git.stella-ops.org/docs/ARCHITECTURE_VEXER.md

# component_architecture_vexer.md — **Stella Ops Vexer** (2025Q4)

> **Scope.** This document specifies the **Vexer** service: its purpose, trust model, data structures, APIs, plug‑in contracts, storage schema, normalization/consensus algorithms, performance budgets, testing matrix, and how it integrates with Scanner, Policy, Feedser, and the attestation chain. It is implementation‑ready.

---

## 0) Mission & role in the platform

**Mission.** Convert heterogeneous **VEX** statements (OpenVEX, CSAF VEX, CycloneDX VEX; vendor/distro/platform sources) into **canonical, queryable claims**; compute **deterministic consensus** per *(vuln, product)*; preserve **conflicts with provenance**; publish **stable, attestable exports** that the backend uses to suppress non‑exploitable findings, prioritize remaining risk, and explain decisions.

**Boundaries.**

* Vexer **does not** decide PASS/FAIL. It supplies **evidence** (statuses + justifications + provenance weights).
* Vexer preserves **conflicting claims** unchanged; consensus encodes how we would pick, but the raw set is always exportable.
* VEX consumption is **backend‑only**: Scanner never applies VEX. The backend’s **Policy Engine** asks Vexer for status evidence and then decides what to show.

---

## 1) Inputs, outputs & canonical domain

### 1.1 Accepted input formats (ingest)

* **OpenVEX** JSON documents (attested or raw).
* **CSAF VEX** 2.x (vendor PSIRTs and distros commonly publish CSAF).
* **CycloneDX VEX** 1.4+ (standalone VEX or embedded VEX blocks).
* **OCI‑attached attestations** (VEX statements shipped as OCI referrers) — optional connectors.

All connectors register **source metadata**: provider identity, trust tier, signature expectations (PGP/cosign/PKI), fetch windows, rate limits, and time anchors.

### 1.2 Canonical model (normalized)

Every incoming statement becomes a set of **VexClaim** records:

```
VexClaim
- providerId           // 'redhat', 'suse', 'ubuntu', 'github', 'vendorX'
- vulnId               // 'CVE-2025-12345', 'GHSA-xxxx', canonicalized
- productKey           // canonical product identity (see §2.2)
- status               // affected | not_affected | fixed | under_investigation
- justification?       // for 'not_affected'/'affected' where provided
- introducedVersion?   // semantics per provider (range or exact)
- fixedVersion?        // where provided (range or exact)
- lastObserved         // timestamp from source or fetch time
- provenance           // doc digest, signature status, fetch URI, line/offset anchors
- evidence[]           // raw source snippets for explainability
- supersedes?          // optional cross-doc chain (docDigest → docDigest)
```

### 1.3 Exports (consumption)

* **VexConsensus** per `(vulnId, productKey)` with:

  * `rollupStatus` (after policy weights/justification gates),
  * `sources[]` (winning + losing claims with weights & reasons),
  * `policyRevisionId` (identifier of the Vexer policy used),
  * `consensusDigest` (stable SHA‑256 over canonical JSON).
* **Raw claims** export for auditing (unchanged, with provenance).
* **Provider snapshots** (per source, last N days) for operator debugging.
* **Index** optimized for backend joins: `(productKey, vulnId) → (status, confidence, sourceSet)`.

All exports are **deterministic**, and (optionally) **attested** via DSSE and logged to Rekor v2.

---

## 2) Identity model — products & joins

### 2.1 Vuln identity

* Accepts **CVE**, **GHSA**, vendor IDs (MSRC, RHSA…), distro IDs (DSA/USN/RHSA…) — normalized to `vulnId` with alias sets.
* **Alias graph** maintained (from Feedser) to map vendor/distro IDs → CVE (primary) and to **GHSA** where applicable.

### 2.2 Product identity (`productKey`)

* **Primary:** `purl` (Package URL).
* **Secondary links:** `cpe`, **OS package NVRA/EVR**, NuGet/Maven/Golang identity, and **OS package name** when purl unavailable.
* **Fallback:** `oci:<registry>/<repo>@<digest>` for image‑level VEX.
* **Special cases:** kernel modules, firmware, platforms → provider‑specific mapping helpers (connector captures provider’s product taxonomy → canonical `productKey`).

> Vexer does not invent identities. If a provider cannot be mapped to purl/CPE/NVRA deterministically, we keep the native **product string** and mark the claim as **non‑joinable**; the backend will ignore it unless a policy explicitly whitelists that provider mapping.

