GHSA-2hp7-65r3-wv54: 
vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Summary

The --address CLI flag (and NORNICDB_ADDRESS / server.host config key) is plumbed through to the HTTP server correctly but never reaches the Bolt server config. The Bolt listener therefore always binds to the wildcard address (all interfaces), regardless of what the user configures. On a LAN, this exposes the graph database — with its default admin:password credentials — to any device sharing the network.

Version

• nornicdb v1.0.39
• Built from commit afe7c9d on main
• Platform: macOS (darwin 25.4.0, arm64)

Reproduction

$ nornicdb serve --address 127.0.0.1 --bolt-port 7687 --http-port 7474 ...

Output claims Bolt is on localhost:

Bolt server listening on bolt://localhost:7687

But the actual socket:

$ netstat -an -p tcp | grep 7687
tcp46      0      0  *.7687                 *.*                    LISTEN
$ lsof -iTCP:7687 -sTCP:LISTEN -n -P
nornicdb ... IPv6 ... TCP *:7687 (LISTEN)

HTTP port is correctly bound:

tcp4  127.0.0.1.7474   *.*  LISTEN

Reachable from another host on the LAN:

$ nc -z 192.168.x.y 7687
Connection to 192.168.x.y port 7687 [tcp/*] succeeded!

Setting NORNICDB_BOLT_ADDRESS=127.0.0.1 or server.host: "127.0.0.1" in config.yaml has no effect on the Bolt listener.

Root Cause

In pkg/bolt/server.go:774-776:

func (s *Server) ListenAndServe() error {
    addr := fmt.Sprintf(":%d", s.config.Port)
    listener, err := net.Listen("tcp", addr)
    ...
}

bolt.Config (line 474) has no Host/Address/Addr field — only Port. The CLI flag --address is stored in a local variable in cmd/nornicdb/main.go:80 and used to format user-facing log output (line 637–644), but is never copied into boltConfig at line 600–609 when Bolt is initialized. Since ListenAndServe calls net.Listen("tcp", ":7687") with an empty host, Go binds the wildcard socket on all interfaces.

Suggested Fix

1. Add a Host string field to bolt.Config (default "127.0.0.1", matching the CLI flag default).
2. In cmd/nornicdb/main.go around line 601, wire it through:

   boltConfig.Host = address
   boltConfig.Port = boltPort

3. In pkg/bolt/server.go:775, use the host:

   addr := net.JoinHostPort(s.config.Host, strconv.Itoa(s.config.Port))

Security Impact

• Default admin:password credentials + wildcard binding = anyone on the same WiFi can issue arbitrary Cypher queries (read, write, delete nodes) against NornicDB instances running with default setup.
• Users following the README will reasonably assume --address 127.0.0.1 (the documented default) binds both protocols to localhost.
• Workaround: host-firewall rules (e.g. macOS pf) blocking non-loopback → 7687. Not discoverable from the docs.