Incident response plan for Weblate

Scope and objectives

  • This IRP covers incidents impacting the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of a Weblate deployment.

  • It applies to self-hosted Weblate instances, whether on-premise or in cloud infrastructure.

Roles and responsibilities

  • Incident Response Lead (IRL): Coordinates all phases of the response process.

  • System Administrator: Executes containment and recovery measures.

  • Security Officer: Evaluates security impact and regulatory consequences.

  • Communications Lead: Manages notifications to internal stakeholders and external parties if required.

Incident categories

  • Category 1 – Unauthorized Access

  • Category 2 – Data Integrity Violation

  • Category 3 – Service Outage or Degradation

  • Category 4 – Misconfiguration or Deployment Error

Incident response lifecycle

Preparation

  • Ensure regular daily backups of the PostgreSQL database and the data directory.

  • Protect Weblate with reverse proxy (e.g., NGINX or Apache) and HTTPS (TLS 1.2+).

  • Enable 2FA for admin-level accounts.

  • Keep the Weblate instance and its dependencies (Python, Django, Celery, database, etc.) up to date.

  • Integrate with SIEM systems using the GELF protocol for audit and application log forwarding.

Identification

  • Monitor system and application logs (journalctl, reverse proxy logs, Weblate application and audit logs).

  • Analyze login events, webhook executions, and push/pull failures.

  • Configure alerting (e.g., via Prometheus, Zabbix, or SIEM) for: - Multiple login failures - Unexpected service restarts or memory usage spikes - Irregular push/pull actions from version control systems

Containment

  • Temporarily restrict access (e.g., via firewall rules or service isolation).

  • Disable external integrations (Git/webhooks) if they are part of the attack vector.

  • Suspend affected user accounts immediately.

Eradication

  • Remove any unauthorized code or data.

  • Patch known vulnerabilities by upgrading Weblate or server components.

  • Validate binary and repository integrity using SHA-256 checksums or Git logs.

Recovery

  • Restore affected services or data from the latest known-good backups.

  • Reintroduce services in a phased approach.

  • Monitor logs and system behavior continuously for at least 72 hours post-recovery.

Post-incident review

  • Compile a full incident timeline and actions taken.

  • Perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA).

  • Update security policies and IRP documentation.

  • Review the effectiveness of detection and containment mechanisms.