Validate upstream JSON-RPC responses in transparent proxy

The transparent proxy forwarded malformed upstream MCP frames to clients with
HTTP 200 even when the response violated JSON-RPC 2.0 structure. This adds a
boundary check in NoOpResponseProcessor that rejects structurally invalid
upstream frames and returns a synthetic 502 carrying a JSON-RPC error to the
client, so the proxy stops being a silent amplifier for malformed (or
adversarial) upstream servers.

Validation runs only for streamable-http POST/200 responses that carry an MCP
request signal (MCP-Protocol-Version or Mcp-Session-Id) and an application/json
content type, with non-identity Content-Encoding traffic passed through
untouched. Body reads are bounded to 100 MiB to match existing streamable-HTTP
limits in pkg/vmcp. Rewritten error responses replace headers wholesale so
upstream session/cookie/cache metadata is not smuggled into the proxy-generated
error. SSE traffic is unaffected.

Closes #5247

Signed-off-by: bishnubista <bista.developer@gmail.com>

Author: bishnubista

pkg/transport/proxy/transparent/response_processor.go

@@ -6,11 +6,29 @@
 package transparent
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"math"
+	"mime"
 	"net/http"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/stacklok/toolhive/pkg/transport/types"
 )
 
+// maxJSONRPCResponseBytes caps how much of an upstream JSON-RPC response the proxy
+// will buffer for structural validation. Matches existing streamable-HTTP body
+// limits elsewhere in the codebase (pkg/vmcp/client, pkg/vmcp/session/internal/backend).
+const maxJSONRPCResponseBytes = 100 << 20 // 100 MiB
+
+// JSON-RPC error code returned to clients when the proxy rejects a malformed
+// upstream response. -32000..-32099 is the implementation-defined server-error
+// range in the JSON-RPC 2.0 spec; -32603 is reserved for internal JSON-RPC
+// implementation errors and is not appropriate for a policy-level rejection.
+const jsonRPCInvalidUpstreamCode = -32000
+
 // ResponseProcessor defines the interface for processing and modifying HTTP responses
 // based on transport-specific requirements.
 type ResponseProcessor interface {
@@ -22,12 +40,38 @@ type ResponseProcessor interface {
 	ShouldProcess(resp *http.Response) bool
 }
 
-// NoOpResponseProcessor is a processor that does nothing.
-// Used for transports that don't require response processing (e.g., streamable-http).
+// NoOpResponseProcessor is the default processor for non-SSE transports.
+// It validates JSON-RPC responses for streamable HTTP and otherwise leaves responses unchanged.
 type NoOpResponseProcessor struct{}
 
-// ProcessResponse is a no-op implementation.
-func (*NoOpResponseProcessor) ProcessResponse(_ *http.Response) error {
+// ProcessResponse validates JSON-RPC responses when applicable.
+func (*NoOpResponseProcessor) ProcessResponse(resp *http.Response) error {
+	if !shouldValidateJSONRPCResponse(resp) {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	// Read one byte past the cap so we can detect oversize without allocating beyond it.
+	body, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(resp.Body, maxJSONRPCResponseBytes+1))
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to read upstream response body: %w", err)
+	}
+	_ = resp.Body.Close()
+
+	if len(body) > maxJSONRPCResponseBytes {
+		writeInvalidUpstreamJSONRPCResponse(resp, fmt.Errorf(
+			"upstream JSON-RPC response exceeds maximum allowed size of %d bytes", maxJSONRPCResponseBytes))
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	if err := validateJSONRPCResponse(body); err != nil {
+		writeInvalidUpstreamJSONRPCResponse(resp, err)
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	// The reverse proxy still needs a readable body after validation.
+	resp.Body = io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader(body))
+	resp.ContentLength = int64(len(body))
+	resp.Header.Set("Content-Length", fmt.Sprintf("%d", len(body)))
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -36,6 +80,154 @@ func (*NoOpResponseProcessor) ShouldProcess(_ *http.Response) bool {
 	return false
 }
 
