HomeOps Platform - Security¶
How to remain secure?¶
Table of Contents¶
- Purpose and Scope of Security Documentation
- Security Goals and Assumptions
- Threat Model Overview
- Trust Boundaries and Network Segmentation
- Authentication and Authorization Model
- Secrets Management and Credential Handling
- Secure Interface Design
- Logging, Monitoring, and Observability Considerations
- Security Trade-offs and Limitations
- Relationship to Other Documentation
1. Purpose and Scope of Security Documentation¶
This document describes the security principles and assumptions of the HomeOps Platform at a system level. Its purpose is to outline how security is approached conceptually, how responsibilities are divided, and how security-related decisions align with the overall architecture.
Security is treated as an integral part of the platform design rather than a separate or optional concern. This document focuses on why certain security boundaries exist and how security considerations influence architectural and interface decisions.
Detailed implementation choices, tooling, and configuration specifics are intentionally excluded from this document and are expected to be addressed within individual subprojects or future refinements.
2. Security Goals and Assumptions¶
The security approach of the HomeOps Platform is shaped by its scope, context, and intended usage. The platform is self-hosted, operated by a single individual, and developed incrementally.
Key security goals include:
-
Protection of sensitive data
Prevent unauthorized access to credentials, configuration data, and historical measurements. -
Controlled access to system capabilities
Ensure that users and services can only perform actions they are explicitly permitted to perform. -
Clear trust boundaries
Make it explicit where trust changes and where additional validation and controls are required. -
Detection and response awareness
The platform aims to make security-relevant events observable and actionable. Rather than assuming that all incidents can be prevented, the architecture acknowledges the importance of detecting unexpected behavior and responding to it in a timely and proportionate manner. -
Risk awareness over absolute security
The goal is not to eliminate all risk, but to understand and manage it in a realistic manner.
Security assumptions include:
- Limited number of users
- Controlled physical access to the server environment
- Acceptance of occasional service disruption in favor of clarity and maintainability
- Not all incidents will be detected immediately, and that response actions may involve manual investigation and intervention rather than fully automated remediation.
3. Threat Model Overview¶
Rather than attempting to define an exhaustive threat model, the HomeOps Platform focuses on a small set of realistic threat categories relevant to a self-hosted environment.
These include:
- Unauthorized access to backend services
- Leakage of credentials or secrets
- Misuse of exposed interfaces
- Compromise of external integrations
- Accidental misconfiguration
Threats related to large-scale denial-of-service attacks or highly sophisticated adversaries are considered out of scope unless the platform evolves to require such considerations.
4. Trust Boundaries and Network Segmentation¶
Trust boundaries are a foundational concept in the platform’s security model. These boundaries separate components with different levels of trust and control.
Key trust boundaries include:
- Client devices versus backend services
- Backend services versus data storage
- Internal services versus external integrations
- Infrastructure components versus application logic
Network segmentation is used conceptually to reflect these boundaries, even if implemented in a simplified manner. Components in less trusted zones are not granted implicit access to more trusted zones.
All interactions across trust boundaries are mediated through explicit interfaces, reinforcing the principle that trust must be explicitly established rather than implicitly assumed.
5. Authentication and Authorization Model¶
Authentication and authorization are treated as separate but related concerns.
Authentication establishes the identity of a user or service. Authorization determines what actions that identity is allowed to perform. This separation helps prevent overly broad access and simplifies reasoning about permissions.
The platform follows these principles:
- Identities are verified before access is granted
- Permissions are scoped narrowly to required actions
- Access is evaluated at well-defined enforcement points
Backend services are responsible for enforcing access control consistently across interfaces. Client applications do not make authorization decisions on their own.
This model aligns with the architectural separation between clients, backend services, and data storage.
6. Secrets Management and Credential Handling¶
Sensitive information such as credentials, API keys, and tokens is treated as a distinct concern separate from application logic.
The platform follows these guiding principles:
- Secrets are never stored directly in source code
- Secrets are not committed to version control
- Access to secrets is limited to the components that require them
- Secrets are scoped to specific environments and trust boundaries
Concrete mechanisms for secrets storage and injection are defined at the subproject level, allowing flexibility as the platform evolves.
7. Secure Interface Design¶
Interfaces are a primary attack surface and therefore a key focus of the security model.
Security considerations for interfaces include:
- Strict validation of inputs crossing trust boundaries
- Explicit authentication and authorization requirements
- Avoidance of unnecessary data exposure
- Consistent error handling that does not leak internal details
Client-facing interfaces are designed with the assumption that all input is untrusted. Internal interfaces may operate under stronger trust assumptions but are still explicitly defined to avoid implicit dependencies.
8. Logging, Monitoring, and Observability Considerations¶
Security-related events should be observable to support detection, diagnosis, and learning.
The platform aims to:
- Log authentication and authorization events where appropriate
- Make unexpected behavior visible through monitoring
- Support basic observability without excessive operational complexity
Observability is treated as a supporting capability rather than a primary security control. Its role is to provide insight and feedback rather than to prevent attacks outright.
9. Security Trade-offs and Limitations¶
The HomeOps Platform intentionally accepts certain limitations in exchange for clarity and manageability.
These trade-offs include:
- Prioritizing understandable security boundaries over comprehensive hardening
- Accepting manual intervention in some scenarios
- Limiting automation to areas where it clearly adds value
Security decisions are documented explicitly to ensure that accepted risks are visible and can be revisited as the platform evolves.
10. Relationship to Other Documentation¶
This security document builds directly on the architectural structure and interface definitions of the platform.
It is closely related to:
- Architecture (
docs/10-architecture.md), which defines component boundaries, - Interfaces (
docs/20-interfaces.md), which define interaction points, - Deployment (
docs/40-deployment.md), which applies security considerations to runtime environments, - and Architecture Decision Records (
docs/decisions/), which capture concrete security-related decisions.
Together, these documents provide a coherent view of how security is integrated into the HomeOps Platform at a system level.