 11,623s.
Subprocesses spawned by the terminal tool, execute_code, Docker backend, and
the codex app-server could inherit Hermes-internal secrets that the name-based
`_HERMES_PROVIDER_ENV_BLOCKLIST` can't enumerate, because they're injected into
`os.environ` at runtime under dynamic names:
- `AUXILIARY_<TASK>_API_KEY` / `AUXILIARY_<TASK>_BASE_URL` — per-task side-LLM
credentials bridged from `config.yaml[auxiliary]` by gateway/run.py and cli.py
(vision, web_extract, approval, compression, plugin-registered tasks). Often
separate, higher-spend keys plus base URLs pointing at private endpoints.
- `GATEWAY_RELAY_*_SECRET` / `_KEY` / `_TOKEN` — relay-auth material provisioned
by gateway/relay.
Additionally, agent/transports/codex_app_server.py built its spawn env from a
raw `os.environ.copy()`, bypassing the centralized `hermes_subprocess_env()`
helper entirely — handing every codex subprocess the full Tier-1 secret set
(GH_TOKEN, gateway bot tokens, Modal/Daytona infra tokens, dashboard session
token) unfiltered. This is the #29157 sibling spawn-site gap; copilot_acp_client
already routes through the helper.
Fix — single chokepoint:
- Add `_is_hermes_internal_secret(key)` in tools/environments/local.py as the
single source of truth for the dynamic secret patterns. Matches
AUXILIARY_*_API_KEY / _BASE_URL and GATEWAY_RELAY_*_SECRET/_KEY/_TOKEN; leaves
non-secret AUXILIARY_*_PROVIDER/_MODEL and GATEWAY_RELAY routing hints visible.
- Wire the predicate into every spawn path unconditionally (ignores skill
env_passthrough opt-in AND inherit_credentials — a model-driving CLI never
needs these): `_sanitize_subprocess_env` (both loops), `_make_run_env`
(foreground), `hermes_subprocess_env` (Tier-1), and the Docker forward filter.
- Add the static GATEWAY_RELAY_* names to `_HERMES_PROVIDER_ENV_BLOCKLIST` so the
exact-match path catches them independently of the predicate.
- Add the GATEWAY_RELAY_ID/_SECRET/_DELIVERY_KEY triplet to `_ALWAYS_STRIP_KEYS`
(Tier-1) so it is stripped unconditionally on EVERY spawn surface — including
the codex/copilot `inherit_credentials=True` path that skips the Tier-2
blocklist. `_SECRET`/`_DELIVERY_KEY` are already predicate-matched; `_ID` has
no secret suffix, so enumerating it here is what closes its leak on the
inherit path (self-review W1).
- Defense in depth: env_passthrough.py `_is_hermes_provider_credential()` now
consults the same predicate, so a skill can't register these names as
passthrough and tunnel them into an execute_code / terminal child.
- Route codex_app_server through `hermes_subprocess_env(inherit_credentials=True)`
— strips Tier-1 + dynamic-internal secrets while provider creds (which codex
needs to authenticate) still flow.
Consolidates PRs #53715 (necoweb3 — the _is_hermes_internal_secret backbone +
Docker filter), #53503 (srojk34 — env_passthrough guard), and #55709 (srojk34 —
codex routing). Retires #52348 (claudlos): its copilot half is already on main,
and its codex half used the full-strip `_sanitize_subprocess_env` which would
break codex provider auth — the correct tier is `inherit_credentials=True`.
Tests: TestHermesInternalDynamicSecrets (terminal + predicate + passthrough
override), TestInternalDynamicSecrets (hermes_subprocess_env both tiers),
TestSpawnEnvSecretStripping (codex spawn env), plus env_passthrough
defense-in-depth cases.
Co-authored-by: necoweb3 <sswdarius@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: srojk34 <286497132+srojk34@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: claudlos <claudlos@agentmail.to>
Subprocesses spawned outside the terminal/execute_code path (agent-browser,
copilot ACP, dep-ensure, lazy_deps uv install, TUI Node host, cli.exec)
inherited the operator's full credential environment via os.environ.copy().
The terminal path was already scrubbed by _HERMES_PROVIDER_ENV_BLOCKLIST
(#1002/#1264/#32314); these spawn sites bypassed it.
Adds hermes_subprocess_env(inherit_credentials=) in tools/environments/local.py
reusing the existing dynamic blocklist as the single source of truth:
- Tier 1 (_ALWAYS_STRIP_KEYS): gateway bot tokens, GitHub auth, infra
secrets -- stripped even for credential-inheriting children.
- Tier 2 (_HERMES_PROVIDER_ENV_BLOCKLIST): provider/tool keys -- stripped
unless inherit_credentials=True. The opt-in is grep-able for audit.
Browser worker keeps a _BROWSER_PASSTHROUGH_KEYS allowlist (BROWSERBASE/
FIRECRAWL) re-added after the strip. Model-driving children (ACP, TUI Node
host, cli.exec) use inherit_credentials=True so they still get provider keys
while losing Tier-1 secrets. Installers (dep-ensure, lazy_deps) inherit
nothing sensitive. cua_backend already routed through _sanitize_subprocess_env
on main -- left as-is. Gateway adapter utility spawns (gh pr comment, ffmpeg)
are left inheriting env: gh needs GH_TOKEN by design, ffmpeg is a trusted
system binary -- no untrusted-dependency exposure.
This is defense-in-depth (personal-assistant trust model: same-user spawns),
making the existing scrub policy uniform across the spawn surface; the main
real payoff is shrinking the blast radius if a transitive npm dep in
agent-browser is compromised.
Reconstructed on current main from the design in #31959 (Tranquil-Flow);
also credits #39003 (rodboev), #37843 (coygeek), #35769 (egilewski).
Co-authored-by: Tranquil-Flow <tranquil_flow@protonmail.com>
Co-authored-by: rodboev <rod.boev@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: egilewski <egilewski@egilewski.com>
teknium1