Offline Manifest Inspector

Overview & Role#

Offline Manifest Inspector (slug: offline-manifest-inspector, CLIN 0005 — Tactical & DevSecOps) is a client-side static inspection tool in the ClearedStack catalog. On disconnected or air-gapped networks, package managers (npm), container runtimes (containerd), and security scanners cannot reach public registries, OSV/NVD feeds, or remote metadata endpoints. Engineers must inspect what is inside a container image manifest, a dependency lockfile, or a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) locally before importing artifacts into an enclave.

The tool runs entirely in the visitor's browser with zero backend dependencies, making it available in both the Full Enclave Stack (Conn + Lazarette) and Snapshot Mode (frozen static bundle). Consistent with ClearedStack's architecture, it assumes containerd and OCI archives with zero Docker anywhere.

Governing Standards & Sources#

Every parser rule, field label, and digest check in Offline Manifest Inspector is grounded in public specifications:

Scope limits: Offline Manifest Inspector performs structural parsing, digest computation, and local policy checks (such as flagging unpinned container tags, external resolved URLs, or components missing cryptographic hashes). It does not query remote vulnerability databases (CVE/NVD/OSV), pull container layers over a network, or make accreditation decisions.

Inputs, Processing Logic & Outputs#

Inputs

• Primary artifact: Drag-and-drop file, local file picker (File.arrayBuffer()), or pasted JSON text for an OCI manifest/index (manifest.json, index.json), package-lock.json, SPDX JSON, or CycloneDX JSON.
• Optional expected digest: A sha256:<64-hex> string (for example, recorded outside the air gap from ctr -n k8s.io images ls or Lazarette) to compare against the uploaded file's computed SHA-256.
• Optional format override: Auto-detection is default; the user may force a specific parser (oci, npm-lock, spdx, cyclonedx).

Deterministic Browser-Only Processing Logic

1. Byte-level SHA-256 fingerprint: Computes crypto.subtle.digest("SHA-256", rawBytes) immediately in memory and formats the result as sha256:<lowercase-64-hex>. If an expected digest was supplied, performs a constant-format lowercase comparison and reports MATCH or MISMATCH.
2. Deterministic format detection: Inspects top-level JSON keys without heuristics or AI:
   • bomFormat === "CycloneDX" → CycloneDX JSON parser.
   • spdxVersion present → SPDX JSON parser.
   • lockfileVersion present (2 or 3) and packages object → npm lockfile parser.
   • schemaVersion === 2 with OCI/Docker mediaType or manifests / layers arrays → OCI Image Manifest / Index parser.
3. Structured extraction & enclave checks:
   • OCI: Extracts config digest/size, layer digests/sizes, total compressed layer byte sum, and platform descriptors. Flags any image reference using a mutable tag without an @sha256: digest.
   • Lockfile: Enumerates all packages, counts sha512 vs. sha256 vs. missing integrity hashes, and inspects every resolved URL—flagging any non-internal host (such as registry.npmjs.org) that must be mirrored before an offline npm ci build.
   • SBOM: Normalizes packages/components into a unified record (name, version, purl, license, hashes) and counts missing hashes and missing/NOASSERTION licenses.
4. Fail-closed error handling: Malformed JSON, unsupported lockfileVersion, or unrecognized schemas halt parsing with an explicit E_PARSE diagnostic rather than guessing missing fields.

Outputs

• Summary header: Detected format and spec version, computed sha256: file digest, expected-digest match badge, total item/layer count, and warning count.
• Interactive inspection table: Filterable and sortable list of layers, packages, or SBOM components with copyable digests and PURLs.
• Exportable report: Deterministic JSON or Markdown summary generated via a local Blob URL (URL.createObjectURL) for inclusion in enclave transfer paperwork.

Clean-Room & 5-Condition QA Requirements#

To pass Shakedown and move from planned to live in src/data/catalog.ts, Offline Manifest Inspector must satisfy all five universal QA conditions and ClearedStack's clean-room rules:

Clean-room boundary: The tool is authored from scratch in Moldloft using only the structured JSON specification from Waybill, never copying source code, CSS, or DOM layouts from third-party web inspectors.

Worked Example & Verification#

Synthetic Verification Case 1: package-lock.json Enclave Readiness Check

Given the synthetic lockfile entry from Working on disconnected networks:

{
  "name": "example-enclave-app",
  "lockfileVersion": 3,
  "packages": {
    "node_modules/react": {
      "version": "19.3.0",
      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/react/-/react-19.3.0.tgz",
      "integrity": "sha512-syntheticExampleHashValue=="
    }
  }
}

• Detected format: npm package-lock.json (lockfileVersion 3)
• Extracted packages: 1 (node_modules/react, version 19.3.0, integrity algorithm sha512)
• Enclave check: Flags 1 external resolved host (registry.npmjs.org) requiring internal mirroring before running npm ci inside the disconnected network.

Synthetic Verification Case 2: OCI Image Manifest

Given a synthetic application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json with schemaVersion: 2, one config descriptor (1420 bytes), and two layers (12582912 bytes and 4194304 bytes):

• Detected format: OCI Image Manifest v1 (schemaVersion 2)
• Total layer bytes: 16777216 bytes (16.0 MiB) across 2 layers
• Digest integrity: Every descriptor carries a valid sha256:<64-hex> digest; file-level sha256: matches the operator-supplied digest from Lazarette.

Related pages#

• Working on disconnected networks
• Run it on a closed network
• Cluster architecture
• Shakedown specification
• Clean room and credit