---

## 3) Storage schema (MongoDB)

Database: `vexer`

### 3.1 Collections

**`vex.providers`**

```
_id: providerId
name, homepage, contact
trustTier: enum {vendor, distro, platform, hub, attestation}
signaturePolicy: { type: pgp|cosign|x509|none, keys[], certs[], cosignKeylessRoots[] }
fetch: { baseUrl, kind: http|oci|file, rateLimit, etagSupport, windowDays }
enabled: bool
createdAt, modifiedAt
```

**`vex.raw`** (immutable raw documents)

```
_id: sha256(doc bytes)
providerId
uri
ingestedAt
contentType
sig: { verified: bool, method: pgp|cosign|x509|none, keyId|certSubject, bundle? }
payload: GridFS pointer (if large)
disposition: kept|replaced|superseded
correlation: { replaces?: sha256, replacedBy?: sha256 }
```

**`vex.claims`** (normalized rows; dedupe on providerId+vulnId+productKey+docDigest)

```
_id
providerId
vulnId
productKey
status
justification?
introducedVersion?
fixedVersion?
lastObserved
docDigest
provenance { uri, line?, pointer?, signatureState }
evidence[] { key, value, locator }
indices: 
  - {vulnId:1, productKey:1}
  - {providerId:1, lastObserved:-1}
  - {status:1}
  - text index (optional) on evidence.value for debugging
```

**`vex.consensus`** (rollups)

```
_id: sha256(canonical(vulnId, productKey, policyRevision))
vulnId
productKey
rollupStatus
sources[]: [
  { providerId, status, justification?, weight, lastObserved, accepted:bool, reason }
]
policyRevisionId
evaluatedAt
consensusDigest  // same as _id
indices:
  - {vulnId:1, productKey:1}
  - {policyRevisionId:1, evaluatedAt:-1}
```

**`vex.exports`** (manifest of emitted artifacts)

```
_id
querySignature
format: raw|consensus|index
artifactSha256
rekor { uuid, index, url }?
createdAt
policyRevisionId
cacheable: bool
```

**`vex.cache`**

```
querySignature -> exportId (for fast reuse)
ttl, hits
```

**`vex.migrations`**

* ordered migrations applied at bootstrap to ensure indexes.

### 3.2 Indexing strategy

* Hot path queries use exact `(vulnId, productKey)` and time‑bounded windows; compound indexes cover both.
* Providers list view by `lastObserved` for monitoring staleness.
* `vex.consensus` keyed by `(vulnId, productKey, policyRevision)` for deterministic reuse.

---

## 4) Ingestion pipeline

### 4.1 Connector contract

```csharp
public interface IVexConnector
{
    string ProviderId { get; }
    Task FetchAsync(VexConnectorContext ctx, CancellationToken ct);   // raw docs
    Task NormalizeAsync(VexConnectorContext ctx, CancellationToken ct); // raw -> VexClaim[]
}
```

* **Fetch** must implement: window scheduling, conditional GET (ETag/If‑Modified‑Since), rate limiting, retry/backoff.
* **Normalize** parses the format, validates schema, maps product identities deterministically, emits `VexClaim` records with **provenance**.

### 4.2 Signature verification (per provider)

* **cosign (keyless or keyful)** for OCI referrers or HTTP‑served JSON with Sigstore bundles.
* **PGP** (provider keyrings) for distro/vendor feeds that sign docs.
* **x509** (mutual TLS / provider‑pinned certs) where applicable.
* Signature state is stored on **vex.raw.sig** and copied into **provenance.signatureState** on claims.

> Claims from sources failing signature policy are marked `"signatureState.verified=false"` and **policy** can down‑weight or ignore them.

### 4.3 Time discipline

* For each doc, prefer **provider’s document timestamp**; if absent, use fetch time.
* Claims carry `lastObserved` which drives **tie‑breaking** within equal weight tiers.

---

## 5) Normalization: product & status semantics

### 5.1 Product mapping

* **purl** first; **cpe** second; OS package NVRA/EVR mapping helpers (distro connectors) produce purls via canonical tables (e.g., rpm→purl:rpm, deb→purl:deb).
* Where a provider publishes **platform‑level** VEX (e.g., “RHEL 9 not affected”), connectors expand to known product inventory rules (e.g., map to sets of packages/components shipped in the platform). Expansion tables are versioned and kept per provider; every expansion emits **evidence** indicating the rule applied.
* If expansion would be speculative, the claim remains **platform‑scoped** with `productKey="platform:redhat:rhel:9"` and is flagged **non‑joinable**; backend can decide to use platform VEX only when Scanner proves the platform runtime.

### 5.2 Status + justification mapping

* Canonical **status**: `affected | not_affected | fixed | under_investigation`.
* **Justifications** normalized to a controlled vocabulary (CISA‑aligned), e.g.:

  * `component_not_present`
  * `vulnerable_code_not_in_execute_path`
  * `vulnerable_configuration_unused`
  * `inline_mitigation_applied`
  * `fix_available` (with `fixedVersion`)
  * `under_investigation`
* Providers with free‑text justifications are mapped by deterministic tables; raw text preserved as `evidence`.

