fix(audit): stop emitting auth.login.failed for unauthenticated requests#14
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The PASETO and JWT middleware emitted AuditEventKind::AuthLoginFailed whenever a request reached a protected route without a valid token, conflating real credential-submission failures with routine unauthenticated probes (health checks, scanners, etc.). Downstream operators behind ALB health checks reported thousands of false-positive auth.login.failed events per day, drowning out real signal. Introduce two new variants — AuthTokenMissing (Informational) and AuthTokenInvalid (Warning) — and repoint the four middleware emission sites to use them. AuthLoginFailed is now reserved for application credential-submission failures (e.g. /auth/login handlers), as documented in its doc comment. Storage backends (Postgres, ClickHouse, Turso, SurrealDB) gain round-trip parsing for the new event-kind strings. Closes #13
This was referenced May 28, 2026
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This was referenced May 28, 2026
rrrodzilla
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May 28, 2026
Reflects the audit-event work that landed in #14, #21, #22 and is queued in #23, #25: - audit/page.md: rewrite the "Auth Events (Automatic)" table to match the new emission set (AuthLoginSuccess at Notice; AuthTokenMissing / AuthTokenInvalid added; AuthTokenRevoked notes jti metadata; AuthPermissionDenied and HttpRequestDenied added); update the syslog and OTLP example severities to Notice; expand the "Event Kinds" reference table; add a migration callout for AuthLoginFailed. - cedar-auth/page.md: add "Audit Integration" section describing automatic AuthPermissionDenied emission on Decision::Deny. - rate-limiting/page.md: add "Audit Integration" section describing automatic HttpRequestDenied emission on RateLimitExceeded. - token-auth/page.md: add "Audit Emission" section covering the four middleware-emitted kinds, the jti correlation field, and the AuthLoginFailed migration. Refs #13 #15 #16 #18 #19
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Summary
AuthTokenMissing(Informational) andAuthTokenInvalid(Warning) variants toAuditEventKind.paseto.rsandjwt.rsto use them instead ofAuthLoginFailed.AuthLoginFailedfor application credential-submission failures (e.g./auth/loginhandlers); doc comment updated.Closes #13.
Why
The middleware fired
auth.login.failedfor every request that arrived without a valid bearer token — including unauthenticated health checks. A downstream report showed ~5,758 false-positiveauth.login.failedevents per day from ALB health checks (vs. 4 real logins), drowning out real signal for SIEM rules and security monitoring.The new variants let operators filter health-check-shaped noise (
auth.token.missing) separately from credential failures (auth.login.failed) and presented-but-bad tokens (auth.token.invalid).Breaking change
Removes
auth.login.failedfrom the middleware's emission set. Downstream SIEM rules keyed onauth.login.failedfrom acton-service alone will go quiet for the unauthenticated-request case (the goal). App-level login handlers continue to emit it correctly. Worth a minor-version bump (0.27.0) given the observable behavior change.Out of scope
AuditSourceis populated before auth runs (soip/request_idare no longer blank in token-failure events). Bigger refactor; deferred — see issue auth middleware emits auth.login.failed on every unauthenticated request #13 item (3).audit_token_failures: boolto silence token-missing entirely. Easy follow-up if the newInformationallevel isn't filtered enough.Test plan
cargo clippy -p acton-service --all-targets --features full -- -D warnings— cleancargo clippy -p acton-service --all-targets --no-default-features --features "full,crypto-ring" -- -D warnings— cleancargo nextest run -p acton-service --features full— 520/520 pass