# DeerFlow Hardening Notes

This repository is a hardened deployment of [bytedance/deer-flow](https://github.com/bytedance/deer-flow)
with the only goal of preventing prompt-injection attacks via the agent's
web access surface.

The upstream tree lives in `deer-flow/` and is checked in directly (no
submodule, no nested git). All hardening changes are kept inside that tree
so that `python -m deerflow.community.searx.tools` resolves out of the box
once `deer-flow/backend/packages/harness` is on `PYTHONPATH`.

This document is a defense-in-depth audit trail. If you change any of the
files listed here, please update this document in the same commit.

## 1. Threat model

Prompt-injection via untrusted web content. An attacker controls the body
of an HTML page (or a search-result snippet) and tries to make the model:

1. Treat externally fetched text as **system instructions** (delimiter confusion).
2. Smuggle hidden tokens via **invisible Unicode** (zero-width spaces, BOM,
   PUA, tag characters).
3. Inject **executable HTML** (`<script>`, `<iframe>`, `<form>`, ...) that
   the model would summarise verbatim.

The hardening below is a port of the OpenClaw approach (`searx-scripts/`,
`fetch-scripts/`) to DeerFlow's adapter contract.

## 2. What was changed

### 2.1 New: `deerflow.security`

`deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/security/`

| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `__init__.py` | Public re-exports |
| `content_delimiter.py` | Wraps untrusted content in `<<<EXTERNAL_UNTRUSTED_CONTENT>>> ... <<<END_EXTERNAL_UNTRUSTED_CONTENT>>>` so the LLM has a semantic boundary between system instructions and external data |
| `html_cleaner.py` | `SecureTextExtractor` strips `script`, `style`, `noscript`, `header`, `footer`, `nav`, `aside`, `iframe`, `object`, `embed`, `form` |
| `sanitizer.py` | `PromptInjectionSanitizer`: 8 layers — invisible chars, control chars, symbols (So/Sk), NFC normalize, PUA, tag chars, horizontal-whitespace collapse (newlines/tabs preserved), length cap |

### 2.2 New: `deerflow.community.searx`

`deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/searx/tools.py`

LangChain `@tool` exports:

- `web_search_tool(query, max_results=10)` — calls a private SearX instance, sanitizes title + content, wraps results in security delimiters
- `web_fetch_tool(url, max_chars=10000)` — streams response, refuses non-text Content-Type **before reading the body**, then runs `extract_secure_text` and `sanitizer.sanitize` over the head of the body, wraps result

`image_search_tool` was removed on purpose — see section 2.8.

Reads its config from `get_app_config().get_tool_config(<name>).model_extra`:
`searx_url`, `max_results`, `max_chars`.

### 2.3 Disabled: native community web tools

Every legacy provider's `tools.py` was replaced with a hard-fail stub that
raises `NativeWebToolDisabledError` **at module import time**. Importing
the module aborts with a clear message pointing at the searx replacement,
so a misconfigured `tool.use:` path in `config.yaml` fails loud, not silent.

| Provider | Status | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| `community/ddg_search/tools.py` | stub | unhardened DuckDuckGo HTML scrape |
| `community/tavily/tools.py` | stub | external API, no sanitization |
| `community/exa/tools.py` | stub | external API, no sanitization |
| `community/firecrawl/tools.py` | stub | external API, no sanitization |
| `community/jina_ai/tools.py` | stub | unhardened Jina Reader |
| `community/jina_ai/jina_client.py` | stub | back-door client, also disabled |
| `community/infoquest/tools.py` | stub | external API, no sanitization |
| `community/infoquest/infoquest_client.py` | stub | back-door client, also disabled |
| `community/image_search/tools.py` | stub | unhardened DDG image fallback |

Central reject helper: `community/_disabled_native.py` —
`reject_native_provider(name)` raises `NativeWebToolDisabledError`.

