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Mathieu Fenniak 99984dac4d feat: remove admin-level permissions from repo-specific & public-only access tokens (#11468)
This PR is part of a series (#11311).

If the user authenticating to an API call is a Forgejo site administrator, or a Forgejo repo administrator, a wide variety of permission and ownership checks in the API are either bypassed, or are bypassable.  If a user has created an access token with restricted resources, I understand the intent of the user is to create a token which has a layer of risk reduction in the event that the token is lost/leaked to an attacker.  For this reason, it makes sense to me that restricted scope access tokens shouldn't inherit the owner's administrator access.

My intent is that repo-specific access tokens [will only be able to access specific authorization scopes](https://codeberg.org/forgejo/design/issues/50#issuecomment-11093951), probably: `repository:read`, `repository:write`, `issue:read`, `issue:write`, (`organization:read` / `user:read` maybe).  This means that *most* admin access is not intended to be affected by this because repo-specific access tokens won't have, for example, `admin:write` scope.  However, administrative access still grants elevated permissions in some areas that are relevant to these scopes, and need to be restricted:

- The `?sudo=otheruser` query parameter allows site administrators to impersonate other users in the API.
- Repository management rules are different for a site administrator, allowing them to create repos for another user, create repos in another organization, migrate a repository to an arbitrary owner, and transfer a repository to a prviate organization.
- Administrators have access to extra data through some APIs which would be in scope: the detailed configuration of branch protection rules, the some details of repository deploy keys (which repo, and which scope -- seems odd), (user:read -- user SSH keys, activity feeds of private users, user profiles of private users, user webhook configurations).
- Pull request reviews have additional perms for repo administrators, including the ability to dismiss PR reviews, delete PR reviews, and view draft PR reviews.
- Repo admins and site admins can comment on locked issues, and related to comments can edit or delete other user's comments and attachments.
- Repo admins can manage and view logged time on behalf of other users.

A handful of these permissions may make sense for repo-specific access tokens, but most of them clearly exceed the risk that would be expected from creating a limited scope access token.  I'd generally prefer to take a restrictive approach, and we can relax it if real-world use-cases come in -- users will have a workaround of creating an access token without repo-specific restrictions if they are blocked from needed access.

**Breaking:** The administration restrictions introduced in this PR affect both repo-specific access tokens, and existing public-only access tokens.

## Checklist

The [contributor guide](https://forgejo.org/docs/next/contributor/) contains information that will be helpful to first time contributors. There also are a few [conditions for merging Pull Requests in Forgejo repositories](https://codeberg.org/forgejo/governance/src/branch/main/PullRequestsAgreement.md). You are also welcome to join the [Forgejo development chatroom](https://matrix.to/#/#forgejo-development:matrix.org).

### Tests for Go changes

(can be removed for JavaScript changes)

- I added test coverage for Go changes...
  - [x] in their respective `*_test.go` for unit tests.
  - [x] in the `tests/integration` directory if it involves interactions with a live Forgejo server.
- I ran...
  - [x] `make pr-go` before pushing

### Documentation

- [ ] I created a pull request [to the documentation](https://codeberg.org/forgejo/docs) to explain to Forgejo users how to use this change.
- [x] I did not document these changes and I do not expect someone else to do it.

### Release notes

- [x] This change will be noticed by a Forgejo user or admin (feature, bug fix, performance, etc.). I suggest to include a release note for this change.
    - Although repo-specific access tokens are not yet exposed to end users, the breaking changes to public-only tokens will be visible to users and require release notes.
- [ ] This change is not visible to a Forgejo user or admin (refactor, dependency upgrade, etc.). I think there is no need to add a release note for this change.

