Edge-Net Production Readiness: Security Audit & Battle Test Findings

[ruvnet]

Summary

A comprehensive security audit and battle test of examples/edge-net/ has been completed using a 7-agent swarm analysis. The system is rated ~60% production ready (Grade: B+).

Test Results

• ✅ 85 tests passing: 18 adversarial + 38 economic + 29 RAC axioms
• 📦 Branch: feature/edge-net (commit 1f3f440f)

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🚨 Critical Security Issues (5)

1. Weak PBKDF in Pi-Key (src/pikey/mod.rs:258-262)

Severity: CRITICAL

// Current: Simple SHA-256 iteration
for _ in 0..iterations { hasher.update(&result); }

Risk: Password brute-forcing is trivial without memory-hard KDF
Fix: Replace with Argon2id or scrypt with proper memory/time parameters

2. Private Key Exposure (src/identity/mod.rs:83-87)

Severity: CRITICAL

pub fn export_secret_key(&self) -> Vec<u8> {
    self.keypair.secret.to_bytes().to_vec()
}

Risk: Full key compromise if accessed
Fix: Remove or gate behind explicit security confirmation

3. Signature Verification Unimplemented (src/rac/mod.rs:954-962)

Severity: CRITICAL

fn verify_event_signature(&self, _event: &Event) -> bool {
    true // TODO: Implement actual signature verification
}

Risk: Any forged event is accepted as valid
Fix: Implement Ed25519 signature verification

4. Session Key Derivation Weakness (src/pikey/mod.rs:498-502)

Severity: HIGH

let session_key = self.derive_session_key(&shared_secret)?;

Risk: Weak session key derivation could leak master key information
Fix: Use HKDF with proper context separation

5. No Memory Zeroization (src/pikey/mod.rs)

Severity: HIGH
Risk: Secret keys persist in memory after use
Fix: Use zeroize crate with Drop impl for sensitive types

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🔴 High Severity Issues (10+)

Issue	Location	Description
Event signatures never verified	rac/mod.rs:287-289	Events accepted without sig check
Sybil attack vectors	rac/mod.rs	No proof-of-stake gate on event creation
Eclipse attack possible	network/mod.rs	No peer diversity requirements
Weak browser fingerprint	identity/mod.rs:160-205	Low entropy fingerprinting
Nonce reuse risk	pikey/mod.rs	Counter-based nonces without persistence
Unbounded HashMap growth	Multiple files	Memory exhaustion via event flooding
No rate limiting	tasks/mod.rs	Task spam attacks possible
CRDT merge trust	credits/mod.rs	Accepts arbitrary peer state
Authority bypass	rac/mod.rs	Resolution without proper authority check
Timestamp manipulation	rac/mod.rs	No bounds on event timestamps

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🟡 Medium Severity Issues (10+)

Issue	Location	Description
Missing SIMD utilization	bench.rs	WASM SIMD not leveraged
Excessive pattern cloning	learning/mod.rs	Performance overhead
Lock contention	adversarial/mod.rs	Mutex around hot paths
Serialization overhead	Multiple files	serde_json in hot paths
Binary size optimization	Cargo.toml	LTO/opt-level not maximal
Test coverage gaps	Various	Edge cases in crypto code
Error message leakage	pikey/mod.rs	Timing info in errors
No audit logging	Various	Missing security event logs
Incomplete QDAG	credits/qdag.rs	Placeholder implementation
Missing documentation	Various	Public API undocumented

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📊 Architecture Assessment

Strengths

• ✅ Clean CRDT ledger design with proper merge semantics
• ✅ RAC 12 Axioms well-formalized
• ✅ Contribution curve with genesis multiplier (incentive alignment)
• ✅ Context isolation prevents cross-contamination
• ✅ Merkle proofs for event inclusion
• ✅ Quarantine mechanism for disputed claims

Gaps

• ❌ Task executor stubs (not implemented)
• ❌ P2P networking (simulation only)
• ❌ Persistent storage (in-memory only)
• ❌ Real signature verification
• ❌ Byzantine fault tolerance (theoretical only)

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🎯 Production Readiness Checklist

Must Fix Before Production

• Implement Argon2id for password derivation
• Add Ed25519 signature verification
• Remove/protect export_secret_key
• Add memory zeroization for secrets
• Implement rate limiting
• Add bounded data structures
• Implement HKDF for session keys

Should Fix

• Enable WASM SIMD optimizations
• Add comprehensive audit logging
• Implement QDAG properly
• Add peer diversity requirements
• Implement proper BFT consensus

Nice to Have

• LTO and size optimizations
• Performance profiling integration
• Automated security scanning CI

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📁 Files Modified

Source Changes:

• src/rac/mod.rs - Enhanced coherence engine
• src/rac/economics.rs - NEW: Economics module
• src/learning/mod.rs - Self-learning intelligence
• src/bench.rs - Benchmark infrastructure

Tests Added:

• tests/adversarial_scenarios_test.rs (18 tests)
• tests/economic_edge_cases_test.rs (38 tests)
• tests/rac_axioms_test.rs (29 tests)

Documentation:

• docs/ECONOMIC_EDGE_CASE_ANALYSIS.md
• docs/axiom-status-matrix.md
• docs/rac-validation-report.md

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References

• Commit: 1f3f440f
• Branch: feature/edge-net
• Tests: cargo test (85 passing)

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Generated via Claude Code swarm analysis with 7 parallel agents