### 2.4 Quarantined tests

Tests that expected the native modules to be importable are moved to
`deer-flow/backend/tests/_disabled_native/`. A `conftest.py` in that
directory sets `collect_ignore_glob = ["*.py"]` so pytest skips them
without erroring.

| Test | Reason |
|---|---|
| `test_exa_tools.py` | imports `deerflow.community.exa.tools` |
| `test_firecrawl_tools.py` | imports `deerflow.community.firecrawl.tools` |
| `test_jina_client.py` | imports `deerflow.community.jina_ai.jina_client` |
| `test_infoquest_client.py` | imports `deerflow.community.infoquest.infoquest_client` |

`test_doctor.py` and `test_setup_wizard.py` reference the native paths
**only as strings in test configs** (not as imports), so they continue to
run unchanged.

### 2.5 Sanitizer bug fix

`PromptInjectionSanitizer.sanitize()` Layer 7 used to do
`re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', text)` which collapsed `\n` and `\t` into single
spaces — destroying list/table structure from web pages. Replaced with
horizontal-whitespace-only collapse plus `\n{3,} -> \n\n`. Verified by
`test_security_sanitizer.py::test_preserves_newlines_and_tabs`.

### 2.6 Hardened runtime config

`config.yaml` (top-level, **not** `deer-flow/config.example.yaml`) is the
runtime config and references **only** the searx-backed tools:

```yaml
tools:
  - name: web_search
    group: web
    use: deerflow.community.searx.tools:web_search_tool
    searx_url: http://10.67.67.1:8888
    max_results: 10
  - name: web_fetch
    group: web
    use: deerflow.community.searx.tools:web_fetch_tool
    max_chars: 10000
  - name: image_search
    group: web
    use: deerflow.community.searx.tools:image_search_tool
    max_results: 5
```

The guardrail layer is intentionally not used as the primary block:
DeerFlow guardrails see only `tool.name` (e.g. `web_search`), and both the
hardened and the native version export the same name. The real block is
the import-time stub above.

### 2.7 Network isolation (egress firewall)

The DeerFlow team recommends running the agent in a dedicated VLAN. Our
Fritzbox cannot do LAN VLANs, so instead we put the container behind an
egress firewall on the Docker host. The container can reach the Internet
plus a small whitelist of Wireguard hosts (Searx, local model servers),
but cannot scan or attack any device on the home LAN. Inbound traffic
from the LAN to the container's published ports is unaffected because the
rules are stateful.

**Allow** (egress from container):

| Destination | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `1.0.0.0/8` ... `223.0.0.0/8` (public Internet) | Ollama Cloud, search backends |
| `10.67.67.1` | Searx (Wireguard) |
| `10.67.67.2` | XTTS / Whisper / Ollama-local (Wireguard) |

**Block** (egress from container):

| Destination | Reason |
|---|---|
| `192.168.3.0/24` | home LAN — no lateral movement |
| `10.0.0.0/8` (except whitelisted /32) | other Wireguard subnets, RFC1918 |
| `172.16.0.0/12` | other Docker bridges |

**Implementation:**

| File | Role |
|---|---|
| `docker/docker-compose.override.yaml` | Pins the upstream `deer-flow` Docker network to a stable Linux bridge name `br-deerflow`, so the firewall can address it without guessing Docker's auto-generated `br-<hash>`. Used as a `-f` overlay on top of `deer-flow/docker/docker-compose.yaml`. |
| `scripts/deerflow-firewall.sh` | Idempotent `up`/`down`/`status` wrapper that installs the iptables rules in the `DOCKER-USER` chain. Inserted in reverse order so the final chain order is: stateful return, allow Searx, allow Ollama-local, block LAN, block /8, block /12. |
| `scripts/deerflow-firewall.nix` | NixOS module snippet defining `systemd.services.deerflow-firewall`. Ordered `After=docker.service`, `Requires=docker.service`, `PartOf=docker.service` so the rules survive `dockerd` restarts and follow its lifecycle. Copy into `configuration.nix` and `nixos-rebuild switch`. |

**Important guarantees:**

- The rules match on `-i br-deerflow`. If the bridge does not exist (e.g.
  DeerFlow has never been started), the rules are no-ops and **do not
  affect any other container** (paperclip, telebrowser, openclaw-gateway,
  ...). They activate automatically the moment `docker compose ... up -d`
  creates the bridge.
- Stopping or removing the DeerFlow container leaves the rules in place
  but inert. Stopping the systemd unit removes them.
- The script is idempotent: `up` will never duplicate a rule, `down`
  removes all copies.

**Bring up:**

```bash
cd /home/data/deerflow-factory
docker compose \
    -f deer-flow/docker/docker-compose.yaml \
    -f docker/docker-compose.override.yaml \
    up -d

# Then either run the script directly:
sudo scripts/deerflow-firewall.sh up

# ...or, on NixOS, copy scripts/deerflow-firewall.nix into configuration.nix
# and:
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
systemctl status deerflow-firewall
```

**Smoke tests** (run from inside the container, e.g. `docker exec -it <id> sh`):

```bash
# allowed
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" --max-time 5 http://10.67.67.1:8888/    # Searx -> 200
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" --max-time 5 https://api.cloudflare.com/  # Internet -> 200/4xx

# blocked (should fail with "no route" / "host prohibited" / timeout)
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" --max-time 5 http://192.168.3.1/         # FAIL
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" --max-time 5 http://10.67.67.16/         # FAIL (blocked by 10/8 reject; .16 is not whitelisted)
```

### 2.8 No-images policy

Agents in this build are **text-only researchers**. They never need to
fetch image, audio, video, or binary content, so the entire pipeline is
hardened to refuse it:

| Layer | What it does |
|---|---|
| `web_fetch_tool` | Streams the response and inspects the `Content-Type` header **before** reading the body. Anything that is not `text/*`, `application/json`, `application/xml`, `application/xhtml+xml`, `application/ld+json`, `application/atom+xml`, or `application/rss+xml` is refused with `wrap_untrusted_content({"error": "Refused: non-text response..."})`. The body bytes are never loaded into memory. |
| `image_search_tool` | **Removed**. The function no longer exists in `deerflow/community/searx/tools.py`. Any `tool.use: deerflow.community.searx.tools:image_search_tool` in `config.yaml` would fail with an attribute error during tool loading. |
| `config.yaml` | The `image_search` tool entry was deleted. Only `web_search` and `web_fetch` are registered in the `web` group. |

**Why no allowlist?** A domain allowlist for image fetching would either
be impossible to maintain (research touches new domains every day) or
silently rot into a permanent allow-everything. Removing image fetching
entirely is the only honest answer for a text-only research use case.

**Frontend caveat:** the LLM can still emit `![alt](https://...)`
markdown in its **answer**. If the deer-flow frontend renders that
markdown, the **user's browser** (not the container!) will load the
image and potentially leak referrer/timing data. The egress firewall
on data-nuc does not see this traffic. Mitigations:

1. Best: configure the frontend's markdown renderer to disable images,
   or replace `<img>` tags with a placeholder. **Not yet implemented in
   this repo** — needs a patch in the deer-flow frontend.
2. Workaround: render answers in a CSP-restricted iframe with
   `img-src 'none'`.

If you bring image fetching back, build a **separate** tool with an
explicit per-call allowlist and a server-side image proxy that runs
under the same egress firewall as the rest of the container. Do not
relax `web_fetch_tool`'s Content-Type check.

## 3. Verification

All checks below assume `PYTHONPATH=deer-flow/backend/packages/harness`.

