Security model

{/* Imported from CoderHelm/coderhelm-platform/docs/self-host/security.md at 96a2a3bafd5e. Edit it there. */}

Trust boundariesCopy Anchor Link

• Everything runs in your AWS account. CoderHelm the company has no access to it: no cross-account role, no support backdoor, no license check calling home.
• Your GitHub App. Created by you, installed by you, with the permissions listed in The GitHub App. Webhooks are verified with its secret before anything runs.
• Model calls go from your functions to the Anthropic API with a team's key, or to Bedrock in your account with no key at all.
• Telemetry is off by default. When you turn it on, only the installer sends a ping on install, upgrade, health check and uninstall: a random install id, the release, the event, the region, the layout and the provider. No account id, domain, email, repository or IP address is accepted by the receiver. See installer/lib/commands.mjs (telemetryPayload) and services/gateway/src/routes/telemetry.rs.

Network pathsCopy Anchor Link

Identity and sessionsCopy Anchor Link

• Accounts live in a Cognito user pool in your account, with optional TOTP and passkeys. Sign-up is limited to admins, signup.emails and signup.domains.
• Sessions are __Host- cookies (HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite=Strict) signed with the deployment's own key, on your one hostname.
• Install admins (admins) must have an email CoderHelm verified itself; a GitHub profile email never counts.

Secrets and encryptionCopy Anchor Link

• GitHub App keys and the session signing key are in one Secrets Manager secret. Only the gateway, streaming and worker roles can read it. The installer writes it from a temporary 0600 file and never prints it.
• Team credentials (MCP servers, data sources, chat webhooks) are sealed with a KMS key and bound to their team.
• Tables, the data bucket and queues are encrypted (customer managed KMS keys for tables and the bucket).

Least privilegeCopy Anchor Link

• Each function has its own role with only the tables, queues, keys and actions it uses.
• The build sandbox runs a repository's own build scripts, which are untrusted: its CodeBuild role can only read and write one bucket of short-lived source tarballs and write its logs. No GitHub token, no tables, no KMS.
• Roles in teams' AWS accounts are assumed only by name (CoderHelmLogReader, CoderhelmReadOnly*) and with an external id.
• The installer and the Launch Stack's CodeBuild role need administrator rights to bootstrap CDK and create roles. Run later deploys with a narrower role if your policies require it.

Supply chainCopy Anchor Link

Releases are built by GitHub Actions from a tag, with checksums and build provenance attestations (Sigstore, through GitHub). The installer checks both. You can also deploy from source (--source) after reviewing the code.

Reporting a problemCopy Anchor Link

Report security issues privately to the support address in the CoderHelm repository rather than in a public issue.