---

## 6) Consensus algorithm

**Goal:** produce a **stable**, explainable `rollupStatus` per `(vulnId, productKey)` given possibly conflicting claims.

### 6.1 Inputs

* Set **S** of `VexClaim` for the key.
* **Vexer policy snapshot**:

  * **weights** per provider tier and per provider overrides.
  * **justification gates** (e.g., require justification for `not_affected` to be acceptable).
  * **minEvidence** rules (e.g., `not_affected` must come from ≥1 vendor or 2 distros).
  * **signature requirements** (e.g., require verified signature for ‘fixed’ to be considered).

### 6.2 Steps

1. **Filter invalid** claims by signature policy & justification gates → set `S'`.
2. **Score** each claim:
   `score = weight(provider) * freshnessFactor(lastObserved)` where freshnessFactor ∈ [0.8, 1.0] for staleness decay (configurable; small effect).
3. **Aggregate** scores per status: `W(status) = Σ score(claims with that status)`.
4. **Pick** `rollupStatus = argmax_status W(status)`.
5. **Tie‑breakers** (in order):

   * Higher **max single** provider score wins (vendor > distro > platform > hub).
   * More **recent** lastObserved wins.
   * Deterministic lexicographic order of status (`fixed` > `not_affected` > `under_investigation` > `affected`) as final tiebreaker.
6. **Explain**: mark accepted sources (`accepted=true; reason="weight"`/`"freshness"`), mark rejected sources with explicit `reason` (`"insufficient_justification"`, `"signature_unverified"`, `"lower_weight"`).

> The algorithm is **pure** given S and policy snapshot; result is reproducible and hashed into `consensusDigest`.

---

## 7) Query & export APIs

All endpoints are versioned under `/api/v1/vex`.

### 7.1 Query (online)

```
POST /claims/search
  body: { vulnIds?: string[], productKeys?: string[], providers?: string[], since?: timestamp, limit?: int, pageToken?: string }
  → { claims[], nextPageToken? }

POST /consensus/search
  body: { vulnIds?: string[], productKeys?: string[], policyRevisionId?: string, since?: timestamp, limit?: int, pageToken?: string }
  → { entries[], nextPageToken? }

POST /excititor/resolve (scope: vex.read)
  body: { productKeys?: string[], purls?: string[], vulnerabilityIds: string[], policyRevisionId?: string }
  → { policy, resolvedAt, results: [ { vulnerabilityId, productKey, status, sources[], conflicts[], decisions[], signals?, summary?, envelope: { artifact, contentSignature?, attestation?, attestationEnvelope?, attestationSignature? } } ] }
```

### 7.2 Exports (cacheable snapshots)

```
POST /exports
  body: { signature: { vulnFilter?, productFilter?, providers?, since? }, format: raw|consensus|index, policyRevisionId?: string, force?: bool }
  → { exportId, artifactSha256, rekor? }

GET  /exports/{exportId}        → bytes (application/json or binary index)
GET  /exports/{exportId}/meta   → { signature, policyRevisionId, createdAt, artifactSha256, rekor? }
```

### 7.3 Provider operations

```
GET  /providers                  → provider list & signature policy
POST /providers/{id}/refresh     → trigger fetch/normalize window
GET  /providers/{id}/status      → last fetch, doc counts, signature stats
```

**Auth:** service‑to‑service via Authority tokens; operator operations via UI/CLI with RBAC.

---

## 8) Attestation integration

* Exports can be **DSSE‑signed** via **Signer** and logged to **Rekor v2** via **Attestor** (optional but recommended for regulated pipelines).
* `vex.exports.rekor` stores `{uuid, index, url}` when present.
* **Predicate type**: `https://stella-ops.org/attestations/vex-export/1` with fields:

  * `querySignature`, `policyRevisionId`, `artifactSha256`, `createdAt`.

---

## 9) Configuration (YAML)

```yaml
vexer:
  mongo: { uri: "mongodb://mongo/vexer" }
  s3:
    endpoint: http://minio:9000
    bucket: stellaops
  policy:
    weights:
      vendor: 1.0
      distro: 0.9
      platform: 0.7
      hub: 0.5
      attestation: 0.6
    providerOverrides:
      redhat: 1.0
      suse: 0.95
    requireJustificationForNotAffected: true
    signatureRequiredForFixed: true
    minEvidence:
      not_affected:
        vendorOrTwoDistros: true
  connectors:
    - providerId: redhat
      kind: csaf
      baseUrl: https://access.redhat.com/security/data/csaf/v2/
      signaturePolicy: { type: pgp, keys: [ "…redhat-pgp-key…" ] }
      windowDays: 7
    - providerId: suse
      kind: csaf
      baseUrl: https://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/security/csaf/
      signaturePolicy: { type: pgp, keys: [ "…suse-pgp-key…" ] }
    - providerId: ubuntu
      kind: openvex
      baseUrl: https://…/vex/
      signaturePolicy: { type: none }
    - providerId: vendorX
      kind: cyclonedx-vex
      ociRef: ghcr.io/vendorx/vex@sha256:…
      signaturePolicy: { type: cosign, cosignKeylessRoots: [ "sigstore-root" ] }
```

