Implemented restricted task scheduler

[chrismaddalena]

CHANGELOG

[Unreleased]

Security

• Restricted Django Q scheduled tasks to a server-controlled allowlist (Closes [Feature] Allowlist for Scheduled Tasks #911)
  • The admin panel now exposes only approved functions, Slack notification hooks, and validated task arguments
  • Optional system commands must be configured as fixed argument vectors on the server and run without a shell
  • Schedule saves, queue submissions, result hooks, and worker execution enforce the policy independently
  • Added audit_django_q_policy to identify or pause existing schedules that do not satisfy the configured policy

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Implements a defense-in-depth, server-side allowlist for Django-Q scheduled tasks in Ghostwriter, reducing the risk of arbitrary callable execution via the Django admin scheduler.

Changes:

• Added server-enforced task/hook/argument policy validation for schedules, enqueue submissions, result hooks, and worker execution.
• Replaced Django-Q scheduler/worker entrypoints with restricted implementations and introduced an audit management command to detect/pause disallowed schedules.
• Updated admin UI, settings defaults, tests, and documentation to reflect the restricted scheduling model (including optional fixed-command execution).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 15 out of 15 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
ghostwriter/home/tests/test_django_q_policy.py	Comprehensive tests for task policy parsing/validation and restricted scheduler/worker behavior.
ghostwriter/home/management/commands/audit_django_q_policy.py	Adds an audit command to report and optionally pause disallowed schedules.
ghostwriter/home/django_q_tasks.py	Adds allowlisted task wrappers (e.g., session cleanup) and a fixed-command runner.
ghostwriter/home/django_q_policy.py	Implements policy schema, callable path validation, and argument parsing/validation.
ghostwriter/home/django_q_integration.py	Installs the enforcement hooks (signals + cluster overrides) and system checks.
ghostwriter/home/django_q_cluster.py	Provides restricted scheduler/worker implementations with policy enforcement.
ghostwriter/home/apps.py	Installs Django-Q restrictions during app initialization.
ghostwriter/home/admin.py	Restricts Django-Q admin to allowlisted functions/hooks and policy-aware task resubmission.
DOCS/features/background-tasks/scheduled-tasks.mdx	Documents allowlist-based scheduling, argument rules, fixed commands, and auditing guidance.
DOCS/features/background-tasks/prebuilt-tasks.mdx	Updates task docs (names/parameters) to match the allowlisted policy.
DOCS/features/background-tasks.mdx	Clarifies that only allowlisted functions can be scheduled.
DOCS/features/access-authentication-and-session-controls/session-management.mdx	Updates clearsessions scheduling guidance to use the allowlisted wrapper task.
DOCS/development/modifying-code.mdx	Notes that new queued/scheduled tasks must be added to the policy settings.
config/settings/base.py	Introduces default task/hook allowlists and internal task policy mappings.
CHANGELOG.md	Records the new Django-Q allowlist security feature and audit command.

[augmentcode]

🤖 Augment PR Summary

Summary: This PR introduces a server-controlled allowlist for Django Q scheduled tasks to prevent administrators from scheduling arbitrary Python callables or unsafe system commands.

Changes:

• Adds settings-based policy mappings for allowed schedule tasks, internal tasks, permitted result hooks, and optional fixed system commands.
• Implements restricted Django Q scheduler/worker wrappers that validate schedules and queued tasks before import and execution.
• Installs policy enforcement via Django signals (schedule pre-save validation, task pre-enqueue validation) and a guarded result-hook dispatcher.
• Replaces the Django Q admin views for Schedule/Success/Failure with restricted versions that only expose allowlisted functions/hooks and support policy-aware resubmission.
• Adds a fixed command runner task that executes configured argv vectors with shell=False and a constrained environment.
• Adds audit_django_q_policy management command to report and optionally pause disallowed existing schedules.
• Updates background-task documentation to describe the allowlist model and how to configure/audit it.
• Adds tests covering policy parsing/validation, admin restrictions, scheduler/worker enforcement, hook restrictions, and fixed-command execution.

_{🤖 Was this summary useful? React with 👍 or 👎}

[augmentcode]

Review completed. 2 suggestions posted.

Comment augment review to trigger a new review at any time.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 98.01865% with 17 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 92.17%. Comparing base (941325e) to head (6d217bb).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
ghostwriter/home/django_q_policy.py	96.51%	9 Missing ⚠️
ghostwriter/home/django_q_cluster.py	93.49%	8 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master     #947      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   93.97%   92.17%   -1.81%     
==========================================
  Files         433      442       +9     
  Lines       32192    33794    +1602     
==========================================
+ Hits        30252    31148     +896     
- Misses       1940     2646     +706     

☔ View full report in Codecov by Harness.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

• ❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.
• 📦 JS Bundle Analysis: Save yourself from yourself by tracking and limiting bundle sizes in JS merges.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 15 out of 15 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

ghostwriter/home/admin.py:124

• The keyword unpacking expression **task.kwargs or {} is invalid Python syntax. Wrap the or expression so the unpack uses the fallback dict when task.kwargs is falsy.

                **task.kwargs or {},

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 15 out of 15 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.