RFC-008: Security

Field	Value
RFC	008
Title	Security
Status	Proposed
Depends on	RFC-001, RFC-004, RFC-006
Updates	,

Abstract

This document specifies the security architecture and requirements for PTI implementations: threat model, authentication, authorization, cryptography, network security, secure development lifecycle, and incident handling.

Motivation

Trust platforms aggregate sensitive financial, employment, and identity data. A shared security baseline enables institutions to assess operator risk consistently and allows certification without proprietary audits.

Background

PTI security aligns with cloud-native best practices (OWASP ASVS, NIST CSF) while addressing domain-specific threats: lookup enumeration, producer credential theft, evidence forgery, and cross-tenant data leakage.

Terminology

Term	Definition
Tenant	Isolated organizational boundary (producer or consumer)
Credential	API key, OAuth client, or mTLS certificate
Entitlement	Authorized contexts, tiers, and operations
HSM	Hardware Security Module for key storage
SOC	Security Operations Center monitoring

Specification

1. Threat model

Implementations MUST mitigate at minimum:

Threat	Impact	Required control
Credential theft	Unauthorized ingest/lookup	Scoped keys, rotation, anomaly detection
Subject enumeration	Mass PII discovery	Rate limits, confidence thresholds
Evidence forgery	Fraudulent reports	Signed manifests (RFC-012)
Cross-tenant leakage	Data breach	Strict tenant isolation
Insider abuse	Unauthorized admin access	RBAC, MFA, audit
Replay attacks	Duplicate or stale packages	Timestamps, idempotency, PRL (RFC-006)

2. Authentication

• All public APIs MUST use TLS 1.2+ with modern cipher suites.
• Producer and consumer credentials MUST be authenticatable via API key or OAuth 2.0 client credentials.
• Federation gateways MUST use mTLS between operators.
• Human admin access MUST use MFA.

3. Authorization

• Authorization MUST evaluate tenant, entitled contexts, tiers, and operation type on every request.
• Default stance MUST be deny.
• Graph admin and bulk export MUST require privileged roles separate from lookup credentials.

4. Cryptography

Data state	Requirement
In transit	TLS 1.2+
At rest	AES-256 or equivalent
Signatures	Ed25519 or RSA-3072+ for evidence manifests
Passwords	Argon2id or bcrypt with per-user salt

Government profile MUST store signing keys in HSM.

5. Key management

• API keys MUST support rotation without downtime (dual-active window).
• Signing keys MUST publish kid in JWKS with overlap during rotation.
• Compromised keys MUST be revocable within 1 hour operational target.

6. Network and infrastructure

• Production workloads MUST run in segmented networks.
• Databases MUST NOT be internet-routable.
• Implementations SHOULD deploy WAF on public lookup endpoints.

7. Secure development

• Dependencies MUST be scanned for known vulnerabilities in CI.
• Security testing MUST include OWASP Top 10 categories relevant to APIs.
• Penetration test SHOULD occur annually; government profile MUST.

8. Logging and monitoring

• Security events MUST feed SIEM with alerting on anomaly thresholds.
• Logs MUST NOT contain full credentials or prohibited payload categories.

Security Considerations

This RFC is the primary security document; implementations MUST treat missing controls as non-conformant for Enterprise profile and above.

Privacy Considerations

Security controls support privacy (encryption, access limits) but do not replace RFC-009. Joint implementation MUST satisfy both.

Examples

Scoped API key claims

{
  "tenant_id": "cons_772",
  "role": "consumer",
  "entitled_contexts": ["lending", "risk_compliance"],
  "allowed_tiers": ["basic", "detailed"]
}

Webhook signature verification

expected = HMAC_SHA256(secret, timestamp + "." + body)

Reject if abs(now - timestamp) > 300 seconds.

Implementation Notes

• Use short-lived tokens derived from long-lived client credentials where possible.
• Separate signing service from application servers.
• Document data residency per deployment region for institution questionnaires.

Future Work

• Confidential computing profile for scoring workloads
• Post-quantum signature algorithm migration plan
• Bug bounty program guidelines for accredited operators