[pbs-devel] [PATCH proxmox-backup v2 3/3] client: adapt pbs client to also handle HttpOnly flows correctly

Shannon Sterz s.sterz at proxmox.com
Wed Jul 23 17:14:02 CEST 2025


if we decide to make the HttpOnly flow opt-out or remove the previous
authentication flow entirely, prepare the client to properly
authenticate against such servers as well

this does not opt the client into the new flow, as that has no real
security benefits. however, doing so would require additional network
traffic and/or state handling on the client to maintain backward
compatability. this would be rather convoluted. hence, avoid doing so
for now.

Signed-off-by: Shannon Sterz <s.sterz at proxmox.com>
Tested-by: Mira Limbeck <m.limbeck at proxmox.com>
Tested-by: Maximiliano Sandoval <m.sandoval at proxmox.com>
---
changes since v1:

- consistently use "HttpOnly" instead of switching between "http only",
  "http-only" and "HttpOnly" in comments and user facing documentation,
  thanks @ Mira Limbeck

 pbs-client/src/http_client.rs | 70 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 65 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pbs-client/src/http_client.rs b/pbs-client/src/http_client.rs
index 0b415cac..74b07624 100644
--- a/pbs-client/src/http_client.rs
+++ b/pbs-client/src/http_client.rs
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ use bytes::Bytes;
 use futures::*;
 use http_body_util::{BodyDataStream, BodyExt};
 use hyper::body::Incoming;
+use hyper::header::SET_COOKIE;
 use hyper::http::header::HeaderValue;
 use hyper::http::Uri;
 use hyper::http::{Request, Response};
@@ -111,11 +112,16 @@ mod resolver {
 /// certain error conditions. Keep it generous, to avoid false-positive under high load.
 const HTTP_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(2 * 60);

+const PROXMOX_BACKUP_AUTH_COOKIE: &str = "PBSAuthCookie";
+const PROXMOX_BACKUP_PREFIXED_AUTH_COOKIE: &str = "__Host-PBSAuthCookie";
+
 #[derive(Clone)]
 pub struct AuthInfo {
     pub auth_id: Authid,
     pub ticket: String,
     pub token: String,
+    // Whether the server uses HttpOnly cookies for authentication
+    pub http_only: bool,
 }

 pub struct HttpClientOptions {
@@ -504,6 +510,7 @@ impl HttpClient {
             auth_id: auth_id.clone(),
             ticket: password.clone(),
             token: "".to_string(),
+            http_only: false,
         }));

         let server2 = server.to_string();
@@ -725,10 +732,18 @@ impl HttpClient {
                 HeaderValue::from_str(&enc_api_token).unwrap(),
             );
         } else {
+            let cookie_name = if auth.http_only {
+                // server has switched to http only flow, provide ticket in properly prefixed cookie
+                PROXMOX_BACKUP_PREFIXED_AUTH_COOKIE
+            } else {
+                PROXMOX_BACKUP_AUTH_COOKIE
+            };
+
             let enc_ticket = format!(
-                "PBSAuthCookie={}",
+                "{cookie_name}={}",
                 percent_encode(auth.ticket.as_bytes(), DEFAULT_ENCODE_SET)
             );
+
             req.headers_mut()
                 .insert("Cookie", HeaderValue::from_str(&enc_ticket).unwrap());
             req.headers_mut().insert(
@@ -767,10 +782,18 @@ impl HttpClient {

         let auth = self.login().await?;

+        let cookie_name = if auth.http_only {
+            // server has switched to http only flow, provide ticket in properly prefixed cookie
+            PROXMOX_BACKUP_PREFIXED_AUTH_COOKIE
+        } else {
+            PROXMOX_BACKUP_AUTH_COOKIE
+        };
+
         let enc_ticket = format!(
-            "PBSAuthCookie={}",
+            "{cookie_name}={}",
             percent_encode(auth.ticket.as_bytes(), DEFAULT_ENCODE_SET)
         );
+
         req.headers_mut()
             .insert("Cookie", HeaderValue::from_str(&enc_ticket).unwrap());

@@ -836,10 +859,18 @@ impl HttpClient {
                 HeaderValue::from_str(&enc_api_token).unwrap(),
             );
         } else {
+            let cookie_name = if auth.http_only {
+                // server has switched to http only flow, provide ticket in properly prefixed cookie
+                PROXMOX_BACKUP_PREFIXED_AUTH_COOKIE
+            } else {
+                PROXMOX_BACKUP_AUTH_COOKIE
+            };
+
             let enc_ticket = format!(
-                "PBSAuthCookie={}",
+                "{cookie_name}={}",
                 percent_encode(auth.ticket.as_bytes(), DEFAULT_ENCODE_SET)
             );
+
             req.headers_mut()
                 .insert("Cookie", HeaderValue::from_str(&enc_ticket).unwrap());
             req.headers_mut().insert(
@@ -905,14 +936,43 @@ impl HttpClient {
             "/api2/json/access/ticket",
             Some(data),
         )?;
-        let cred = Self::api_request(client, req).await?;
+
+        let res = tokio::time::timeout(HTTP_TIMEOUT, client.request(req))
+            .await
+            .map_err(|_| format_err!("http request timed out"))??;
+
+        // check if the headers contain a newer HttpOnly cookie
+        let http_only_ticket = res
+            .headers()
+            .get_all(SET_COOKIE)
+            .iter()
+            .filter_map(|c| c.to_str().ok())
+            .filter_map(|c| match (c.find('='), c.find(';')) {
+                (Some(begin), Some(end))
+                    if begin < end && &c[..begin] == PROXMOX_BACKUP_PREFIXED_AUTH_COOKIE =>
+                {
+                    Some(c[begin + 1..end].to_string())
+                }
+                _ => None,
+            })
+            .next();
+
+        // if the headers contained a new HttpOnly cookie, the server switched to providing these
+        // by default. this means that older cookies may no longer be supported, so switch to using
+        // the new cookie name.
+        let http_only = http_only_ticket.is_some();
+
+        let cred = Self::api_response(res).await?;
         let auth = AuthInfo {
             auth_id: cred["data"]["username"].as_str().unwrap().parse()?,
-            ticket: cred["data"]["ticket"].as_str().unwrap().to_owned(),
+            ticket: http_only_ticket
+                .or(cred["data"]["ticket"].as_str().map(|t| t.to_string()))
+                .unwrap(),
             token: cred["data"]["CSRFPreventionToken"]
                 .as_str()
                 .unwrap()
                 .to_owned(),
+            http_only,
         };

         Ok(auth)
--
2.47.2





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