CLI Machine-ID Token

Overview

OmniRoute CLI commands authenticate against the local management API using a HMAC-SHA256(machine-id, salt) token sent via the x-omniroute-cli-token request header.

This allows CLI subcommands (omniroute status, omniroute providers, etc.) to call management endpoints without requiring the user to supply a JWT or password on every invocation.

How it works

1. getMachineTokenSync() reads the hardware machine ID via node-machine-id (falls back to an empty string on failure, disabling CLI auth).
2. It computes HMAC-SHA256(machine_id, salt) and returns the full 64-char hex digest — a deterministic, non-reversible token tied to this machine.
3. The CLI sends the token as x-omniroute-cli-token on every request to http://localhost:<port>/api/....
4. The server (src/server/authz/policies/management.ts) recomputes the expected token with the same salt and compares via timingSafeEqual to prevent timing-based extraction.

Security properties

Salt rotation

Set OMNIROUTE_CLI_SALT to rotate the derived token without code changes. After rotation, all CLI processes on this machine will use the new token automatically. Useful after a process-list leak that may have exposed the previous derived value.

# Persistent rotation (add to shell profile)
export OMNIROUTE_CLI_SALT="my-secret-salt-2026"

# Verify new token is in use
omniroute status

Default salt: omniroute-cli-auth-v1

Files

See also

• docs/security/ROUTE_GUARD_TIERS.md — route protection tiers
• docs/architecture/AUTHZ_GUIDE.md — full authorization pipeline