`ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL` names one origin serving every `github.actions.results.api.v1` service. Gitea serves the artifact half and this runner the cache half, so announcing `ACTIONS_CACHE_SERVICE_V2` while that URL pointed at Gitea was a promise the environment could not keep, and `docker buildx` posted its cache calls at Gitea and got a 404.
The cache server now forwards the artifact half to the instance each job registers with, so it is the whole results service and jobs are pointed at it. The announcement follows, and the bundle patch follows the cache URL instead.
Also fixes three things no JavaScript client reached: camelCase in the v2 responses where the Go clients read proto names, the missing `x-ms-request-id` on blob uploads that panics buildkit, and `cache.external_server` passed through without the trailing slash the v1 client concatenates onto.
Tests run the real actions against the services they look for: `actions/cache` over both API versions, the artifact actions up and back down through the forwarding, and `setup-node`. The regression itself is covered by asserting that whatever a job is handed as `ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL` answers a cache service call.
Fixes https://gitea.com/gitea/runner/issues/1139
Reviewed-on: https://gitea.com/gitea/runner/pulls/1141
Reviewed-by: bircni <bircni@icloud.com>
Co-authored-by: silverwind <2021+silverwind@noreply.gitea.com>
Closes#848. Addresses [GHSA-82g9-637c-2fx2](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/security/advisories/GHSA-82g9-637c-2fx2) and the follow-up points raised by @ChristopherHX and @haroutp in that thread.
The change is breaking only for `cache.external_server` which uses auth via a pre-shared secret.
## How auth works now
1. **Runner starts** → opens the embedded cache server on `:port`. Loads / creates a 32-byte HMAC signing key in `<cache-dir>/.secret`.
2. **Runner receives a task** → calls `handler.RegisterJob(ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN, repository)` before the job runs, defers a revoker that removes the credential on completion. Registrations are reference-counted so a stray re-register cannot revoke a live job.
3. **Job container runs `actions/cache`** → the toolkit sends `Authorization: Bearer $ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN` on every management call (`reserve`, `upload`, `commit`, `find`, `clean`). The cache server's middleware looks the token up in the registered-jobs map: miss → 401; hit → the job's repository is injected into the request context.
4. **Repository scoping** — every cache entry is stamped with `Repo` on reserve; `find`, `upload`, `commit` all verify the caller's repo matches. A job in repo A cannot see or poison a cache entry owned by repo B, even when both reach the server over the same docker bridge. GC dedup also groups by `(Repo, Key, Version)` so one repo can't age out another.
5. **Archive downloads** — `@actions/cache` does not attach Authorization when downloading `archiveLocation`, so the `find` response is a short-lived HMAC-signed URL: `…/artifacts/:id?exp=<unix>&sig=<hmac>`, 10-minute TTL, signature binds `cacheID:exp`. Tampered, expired, or foreign-secret URLs get 401.
6. **Defence-in-depth** — `ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN` is added to `task.Secrets` so the runner's log masker scrubs it from step output.
## `cache.external_server` (standalone `act_runner cache-server`)
Operators set `cache.external_secret` to the same value on the runner config and the `act_runner cache-server` config. The `cache-server` then runs with bearer auth on the cache API and exposes a control-plane at `POST /_internal/{register,revoke}` (gated by the shared secret). The runner pre-registers each task's `ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN` with the remote server before the job runs and revokes it on completion. Same per-job auth + repo scoping as the embedded handler, just over the network.
`cache-server` refuses to start without `cache.external_secret`; runner config load also fails when `cache.external_server` is set without `cache.external_secret`.
## User-facing changes
- **One-time cache miss after upgrade.** Pre-existing entries in `bolt.db` have no `Repo` stamp and won't match any job — they'll be evicted by the normal GC. First job per cache key rebuilds its cache.
- **`cache.external_server` deployments must add `cache.external_secret`.** Breaking change for anyone running a standalone `act_runner cache-server`: set the same `cache.external_secret` in both the runner config and the cache-server config. Without it neither side starts.
- **No config changes required for the default setup.** Runners using the embedded cache server (the common case) keep working without any yaml edits; the auth mechanism is invisible to workflows.
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This PR was written with the help of Claude Opus 4.7
---------
Co-authored-by: Nicolas <bircni@icloud.com>
Co-authored-by: Christopher Homberger <christopher.homberger@web.de>
Reviewed-on: https://gitea.com/gitea/act_runner/pulls/849
Reviewed-by: ChristopherHX <38043+christopherhx@noreply.gitea.com>
