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feat(security): let a consumer supply the access token via setAccessTokenResolver - #324

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feat/access-token-resolver
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feat(security): let a consumer supply the access token via setAccessTokenResolver#324
gcutrini wants to merge 6 commits into
v4.xfrom
feat/access-token-resolver

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@gcutrini

@gcutrini gcutrini commented Aug 24, 2026

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ref: https://app.clickup.com/t/86bbnquuq

uicore's getAccessToken assumes the access token lives on the client. It reads and refreshes the token from local storage and serializes refreshes with navigator.locks. That model does not fit a server-rendered host such as the Next.js event site, where the token is held in an encrypted httpOnly cookie and is never exposed to JavaScript. There is no client-side token for uicore to read, lock, or renew.

Keeping the token out of JavaScript is also a deliberate security property. A token that never reaches the browser's JS context cannot be stolen by XSS or replayed from client code.

Several uicore modules call getAccessToken, so the source must be injectable inside uicore rather than overridden by the consumer. Today a cookie-based host has to work around this by aliasing security/methods at build time and substituting its own implementation, which is invasive (build-system specific, replaces the whole module) and easy to drift out of sync.

What

Add setAccessTokenResolver to security/methods: a consumer registers where the access token comes from, without replacing anything.

  • It does not bypass getAccessToken. When a resolver is registered, getAccessToken delegates to it; otherwise the built-in flow is unchanged. Passing a non-function resets to the built-in.
  • It is opt-in. Existing consumers such as summit-admin are unaffected; there is no behavior change unless they call setAccessTokenResolver.

Renewal is the consumer's concern

When a resolver is registered, uicore delegates token retrieval to it and does not apply its own storage, locking, or renewal to the returned value. Freshness is left entirely to the consumer. A cookie-based host, for example, renews server-side (the server refreshes the session cookie via the refresh_token grant, and proxied API calls attach the real bearer from the cookie) and hands uicore only a "session present" placeholder, so there is nothing on the client to lock or renew.

Implementation note

The resolver lives on globalThis under a registered symbol:
globalThis[Symbol.for('openstack-uicore-foundation.accessTokenResolver')].
setAccessTokenResolver writes that slot; getAccessToken reads it.

Module state was not an option here. Every copy of security/methods has its
own module scope, and modern package managers routinely create several
copies of the package: pnpm materializes one per peer combination, widgets
can carry nested installs, and symlinked dev checkouts resolve to their own
tree. A resolver kept in module state is only visible to the copy that
registered it. The Symbol.for registry is shared by every copy on the page,
so the singleton holds with no build-system help. React uses the same
pattern for its element symbols.

The webpack build is untouched: no bundle requires the package by its own
name, so yarn link installs keep working and hosts do not need a single
hoisted copy of the package.

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…okenResolver

Add setAccessTokenResolver: when a resolver is registered, getAccessToken delegates to it; otherwise the built-in flow is unchanged. Passing a non-function resets to the built-in.

The resolver is module-level state, so externalize security/methods in the webpack build so every uicore lib entry shares one instance and sees the registered resolver.
Delegates to a registered resolver, a later resolver replaces the previous one, and a non-function argument clears it.
@gcutrini
gcutrini force-pushed the feat/access-token-resolver branch from 670afb2 to 63e4c51 Compare August 24, 2026 17:42
@gcutrini
gcutrini changed the base branch from main to v4.x August 24, 2026 17:42
@smarcet

smarcet commented Aug 25, 2026

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@gcutrini i cant approve this , this bypass entirely the renewal flow please provide a rationale for this

@smarcet

smarcet commented Aug 25, 2026

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@gcutrini following up on the earlier request for a rationale: the current PR description explains why the resolver has to live inside security/methods (multiple internal call sites: security/actions.js, utils/query-actions.js, attendance-tracker.js, inputs/dropzone/index.js) and why webpack.common.js needs the externals change (multi-entry UMD build, module-level state duplicated per bundle otherwise) — both check out against the code.

What's still missing is the actual concern raised: when _resolveAccessToken is set, getAccessToken() returns _resolveAccessToken() directly (methods.js:349), bypassing the cross-tab mutex (navigator.locks/SuperTokensLock), the expiry check against ACCESS_TOKEN_SKEW_TIME, and the automatic refresh + storeAuthInfo persistence in _getAccessToken. Two things need an answer before this can be approved:

  1. What's the concrete use case that requires bypassing the entire pipeline, rather than a narrower hook that only swaps the token source while _getAccessToken still owns expiry/refresh?
  2. Once a resolver is active, who is responsible for renewal — is the consumer's resolver expected to reimplement expiry checking and refresh itself? If so, that contract should be documented (JSDoc on setAccessTokenResolver), since every module that currently benefits from automatic renewal (query-actions, attendance-tracker, dropzone, security/actions) will silently stop renewing once any part of the app calls setAccessTokenResolver.

_fetch rejected its promise after already calling back with the error.
The query* functions never await that promise, so the rejection only
surfaced as an unhandled rejection. Return instead. Also guard the 404
branch so a missing response or callback cannot throw.
With a resolver registered, query-actions, getUserInfo and
AttendanceTracker send the resolver's token, and a resolver failure in
query-actions reaches the caller's callback without a request.
@gcutrini

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Note on the externals rule added here.

security/methods.js imported the SET_LOGGED_USER string from ./actions, and actions.js imports ./methods back. That import cycle already existed on v4.x and was harmless: the methods bundle just carried its own inlined copy of actions and methods.

This PR externalizes security/methods so every bundle shares one instance (needed for the resolver state). With that rule, the inlined actions copy inside the methods bundle resolved to lib/security/methods.js itself, so the file required itself. It still loaded (nothing reads it at load time), but the inlined copies would see an empty module, and a consumer bundling uicore from source with esbuild can fail to resolve it. So it had to be fixed here, not later.

Fix: the action-type strings moved to security/constants.js; actions.js re-exports them, so existing imports keep working. reducers.js and utils/actions.js also read from constants now, so they stop inlining the actions module. No API change.

…for global slot

The resolver moves from module state to
globalThis[Symbol.for('openstack-uicore-foundation.accessTokenResolver')],
so every copy of security/methods reads the same slot: bundles that inline
it, nested installs of the package, and symlinked dev installs. This drops
the webpack externals rule that made the module a cross-bundle singleton;
no bundle requires the package by its own name anymore, so yarn link
installs keep working and hosts no longer need a single hoisted copy.
@gcutrini
gcutrini force-pushed the feat/access-token-resolver branch from 976e221 to 4eaf3a7 Compare September 3, 2026 22:12
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