docs: scope the signing allow-list per extension, not per app
Multiple signing keys already work — PUBKEYS_HEX is an array and verifySignature accepts any entry that verifies, which is an allow-list already. What it isn't is scoped: every add-on is checked against the same array, so a key added for one extension can sign an update for any other. The canonical message binds a signature to an extension; nothing binds an extension to a signer. The publisher path doesn't have that problem, because a name answers "who may sign this" per extension and rotates on chain without an app release. So the note now argues for generalising that rather than replacing it: per-extension key bindings, several acceptable keys each, the chain preferred over a compiled-in array, and co-signing considered only for the default set — the extensions that reach every fresh profile without anyone choosing them. Records the open questions honestly too: where a binding can live without being restatable by whoever controls the manifest, and that refusing to update an extension is a much smaller decision than refusing to run it.
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@ -35,6 +35,49 @@ is a list of ids in the app's config, not a folder that gets copied. Changing
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the default set should be editing that list, not moving directories around
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and rebuilding.
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## Which keys may sign what
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Multiple signing keys already work, and there is already an allow-list: the
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`PUBKEYS_HEX` array in `addon-update-pubkeys.js`. `verifySignature` walks it
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and accepts an update if any entry verifies, so adding a second operator key
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is a line in that file plus a Theseus release. The file's own comment sets
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out the rotation: sign with both, ship a release carrying both, then drop
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the old one.
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The problem is not that the list is missing. It is that the list is
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**global**. Every add-on is verified against the same array, so any key on
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it can sign an update for any id — a key meant for the screenshot tool can
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push code for the wallet. The signed message is
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`silentmode.addon-update-v1|<id>|<version>|<sha256>`, which binds a
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signature to an extension, but nothing binds an extension to a signer.
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The publisher path does not have this problem. An entry carrying
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`publisherSig` is checked against the current owner of that extension's
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name, so the permission is per-extension by construction and rotates on
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chain without an app release. That is the model to generalise, not replace.
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So: keep an allow-list, and scope it.
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- **Per-extension, not global.** Each extension names who may sign it — a
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BNS name for anything in the catalogue, or a pinned pubkey for a member of
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the default set. `verifySignature` takes that extension's keys instead of
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the global array, and its callers look the binding up by id.
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- **Plural per extension.** Two or three acceptable keys, any one
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sufficient, so a rotation or a lost key doesn't need an emergency release.
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- **Prefer the name-owner path for anything new.** The chain is an
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allow-list that can be corrected the day a key is lost; a compiled-in
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array can only be corrected by shipping a build.
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- **Consider co-signing for the default set alone.** Those extensions reach
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every fresh profile without anyone choosing them, which makes a single
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compromised key worst exactly there. Requiring two signatures is a bounded
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amount of work when it applies to a handful of ids rather than to the
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whole catalogue.
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The narrowing itself is small — `verifySignature` and its two callers. The
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work is in deciding where the binding lives and showing it honestly in
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Settings, so "who is allowed to update this" is something a user can read
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rather than infer.
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## The one thing that needs care
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If defaults are fetched from the catalogue on first run, a fresh install with
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@ -66,7 +109,9 @@ everywhere else.
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row, next to the publisher's name. The separate Community section and its
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Install button fold into the single catalogue view.
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- **`addon-updater.js`**: drop the distinction between the two channel
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shapes; an extension has a publisher and an updates URL.
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shapes; an extension has a publisher and an updates URL. `verifySignature`
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takes the keys allowed for *that* id rather than the global array, and
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`pickChannelEntry` resolves the binding before it verifies anything.
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- **Gateway**: the catalogue gains first-party entries. Nothing changes
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structurally — `/api/ext` already stores whatever a name owner signs.
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- **Publishing**: `scripts/sign-addon-update.mjs` and the operator key stop
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@ -85,3 +130,15 @@ everywhere else.
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- **Does the operator key survive at all?** Keeping it as an accepted signer
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for the default set is a hedge against the name-owner key being lost;
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keeping it forever means the two-rules problem never fully goes away.
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- **Where does a per-extension key binding live?** In the manifest, where
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the extension states its own publisher and an attacker who can rewrite the
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manifest can restate it; in the app's config, where it is trustworthy but
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only changes with a release; or on chain, where the name already answers
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the question. Probably: on chain for the catalogue, pinned in config for
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the default set, and never simply believed from the manifest.
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- **What happens to an extension whose signer is no longer allowed?** It
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should stop updating, but stopping it from *running* is a different and
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much ruder decision, and the two shouldn't be conflated by accident.
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- **Does co-signing need a threshold, or just two named keys?** Two keys is
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simple to implement and to explain; m-of-n is where this quietly turns
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into key management.
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