git.stella-ops.org/docs/modules/evidence-locker/bundle-packaging.md

Evidence Locker Bundle Packaging

Sprint 160 / Task EVID-OBS-54-002 — deterministic tarball packaging for download/export.

The Evidence Locker emits a single bundle.tgz artifact for every sealed bundle. The artifact is deterministic so that operators can re-run packaging and obtain identical bytes when the manifest and signature are unchanged.

Layout

The tar stream is written with POSIX/PAX entries and wrapped in a gzip layer:

bundle.tgz
├── manifest.json     # Re-emitted DSSE payload (pretty JSON, canonical ordering)
├── signature.json    # DSSE signature + key metadata + RFC3161 timestamp (if present)
├── bundle.json       # Locker metadata (ids, status, root hash, storage key, timestamps)
├── checksums.txt     # SHA-256 root hash + per-entry hashes from the manifest
└── instructions.txt  # Offline verification steps and retention guidance

Determinism traits

• Gzip header timestamp is pinned to 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z so CI fixtures remain stable.
• All tar entries use the same fixed mtime/atime/ctime, 0644 permissions, and UTF-8 encoding.
• JSON files are serialized with JsonSerializerDefaults.Web + indentation to stabilise ordering.
• checksums.txt sorts manifest entries by canonicalPath and prefixes the Merkle root (root <hash>).
• instructions.txt conditionally adds timestamp verification steps when an RFC3161 token exists.

Download endpoint

GET /evidence/{bundleId}/download

• Requires scopes: evidence:read.
• Streams application/gzip content with Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="bundle.tgz".
• Emits quota headers (X-Stella-Quota-*) and audit events mirroring snapshot fetches.
• Returns 404 when the bundle is not sealed or the package has not been materialised.

The endpoint reuses EvidenceBundlePackagingService and caches the packaged object in the configured object store (tenants/{tenant}/bundles/{bundle}/bundle.tgz). If the underlying storage key changes (for example, during migration from filesystem to S3), the repository is updated atomically.

Verification guidance

Upcoming EB1–EB10 remediation (Sprint 0161; advisory docs/product-advisories/28-Nov-2025 - Evidence Bundle and Replay Contracts.md):

• Publish bundle.manifest.schema.json and checksums.schema.json with canonical JSON rules and signatures.
• Document the Merkle hash recipe and DSSE predicate/log policy.
• Ship an offline verifier script and golden bundles/replay fixtures to prove determinism.
• Add incident-mode activation/exit records and redaction/tenant isolation guidance for portable bundles.

Canonical schemas now live in docs/modules/evidence-locker/schemas/ (EB1, EB2). Offline verification steps and the embeddable script are documented in docs/modules/evidence-locker/verify-offline.md (EB9); use the computed Merkle root as the DSSE subject for sealed and portable bundles.

Merkle recipe (example)

cd bundle
find . -type f ! -name checksums.txt -print0 | sort -z | xargs -0 sha256sum > checksums.txt
sha256sum checksums.txt | awk '{print $1}' > merkle-root.txt

Use the resulting root as the DSSE subject and store checksums.txt inside the bundle.

1. Download bundle.tgz and read instructions.txt; the first section lists bundle id, root hash, and creation/timestamp information.
2. Verify checksums.txt against the transferred archive to detect transit corruption.
3. Use the StellaOps CLI (stella evidence verify bundle.tgz) or the provenance verifier library to validate signature.json.
4. When present, validate the RFC3161 timestamp token with the configured TSA endpoint.

These steps match the offline procedure described in docs/forensics/evidence-locker.md (Portable Evidence section). Update that guide whenever packaging fields change.

Portable bundle (portable-bundle-v1.tgz)

When sealed or air-gapped environments need a redacted evidence artifact, request:

GET /evidence/{bundleId}/portable

The portable archive is deterministic and contains only non-sensitive metadata:

portable-bundle-v1.tgz
 ├── manifest.json             # Canonical manifest (identical to sealed bundle)
 ├── signature.json            # DSSE signature + optional RFC3161 token
 ├── bundle.json               # Redacted metadata (no tenant/storage identifiers)
 ├── checksums.txt             # SHA-256 root + entry checksums
 ├── instructions-portable.txt # Sealed-mode transfer + verification guidance
 └── verify-offline.sh         # Offline verification helper script (POSIX shell)

Portable packaging traits:

• bundle.json excludes tenant identifiers, storage keys, and free-form descriptions. It adds portableGeneratedAt along with entry counts and totals for audit purposes.
• incidentMetadata is preserved only when incident mode injects incident.* keys into the manifest metadata.
• verify-offline.sh extracts the bundle, validates checksums (using sha256sum/shasum), surfaces the Merkle root hash, and reminds operators to run stella evidence verify --bundle <archive>.
• instructions-portable.txt mirrors the sealed documentation but calls out the offline script and redaction constraints.

Portable bundles reuse the same DSSE payload and timestamp, so downstream verifiers can validate signatures without additional configuration. The Evidence Locker tracks the portable storage key separately to honour write-once semantics for both sealed and portable artifacts.

For step-by-step sealed-mode guidance see docs/airgap/portable-evidence.md.