docs: follow-up after e4d6b750f6

README.md

@@ -1392,6 +1392,7 @@ VictoriaMetrics provides the following security-related command-line flags:
 * `-forceMergeAuthKey` for protecting `/internal/force_merge` endpoint. See [force merge docs](#forced-merge).
 * `-search.resetCacheAuthKey` for protecting `/internal/resetRollupResultCache` endpoint. See [backfilling](#backfilling) for more details.
 * `-configAuthKey` for protecting `/config` endpoint, since it may contain sensitive information such as passwords.
+* `-flagsAuthKey` for protecting `/flags` endpoint.
 * `-pprofAuthKey` for protecting `/debug/pprof/*` endpoints, which can be used for [profiling](#profiling).
 * `-denyQueryTracing` for disallowing [query tracing](#query-tracing).
 

docs/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ The following tip changes can be tested by building VictoriaMetrics components f
 
 **Update notes:** this release introduces backwards-incompatible changes to communication protocol between `vmselect` and `vmstorage` nodes in cluster version of VictoriaMetrics because of added [query tracing](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics.html#query-tracing), so `vmselect` and `vmstorage` nodes may log communication errors during the upgrade. These errors should stop after all the `vmselect` and `vmstorage` nodes are updated to new release. It is safe to downgrade to previous releases.
 
-* SECURITY: Adds `flagsAuthKey` command-line flag, which protects `/flags` endpoint and prevents application configuration disclosure. See [This issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/2753).
+* SECURITY: add `-flagsAuthKey` command-line flag for protecting `/flags` endpoint from unauthorized access. Though this endpoint already hides values for command-line flags with `key` and `password` substrings in their names, other sensitive information could be exposed there. See [This issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/2753).
 
 * FEATURE: support query tracing, which allows determining bottlenecks during query processing. See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics.html#query-tracing) and [this feature request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/1403).
 * FEATURE: [vmui](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#vmui): add `cardinality` tab, which can help identifying the source of [high cardinality](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/FAQ.html#what-is-high-cardinality) and [high churn rate](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/FAQ.html#what-is-high-churn-rate) issues. See [this](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/2233) and [this](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/2730) feature requests and [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#cardinality-explorer).

docs/README.md

@@ -1392,6 +1392,7 @@ VictoriaMetrics provides the following security-related command-line flags:
 * `-forceMergeAuthKey` for protecting `/internal/force_merge` endpoint. See [force merge docs](#forced-merge).
 * `-search.resetCacheAuthKey` for protecting `/internal/resetRollupResultCache` endpoint. See [backfilling](#backfilling) for more details.
 * `-configAuthKey` for protecting `/config` endpoint, since it may contain sensitive information such as passwords.
+* `-flagsAuthKey` for protecting `/flags` endpoint.
 * `-pprofAuthKey` for protecting `/debug/pprof/*` endpoints, which can be used for [profiling](#profiling).
 * `-denyQueryTracing` for disallowing [query tracing](#query-tracing).
 

docs/Single-server-VictoriaMetrics.md

@@ -1396,6 +1396,7 @@ VictoriaMetrics provides the following security-related command-line flags:
 * `-forceMergeAuthKey` for protecting `/internal/force_merge` endpoint. See [force merge docs](#forced-merge).
 * `-search.resetCacheAuthKey` for protecting `/internal/resetRollupResultCache` endpoint. See [backfilling](#backfilling) for more details.
 * `-configAuthKey` for protecting `/config` endpoint, since it may contain sensitive information such as passwords.
+* `-flagsAuthKey` for protecting `/flags` endpoint.
 * `-pprofAuthKey` for protecting `/debug/pprof/*` endpoints, which can be used for [profiling](#profiling).
 * `-denyQueryTracing` for disallowing [query tracing](#query-tracing).
 

docs/vmauth.md

@@ -146,9 +146,9 @@ Alternatively, [https termination proxy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLS_termi
 
 It is recommended protecting  following endpoints with authKeys:
 * `/-/reload` with `-reloadAuthKey` command-line flag, so external users couldn't trigger config reload.
-* `/flags` with `flagsAuthkey` command-line flag, so external users couldn't get application configuriton.
+* `/flags` with `-flagsAuthkey` command-line flag, so unauthorized users couldn't get application command-line flags.
-* `/metrics` with `metricsAuthkey` command-line flag, so external users couldn't get application metrics.
+* `/metrics` with `metricsAuthkey` command-line flag, so unauthorized users couldn't get access to [vmauth metrics](#monitoring).
-* `/debug/pprof` with `pprofAuthKey` command-line flag, so external users couldn't get access to application profiling information.
+* `/debug/pprof` with `pprofAuthKey` command-line flag, so unauthorized users couldn't get access to [profiling information](#profiling).
 
 ## Monitoring
 

lib/httpserver/httpserver.go

@@ -40,16 +40,15 @@ var (
 		"See https://www.robustperception.io/using-external-urls-and-proxies-with-prometheus")
 	httpAuthUsername = flag.String("httpAuth.username", "", "Username for HTTP Basic Auth. The authentication is disabled if empty. See also -httpAuth.password")
 	httpAuthPassword = flag.String("httpAuth.password", "", "Password for HTTP Basic Auth. The authentication is disabled if -httpAuth.username is empty")
-	metricsAuthKey   = flag.String("metricsAuthKey", "", "Auth key for /metrics. It must be passed via authKey query arg. It overrides httpAuth.* settings")
+	metricsAuthKey   = flag.String("metricsAuthKey", "", "Auth key for /metrics endpoint. It must be passed via authKey query arg. It overrides httpAuth.* settings")
-	pprofAuthKey     = flag.String("pprofAuthKey", "", "Auth key for /debug/pprof. It must be passed via authKey query arg. It overrides httpAuth.* settings")
+	flagsAuthKey     = flag.String("flagsAuthKey", "", "Auth key for /flags endpoint. It must be passed via authKey query arg. It overrides httpAuth.* settings")
+	pprofAuthKey     = flag.String("pprofAuthKey", "", "Auth key for /debug/pprof/* endpoints. It must be passed via authKey query arg. It overrides httpAuth.* settings")
 
 	disableResponseCompression  = flag.Bool("http.disableResponseCompression", false, "Disable compression of HTTP responses to save CPU resources. By default compression is enabled to save network bandwidth")
 	maxGracefulShutdownDuration = flag.Duration("http.maxGracefulShutdownDuration", 7*time.Second, `The maximum duration for a graceful shutdown of the HTTP server. A highly loaded server may require increased value for a graceful shutdown`)
 	shutdownDelay               = flag.Duration("http.shutdownDelay", 0, `Optional delay before http server shutdown. During this delay, the server returns non-OK responses from /health page, so load balancers can route new requests to other servers`)
 	idleConnTimeout             = flag.Duration("http.idleConnTimeout", time.Minute, "Timeout for incoming idle http connections")
 	connTimeout                 = flag.Duration("http.connTimeout", 2*time.Minute, `Incoming http connections are closed after the configured timeout. This may help to spread the incoming load among a cluster of services behind a load balancer. Please note that the real timeout may be bigger by up to 10% as a protection against the thundering herd problem`)
-
-	flagsAuthKey = flag.String("flagsAuthKey", "", "Auth key for /flags endpoint. It must be passed via authKey query arg. It overrides httpAuth.* settings")
 )
 
 var (