policy/v2: reject non-ASCII tag names

SaaS rejects tag names whose first character after `tag:` is not an
ASCII letter (`[a-zA-Z]`) with `tagOwners["tag:X"]: tag names must
start with a letter, after 'tag:'`. headscale was accepting any
UTF-8. Tighten Tag.Validate to enforce the first-character rule and
reshape the surfaced error in unmarshalPolicy so the tagOwners key
appears in the SaaS-style prefix. Subsequent characters remain
unconstrained — only the leading byte is checked.

hscontrol/policy/v2/tailscale_ssh_data_compat_test.go

@@ -107,14 +107,6 @@ var sshRejectSkipReasons = map[string]string{
 	"ssh-e2": "domain validation: headscale has no 'associated tailnet domains' concept",
 	"ssh-malformed-user-localpart-multi-glob": "domain validation: headscale has no 'associated tailnet domains' concept (same gap as ssh-b4/d1/e1/e2)",
 
-	// NON_ASCII_TAG_NAME (1 test)
-	//
-	// SaaS rejects non-ASCII characters in tag names with
-	// `tag names must start with a letter, after 'tag:'`. headscale's
-	// tag parser accepts arbitrary UTF-8. Tighten the tag-name
-	// validator to match SaaS's letter-only rule.
-	"ssh-unicode-cyrillic-tag": "SaaS rejects non-ASCII tag names, headscale accepts",
-
 	// GROUP_NESTING_ERROR_BODY (3 tests)
 	//
 	// SaaS rejects any group-in-group reference (cycle, chain,

hscontrol/policy/v2/types.go

@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ var (
 	ErrSSHActionMustBeSpecified           = errors.New("action must be specified")
 	ErrSSHActionInvalid                   = errors.New("is not a valid action")
 	ErrSSHDestinationHostAlias            = errors.New("invalid dst")
+	ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter         = errors.New("tag names must start with a letter, after 'tag:'")
 )
 
 // SSH check period constants per Tailscale docs:
@@ -545,12 +546,27 @@ func (g *Group) resolve(p *Policy, users types.Users, nodes views.Slice[types.No
 // Tag is a special string which is always prefixed with `tag:`.
 type Tag string
 
+// Validate enforces the `tag:` prefix and the SaaS rule that the
+// first character after the prefix is an ASCII letter ([A-Za-z]).
+// Subsequent characters may be ASCII letters, digits, hyphens, or
+// dots — those are checked by the existing alias parser elsewhere.
 func (t *Tag) Validate() error {
-	if isTag(string(*t)) {
+	s := string(*t)
-		return nil
+	if !isTag(s) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%w, got: %q", ErrInvalidTagFormat, *t)
 	}
 
-	return fmt.Errorf("%w, got: %q", ErrInvalidTagFormat, *t)
+	rest := strings.TrimPrefix(s, "tag:")
+	if rest == "" {
+		return ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter
+	}
+
+	first := rest[0]
+	if !((first >= 'a' && first <= 'z') || (first >= 'A' && first <= 'Z')) {
+		return ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter
+	}
+
+	return nil
 }
 
 func (t *Tag) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) error {
@@ -3268,6 +3284,16 @@ func unmarshalPolicy(b []byte) (*Policy, error) {
 			if strings.Contains(string(serr.JSONPointer), "/via/") {
 				return nil, ErrGrantViaNotATag
 			}
+
+			// Non-ASCII tag-name failures surface from Tag.Validate
+			// at unmarshal time. Reshape the error to mirror SaaS
+			// (`tagOwners["tag:X"]: …`).
+			if errors.Is(serr.Err, ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter) {
+				ptr := serr.JSONPointer
+				name := ptr.LastToken()
+
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("tagOwners[%q]: %w", name, ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter)
+			}
 		}
 
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("parsing policy from bytes: %w", err)

hscontrol/policy/v2/types_test.go

@@ -4893,6 +4893,82 @@ func TestAliasEncUnmarshalTrim(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// TestTagValidateFirstCharLetter exercises the SaaS rule that the
+// first character after `tag:` must be an ASCII letter. Digits,
+// punctuation, and non-ASCII Unicode letters are rejected with the
+// same body SaaS produces. Subsequent characters are unconstrained.
+func TestTagValidateFirstCharLetter(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		name    string
+		tag     Tag
+		wantErr error
+	}{
+		{
+			name: "ascii lowercase letter",
+			tag:  Tag("tag:server"),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "ascii uppercase letter",
+			tag:  Tag("tag:Server"),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "ascii letter then digit",
+			tag:  Tag("tag:a1"),
+		},
+		{
+			name:    "leading digit rejected",
+			tag:     Tag("tag:1server"),
+			wantErr: ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter,
+		},
+		{
+			name:    "leading hyphen rejected",
+			tag:     Tag("tag:-server"),
+			wantErr: ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter,
+		},
+		{
+			name:    "cyrillic letter rejected",
+			tag:     Tag("tag:сервер"),
+			wantErr: ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter,
+		},
+		{
+			name:    "empty name rejected",
+			tag:     Tag("tag:"),
+			wantErr: ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter,
+		},
+		{
+			name:    "missing prefix rejected",
+			tag:     Tag("server"),
+			wantErr: ErrInvalidTagFormat,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			err := tt.tag.Validate()
+			if tt.wantErr != nil {
+				require.ErrorIs(t, err, tt.wantErr)
+
+				return
+			}
+
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+// TestUnmarshalPolicyCyrillicTagOwner verifies the full SaaS body
+// (`tagOwners["tag:сервер"]: …`) surfaces when a non-ASCII tag
+// appears as a tagOwners key.
+func TestUnmarshalPolicyCyrillicTagOwner(t *testing.T) {
+	policy := []byte(`{"tagOwners": {"tag:сервер": ["odin@example.com"]}}`)
+
+	_, err := unmarshalPolicy(policy)
+	require.Error(t, err)
+	require.ErrorIs(t, err, ErrTagNameMustStartWithLetter)
+	require.Contains(t, err.Error(),
+		`tagOwners["tag:сервер"]: tag names must start with a letter, after 'tag:'`)
+}
+
 // TestSSHCheckPeriodInvalidDuration verifies the SaaS body for the
 // malformed-duration case (`time: invalid duration "abc"`).
 func TestSSHCheckPeriodInvalidDuration(t *testing.T) {