feat(auth): per-account brute-force lockout with exponential backoff

Existing protection was per-IP only (login_attempts table). On a loopback
deployment everyone hits 127.0.0.1, so the per-IP counter is mostly
ornamental — the real attacker is on the same machine. Adds a second
defense layer that tracks failures per username with an exponential
backoff schedule.

Schema:
  account_lockouts (username TEXT PK, failed_count INT,
                    locked_until DATETIME, last_attempt_at, last_attempt_ip)

Backoff after threshold (4+ failures):
  1, 2, 3 failures → no lockout (grace window for typos)
  4th             → 60 s
  5th             → 5 min
  6th             → 15 min
  7th             → 1 h
  8th             → 6 h
  9th and beyond  → 24 h (capped)

Counter resets to 0 on successful login or reauth. Old non-locked rows
older than 30 days are pruned by CleanupExpired alongside the existing
sessions / audit_log / login_attempts cleanups.

Wiring:
 - HandleLogin / HandleReauth both check RejectIfAccountLocked() before
   touching the users table. Lockout responses are 429 with JSON body
   { error, retry_after } and a Retry-After header.
 - Failed attempts are recorded against the username even when the user
   doesn't exist, preventing account enumeration via differential
   "is this account locked?" probes.
 - PBKDF2 hash comparison was already constant-time (ConstantTimeEquals);
   no change there.

Client (js/app.js):
 - api() now preserves response status + body on Error so callers can
   distinguish 429-lockout from other errors.
 - New showLockoutCountdown(seconds) renders a live "Account locked —
   try again in Xm Ys" message in #authHint, disables #loginBtn until
   the countdown reaches 0, then re-enables it.
 - doLogin / doUnlock both branch on err.status === 429 + retry_after
   to call showLockoutCountdown instead of a generic error toast.

Known limitation: an attacker can DoS-lock arbitrary usernames by
spamming /login with that name. This is intentional — the alternative
(per-(username,IP) tracking) would let attackers enumerate accounts.
DoS-lock is acceptable; auth bypass is not.
This commit is contained in:
2026-05-23 00:14:44 +01:00
parent 519e8fbd48
commit 9f6636defc
4 changed files with 340 additions and 11 deletions
+27 -2
View File
@@ -171,6 +171,11 @@ begin
LBody.Free;
end;
// Per-username lockout check — runs BEFORE touching the users table, so
// attackers can't probe account existence via timing differences between
// "locked" and "not found" responses.
if RejectIfAccountLocked(AResponse, LUser) then Exit;
DB.Lock;
try
LQ := TFDQuery.Create(nil);
@@ -182,7 +187,13 @@ begin
LQ.Open;
if LQ.IsEmpty then
begin
// Unknown username — still record the failure against this username
// so attackers can't enumerate accounts by observing which usernames
// can be locked vs not. TCriticalSection is reentrant for the same
// thread, so calling RecordAttempt/RecordFailedAccountAttempt from
// inside our DB.Lock block is safe (they re-acquire the same lock).
RecordAttempt(LIP);
RecordFailedAccountAttempt(LUser, LIP);
TJSONHelper.SendError(AResponse, 401, 'Invalid credentials');
Exit;
end;
@@ -208,6 +219,7 @@ begin
begin
// Not implemented in Delphi backend yet
RecordAttempt(LIP);
RecordFailedAccountAttempt(LUser, LIP);
LogAudit(LUserId, 'failed_login_bcrypt', LIP);
TJSONHelper.SendError(AResponse, 501,
'This account was created with bcrypt (PHP). The Delphi backend does ' +
@@ -218,12 +230,14 @@ begin
if not LValid then
begin
RecordAttempt(LIP);
RecordFailedAccountAttempt(LUser, LIP);
LogAudit(LUserId, 'failed_login', LIP);
TJSONHelper.SendError(AResponse, 401, 'Invalid credentials');
Exit;
end;
ClearAttempts(LIP);
ClearAccountLockout(LUser);
DeleteAllUserSessions(LUserId);
EnsureDefaultFolders(LUserId);
CreateSession(LUserId, LToken, LCSRF);
@@ -264,7 +278,7 @@ procedure HandleReauth(ARequest: TIdHTTPRequestInfo;
var
LUserId: Integer;
LBody: TJSONObject;
LPwd, LStoredHash, LSalt, LAlgo, LIP, LComputed: string;
LUser, LPwd, LStoredHash, LSalt, LAlgo, LIP, LComputed: string;
LQ: TFDQuery;
LValid: Boolean;
begin
@@ -294,7 +308,9 @@ begin
LQ := TFDQuery.Create(nil);
try
LQ.Connection := DB.Connection;
LQ.SQL.Text := 'SELECT password_hash, salt, hash_algo FROM users WHERE id = :uid';
// Pull username too — needed for the per-account lockout calls.
LQ.SQL.Text :=
'SELECT username, password_hash, salt, hash_algo FROM users WHERE id = :uid';
LQ.ParamByName('uid').AsInteger := LUserId;
LQ.Open;
if LQ.IsEmpty then
@@ -303,6 +319,7 @@ begin
TJSONHelper.SendError(AResponse, 401, 'User not found');
Exit;
end;
LUser := LQ.FieldByName('username').AsString;
LStoredHash := LQ.FieldByName('password_hash').AsString;
LSalt := LQ.FieldByName('salt').AsString;
LAlgo := LQ.FieldByName('hash_algo').AsString;
@@ -314,6 +331,12 @@ begin
DB.Unlock;
end;
// Check account lockout AFTER we have the username. Even though the user
// is already authenticated by their session token, the master-pw re-prompt
// is itself brute-forceable (e.g. attacker hijacked a session and now tries
// to escalate by guessing the master pw to unlock the JS crypto key).
if RejectIfAccountLocked(AResponse, LUser) then Exit;
LValid := False;
if SameText(LAlgo, 'pbkdf2') then
begin
@@ -324,12 +347,14 @@ begin
if not LValid then
begin
RecordAttempt(LIP);
RecordFailedAccountAttempt(LUser, LIP);
LogAudit(LUserId, 'failed_reauth', LIP);
TJSONHelper.SendError(AResponse, 401, 'Invalid password');
Exit;
end;
ClearAttempts(LIP);
ClearAccountLockout(LUser);
LogAudit(LUserId, 'reauth', LIP);
TJSONHelper.SendOK(AResponse, 'OK');
end;