fix(auth): guard the login + change-password verify paths against oversized passwords

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

backend/Cargo.lock

@@ -1558,7 +1558,7 @@ checksum = "c41e0c4fef86961ac6d6f8a82609f55f31b05e4fce149ac5710e439df7619ba4"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "mangalord"
-version = "0.90.6"
+version = "0.90.7"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "argon2",

backend/Cargo.toml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "mangalord"
-version = "0.90.6"
+version = "0.90.7"
 edition = "2021"
 default-run = "mangalord"
 

backend/src/api/auth.rs

@@ -135,6 +135,10 @@ async fn login(
             "username and password are required".into(),
         ));
     }
+    // Bound the password before argon2 runs — guards BOTH the real-verify and
+    // the dummy-hash timing-equaliser branch below, so a giant password can't
+    // make every login attempt a CPU-DoS.
+    reject_oversized_password(&input.password)?;
 
     let user = repo::user::find_by_username(&state.db, username).await?;
     let Some(user) = user else {
@@ -205,6 +209,9 @@ async fn change_password(
     Json(input): Json<ChangePassword>,
 ) -> AppResult<impl IntoResponse> {
     check_auth_rate_limit(&state, "change_password")?;
+    // Cap current_password before verify_password runs argon2 (same DoS
+    // vector as login). new_password is bounded by validate_password below.
+    reject_oversized_password(&input.current_password)?;
     if !verify_password(&input.current_password, &user.password_hash) {
         return Err(AppError::Unauthenticated);
     }
@@ -425,11 +432,67 @@ pub(crate) fn validate_username(u: &str) -> AppResult<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Upper bound on password length (bytes). argon2 has no inherent length
+/// limit, so without a cap an attacker could submit a multi-megabyte password
+/// and make every hash a CPU-heavy DoS. 1024 bytes is far longer than any real
+/// passphrase. Measured in bytes (like the min check) since that's what argon2
+/// actually processes.
+pub(crate) const MAX_PASSWORD_BYTES: usize = 1024;
+
+/// Reject an over-cap password *before* any argon2 work runs. The
+/// verification paths (login, change-password) don't go through
+/// [`validate_password`] — they hash/verify the raw input — so without this
+/// an attacker could submit a multi-megabyte password and turn every
+/// login/verify into a CPU-DoS. Length-only and independent of whether the
+/// account exists, so it leaks nothing (no username enumeration).
+pub(crate) fn reject_oversized_password(p: &str) -> AppResult<()> {
+    if p.len() > MAX_PASSWORD_BYTES {
+        return Err(AppError::InvalidInput(format!(
+            "password must be at most {MAX_PASSWORD_BYTES} bytes"
+        )));
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 pub(crate) fn validate_password(p: &str) -> AppResult<()> {
     if p.len() < 8 {
         return Err(AppError::InvalidInput(
             "password must be at least 8 characters".into(),
         ));
     }
+    if p.len() > MAX_PASSWORD_BYTES {
+        return Err(AppError::InvalidInput(
+            format!("password must be at most {MAX_PASSWORD_BYTES} bytes"),
+        ));
+    }
     Ok(())
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn validate_password_rejects_too_short() {
+        assert!(validate_password("short").is_err());
+        assert!(validate_password("1234567").is_err()); // 7 chars
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn validate_password_accepts_in_range() {
+        assert!(validate_password("hunter2hunter2").is_ok());
+        // Exactly at the cap is allowed.
+        assert!(validate_password(&"a".repeat(MAX_PASSWORD_BYTES)).is_ok());
+        // Minimum length boundary.
+        assert!(validate_password("12345678").is_ok());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn validate_password_rejects_over_cap() {
+        // One byte past the cap is refused so a giant password can't turn each
+        // login/register into an argon2 CPU-DoS.
+        let too_long = "a".repeat(MAX_PASSWORD_BYTES + 1);
+        let err = validate_password(&too_long).unwrap_err();
+        assert!(matches!(err, AppError::InvalidInput(_)));
+    }
+}

backend/tests/api_auth.rs

@@ -170,6 +170,26 @@ async fn login_rejects_wrong_password(pool: PgPool) {
     assert_eq!(body["error"]["code"], "unauthenticated");
 }
 
+#[sqlx::test(migrations = "./migrations")]
+async fn login_rejects_oversized_password_before_argon2(pool: PgPool) {
+    // A multi-KB password on the login path must be rejected as malformed
+    // input (400) rather than fed to argon2 — otherwise every attempt is a
+    // CPU-DoS. The account need not even exist; the guard is input-shape only.
+    let h = common::harness(pool);
+    let giant = "a".repeat(5000);
+    let resp = h
+        .app
+        .oneshot(common::post_json(
+            "/api/v1/auth/login",
+            json!({ "username": "alice", "password": giant }),
+        ))
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(resp.status(), StatusCode::BAD_REQUEST);
+    let body = common::body_json(resp).await;
+    assert_eq!(body["error"]["code"], "invalid_input");
+}
+
 #[sqlx::test(migrations = "./migrations")]
 async fn login_rejects_unknown_user(pool: PgPool) {
     let h = common::harness(pool);

frontend/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "mangalord-frontend",
-  "version": "0.90.6",
+  "version": "0.90.7",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {