fix(auth): normalize INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN whitespace like the three private secrets

[shin-core]

What & why

src/auth/security.ts has two token authenticators side by side. authenticatePrivateToken early-returns null for a falsy token, then compares against nonBlank(env.LOOPOVER_API_TOKEN), nonBlank(env.LOOPOVER_MCP_ADMIN_TOKEN), and nonBlank(env.LOOPOVER_MCP_TOKEN). authenticateInternalToken was the only one of the four comparing against the raw env.INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN, with no nonBlank() and no early exit.

extractBearerToken already trims the incoming bearer, so a configured INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN carrying leading/trailing whitespace — the exact shape a secret file or a wrangler secret put piped from a file produces when it ends in a newline — could never be matched by any caller, while the same whitespace on LOOPOVER_API_TOKEN is tolerated. The failure mode is a blanket 401 unauthorized from the /v1/internal/* middleware for every internal job route and read endpoint, with nothing pointing at whitespace as the cause.

The fix

authenticateInternalToken now applies nonBlank() to env.INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN and early-returns null for an absent/empty token, mirroring authenticatePrivateToken exactly (the existing module-local nonBlank helper and the existing timingSafeEqual call shape — no new helper, no change to timingSafeEqual semantics, no change at the middleware call site or to the incoming bearer).

This is a normalization gap, not a fail-open one: timingSafeEqual already returns false for an empty/undefined expected value, and nonBlank(" ") is undefined, so a whitespace-only secret still authenticates nobody.

Tests (test/unit/auth-security-helpers.test.ts)

New #9713 suite covering every DoD case:

• INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN = " secret ", bearer "secret" → { kind: "static", actor: "internal" } (named regression; fails on current main).
• Untrimmed correct secret ("secret" / "secret") → internal identity (unchanged behavior).
• INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN = " " (whitespace-only) → authenticateInternalToken(env, " ") and (env, "") both null.
• authenticateInternalToken(env, undefined) → null without consulting the secret.
• A non-matching token → null.

Both arms of the new if (!token) guard and both arms of the nonBlank result are covered.

Validation

• npm run typecheck green; full auth suite green.
• Diff branch coverage on src/auth/security.ts is 100% (every added line and branch); the file's whole-file branch coverage is well above the gate floor.
• git diff --check clean; no route/schema/wrangler/migration change, so nothing to regenerate.
• Diff is two files: src/auth/security.ts + its unit test.

Closes #9713

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Warning

⏸️ LoopOver review result - manual review recommended

_{Review updated: 2026-07-29 08:06:45 UTC}

2 files · 1 AI reviewer · no blockers · CI green · unstable

⏸️ Suggested Action - Manual Review

Review summary
This fix correctly closes the normalization gap: authenticateInternalToken now mirrors authenticatePrivateToken by early-returning null on a falsy token and passing env.INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN through nonBlank() before the timingSafeEqual comparison, so a secret with trailing whitespace (e.g. from a piped wrangler secret put) will now match a trimmed bearer token. The change is minimal, single-purpose, and directly traces to the described bug — timingSafeEqual already fails closed on undefined/empty values, so nonBlank() returning undefined for whitespace-only secrets preserves fail-closed behavior rather than introducing a fail-open path. Tests cover the whitespace-trim regression, untrimmed-correct-secret, whitespace-only-secret, absent-bearer early-exit, and wrong-token rejection cases, all exercising the real authenticateInternalToken function against realistic Env shapes.

Nits — 3 non-blocking

• The inline comment block in src/auth/security.ts:121-125 is fairly verbose for a one-line normalization fix; the existing authenticatePrivateToken function above it has no equivalent comment despite doing the same thing, so consider trimming it for consistency.
• test/unit/auth-security-helpers.test.ts uses `as unknown as Env` casts for a minimal env stub — fine here, but worth confirming this matches the convention used elsewhere in the test suite for partial Env mocks.
• Consider whether authenticateInternalToken's comment could be shortened to a single line referencing auth: authenticateInternalToken skips the nonBlank() normalization its three siblings apply #9713, matching the terser style used elsewhere in this file for similar fixes (e.g. isAuthorizedGitHubSessionLogin's docblock is justified by complexity, but this is a simple mirror-fix).

Decision drivers

• ✅ Code review — No blockers (1 reviewer)
• ✅ Gate result — Passing (No configured blocker found.)

Context & advisory signals — never blocks the verdict

Signal	Result	Evidence
Linked issue	✅ Linked	#9713
Related work	✅ No active overlap found	No same-issue or scoped active PR overlap found.
Change scope	✅ 20/20	Low review scope from cached public metadata (1 linked issue).
Validation posture	❌ 5/25	Preflight is holding this PR: the review lane is unavailable, so it is not ready for automated review.
Contributor workload	✅ 10/10	Author activity: 50 registered-repo PR(s), 35 merged, 0 issue(s).
Contributor context	✅ Confirmed Gittensor contributor	shin-core; Gittensor profile; 50 PR(s), 0 issue(s).
Improvement	✅ Minor	risk: clean · value: minor

Linked issue satisfaction

Addressed
The diff adds the `if (!token) return null` early exit and wraps env.INTERNAL_JOB_TOKEN with nonBlank() in authenticateInternalToken, exactly mirroring authenticatePrivateToken and using the required existing helper/timingSafeEqual shape, and the new test suite covers the trimmed-secret regression case, whitespace-only denial for both blank and empty bearer, the undefined-bearer early exit, and an

Review context

• Author: shin-core
• Role context: outside_contributor
• Public audience mode: oss maintainer
• Lane context: Repository is registered but has no active allocation in the current snapshot.
• Public profile languages: not available
• Official Gittensor activity: 50 PR(s), 0 issue(s).
• PR-specific overlap: none found.

Contributor next steps

• Start here: Await review-lane availability.
• Then work through the remaining 2 steps in the Signals table above.

Signal definitions

• Related work = same linked issue, overlapping active PRs, or title/path similarity.
• Change scope = cached public metadata such as size labels, draft state, and review-burden hints.
• Validation posture = whether the PR provides enough public validation/test evidence for maintainer review.
• Contributor workload = public contributor activity and cleanup pressure, not a repo-wide quality failure.
• Contributor context = public GitHub/Gittensor identity context; non-Gittensor status is not a blocker.

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Decision record

• action: hold · clause: success
• config: 1fff06be1e4bd13075d66ba2b132d279be3602db3d834a05d67bdd68e18c11dc · pack: oss-anti-slop · ci: passed
• record: 5c14f33b872f05f481fc7a948003b34a54bdfca8834e43c1895b9556eb6d8495 (schema v5, head 743afe6)

_{🟩 Safe / merged · 🟦 Advisory · 🟨 Held for review · 🟥 Blocked / closed}

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[superagent-security]

Superagent didn't find any vulnerabilities or security issues in this PR.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 76.63%. Comparing base (8e02fab) to head (743afe6).
⚠️ Report is 2 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #9772      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   76.58%   76.63%   +0.04%     
==========================================
  Files         282      283       +1     
  Lines       59464    59575     +111     
  Branches     6555     6595      +40     
==========================================
+ Hits        45543    45653     +110     
  Misses      13639    13639              
- Partials      282      283       +1     

Flag	Coverage Δ
backend	99.09% <100.00%> (?)

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Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/auth/security.ts	99.09% <100.00%> (ø)

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Held for manual review: the gate and required CI are green, but GitHub reports this pull request's mergeable state as unstable because a non-required check or status is not passing, so LoopOver will not auto-merge. A maintainer can resolve the failing check or review and merge manually. This is an automated maintenance action.