Reviewed-on: https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/pulls/11468
Reviewed-by: Andreas Ahlenstorf <aahlenst@noreply.codeberg.org>
Co-authored-by: Mathieu Fenniak <mathieu@fenniak.net>
Co-committed-by: Mathieu Fenniak <mathieu@fenniak.net>
2026-03-04 16:17:41 +01:00
.devcontainer Update Node.js to v24 (forgejo) (#10091) 2025-11-12 19:41:48 +01:00
.forgejo chore(renovate): update config (#11490) 2026-03-04 15:20:24 +01:00
.semgrep feat: remove admin-level permissions from repo-specific & public-only access tokens (#11468) 2026-03-04 16:17:41 +01:00
assets feat: add GetUserRepoPermissionWithReducer 2026-02-27 17:17:29 +01:00
build fix(ui): hardcode sort options in search syntax hint, improve look (#11381) 2026-02-23 06:03:23 +01:00
cmd chore: use signal.NotifyContext over custom implementation (#10311) 2026-03-04 00:45:38 +01:00
contrib chore: rename 'forgejo_migrations' to 'forgejo_migrations_legacy' 2025-10-14 14:40:49 -06:00
custom/conf fix(ui)!: remove squash merge committer trailer admin option (#11096) 2026-02-07 12:58:26 +01:00
docker chore(Dockerfile.rootless): remove legacy config file support (#11098) 2026-03-02 06:03:39 +01:00
models fix: prevent panic on gitlab import (releases/issues) (#11282) 2026-03-03 21:36:14 +01:00
modules chore: update license test (#11485) 2026-03-04 16:16:12 +01:00
options chore: update licenses and gitignores [skip ci] (#11158) 2026-03-03 21:42:13 +01:00
public chore(security): update security.txt with new expiration date (#10447) 2025-12-17 12:32:42 +01:00
release-notes fix: prevent panic on gitlab import (releases/issues) (#11282) 2026-03-03 21:36:14 +01:00
release-notes-published chore(release-notes): Forgejo v14.0.2 [skip ci] (#11092) 2026-01-29 09:22:00 +01:00
releases/images [DOCS] RELEASE-NOTES.md 2024-02-05 14:44:32 +01:00
routers feat: remove admin-level permissions from repo-specific & public-only access tokens (#11468) 2026-03-04 16:17:41 +01:00
services feat: remove admin-level permissions from repo-specific & public-only access tokens (#11468) 2026-03-04 16:17:41 +01:00
templates feat: implement fine-grained access tokens in /repos/{owner}/{repo}/pulls/{index}/requested_reviewers 2026-03-01 17:05:53 +01:00
tests feat: remove admin-level permissions from repo-specific & public-only access tokens (#11468) 2026-03-04 16:17:41 +01:00
tools chore: move backend-checks CI checks to Makefile: make pr-go (#11053) 2026-02-17 02:41:40 +01:00
web_src fix(ui): use overflow:auto to avoid scrollbars when they are not needed (#11469) 2026-03-04 00:36:54 +01:00
.air.toml chore: rename 'migrations' to 'gitea_migrations' 2025-10-14 14:40:49 -06:00
.deadcode-out feat: implement repo-specific access tokens broadly for universal API permission checks (#11437) 2026-02-28 19:47:06 +01:00
.dockerignore fix: Dockerfile should re-use bindata files when possible 2025-06-13 14:00:57 +02:00
.editorconfig i18n(next): convert indention style to tabs: en, editorconfig (#10661) 2026-01-02 05:56:48 +01:00
.envrc.example Make direnv optional to let developers use their own direnv configuration 2024-11-06 20:34:49 +01:00
.gitattributes Add interface{} to any replacement to make fmt, exclude *.pb.go (#30461) 2024-04-15 20:01:36 +02:00
.gitignore feat(build): improve lint-locale-usage further (#8736) 2025-08-27 23:47:34 +02:00
.gitmodules cleanup(tests): remove manual testing submodule 2024-04-21 10:13:51 +02:00
.gitpod.yml Remove sqlite-viewer and using database client (#31223) 2024-06-09 11:13:39 +02:00
.golangci.yml chore(lint): enable nilnil (#11235) 2026-02-11 19:08:24 +01:00
.ignore Add /options/license and /options/gitignore to .ignore (#30219) 2024-04-07 15:40:31 +02:00
.mailmap Add .mailmap with aliases for Unknwon (github.com/Unknwon) 2024-08-14 08:26:16 -04:00
.markdownlint.yaml Update JS dependencies (#28537) 2023-12-30 05:29:03 +00:00
.node-version Update Node.js to v24.13.1 (forgejo) (#11236) 2026-02-11 16:23:00 +01:00
