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Heratio Security Audit Report

Version: 2.8.2 Date: March 2026 Standard: OWASP Top 10, ISO 27001, Bell-LaPadula, POPIA Author: The Archive and Heritage Digital Commons Group (Pty) Ltd

Executive Summary

A comprehensive security audit was conducted against the Heratio platform covering OWASP Top 10, ISO 27001 alignment, Bell-LaPadula model compliance, MFA implementation, password policy enforcement, POPIA security requirements, authentication mechanisms, session management, input validation, and SSRF protection.

All critical and high-priority findings have been remediated. Medium-priority items have been addressed with new services and policy enforcement.

Standards Assessed

Findings and Remediation

Critical Priority (Remediated)

1. Session Fixation (OWASP A07: Identification and Authentication Failures)

• Finding: Session ID not regenerated on login transition
• Fix: AuthMiddleware.php — session_regenerate_id(true) on login detection via $_SESSION['_security_auth_id'] tracking
• File: atom-framework/src/Http/Middleware/AuthMiddleware.php

2. CSRF Default Mode Set to 'log' (OWASP A01: Broken Access Control)

• Finding: CSRF protection logged violations but did not block them
• Fix: Default changed from 'log' to 'enforce'
• File: atom-framework/src/Services/CsrfService.php

3. Shell Command Injection (OWASP A03: Injection)

• Finding: $targetLang variable interpolated directly into Python command string in IngestCommitService
• Fix: Passed via sys.argv[2] with escapeshellarg()
• Files: ahgIngestPlugin/lib/Services/IngestCommitService.php, ahgPreservationPlugin/lib/PreservationService.php

4. XXE (XML External Entity) Processing (OWASP A05: Security Misconfiguration)

• Finding: 14+ XML parsing locations across plugins lacked LIBXML_NONET | LIBXML_NOCDATA protection
• Fix: Applied XXE-safe flags to all simplexml_load_string(), simplexml_load_file(), DOMDocument::load() calls
• Files: 14 files across ahgMigrationPlugin, ahgFederationPlugin, ahgDataMigrationPlugin, ahgPreservationPlugin, ahgMetadataExtractionPlugin, ahgAuthorityPlugin, atom-framework

5. SQL Injection in ReportBuilder (OWASP A03: Injection)

• Finding: Null userId bypass in query execution; table name not sanitized in ColumnDiscovery
• Fix: RuntimeException on null userId; regex sanitization + backtick wrapping for table names; expanded dangerous keyword list
• Files: ahgReportBuilderPlugin/lib/QueryBuilder.php, ahgReportBuilderPlugin/lib/ColumnDiscovery.php

High Priority (Remediated)

6. No Account Lockout (OWASP A07: Identification and Authentication Failures)

• Finding: No brute force protection on login
• Fix: LoginSecurityService — 5 failed attempts = 15-minute lockout
• Files: atom-framework/src/Core/Security/LoginSecurityService.php, atom-framework/src/Services/AuthService.php
• Table: login_attempt

7. Cookie Not HttpOnly

• Finding: atom_authenticated cookie exposed to JavaScript
• Fix: Changed httponly: false to httponly: true
• File: atom-framework/src/Http/Middleware/AuthMiddleware.php

8. Missing Security Headers (OWASP A05: Security Misconfiguration)

• Finding: No HSTS, X-Frame-Options, Permissions-Policy, Referrer-Policy headers
• Fix: SecurityHeadersMiddleware added to middleware stack
• File: atom-framework/src/Http/Middleware/SecurityHeadersMiddleware.php

9. Password Policy Disabled by Default

• Finding: require_strong_passwords setting defaulted to 0
• Fix: Changed to 1 (enabled)
• Setting: setting_i18n id=65

10. Audit Trail Disabled by Default

• Finding: Audit logging required manual enablement
• Fix: Seed data in install.sql sets audit_enabled=1, audit_authentication=1
• File: ahgAuditTrailPlugin/database/install.sql

11. SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery) (OWASP A10: SSRF)

• Finding: 4 outbound HTTP locations lacked private IP/DNS rebinding protection
• Fixes applied:
  • ahgReportBuilderPlugin/lib/LinkService.php — Uses HttpClientService with SSRF protection; fallback adds IP validation, enables SSL verification, disables redirects
  • ahgAPIPlugin/lib/Services/WebhookService.php — DNS pre-resolution, private IP blocking, redirect disabled, resolved IP pinning
  • ahgFederationPlugin/lib/HarvestClient.php — Metadata host blocking, private IP blocking, SSL verification, response size limit, redirect disabled, IP pinning
• Not fixed (locked): ahgLibraryPlugin/web/cover-proxy.php — plugin is locked per policy

Medium Priority (Remediated)

12. POPIA 72-Hour Breach Notification (POPIA Section 22)

• Finding: No automated monitoring of breach notification deadlines
• Fix: getOverdueBreaches() and checkDeadlines() methods in PrivacyBreachService, plus privacy:breach-check CLI task with email alerting
• Files: ahgPrivacyPlugin/lib/Service/PrivacyBreachService.php, ahgPrivacyPlugin/lib/task/privacyBreachCheckTask.class.php

13. Password Expiry and History (ISO 27001 A.9.4.3)

• Finding: No password expiry enforcement or reuse prevention
• Fix: PasswordPolicyService — configurable expiry (default 90 days), history (default 5 passwords)
• File: atom-framework/src/Core/Security/PasswordPolicyService.php
• Table: password_history
• Settings: password_expiry_days, password_history_count

14. Bell-LaPadula Star Property (ISO 27001 A.9.1, MLS)

• Finding: Only Simple Security Property (no read-up) was enforced; Star Property (no write-down) was missing
• Fix: Added checkStarProperty() to AccessFilterService.checkAccess() — prevents users with high clearance from writing to lower-classification objects
• File: atom-framework/src/Services/Access/AccessFilterService.php

15. MFA/2FA Backend (OWASP A07: Identification and Authentication Failures)

• Finding: 2FA UI existed but had no backend implementation
• Fix: TOTP (RFC 6238) implementation with QR enrollment, email fallback, database storage
• Files: atom-framework/src/Core/Security/TotpService.php, ahgSecurityClearancePlugin/modules/securityClearance/actions/actions.class.php, templates
• Table: user_totp_secret

Database Changes

Architecture Overview

Security Middleware Stack (atom-framework)

Request → SecurityHeadersMiddleware → AuthMiddleware → CsrfService → Application
                  ↓                       ↓                ↓
            HSTS/XFO/XCT         Session fixation    CSRF enforce
            Permissions-Policy    Cookie httponly     Token validation
            Referrer-Policy       Login lockout

Access Control Model (Bell-LaPadula)

Password Policy Chain

Login → AuthService → LoginSecurityService (lockout check)
                    → Password verify
                    → PasswordPolicyService (expiry check)
                    → Session creation

Password Change → PasswordPolicyService.isPasswordReused()
                → PasswordPolicyService.recordPasswordChange()

Recommended Cron Jobs

# Breach notification deadline check (hourly)
0 * * * * cd /usr/share/nginx/archive && php symfony privacy:breach-check --email=dpo@example.com >> /var/log/atom/breach-check.log 2>&1

# Login attempt cleanup (daily)
0 3 * * * cd /usr/share/nginx/archive && php bin/atom tools:cleanup-login-attempts 2>&1

# Audit log retention (weekly)
0 4 * * 0 cd /usr/share/nginx/archive && php bin/atom tools:audit-retention 2>&1

Residual Risks

Compliance Mapping