+func shouldValidateJSONRPCResponse(resp *http.Response) bool {
+	if resp == nil || resp.Body == nil || resp.Request == nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	if resp.Request.Method != http.MethodPost || resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+		return false
+	}
+	if !hasIdentityContentEncoding(resp.Header.Get("Content-Encoding")) {
+		// Content-Encoding semantics (RFC 9110): media-type rules apply after decoding.
+		// Validating a still-encoded body would mis-classify legitimate gzip JSON-RPC
+		// frames as invalid. Skip rather than introduce decompression here.
+		return false
+	}
+	if !requestLooksLikeMCP(resp.Request) {
+		// Narrow validation to traffic that carries an MCP streamable-HTTP signal,
+		// so non-MCP application/json POSTs flowing through the catch-all are not
+		// rewritten. Backward-compat clients omitting MCP-Protocol-Version on the
+		// initial initialize will pass through unchanged.
+		return false
+	}
+	contentType := strings.ToLower(resp.Header.Get("Content-Type"))
+	mediaType, _, err := mime.ParseMediaType(contentType)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	return mediaType == "application/json" || mediaType == "application/json-rpc"
+}
+
+func hasIdentityContentEncoding(value string) bool {
+	v := strings.TrimSpace(strings.ToLower(value))
+	return v == "" || v == "identity"
+}
+
+func requestLooksLikeMCP(req *http.Request) bool {
+	if req == nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	return req.Header.Get("MCP-Protocol-Version") != "" || req.Header.Get("Mcp-Session-Id") != ""
+}
+
+func validateJSONRPCResponse(body []byte) error {
+	var payload any
+	dec := json.NewDecoder(bytes.NewReader(body))
+	if err := dec.Decode(&payload); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("invalid JSON body: %w", err)
+	}
+	if dec.More() {
+		return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC response must contain a single JSON value")
+	}
+	if err := dec.Decode(&struct{}{}); err != io.EOF {
+		return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC response must contain a single JSON value")
+	}
+
+	switch value := payload.(type) {
+	case map[string]any:
+		return validateJSONRPCResponseObject(value)
+	case []any:
+		if len(value) == 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC batch response must not be empty")
+		}
+		for i, item := range value {
+			obj, ok := item.(map[string]any)
+			if !ok {
+				return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC batch item %d must be an object", i)
+			}
+			if err := validateJSONRPCResponseObject(obj); err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC batch item %d is invalid: %w", i, err)
+			}
+		}
+		return nil
+	default:
+		return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC response must be an object or array")
+	}
+}
+
+func validateJSONRPCResponseObject(obj map[string]any) error {
+	if obj["jsonrpc"] != "2.0" {
+		return fmt.Errorf(`JSON-RPC response must include "jsonrpc":"2.0"`)
+	}
+
+	if _, ok := obj["id"]; !ok {
+		return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC response must include id")
+	}
+	if !isValidJSONRPCID(obj["id"]) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC response id must be string, number, or null")
+	}
+
+	_, hasResult := obj["result"]
+	_, hasError := obj["error"]
+	if hasResult == hasError {
+		return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC response must include exactly one of result or error")
+	}
+	if hasError {
+		if errObj, ok := obj["error"].(map[string]any); !ok || !isValidJSONRPCError(errObj) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("JSON-RPC error response must include error.code and error.message")
+		}
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
+func isValidJSONRPCID(id any) bool {
+	switch id.(type) {
+	case nil, string, float64:
+		return true
+	default:
+		return false
+	}
+}
+
+func isValidJSONRPCError(errObj map[string]any) bool {
+	code, codeOK := errObj["code"].(float64)
+	if !codeOK || math.Trunc(code) != code {
+		// JSON-RPC 2.0 requires error.code to be an integer.
+		return false
+	}
+	_, messageOK := errObj["message"].(string)
+	return messageOK
+}
+
+func writeInvalidUpstreamJSONRPCResponse(resp *http.Response, validationErr error) {
+	body, err := json.Marshal(map[string]any{
+		"jsonrpc": "2.0",
+		"error": map[string]any{
+			"code":    jsonRPCInvalidUpstreamCode,
+			"message": "Invalid upstream JSON-RPC response",
+			"data":    validationErr.Error(),
+		},
+		"id": nil,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		body = []byte(`{"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-32000,"message":"Invalid upstream JSON-RPC response"},"id":null}`)
+	}
+
+	resp.StatusCode = http.StatusBadGateway
+	resp.Status = fmt.Sprintf("%d %s", http.StatusBadGateway, http.StatusText(http.StatusBadGateway))
+	resp.Body = io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader(body))
+	resp.ContentLength = int64(len(body))
+
+	// Replace headers wholesale so upstream session/cookie/cache metadata is not
+	// smuggled into the proxy-generated error. Only carry the fields needed to
+	// describe this synthetic body.
+	resp.Header = http.Header{}
+	resp.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
+	resp.Header.Set("Content-Length", fmt.Sprintf("%d", len(body)))
+	resp.Trailer = nil
+}
+
 // createResponseProcessor is a factory function that creates the appropriate
 // response processor based on transport type.
 func createResponseProcessor(