test[faustwp]: regression test for hash_equals secret-key comparison (follow-up to #2312)

[josephfusco]

Summary

Follow-up to #2312 (merged as 5d73ec86), which landed the hash_equals() fix for #2310 without regression test coverage. canary now has the timing-safe secret-key comparison in production code, but no automated guard against a future revert.

This PR adds plugins/faustwp/tests/integration/RestCallbacksTests.php — tests-only, no production code changes. Both REST permission callbacks (rest_authorize_permission_callback and the deprecated wpac_authorize_permission_callback) previously had zero direct test coverage; this brings coverage up plus a source-level guard against the specific revert that would reintroduce the timing-attack vulnerability.

Why this is a separate PR

The original #2312 had maintainerCanModify: false, so I couldn't push the test commit onto the contributor's fork branch. I'd opened this PR (#2362) with the same security fix plus tests, but #2312 merged first — so this PR's production-code commits are now empty against canary. Resetting the branch to a single tests-only commit keeps the safety net we built without re-shipping the already-merged code.

Scope

File	Status
plugins/faustwp/tests/integration/RestCallbacksTests.php	New — 8 tests, 12 assertions
No production code changes	—
No changeset	— (tests aren't customer-facing)

Tests

cd plugins/faustwp
composer install

WP_VERSION=6.8 composer run docker:start
docker compose exec wordpress init-testing-environment.sh
docker compose exec -w /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/faustwp wordpress \
  wp plugin install wp-graphql --activate --allow-root

docker compose exec -w /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/faustwp wordpress \
  ./vendor/bin/phpunit --filter=RestCallbacks
# Expected: OK (8 tests, 12 assertions)

# Full suite (single-site + multisite)
docker compose exec -w /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/faustwp wordpress \
  composer test

Test inventory

Behavioural (rest_authorize_permission_callback):

• match → true
• mismatch → false
• missing header → false
• empty-string header → false
• server-side secret unset → false (deletes the faustwp_settings option directly, because sanitize_option_faustwp_settings would otherwise restore a UUID-shaped value)

Behavioural (deprecated wpac_authorize_permission_callback):

• match → true
• mismatch → false

Source-level regression guard (test_secret_comparisons_use_constant_time_hash_equals):

• Asserts === $header_key and !== $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FAUST_SECRET'] are NOT present in the callbacks files.
• Asserts hash_equals IS present (assertGreaterThanOrEqual(1, ...) to avoid false positives if a future contributor adds a legitimate third hash_equals call).
• Behavioural tests cannot distinguish hash_equals from === for valid/invalid inputs — both return the same boolean. The security difference is timing, which is impractical to assert in unit tests. The source-level check is the only way to catch a future revert of the fix[faustwp]: secret key comparisons use timing-vulnerable === instead of hash_equals() #2310 fix.

Verified red-on-revert against today's canary-based branch (HEAD 5f25cae7, 2026-05-14): with hash_equals reverted to === / !== in rest/callbacks.php and graphql/callbacks.php, the source guard fails cleanly (Failed asserting that ... does not contain "=== $header_key"). Restoring hash_equals greens the suite. Full plugin PHPUnit run on WP 6.8: 134 tests, 303 assertions on both single-site and multisite.

Related

• Follows up fix[faustwp]: (#2310) use hash_equals for secret key comparison #2312 (merged, closed fix[faustwp]: secret key comparisons use timing-vulnerable === instead of hash_equals() #2310)
• Sister PR fix[faustwp]: (#2311) clean up uploaded blockset zip when extraction fails #2338 (still in flight) adds analogous regression coverage for the blockset cleanup
• Sister PR fix[faustwp]: (#1872) use home_url() in handle_generate_endpoint #2339 (merged) added analogous regression coverage for the Bedrock home_url() fix (AuthCallbacksTests.php)

Together these three test files give handle_generate_endpoint, process_and_replace_blocks, and the REST permission callbacks their first dedicated regression coverage. (filter_introspection is already covered by four pre-existing tests in GraphQLCallbacksTests.php.)

Co-authored-by: latenighthackathon [email protected]

[changeset-bot]

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Latest commit: df186fc

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Pull request overview

Adds integration/regression coverage for FaustWP’s REST permission callbacks, specifically guarding against regressions of the timing-safe hash_equals() secret comparison introduced in #2312/#2310.

Changes:

• Add a new integration test suite covering rest_authorize_permission_callback() behavior across match/mismatch/missing/empty/unset-secret scenarios.
• Add behavioral coverage for the deprecated wpac_authorize_permission_callback().
• Add a source-level regression guard intended to fail if comparisons revert away from hash_equals().

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