fix(plugins): rotate the anonymous id when the account goes, and verify legacy rows

Three review findings from @kartik-mem0 on this PR.

Anonymous id reuse, reported twice and one defect. The id is offered to PostHog
as $anon_distinct_id on first sign-in and that merge is permanent, so keeping it
after a logout or a key change puts every later anonymous event on the account
that just left. It is now rotated on both routes, and 'aliased' is cleared with
it so the fresh id can be merged into whatever account comes next. Rotation is
deliberately not triggered by a plain lookup failure with no cached email: there
is no previous account to leak to, and churning ids there would fragment the
person for anyone offline on first run.

Legacy rows are verified instead of adopted. A row written before fingerprints
existed carries an email and no fingerprint; adopting the current key bound that
key to the previous account's email permanently, and every run after agreed with
itself. It now resolves once and takes the answer. If the lookup fails it keeps
the cached email and retries next flush rather than dropping a real attribution,
which is safe because the network that failed /v1/ping/ is about to fail the
PostHog POST too. My original comment justifying the shortcut claimed the check
would cost a request on every flush forever; that was wrong, the fingerprint is
stored after one success.

A failed upgrade claim is released. The sentinel was created before the marker
rewrite and left behind if the rewrite failed, so claim_version_change returned
early on every later run and that version's upgrade was never recorded again.

Five tests, covering both rotation routes, legacy verification, the firewalled
legacy case, and retrying a failed upgrade claim.

300 passed, 8 skipped.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01C7tEmH86HAr7GoAAKCEHZb
This commit is contained in:
Saket Aryan
2026-09-16 20:36:23 +05:30
parent 88bd5f164f
commit 6d89b3b33e
8 changed files with 467 additions and 56 deletions
+52 -8
View File
@@ -272,6 +272,25 @@ def anonymous_id(identity: dict[str, str] | None = None) -> str:
return created
def _rotate_anonymous_id(identity: dict[str, str]) -> str:
"""Mint a fresh anonymous id because the account context is gone.
The previous id may already have been merged into a person profile by an
$identify, and that merge is permanent. Reusing it after a logout or a key
change attributes everything that follows to the account that just went
away, which is the same misattribution the key fingerprint exists to stop,
only arriving through the anonymous path instead.
`aliased` is cleared with it: the new id has never been merged, so it is
eligible to be aliased into whatever account comes next.
"""
created = f"code-anon-{uuid.uuid4().hex}"
identity["anonymous_id"] = created
identity.pop("aliased", None)
_write_identity(identity)
return created
def _install_state_path() -> Path:
return memory_core.data_dir() / "install-state.json"
@@ -400,11 +419,19 @@ def claim_version_change() -> str | None:
state["plugin_version"] = memory_core.PLUGIN_VERSION
state["upgraded_at"] = memory_core.utc_now()
temporary = path.with_suffix(f".{os.getpid()}.tmp")
try:
temporary = path.with_suffix(f".{os.getpid()}.tmp")
temporary.write_text(json.dumps(state), encoding="utf-8")
temporary.replace(path)
except OSError:
# Release the claim. The marker still records the old version, so
# without this the sentinel makes claim_version_change return early on
# every later run and this version's upgrade is never recorded again.
for leftover in (sentinel, temporary):
try:
leftover.unlink()
except OSError:
pass
return None
return previous
@@ -727,26 +754,43 @@ def resolve_distinct_id() -> tuple[str, str]:
if recorded == fingerprint:
return email, ""
if not recorded:
# Rows written before fingerprints existed. Adopt the current key
# rather than re-resolving: otherwise every existing user pays an
# uncached /v1/ping/ on every flush, forever, and a firewalled one
# pays the full timeout each time.
# Rows written before fingerprints existed. Verify rather than
# adopt: a key changed before the upgrade would otherwise bind the
# new key to the previous account's email, permanently, and the
# fingerprint would then agree with itself forever after.
verified = _resolve_email(key)
if not verified:
# Offline, firewalled, or the API is down. Keep the previous
# behaviour and retry on the next flush rather than dropping a
# real account attribution. Safe because the same network that
# failed /v1/ping/ is about to fail the PostHog POST, so nothing
# is delivered under the unverified identity in the meantime.
return email, ""
identity["email"] = verified
identity["key_fingerprint"] = fingerprint
_write_identity(identity)
return email, ""
return verified, ""
if not key:
# No key to verify the account with; do not keep attributing to it.
if email:
identity.pop("email", None)
identity.pop("key_fingerprint", None)
_write_identity(identity)
return _rotate_anonymous_id(identity), ""
return anonymous_id(identity), ""
resolved = _resolve_email(key)
if not resolved:
# The key changed and will not resolve (revoked, offline, API down).
# Do not keep attributing to the previous account.
# Reaching here with an email means the recorded fingerprint disagreed,
# so the key really did change. Drop the account and rotate: the stored
# anonymous id may already be merged into that account's person, and
# reusing it would keep the events on the profile we are trying to
# leave.
if email:
identity.pop("email", None)
identity.pop("key_fingerprint", None)
return _rotate_anonymous_id(identity), ""
return anonymous_id(identity), ""
# Alias only when going anonymous -> email for the first time. Once an anon