🔄 Revert-IT

🛡️ A timed confirmation system for (Li)nux configuration changes with automatic revert capabilities. Designed for remote system administrators to prevent loss of access due to configuration errors.

📋 Overview

Revert-IT monitors critical system configuration files and enforces timed confirmations for any changes. If changes are not confirmed within the specified timeout period, or if connectivity is lost, the system automatically reverts to the previous configuration using snapshots.

✨ Key Features

Feature	Description
🔍 Automatic Configuration Monitoring	Watches critical system files (network, SSH, firewall, services)
⏰ Timed Confirmation System	Requires explicit confirmation of changes within configurable timeouts
🔄 Automatic Revert	Reverts changes if not confirmed or if connectivity is lost
📸 TimeShift Integration	Uses TimeShift for system-level snapshots when available
🐧 Multi-Distribution Support	Works with Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Fedora, and more
🌐 Connectivity Checking	Tests network connectivity before performing reverts
⚙️ Flexible Configuration	Customizable timeouts, paths, and behaviors per change type

🏗️ Architecture

                     ┌─────────────────┐
                     │ Configuration   │
                     │    Change       │
                     └────────┬────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
                   ┌──────────────────────┐
                   │ ConfigurationMonitor │
                   └──────────┬───────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
                    ┌─────────────────────┐
                    │  SnapshotManager    │
                    └──────────┬──────────┘
                               │
                               ▼
                    ┌─────────────────────┐
                    │  TimeoutManager     │
                    └──────────┬──────────┘
                               │
                               ▼
                          ┌─────────┐
                          │Confirmed│
                          │    ?    │
                          └────┬────┘
                         Yes ┌─┴─┐ No
                          ┌──┘   └──┐
                          ▼         ▼
                  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐
                  │  Accept  │  │  Revert  │
                  │  Change  │  │  Engine  │
                  └──────────┘  └─────┬────┘
                                      │
                                      ▼
                              ┌──────────────┐
                              │   Restore    │
                              │   Snapshot   │
                              └──────────────┘

🧩 Core Components

Component	Purpose
🔧 RevertIT Daemon	Main service that monitors system changes
👁️ ConfigurationMonitor	Watches critical system files using filesystem events
📸 SnapshotManager	Manages system snapshots (TimeShift integration + manual snapshots)
⏱️ TimeoutManager	Handles timed confirmations and automatic reverts
🔄 RevertEngine	Performs automatic reversion of configuration changes
🐧 DistroDetector	Detects Linux distribution and provides compatibility information
💻 CLI Interface	Command-line tools for management

🔄 How It Works

1. User makes config change
   └─> Monitor detects change
       └─> Create snapshot
           └─> Start timeout timer
               └─> Show confirmation prompt
                   │
                   ├─> [User confirms in time]
                   │   └─> Accept change
                   │
                   └─> [Timeout expires/Connection lost]
                       └─> Trigger revert
                           └─> Restore previous state

🚀 Installation

📋 Prerequisites

🐧 Linux system with systemd (Ubuntu 18.04+, Debian 10+, CentOS 7+, RHEL 7+, Fedora 28+)
🐍 Python 3.8 or higher
👑 Root privileges for installation and operation
📸 TimeShift (optional & recommended, for enhanced snapshot capabilities)

⚡ Quick Install

# 📥 Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/chrisnelsonok/revertit.git
cd RevertIT

# 🚀 Run installation script
sudo ./scripts/install.sh

🔧 Manual Installation

# 📦 Install system dependencies
sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev build-essential rsync inotify-tools

# 🐍 Install Python package
sudo pip3 install -e .

# 📁 Create directories
sudo mkdir -p /etc/RevertIT /var/lib/RevertIT

# ⚙️ Copy configuration
sudo cp config/revertit.yaml /etc/revertit/config.yaml

# 🔧 Install systemd service
sudo cp systemd/revertit.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

⚙️ Configuration

📍 The main configuration file is located at /etc/revertit/config.yaml.