---

## 10) Security model

* **Input signature verification** enforced per provider policy (PGP, cosign, x509).
* **Connector allowlists**: outbound fetch constrained to configured domains.
* **Tenant isolation**: per‑tenant DB prefixes or separate DBs; per‑tenant S3 prefixes; per‑tenant policies.
* **AuthN/Z**: Authority‑issued OpToks; RBAC roles (`vex.read`, `vex.admin`, `vex.export`).
* **No secrets in logs**; deterministic logging contexts include providerId, docDigest, claim keys.

---

## 11) Performance & scale

* **Targets:**

  * Normalize 10k VEX claims/minute/core.
  * Consensus compute ≤ 50 ms for 1k unique `(vuln, product)` pairs in hot cache.
  * Export (consensus) 1M rows in ≤ 60 s on 8 cores with streaming writer.

* **Scaling:**

  * WebService handles control APIs; **Worker** background services (same image) execute fetch/normalize in parallel with rate‑limits; Mongo writes batched; upserts by natural keys.
  * Exports stream straight to S3 (MinIO) with rolling buffers.

* **Caching:**

  * `vex.cache` maps query signatures → export; TTL to avoid stampedes; optimistic reuse unless `force`.

---

## 12) Observability

* **Metrics:**

  * `vex.ingest.docs_total{provider}`
  * `vex.normalize.claims_total{provider}`
  * `vex.signature.failures_total{provider,method}`
  * `vex.consensus.conflicts_total{vulnId}`
  * `vex.exports.bytes{format}` / `vex.exports.latency_seconds`
* **Tracing:** spans for fetch, verify, parse, map, consensus, export.
* **Dashboards:** provider staleness, top conflicting vulns/components, signature posture, export cache hit‑rate.

---

## 13) Testing matrix

* **Connectors:** golden raw docs → deterministic claims (fixtures per provider/format).
* **Signature policies:** valid/invalid PGP/cosign/x509 samples; ensure rejects are recorded but not accepted.
* **Normalization edge cases:** platform‑only claims, free‑text justifications, non‑purl products.
* **Consensus:** conflict scenarios across tiers; check tie‑breakers; justification gates.
* **Performance:** 1M‑row export timing; memory ceilings; stream correctness.
* **Determinism:** same inputs + policy → identical `consensusDigest` and export bytes.
* **API contract tests:** pagination, filters, RBAC, rate limits.

---

## 14) Integration points

* **Backend Policy Engine** (in Scanner.WebService): calls `POST /excititor/resolve` (scope `vex.read`) with batched `(purl, vulnId)` pairs to fetch `rollupStatus + sources`.
* **Feedser**: provides alias graph (CVE↔vendor IDs) and may supply VEX‑adjacent metadata (e.g., KEV flag) for policy escalation.
* **UI**: VEX explorer screens use `/claims/search` and `/consensus/search`; show conflicts & provenance.
* **CLI**: `stellaops vex export --consensus --since 7d --out vex.json` for audits.

---

## 15) Failure modes & fallback

* **Provider unreachable:** stale thresholds trigger warnings; policy can down‑weight stale providers automatically (freshness factor).
* **Signature outage:** continue to ingest but mark `signatureState.verified=false`; consensus will likely exclude or down‑weight per policy.
* **Schema drift:** unknown fields are preserved as `evidence`; normalization rejects only on **invalid identity** or **status**.

---

## 16) Rollout plan (incremental)

1. **MVP**: OpenVEX + CSAF connectors for 3 major providers (e.g., Red Hat/SUSE/Ubuntu), normalization + consensus + `/excititor/resolve`.
2. **Signature policies**: PGP for distros; cosign for OCI.
3. **Exports + optional attestation**.
4. **CycloneDX VEX** connectors; platform claim expansion tables; UI explorer.
5. **Scale hardening**: export indexes; conflict analytics.

---

## 17) Appendix — canonical JSON (stable ordering)

All exports and consensus entries are serialized via `VexCanonicalJsonSerializer`:

* UTF‑8 without BOM;
* keys sorted (ASCII);
* arrays sorted by `(providerId, vulnId, productKey, lastObserved)` unless semantic order mandated;
* timestamps in `YYYY‑MM‑DDThh:mm:ssZ`;
* no insignificant whitespace.