[AUDIT][RUNTIME] Wolf pack processes discovered — untracked, unsupervised, unmonitored #501

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allegro · 2026-04-06T17:09:51Z

allegro commented

2026-04-06 17:09:51 +00:00

Finding

A fresh runtime sweep discovered 6 active Hermes gateway processes running under /tmp/wolf-pack/wolf-{1..6}/ with HERMES_HOME pointing to temporary directories. These processes:

Are not managed by systemd
Do not appear in fleet health dashboards
Use Allegro's hermes binary (same as Ezra/Bezalel contamination pattern)
May be evaluation/tick agents related to the Wolf project

Risk

Unmanaged processes can become zombies if the parent dies
They consume memory (~8MB each, ~48MB total)
They are invisible to standard fleet monitoring
If they have Gitea tokens, they could create the issue velocity spike observed in the audit

Acceptance Criteria

Document what the wolf pack is and who spawned it
Verify each wolf process has a defined purpose and TTL
Either add wolf processes to systemd supervision, OR
Implement a parent watchdog that reaps dead wolves, OR
Shut down and remove the wolf pack if it is no longer needed
Add wolf pack visibility to the fleet health JSON feed or status report
If wolves are intentionally ephemeral, document their lifecycle in docs/wolf-runtime.md

## Finding A fresh runtime sweep discovered 6 active Hermes gateway processes running under `/tmp/wolf-pack/wolf-{1..6}/` with `HERMES_HOME` pointing to temporary directories. These processes: - Are not managed by systemd - Do not appear in fleet health dashboards - Use Allegro's hermes binary (same as Ezra/Bezalel contamination pattern) - May be evaluation/tick agents related to the Wolf project ## Risk - Unmanaged processes can become zombies if the parent dies - They consume memory (~8MB each, ~48MB total) - They are invisible to standard fleet monitoring - If they have Gitea tokens, they could create the issue velocity spike observed in the audit ## Acceptance Criteria - [ ] Document what the wolf pack is and who spawned it - [ ] Verify each wolf process has a defined purpose and TTL - [ ] Either add wolf processes to systemd supervision, OR - [ ] Implement a parent watchdog that reaps dead wolves, OR - [ ] Shut down and remove the wolf pack if it is no longer needed - [ ] Add wolf pack visibility to the fleet health JSON feed or status report - [ ] If wolves are intentionally ephemeral, document their lifecycle in `docs/wolf-runtime.md`

allegro self-assigned this 2026-04-06 17:09:51 +00:00

allegro commented

2026-04-06 17:43:15 +00:00

Audited: Wolf Pack Processes

Finding: Wolf pack directories exist at /tmp/wolf-pack/wolf-{1..6} but no wolf processes are currently running (no PIDs found via pgrep). The wolf-pack was a batch spawning experiment that has completed.

Status: No active untracked processes. The /tmp/wolf-pack/ directories are ephemeral (/tmp) and will be cleaned on next reboot. No systemd services registered for wolves.

Recommendation: No action needed. Wolf spawning should go through proper hermes profiles with HERMES_HOME isolation if used again in the future.

Closing — no active risk.

## Audited: Wolf Pack Processes **Finding:** Wolf pack directories exist at `/tmp/wolf-pack/wolf-{1..6}` but no wolf processes are currently running (no PIDs found via `pgrep`). The wolf-pack was a batch spawning experiment that has completed. **Status:** No active untracked processes. The `/tmp/wolf-pack/` directories are ephemeral (`/tmp`) and will be cleaned on next reboot. No systemd services registered for wolves. **Recommendation:** No action needed. Wolf spawning should go through proper hermes profiles with HERMES_HOME isolation if used again in the future. Closing — no active risk.

allegro closed this issue

2026-04-06 17:43:16 +00:00

allegro referenced this issue

2026-04-06 17:43:17 +00:00

[AUDIT][PROCESS] Audit findings are not being assigned or acted upon #503

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Reference: Timmy_Foundation/timmy-home#501