.. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode ======================================================== Add Fine Grained Restrictions to Application Credentials ======================================================== `bp `_ Currently Keystone application credentials are mostly unrestricted. Restrictions can only be imposed on creation of follow-up application credentials and trusts. Other than that they allow unfettered use of the roles being delegated in the project the application credential is created for. This renders application credentials questionable anywhere a least-privilege delegation is desired. Technically it would be possible to store a white list style list of capabilities for an application credential which other OpenStack services would then enforce. This spec outlines an approach for storing and handling such restrictions. Problem Description =================== This section uses the predecessor of application credentials, Keystone trusts, to outline a few example where unrestricted role delegation is a problem. The same problem applies to application credentials since both delegate a subset of users' roles. Only the authentication method is different (a secret for application credentials, a trustee user's username/password for trusts). Keystone trusts, have been around for quite a while now (they were introduced in the Grizzly release). Right now, trusts are used by the following projects among others (list may not be complete): * Heat: operations on behalf of the user at times when a token may have expired already. * Magnum: access to Magnum's certificate signing API and other OpenStack APIs from inside a cluster's instances where the container orchestration engine requires it (e.g. Glance as backend for docker-registry or cinder as backend for docker-volume) Other projects (neutron-lbaas, Barbican) hesitate to employ trusts and application credentials since they are an all-or-nothing approach: they grant full access to all OpenStack APIs in the scope (roles in a project) they are created for. In order to provide least-privilege access, these services implement ACLs of their own (Barbican, Swift) or rely on other services' ACLs to grant limited access to resources (neutron-lbaas uses Barbican's ACLs to grant its service user access to secret containers holding SSL keys). Monasca suffers from slightly different problems: it uses Keystone to authenticate metric submission which requires Keystone credentials or an application credential. This can potentially be abused for out-of-band access to other OpenStack APIs from inside any VMs running a Monasca agent. In summary, there is a real need for fine-grained delegation of access. The implementation of Keystone application credentials as it exists right now cannot serve this need, though: an application credential can only be used to grant full access within the application credential's project/roles scope, but it cannot be used to give access limited to just one particular resource or access that only allows the creation of specific new resources, but not the modification/deletion of existing resources. With fine-grained restrictions in place, application credentials can be used to safely grant the least privilege required in the scenarios described above. This is not possible with the current role based access control solution some services use, where a special-purpose role such as Heat`s `heat_stack_user` role is merely explicitly blacklisted for all operations other than the specific one it is intended for. For this blacklisting usually only extends to the service owning this particular role and putting these restrictions in place (other services usually do not know this role is supposed to have blacklist entries for any and all of _their_ operations and thus allow unrestricted access). Proposed Change =============== The approach to implementing fine-grained permissions for application credentials is two-pronged. Permission data is stored in Keystone and enforced by keystonemiddleware as follows: 1) Alongside an application credential, a capability list with zero or more capabilities can be stored. An entry in this list consists of: (a) A URL path (e.g. `/v2.1/servers` or `/v2.1/servers/{server_id}`). This URL path must be permissible according to a URL path template which must exist in the table of URL path templates (see `Permissible Path Templates`_ below). (b) A dictionary whose keys need to exactly match the placeholders in the URL path. Both extraneous and missing keys for one or more capabilities will cause application credential creation to fail. (c) A request type (e.g. `GET`) (d) A service UUID from the Keystone service catalog. This UUID is not user provided. Instead, it is filled in from the URL template this capability is validated against. This list is a whitelist, e.g. any request not explicitly allowed by a capability is rejected. Keystone itself does not validate the content of capabilities because that would require domain knowledge of each service on Keystone's path. Every capability must reference an row in the table described in the `Permissible Path Templates`_ section below. If one or more capabilities entries fail this test, API Credential creation will fail. 2) A boolean `allow_chained` attribute of the application credential (`False` by default) controls whether chained API calls, i.e. follow-up calls issued by a service as a result of an API call permitted by a capability. This may only be set to `True` if all capabilities listed in the template were validated against an URL template with its own `allow_chained` attribute set to `True`. 3) `keystonemiddleware` on the service's side receives the capability list during token validation. It then performs templating on all entries and checks (a) The service's own service ID (e.g. `ae8a69ae-3bc2-4189-88be-c0b9ea6ef06f`) (b) The URL path (e.g. `/v2.1/servers/{*}` or `/v2.1/servers/b2088298-50e5-4c81-8a50-66bfd1d8943b`) (c) The request's type (e.g. `GET`) Against every entry in the templated URL list computed from the capability information in the token (See `URL Path Templating`_ for how it is computed). If a capability matches the request, checking stops and the request is handed over to `oslo.policy` for the regular role based checking. If no capabilities match, the request is rejected right away. There are three special cases to capability list processing: (a) If no list is provided (i.e. if the `capabilities` attribute is `None`), no capability checking is performed and the request is passed to `oslo.policy` right away. (b) If an empty list is provided (i.e. `[]`), all requests are rejected (even if the request would otherwise pass the test in (c). (c) If the application credential's `allow_chained` attribute is `True` and there is a valid service token in the request, `keystonemiddleware` passes the request to `oslo.policy` right away. Permissible Path Templates -------------------------- Every capability must be validated against a URL Path Template referenced by UUID upon application