Files
fips/testing/README.md
T
Johnathan Corgan 44e04eb2e2 Retire the tcp-chain static test topology
The tcp-chain profile has never been runnable. ping-test.sh dispatches on
chain and mesh only, and the string tcp-chain has never appeared in that
script in its history, so invoking the profile has always fallen through
to the unknown-profile branch: silently asserting nothing before that
branch was made to fail, and exiting 2 since. Neither runner referenced
it either.

What it would have covered is already covered. The chaos tcp-mesh
scenario runs in local CI and gives TCP a discriminating gate: n04's only
edges are TCP, so if the transport were broken n04 could not parent and
the scenario's baseline assertion would fail. It also carries a pure-TCP
two-hop path, n01 to n04 to n05, under netem and link flaps. The only
residual tcp-chain would have added is a mesh with no UDP present
anywhere, which is not worth a fixture that has never run.

Remove the topology, its three compose services, and the documentation
rows. Every profile the static compose file still defines is now
exercised by a suite.

Also correct the chaos README, which has listed tcp-only and tcp-chain in
its transport table since those two scenarios were deleted in 9e63b42.
Neither has existed for months.
2026-07-26 14:02:12 +00:00

7.6 KiB

FIPS Testing

Integration and simulation test harnesses for FIPS, using Docker containers running the full protocol stack.

Test Harnesses

static/ -- Static Docker Network

Fixed topologies with manual scripts for building, config generation, connectivity tests (ping, iperf), and network impairment (netem). Useful for deterministic debugging and validating specific topology configurations.

Topology Nodes Transport Description
mesh 5 UDP Sparse mesh, 6 links, multi-hop
chain 5 UDP Linear chain, max 4-hop paths
rekey 5 UDP Rekey integration test topology

tor/ -- Tor Transport Integration

End-to-end Tor transport testing with Docker containers running real Tor daemons. Requires internet access for Tor bootstrapping.

Scenario Description
socks5-outbound Outbound SOCKS5 connections through Tor to clearnet peer
directory-mode Inbound via HiddenServiceDir onion service (co-located)

nat/ -- NAT Traversal Lab

Real Docker NAT traversal tests for the Nostr/STUN bootstrap path, using router containers with iptables-based NAT, a local Nostr relay, and a local STUN responder.

Scenario Description
cone Two NATed peers establish a UDP traversal path
symmetric UDP traversal fails under symmetric NAT, TCP fallback wins
lan Peers on the same LAN prefer local addresses over reflexive

chaos/ -- Stochastic Simulation

Automated network testing with configurable node counts, topology algorithms (random geometric, Erdos-Renyi, chain, explicit), and fault injection (netem mutation, link flaps, traffic generation, node churn). 20 scenarios covering general stress testing, cost-based parent selection, mixed link technologies (fiber/Bluetooth/WiFi), transport-specific validation (UDP, TCP, Ethernet), and ECN/congestion testing. Scenarios are defined in YAML and executed via a Python harness that manages the full lifecycle: topology generation, Docker orchestration, fault scheduling, log collection, and analysis.

interop/ -- Mixed-Version Interop Harness

On-demand harness that runs an N-node full mesh from a node-spec where each node can run a different build of the FIPS daemon, then attributes every FMP/FSP/rekey/connectivity failure to a specific version pair (same-version vs MIXED). Used to catch interop regressions between builds, not as a per-commit CI gate; not part of ci-local.sh.

mesh-lab/ -- Mesh Reliability Lab

On-demand harness that runs a chosen integration suite N times under a configurable host-pressure profile (idle / light / github-runner- equivalent / heavy via stress-ng), per-container netem impairment, and optional trace-level RUST_LOG, capturing per-rep diagnostics and a mechanism-match summary across the run. Used for statistical reliability characterization of known flake classes under calibrated stress, not as a per-commit gate; not part of ci-local.sh.

Running CI locally (ci-local.sh)

ci-local.sh runs the full local CI pipeline — build, clippy, unit tests, and the integration suites (including the chaos scenarios) — mirroring the GitHub ci.yml integration matrix. Run ./ci-local.sh --help for the full option list and --list for the available suites. Every run starts with a parity check that verifies the local suite set covers the same work as the GitHub matrix, per scenario for chaos and per distro for deb-install; a divergence fails the run. GitHub runs the same check as its own ci-parity job. --check-parity runs it alone (see check-ci-parity.sh).

Per-run isolation and the FIPS_CI_RUN_ID override

Every invocation derives a run id and scopes all of its Docker resources to it, so two simultaneous runs on the same host (for example, one per git worktree, or an operator testing by hand while CI is in flight) never collide:

  • Compose projects are named fipsci_<run-id>_<suite>, so container, network, and volume names are all prefixed per run.
  • Build images are tagged fips-test:<run-id> and fips-test-app:<run-id> (exported as FIPS_TEST_IMAGE / FIPS_TEST_APP_IMAGE for the compose consumers).
  • Each parallel chaos child gets a unique, non-overlapping /24 in 10.30.x (via the sim --subnet override). 10.30.x sits outside Docker's default address pool and the fixed-subnet suites' 172.x ranges, so neither a sibling chaos child nor an auto-assigned network can swallow a pinned subnet.

By default the run id is <short-git-sha>-<random> — the SHA portion records what code a container is testing, the random suffix keeps simultaneous runs of the same SHA disjoint. Override it for a reproducible, attach-by-name debug session:

FIPS_CI_RUN_ID=mydebug ./ci-local.sh --only static-mesh
# containers are named fipsci_mydebug_static_fips-node-a, etc.

Preemption-safety and exit codes

ci-local.sh is safe to cancel mid-run. A signal trap tears down every compose project the run started (not just the current suite) and reaps any in-flight parallel chaos children, bounded by a timeout so a stuck compose down cannot wedge the trap. Exit codes distinguish a cancelled run from a failing one:

Code Meaning
0 all stages passed
1 one or more stages failed
130 interrupted by SIGINT — cancelled, not a failure
143 terminated by SIGTERM — cancelled, not a failure

A preempting CI worker (the push-triggered, CI-gated build pipeline that kills an in-flight run when a newer same-branch tip arrives) maps 130/143cancelled (discard, do not record a failing commit), 0 → green, any other non-zero → red.

Cleaning up leftover resources

Every CI-created container, network, and volume carries the label com.corganlabs.fips-ci=1. If a run is hard-killed (SIGKILL, OOM, crash) and leaves resources behind, reap them with:

./ci-local.sh --reap        # or: ./ci-cleanup.sh

ci-cleanup.sh force-removes everything bearing the CI label or a fipsci_ compose-project prefix; it is safe to run when there is nothing to reap and safe to run repeatedly. Pass --project-prefix to scope the sweep to a single run.

It also removes the chaos simulation's leftover host-namespace veth interfaces (vh…a/vh…b), the one resource it touches that is neither a docker object nor labelled — a host interface can carry neither a label nor a compose project, so it is matched by name shape alone. That makes the reach here asymmetric with everything above, and worth stating plainly:

  • A bare chaos.sh run's containers survive a broad reap. Its compose project is not fipsci_, and the simulation labels only the network, not the services.
  • A bare chaos.sh run's veth interfaces do not. An unscoped reap deletes them while they are in use, severing the Ethernet links of a live simulation and leaving its containers running.

So do not run a broad --reap while a bare simulation is up. Scope the interface sweep with --veth-suffixes (which is what ci-local.sh's own teardown passes) or wait for the simulation to finish. --project-prefix does not help here: it scopes only the compose-project sweep.