🔑 Key Configuration Options

# 🌐 Global settings
global:
  default_timeout: 300        # ⏰ Default timeout (5 minutes)
  max_timeout: 1800          # ⏰ Maximum timeout (30 minutes)
  log_level: INFO
  log_file: /var/log/revertit.log

# 📸 Snapshot settings
snapshot:
  enable_timeshift: true
  snapshot_location: /var/lib/revertit/snapshots
  max_snapshots: 10

# 👁️ Monitoring paths
monitoring:
  network_configs:
    - /etc/network/interfaces
    - /etc/netplan/*.yaml
    - /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*
  
  ssh_configs:
    - /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    - /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/*
  
  firewall_configs:
    - /etc/iptables/rules.v4
    - /etc/ufw/*

# ⏱️ Timeout behavior
timeout:
  timeout_action: revert
  connectivity_check: true
  connectivity_endpoints:
    - 8.8.8.8
    - 1.1.1.1
  revert_grace_period: 30

💻 Usage

🚀 Starting the Service

# ✅ Enable and start the service
sudo systemctl enable revertit
sudo systemctl start revertit

# 📊 Check status
sudo systemctl status revertit

🖥️ Command Line Interface

# 📊 Show system status
revertit status

# ⏰ List active timeouts
revertit timeouts

# ✅ Confirm a configuration change
revertit confirm <change-id>

# 📸 Manage snapshots
revertit snapshots list
revertit snapshots create --description "Manual backup before major changes"

# 🧪 Test system compatibility
revertit test

📝 Example Workflow

┌────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│ 🔧 Make Config │ ──> │ 🔍 System Detects │ ──> │ 📸 Create      │
│    Change      │     │    Change         │     │    Snapshot     │
└────────────────┘     └───────────────────┘     └────────┬────────┘
                                                           │
                                                           ▼
┌────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│ ✅ Accept      │ <── │   User Action?    │ <── │ ⏰ Start        │
│    Change      │     │                   │     │    Timeout      │
└────────────────┘     └─────────┬─────────┘     └────────┬────────┘
                                 │                         │
                                 │ Timeout/Lost           ▼
                                 │ Connection      ┌─────────────────┐
                                 │                 │ ⚠️ Show Warning │
                                 ▼                 └─────────────────┘
                         ┌────────────────┐
                         │ 🔄 Auto-Revert │
                         └────────────────┘

🔧 Make a configuration change (e.g., edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config)
🔍 System detects change and creates a snapshot
⏰ Timeout starts (default 5 minutes for SSH changes)
⚠️ System shows warning about pending timeout
✅ Confirm the change: revertit confirm ssh_1234567890
🔄 Or let it auto-revert if you lose connectivity or forget to confirm

⏰ Change Categories and Timeouts

Category	Files	Timeout
🌐 Network	`/etc/network/`, `/etc/netplan/`	10 minutes
🔐 SSH	`/etc/ssh/*`	15 minutes
🛡️ Firewall	`/etc/iptables/`, `/etc/ufw/`	5 minutes
🔧 Services	`/etc/systemd/system/*`	5 minutes
📁 Other	Various system files	5 minutes

🛡️ Safety Features

🌐 Connectivity Checking

Before reverting network changes, the system tests connectivity to configured endpoints (8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1, google.com by default).

⏳ Grace Period

A configurable grace period (default 30 seconds) is provided before performing reverts, allowing for last-minute confirmations.

📸 Snapshot Management

🧹 Automatic cleanup of old snapshots
🔗 Integration with TimeShift for system-level snapshots
🎯 Manual snapshot creation and restoration
🗜️ Compressed snapshots to save disk space

🔧 Default Configurations

When snapshots are unavailable, the system can restore sensible default configurations for critical services.

🐧 Distribution Support

✅ Full Support

Distribution	Versions
🟠 Ubuntu	18.04, 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
🔴 Debian	10, 11, 12
🟡 CentOS	7, 8, 9
🔴 RHEL	7, 8, 9
🔵 Fedora	32+

🧪 Experimental Support

🔵 Arch Linux
🟢 openSUSE
🏔️ Alpine Linux
🪟 Windows WSL
🍎 MacOS (Coming Soon!)
🪟 Windows OS (Planned)

🔧 Distribution-Specific Features

📦 Automatic detection of package managers (apt, yum, dnf, pacman)
🔧 Service management system detection (systemd, SysV)
🌐 Network configuration system detection (netplan, NetworkManager, interfaces)
🛡️ Firewall system detection (ufw, firewalld, iptables)

