Swarm 2017.2 Guide (August 2017)

By default, Swarm prevents anonymous users from viewing any Helix Versioning Engine resources; users must login to see commits, reviews, etc.

Swarm can be configured to allow anonymous users to access any readable resources (creating or editing resources by anonymous users is not permitted). Add the following configuration block to the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file, at the same level as the p4 entry:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'security' => array(
        'require_login' => false, // defaults to true
    ),

There is one exception: the /queue/worker endpoint is available to any user.

When your Helix Versioning Engine has users that should not be able to log in to Swarm, for example service users involved with Perforce replicas, the prevent_login configuration item can be used to prevent successful authentication.

Add or update the following configuration block to the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file, at the same level as the p4 entry:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'security' => array(
        'prevent_login' => array(
            'service_user1',
            'service_user2',
        ),
    ),

prevent_login defaults to array(), which means no users in your Helix Versioning Engine are prevented from logging into Swarm.

Swarm manages logged-in sessions using cookies in the browser, and PHP session storage on the server. Swarm uses reasonable defaults for the cookie and session lifetimes (measured in seconds); when the lifetime is exceeded users need to login again. To specify session lifetimes, add the following configuration block to the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file, at the same level as the p4 entry:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'session' => array(
        'cookie_lifetime'             => 0, // 0=expire when browser closed
        'gc_maxlifetime'              => 60*60*24*30, // 30 days
        'remembered_cookie_lifetime'  => 60*60*24*30, // 30 days
    ),

By default, Swarm emits a X-Frame-Options HTTP header set to SAMEORIGIN. This prevents embedding of the Swarm interface into other web pages, which avoids click-jacking attacks.

If your deployment of Swarm needs to be integrated into another web interface, you can adjust the X-Frame-Options header by adjusting the x_frame_options item within the security configuration block, found in the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file. For example:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'security' => array(
        'x_frame_options' => value,
        ),
    ),

Where value can be one of:

Swarm provides the ability to commit reviews within the Swarm interface. You may want to disable this capability to prevent reviews from being committed by someone other than the review's author. When disabled, the Approve and Commit (and Commit if the review is already approved) option is removed from the list of states available to a code review.

To disable commits, set disable_commit to true within the reviews item in the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file. For example:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'reviews' => array(
        'disable_commit' => true,
        ),
    ),

The Helix Versioning Engine provides two changelist types: public (the default), and restricted. Swarm honors restricted changelists by preventing access to the changelist, and any associated comments or activity related to the changelist.

If a user has list-level privileges to at least one file in the changelist, Swarm allows the user to see the changelist and any of the files they have permission to see.

To prevent unintended disclosures, email notifications for restricted changes are disabled by default. To enable email notifications for restricted changes, set email_restricted_changes to true within the security item in the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file. For example:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'security' => array(
        'email_restricted_changes' => true,
        ),
    ),

A Helix Versioning Engine can be configured via protections to restrict access to a depot in a variety of ways, including by IP address. As Swarm is a web application acting as a client to the Helix Versioning Engine, often with admin-level privileges, Swarm needs to emulate IP address-based restrictions. It does so by checking the user's IP address and applying any necessary restrictions during operations such as browsing files, viewing file content, viewing and adding comments on files.

Swarm also emulates proxy-based protections, in addition to regular IP-based protections emulation. However, Swarm does not detect whether it is connecting to a Perforce proxy or not; it merely attempts to emulate protections table entries that use proxy syntax.

IP address-based protections emulation is enabled by default. Swarm performs somewhat faster without this emulation; if you do not require them for your Swarm installation these can be disabled by setting the configuration:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'security' => array(
        'emulate_ip_protections' => false,
    ),

Swarm provides a System Information page, available to users with admin or super privileges, which displays information about the Helix Versioning Engine that Swarm is configured to use, as well as PHP information and the Swarm log file.

While this information can be invaluable when communicating with Perforce support engineers, you may wish to prevent disclosure of any system information. The System Information page can be disabled for all users by adding the following configuration block to the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file, at the same level as the p4 entry:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'security' => array(
        'disable_system_info' => true, // defaults to false
    ),

Once disabled, the System Information link disappears from the About Swarm dialog, and 403 errors are generated for any attempts to browse to the System Information page.

Swarm permits configuration of options that are passed through to the underlying Zend Framework 2's HTTP client. These options can be used to specify SSL certificate locations, request timeouts, and more, and can be specified globally or per host.

Here is an example configuration:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'http_client_options' => array(
        'timeout'       => 5,

        // path to the SSL certificate directory
        'sslcapath'     => '',

        // the path to a PEM-encoded SSL certificate
        'sslcert'       => '',

        // the passphrase for the SSL certificate file
        'sslpassphrase' => '',

        // optional, per-host overrides;
        // host as key, array of options as value
        'hosts'     => array(
            'jira.example.com'  => array(
                'sslcapath'     => '/path/to/certs',
                'sslcert'       => 'jira.pem',
                'sslpassphrase' => 'keep my JIRA secure',
                'timeout'       => 15,
            ),
        ),
    ),

See the Zend Framework 2's Socket Adapter documentation for more information.

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'http_client_options' => array(
        'hosts'     => array(
            'jira.example.com'  => array(
                'sslallowselfsigned'  => true,
            ),
        ),
    ),

To improve the security when users work with Swarm, particularly if they need to do so outside of your network, Swarm provides a mechanism that tries to force web browsers to use HTTPS. When enabled, Swarm's behavior changes in the following ways:

Here is an example of how to enable strict HTTPS:

<?php
    // this block should be a peer of 'p4'
    'security' => array(
        'https_strict'          => true,
        'https_strict_redirect' => true, // optional; set false to avoid meta-refresh
        'https_port'            => null, // optional; specify if HTTPS is
                                         // configured on a non-standard port
    ),

When the https_strict_redirect item is set to false, Swarm does not add a meta-refresh for HTTP clients. This prevents an endless redirect when a load balancer in front of Swarm applies HTTPS to the client-to-load balancer connection, but not the load balancer-to-Swarm connection.

There are several Apache configuration changes that can improve security for Swarm:

There are several PHP configuration changes that can improve security for Swarm: