Questarr

Security Policy

Supported Versions

Use the latest version of this project to ensure you have the latest security patches.

Reporting a Vulnerability

If you discover a security vulnerability within this project, please do not report it publicly. Instead, please report it via email to the maintainer directly, via this e-mail: iroise-ia-939b6a4c0f344b73ae2a9d1892fe8b97@plane.email.

Threat Model

See docs/THREAT_MODEL.md for the system’s attack surface analysis, trust boundaries, and known residual risks. This is the canonical reference for security-relevant architectural decisions, and should be updated alongside any change that adds a new external integration, trust boundary, or unauthenticated route.

For a full inventory of how secrets and credentials are stored, accessed, and rotated throughout the codebase, see docs/SECRETS.md.

Vulnerabilities reported against a component Questarr ships (an npm dependency or the container base image) that do not actually affect the project are tracked, with an exploitability justification, in the VEX feed rather than silently ignored.

For the policy governing dependency vulnerability/license findings (SCA) and static analysis findings (SAST) — remediation thresholds, triage process, and the automated status checks that enforce them before release — see docs/VULNERABILITY_MANAGEMENT.md.

Deployment Security Guide

When deploying this application, please ensure you follow these security best practices:

1. Environment Variables

Never commit your .env file to version control. This file contains sensitive information such as database credentials and API keys.

Ensure you set the following environment variables in your production environment:

• JWT_SECRET: This is used to sign authentication tokens. Set a long, random string so sessions survive restarts (if unset, one is auto-generated and stored in the database instead — see docs/SECRETS.md).
• SQLITE_DB_PATH: Ensure the SQLite database file lives on a volume/path that isn’t publicly accessible or served by the web server.
• IGDB_CLIENT_SECRET: Your IGDB API secret.

2. Docker Compose

Questarr uses SQLite, not PostgreSQL — the provided docker-compose.yml does not run a separate database container. Persist the ./data volume (which holds sqlite.db) and never commit real credentials into docker-compose.yml; use a .env file or a git-ignored docker-compose.*local.yml override instead.

3. Network Security

• Run the application behind a reverse proxy (like Nginx or Traefik) with SSL/TLS enabled (HTTPS).
• Behind a reverse proxy, set TRUST_PROXY=1 (or the proxy’s IP/subnet) so rate limits use real client IPs. Leave it unset when Questarr is reached directly: it would let clients forge their IP with X-Forwarded-For. See REVERSE_PROXY.md.
• HOST defaults to 0.0.0.0 (all network interfaces) in every deployment mode, not just Docker. Set HOST=127.0.0.1 if the app should only be reachable through a local reverse proxy.

4. Authentication

• The application uses a default admin setup flow. Ensure you complete the setup immediately after deployment to claim the admin account.

Collaborator Access & Escalation Policy

This policy governs how contributors are granted escalated permissions to this repository and its associated infrastructure. It is enforced by repository maintainers/admins for every access request — no escalation may be granted outside this process.

The current list of project members holding escalated access is maintained in MAINTAINERS.md.

Scope

“Escalated permissions” covers any of the following:

• Write, Maintain, or Admin roles on the GitHub repository
• Merge/approval rights on pull requests (including bypassing branch protection)
• Access to repository or organization Secrets (Actions secrets, environment secrets, deploy keys, .env values for shared/hosted environments)
• Access to production or staging infrastructure (hosting provider, database, CI/CD runners)
• Ability to modify CI/CD workflows, branch protection rules, or this policy itself

Requirement: Review Before Grant

No contributor may be granted an escalated permission listed above without prior review and explicit approval by an existing repository admin/maintainer. This includes:

1. Request & record — The requested role/access and its justification are recorded (e.g., in an issue, PR, or admin log) before being granted, not after.
2. Independent approval — The grant must be approved by an admin/maintainer other than the requester. A contributor cannot self-approve their own escalation.
3. Least privilege — Grant the minimum role/access needed for the contributor’s actual responsibilities (e.g., prefer Write over Maintain, avoid org-wide secrets access for repo-scoped work).
4. Time-bound where practical — Temporary or contract contributors should have access scoped to the duration of their engagement and reviewed/revoked on completion.

Identity Vetting

Before approving escalated access, the approver should establish a justifiable lineage of identity for the contributor, using one or more of:

• Confirming the contributor’s association with a known, trusted organization (verified work email domain, employer/organization GitHub membership, or a signed statement from a known point of contact at that organization)
• A documented history of reviewed, merged contributions from the same account prior to escalation
• Vouching by an existing trusted collaborator or maintainer who can attest to the contributor’s identity
• Verification of a persistent, non-anonymous identity (e.g., a GitHub account with verifiable history, linked organization, or public reputation) rather than a newly created or anonymous account

Requests that cannot establish any of the above should be denied or downgraded to a lesser scope (e.g., fork-and-PR contribution without direct write access) until sufficient trust is established.

Periodic Review & Revocation

• Maintainers should periodically review the list of collaborators with escalated access (Settings > Collaborators and teams) and remove access that is no longer needed.
• Access must be revoked promptly when a contributor’s engagement ends, their role changes, or trust in their identity/affiliation is called into question.
• Any suspected compromise of a collaborator account or leaked secret must be treated as a security incident: revoke access immediately, rotate affected secrets, and follow the vulnerability reporting process above.

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