### 3.1 Hardened modules import

```bash
python3 -c "
from deerflow.security.content_delimiter import wrap_untrusted_content
from deerflow.security.sanitizer import sanitizer
from deerflow.security.html_cleaner import extract_secure_text
import importlib.util
assert importlib.util.find_spec('deerflow.community.searx.tools') is not None
print('OK')
"
```

### 3.2 Native modules fail closed

```bash
python3 -c "
for prov in ['ddg_search','tavily','exa','firecrawl','jina_ai','infoquest','image_search']:
    try:
        __import__(f'deerflow.community.{prov}.tools')
        raise SystemExit(f'FAIL: {prov} imported')
    except RuntimeError as e:
        assert 'disabled in this hardened DeerFlow build' in str(e)
print('OK — all native providers blocked')
"
```

### 3.3 Security tests

```bash
PYTHONPATH=deer-flow/backend/packages/harness pytest \
    backend/tests/test_security_sanitizer.py \
    backend/tests/test_security_html_cleaner.py -q
```

Expected: `8 passed`.

### 3.4 No-images verification

```bash
PYTHONPATH=deer-flow/backend/packages/harness python3 -c "
import deerflow.community.searx.tools as t
assert hasattr(t, 'web_search_tool'), 'web_search_tool missing'
assert hasattr(t, 'web_fetch_tool'),  'web_fetch_tool missing'
assert not hasattr(t, 'image_search_tool'), 'image_search_tool must be removed'
from deerflow.community.searx.tools import _is_text_content_type
assert     _is_text_content_type('text/html; charset=utf-8')
assert     _is_text_content_type('application/json')
assert not _is_text_content_type('image/png')
assert not _is_text_content_type('application/octet-stream')
assert not _is_text_content_type('')
print('OK — no-images policy intact')
"
```

## 4. Adding a new web tool

1. Implement it in `deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/<name>/tools.py`.
2. **Always** sanitize external strings via `deerflow.security.sanitizer`.
3. **Always** wrap the response with `wrap_untrusted_content()`.
4. For HTML input, use `extract_secure_text()` first.
5. Add a test to `backend/tests/` that asserts the security delimiters are
   present in the tool output.
6. Update this document.

## 5. Re-enabling a native provider (don't)

If you really must:

1. Replace the stub in `community/<provider>/tools.py` with a hardened
   wrapper (sanitize → delimiter, just like searx).
2. Move the matching test out of `tests/_disabled_native/`.
3. Update this document and explain the threat-model change in your commit
   message.

## 6. Files touched (audit trail)

```
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/security/__init__.py          (new)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/security/content_delimiter.py (new)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/security/html_cleaner.py      (new)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/security/sanitizer.py         (new, with newline-preserving fix)

deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/searx/__init__.py   (new)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/searx/tools.py      (new — web_search + web_fetch with Content-Type gate; image_search_tool intentionally absent)

deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/_disabled_native.py        (new)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/ddg_search/tools.py        (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/tavily/tools.py            (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/exa/tools.py               (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/firecrawl/tools.py         (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/jina_ai/tools.py           (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/jina_ai/jina_client.py     (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/infoquest/tools.py         (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/infoquest/infoquest_client.py (replaced with stub)
deer-flow/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/image_search/tools.py      (replaced with stub)

deer-flow/backend/tests/_disabled_native/conftest.py                      (new — collect_ignore_glob)
deer-flow/backend/tests/_disabled_native/test_exa_tools.py                (moved)
deer-flow/backend/tests/_disabled_native/test_firecrawl_tools.py          (moved)
deer-flow/backend/tests/_disabled_native/test_jina_client.py              (moved)
deer-flow/backend/tests/_disabled_native/test_infoquest_client.py         (moved)

backend/packages/harness/deerflow/security/                               (factory overlay, kept in sync)
backend/packages/harness/deerflow/community/searx/                        (factory overlay, kept in sync)
backend/tests/test_security_sanitizer.py                                  (factory tests)
backend/tests/test_security_html_cleaner.py                               (factory tests)
backend/tests/test_searx_tools.py                                         (factory tests)

config.yaml                                                                (hardened runtime config, references only searx tools)
.env.example                                                               (template, no secrets)
HARDENING.md                                                               (this file)

docker/docker-compose.override.yaml                                        (named bridge br-deerflow)
scripts/deerflow-firewall.sh                                               (egress firewall up/down/status)
scripts/deerflow-firewall.nix                                              (NixOS systemd unit snippet)
```