.npmrc Upgrade to npm lockfile v3 and explicitely set it (#23561) 2023-03-18 19:38:10 +01:00
.release-notes-assistant.yaml chore(release-notes): teach release-notes-assistant that v11.0 is LTS (#10638) 2025-12-30 10:00:22 +01:00
.spectral.yaml Add spectral linter for Swagger (#20321) 2022-07-11 18:07:16 -05:00
.yamllint.yaml fully replace drone with actions (#27556) 2023-10-11 06:39:32 +00:00
BSDmakefile feat: Makefile & BSDmakefile changes (#7455) 2025-04-27 10:04:32 +00:00
CODEOWNERS chore: add @0xllx0 to federation codeowners (#10716) 2026-01-09 23:53:06 +01:00
CONTRIBUTING.md docs: replace Developer Guide link with the new Contributor Guide one. 2024-08-26 13:22:39 +03:00
DCO Remove address from DCO (#22595) 2023-01-24 18:52:38 +00:00
Dockerfile Update data.forgejo.org/oci/alpine Docker tag to v3.23 (forgejo) (#10326) 2025-12-18 15:21:39 +01:00
Dockerfile.rootless chore(Dockerfile.rootless): remove legacy config file support (#11098) 2026-03-02 06:03:39 +01:00
eslint.config.mjs feat(ui): replace Monaco with CodeMirror (#10559) 2026-01-04 23:52:33 +01:00
flake.lock chore: bump nixpkgs in flake.lock (#10128) 2025-11-16 01:18:26 +01:00
flake.nix refactor: Simplify flake.nix (#9805) 2025-10-22 19:09:11 +02:00
go.mod Update github.com/cloudflare/circl (indirect) to v1.6.3 [SECURITY] (forgejo) (#11492) 2026-03-04 16:16:46 +01:00
go.sum Update github.com/cloudflare/circl (indirect) to v1.6.3 [SECURITY] (forgejo) (#11492) 2026-03-04 16:16:46 +01:00
LICENSE Forgejo v9.0 is GPLv3+ 2024-08-22 09:09:29 +02:00
main.go fix: do not mix urfave v2 with urfave v3 (#8168) 2025-06-12 15:38:03 +02:00
Makefile Update module github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint to v2.10.1 (forgejo) (#11449) 2026-03-01 23:10:37 +01:00
manifest.scm Add a GNU Guix manifest (#8038) 2025-06-03 08:08:17 +02:00
package-lock.json Update dependency swagger-ui-dist to v5.31.1 (forgejo) (#11374) 2026-03-03 02:33:46 +01:00
package.json Update dependency swagger-ui-dist to v5.31.1 (forgejo) (#11374) 2026-03-03 02:33:46 +01:00
playwright.config.ts chore: remove webkit and mobile safari from playwright (#10103) 2025-11-13 17:23:08 +01:00
README.md chore: fix a few typos in the documentation (#9134) 2025-09-04 01:53:40 +02:00
release-notes-assistant.sh chore: improve the wording of the "not worth a release note" category (#8542) 2025-07-18 07:19:15 +02:00
RELEASE-NOTES.md chore(release-notes): fix release notes of chroma update in v8.0.0 2025-10-05 17:10:38 +05:00
shell.nix chore: use interactive sqlite via nix (#10439) 2025-12-17 13:20:33 +01:00
stylelint.config.js Merge pull request 'Port "Enable declaration-block-no-redundant-longhand-properties (#30950)' (#3769) from beowulf/gitea-port-pull-30950 into forgejo 2024-05-14 22:23:54 +00:00
tailwind.config.js chore(ui): change /devtest to /-/demo (#11019) 2026-01-26 13:12:25 +01:00
tsconfig.json feat(ui): replace Monaco with CodeMirror (#10559) 2026-01-04 23:52:33 +01:00
vitest.config.ts feat(ui): replace Monaco with CodeMirror (#10559) 2026-01-04 23:52:33 +01:00
webpack.config.js chore(ui): change /devtest to /-/demo (#11019) 2026-01-26 13:12:25 +01:00

Welcome to Forgejo

Hi there! Tired of big platforms playing monopoly? Providing Git hosting for your project, friends, company or community? Forgejo (/for'd͡ʒe.jo/ inspired by forĝejo the Esperanto word for forge) has you covered with its intuitive interface, light and easy hosting and a lot of built-in functionality.

Forgejo was created in 2022 because we think that the project should be owned by an independent community. If you second that, then Forgejo is for you! Our promise: Independent Free/Libre Software forever!

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The agreement for this license was documented in June 2023 and implemented during the development of Forgejo v9.0. All Forgejo versions before v9.0 are distributed under the MIT license.

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