🛡️ Sentinel: [MEDIUM] Fix Information Disclosure in Error Handling

[mbayue]

🚨 Severity: MEDIUM
💡 Vulnerability: The error payload generator (server/utils/errors.ts) was returning raw Javascript Error.message strings directly to the client as the error property when an unknown exception occurred.
🎯 Impact: Passing raw error messages from uncaught exceptions to external API clients can leak sensitive internal information (e.g., file paths, internal IP addresses, database schemas, API keys in URLs) to potential attackers. This allows for reconnaissance and targeted attacks.
🔧 Fix: Sanitized error payloads to predefined, generic fallback messages (e.g., "Internal Server Error", "Rate limit exceeded") before returning them in an HTTP response.
✅ Verification: Ran bun test and verified tests in server/utils/errors.test.ts pass and linter doesn't show errors on modified files.

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PR created automatically by Jules for task 7355982610702721678 started by @mbayue

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Summary by cubic

Prevents information disclosure by sanitizing error payloads sent to clients. Maps raw exception messages to safe, generic messages while keeping appropriate status codes and retry behavior.

• Bug Fixes
  • Sanitized toErrorPayload: map rate-limit to "Rate limit exceeded", private/not-found to "Repository not found or private", else "Internal Server Error".
  • Preserved codes/status: RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED 429, REPO_INACCESSIBLE 404, INTERNAL_ERROR 500; retryable for rate, timeout, or network errors.
  • Updated server/utils/errors.test.ts and documented the fix in .jules/sentinel.md.

^{Written for commit 87bf423. Summary will update on new commits.}

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[github-actions]

Dependency Review

✅ No vulnerabilities or license issues or OpenSSF Scorecard issues found.

Scanned Files

None

[cubic-dev-ai]

No issues found across 3 files

Confidence score: 5/5

• Automated review surfaced no issues in the provided summaries.
• No files require special attention.

Architecture diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant Client as External Client
    participant API as API Route
    participant Controller as Controller / Service
    participant ErrorHandler as Error Handler Middleware
    participant ErrGen as ErrorPayloadGenerator (toErrorPayload)

    Client->>API: HTTP Request
    API->>Controller: Invoke business logic
    Controller--xController: Throws Error (e.g., "Rate limit 429", "private repo", "timeout")
    Controller-->>ErrorHandler: Uncaught exception
    ErrorHandler->>ErrGen: toErrorPayload(err)
    
    Note over ErrGen: NEW: Sanitize generic error messages<br/>(raw msg may contain sensitive info)
    
    alt Rate limit error (msg includes "rate limit" or "429")
        ErrGen->>ErrGen: Determine: isRate = true
        ErrGen->>ErrGen: Set sanitizedError = "Rate limit exceeded"
        ErrGen-->>ErrorHandler: { error: "Rate limit exceeded", code: "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED", status: 429, retryable: true }
    else Private / Not Found error (msg includes "private", "not found", "404")
        ErrGen->>ErrGen: Determine: isPrivate = true
        ErrGen->>ErrGen: Set sanitizedError = "Repository not found or private"
        ErrGen-->>ErrorHandler: { error: "Repository not found or private", code: "REPO_INACCESSIBLE", status: 404, retryable: false }
    else Generic / other error (including timeout, network)
        ErrGen->>ErrGen: Neither rate nor private
        ErrGen->>ErrGen: Set sanitizedError = "Internal Server Error"
        ErrGen-->>ErrorHandler: { error: "Internal Server Error", code: "INTERNAL_ERROR", status: 500, retryable: true (if timeout/network) }
    end
    
    ErrorHandler-->>API: JSON response with sanitized payload
    API-->>Client: HTTP Response (status 429/404/500)
    
    Note over Client,API: Previously the raw `err.message` (e.g., "Rate limit 429", "timeout") was returned as `error` property,<br/>potentially leaking internal details.

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_{Re-trigger cubic}