📊 Logging and Monitoring

📝 Log Files

📄 Main log: /var/log/revertit.log
🔄 Automatic log rotation configured
📋 Structured logging with timestamps and severity levels

📊 Log Levels

Level	Description
🔍 DEBUG	Detailed operation information
ℹ️ INFO	General operation status
⚠️ WARNING	Timeout warnings and non-critical issues
❌ ERROR	Errors during operation
🚨 CRITICAL	Critical failures requiring attention

📢 Notifications

📋 Syslog integration for system logs
🖥️ Desktop notifications (when GUI available)
📧 Email notifications (configurable)

🔒 Security Considerations

👑 Permissions

🔐 Runs as root (required for system configuration management)
📁 Configuration files are root-owned and protected
🛡️ Snapshot directories have restricted permissions

🌐 Network Security

🔒 Minimal network exposure (only outbound connectivity checks)
🚫 No remote management interfaces by default
🏠 All operations are local to the system

📸 Snapshot Security

⚠️ Snapshots may contain sensitive configuration data
🧹 Automatic cleanup prevents accumulation of old snapshots
🔐 Snapshots are stored in protected directories

🔧 Troubleshooting

❓ Common Issues

🚫 Service won't start

# 📊 Check service status and logs
sudo systemctl status revertit
sudo journalctl -u revertit -f

# 🧪 Test configuration
revertit test

📸 TimeShift not working

# 📦 Install TimeShift
sudo apt install timeshift  # Ubuntu/Debian

# ⚙️ Configure TimeShift
sudo timeshift --list

🔐 Permissions errors

# 🔧 Ensure proper permissions
sudo chown -R root:root /etc/revertit
sudo chmod 644 /etc/revertit/config.yaml

🐛 Debug Mode

# 🔍 Run in foreground with debug logging
sudo revertit-daemon --config /etc/revertit/config.yaml --foreground

👨‍💻 Development

📋 Requirements

🐍 Python 3.8+
📦 pip packages: psutil, watchdog, pyyaml, croniter

🛠️ Development Setup

# 📥 Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/ChrisNelsonOK/RevertIT.git
cd RevertIT

# 🔧 Install in development mode
pip3 install -e .

# 🧪 Run tests
python -m pytest tests/

# 🔍 Run linting
flake8 src/
black src/
mypy src/

📁 Project Structure

RevertIT/
├── 📦 src/revertit/               # Main package code
│   ├── 🔧 daemon/                 # Daemon implementation
│   ├── 📸 snapshot/               # Snapshot management
│   ├── 👁️ monitor/                # Configuration monitoring
│   ├── ⏰ timeout/                # Timeout management
│   ├── 🔄 revert/                 # Revert engine
│   ├── 🐧 distro/                 # Distribution detection
│   └── 💻 cli/                    # Command-line interface
├── ⚙️ config/                     # Default configuration
├── 🔧 systemd/                    # systemd service files
├── 📜 scripts/                    # Installation scripts
├── 🧪 tests/                      # Test suite
└── 📚 docs/                       # Documentation

🤝 Contributing

🍴 Fork the repository
🌿 Create a feature branch
✏️ Make your changes
🧪 Add tests for new functionality
✅ Ensure all tests pass
📤 Submit a pull request

📄 License

📜 MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🆘 Support

Type	Contact
🐛 Issues	GitHub Issues
📚 Documentation	See docs/ directory
🔒 Security Issues	Please report privately to [email protected]

🙏 Acknowledgments

📸 TimeShift project for inspiration and integration
🐧 The Linux community for excellent monitoring tools
👥 All contributors and users providing feedback

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 13 Commits
.claude		.claude
config		config
scripts		scripts
src/revertit		src/revertit
systemd		systemd
tests		tests
.flake8		.flake8
.gitignore		.gitignore
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
DOCKER_INTEGRATION.md		DOCKER_INTEGRATION.md
Dockerfile.test		Dockerfile.test
ENHANCEMENT_SUMMARY.md		ENHANCEMENT_SUMMARY.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
MIGRATION.md		MIGRATION.md
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
mypy.ini		mypy.ini
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
requirements-dev.txt		requirements-dev.txt
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
revertit		revertit
setup.py		setup.py

License

ChrisNelsonOK/RevertIT

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