Admin system: central ACL-based account manager with named permissions

[Crimewavez]

Summary

Implementation of a built-in admin system that is structured, maintainable, and easy for server owners to configure.

The main idea is to introduce a ACL account manager based on named permissions, with per-account authentication, human-readable config, audit-friendly logging, and fast runtime permission checks.

This issue is meant to start the discussion in an official place and serve as a reference point for future implementation and PRs.

From Discord discussion:

A few practical goals that I think of:

• Server owners should be able to create separate admin accounts with separate credentials.
• Each account should have an explicit permission set.
• Permissions should be human-readable, not hidden behind numeric systems.
• Authentication and permission checks should come from one central source of truth, instead of being scattered throughout the codebase.
• Admin actions should leave a clear trail in logs showing who did what.
• The system should be easy to extend.

This is largely inspired by what worked well in Reborn, while avoiding the parts that were less friendly from a usability and maintenance perspective. It seems that this direction was agreed upon on OPM Discord.

Proposed direction

1. Centralized ACL-style permission system

Use named permissions such as:

• admin.login
• admin.kick
• admin.mute
• admin.warn
• admin.ban
• admin.unban
• admin.map
• server.restart

Each admin account would have:

• username
• password hash
• enabled/disabled flag
• assigned permissions

At runtime, these named permissions can be resolved into an internal bitmask for efficient checks.

2. Per-admin logging / audit trail

Administrative actions should be logged with enough detail to answer questions like:

• who logged in
• who kicked/banned/unbanned someone
• who changed map / restarted server
• whether an auth attempt failed
• when an account was disabled or rejected

Configuration format

Current preference that emerged in Discord is a human-readable text config, with YAML looking like the strongest candidate so far.

Reasons:

• easier on the eyes than raw JSON for many users
• supports comments
• naturally suited for nested structures like groups/accounts
• likely friendlier for manual editing by server owners
• We can add groups with rpedefined permissions.

Example barebones YAML:

version: 1

accounts:
  - username: "vwz"
    enabled: true
    password_hash: "hashhere"
    note: "full admin"
    permissions:
      - admin.login
      - admin.kick
      - admin.mute
      - admin.warn
      - admin.ban
      - admin.unban
      - admin.map
      - server.restart

  - username: "helper1"
    enabled: true
    password_hash: "hashhere"
    note: "chat and player control only"
    permissions:
      - admin.login
      - admin.kick
      - admin.mute
      - admin.warn

  - username: "mapguy"
    enabled: true
    password_hash: "hashhere"
    note: "map and restart access only"
    permissions:
      - admin.login
      - admin.map
      - server.restart

Password storage

MD5 should not be used for password storage, I wonder about sha256, but it also seems not suitable for real password protection. A practical workflow could be:

• owner creates or updates admin credentials through console/server command
• server stores only the resulting hash
• config never needs plaintext passwords

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The general direction seems agreed enough to justify opening the issue and using it as the base for a draft PR and follow-up discussion.