credential upon creation. This section describes how an operator defines such URL path templates and how they are used by Keystone. The permissible URL path templates are operator configured through the Keystone API and stored in a dedicated table in the Keystone database. Keystone will document a curated list of URL templates for those APIs where such a thing can be generated automatically. The operator can then use this list as-is in the simplest case, or modify it for their local setup as they chose. For every URL template the following information is stored: 1) A service UUID that matches one of the services in the Keystone catalog. This is copied to the capability verbatim. The service UUID is validated upon URL template creation: it must match an existing service's UUID. This UUID should not have a foreign key constraint so as not to create dependencies from the catalog on URL templates or the capabilities validated against them. If a service is deleted later, and a non-existent UUID is thus being referenced, keystonemiddleware will reject any capabilities referencing it since there is no service whose service UUID will match it at that point. 2) A UUID that serves as a unique resource identifier. This is used to reference the path template to use for evaluation when creating a capability. This reference is only used for validation upon application credential creation and not recorded as part of the application credential. 3) A URL template string, such as `/v2.1/servers/{server_id}`. The combination of this string and the service ID from (1) must be unique. It is anchored at the beginning of a path, i.e. capabilities' path attributes must fully match this pattern and may not be preceded or followed by extra characters. The template string may contain the following special wildcard templates: * `{*}`: allows arbitrary strings (excluding the `/` character) in capability enforcement. * `{**}`: allows arbitrary strings (including the `/` character) in capability enforcement. A user using a URL template containing wild cards for validating one of their capabilities may substitute the wild card by any string fulfilling the constraint imposed by the wild card. This allows the operator to be permissive in their URL templates (to the point of only having one "{**}" pattern in the most extreme case) and the user to be more restrictive than a wild card template in their capabilities. 4) A boolean `allow_chained` attribute (`False` by default). If this is `True` for all URL templates referenced when creating an application credential, that application credential's own `allow_chained` attribute may be set to `True`. 5) A list of template keys to be provided by the user (henceforth referred to as "user template keys"). 6) A list of template keys to be provided from token context. (henceforth referred to as "context template keys"). The following are available: * `domain_id` UUID of the domain the Application Credential is scoped to (where applicable) * `project_id` UUID of the project the Application Credential is scoped to (where applicable) * `user_id` UUID of the user who created the Application Credential Between (4) and (5) all template keys in the URL template string must be covered. If this condition is not met, creation of the path template fails. URL Path Templating ------------------- `keystonemiddleware` receives the capability list information upon token validation. It then processes each capability as follows: 1) All placeholders from the user template keys list are replaced by the corresponding values in the user provided dictionary of values in the capability. 2) All placeholders from the context template keys list are replaced by the corresponding values from token context. 3) Wild card placeholders (`{*}`) are left in place. These will be used during capability enforcement to match any string in the respective path component. Preventing Regressions ---------------------- If a Keystone API which supports this feature encounters a `keystonemiddleware` version (or 3rd party software authenticating against Keystone) that dates to before implementation of this feature there is potential for regression: while Keystone would provide the capability list upon token validation, the other side would simply ignore it - giving the requests all the permissions granted by the delegated roles. This can be prevented by treating application credentials with capabilities (i.e. a `capabilities` attribute that is not `None`) as follows): 1) When requesting token validation, `keystonemiddleware` (or any 3rd party application that supports capability enforcement) sets an `Openstack-Identity-Capabilities` header with a version string as its value. Token validation for an application credential with a capability list will only succeed if this header is present. The version string will allow us to safely extend this feature by invalidating tokens using the extended version in situations where `keystonemiddleware` only supports an older version of this feature. 2) If there is no `Openstack-Identity-Capabilities` header in the token validation request, token validation fails. This way we ensure that nobody erroneously assumes capabilities are being enforced in environments where outdated `keystonemiddleware` (or its equivalent in 3rd party software) cannot enforce them because it is not aware of them. For any application credentials that do not have capabilities, validation proceeds as it would have before the introduction of capabilities (regardless of whether there is an `Openstack-Identity-Capabilities` or not). Discoverability for URL Path Templates -------------------------------------- Any user with a valid auth token can list the operator maintained URL path templates through the Keystone API. This allows them to discover the URL path templates they can use for creating capability enabled application credentials. URL Templates and Roles ----------------------- URL path templates will have an optional ROLE_ID value. If this value is set, it indicates the role that the user needs to provide in the application credential in order for the call to proceed. In addition, if the role_id value is set, the user will only be able to use the URL value in a capability if the user has that role assigned, either directly, or as a result of an implied role. Chained API Calls ----------------- One thing the capabilities make rather tough is chained API calls: if an API call is permitted by a capability, but the service uses the same capability restricted token to call other services' APIs, these will fail. While it would be possible to circumvent this problem with additional capabilities to cover the chained calls, that would be very poor ergonomics, especially for operations with a large amount of chained API calls such as creating a Heat stack. To make it easier on users and services, the `allow_chained` attribute gives services blanket permission to perform chained API calls with the token resulting from the Application credential. This is implemented as follows: 1) If `keystonemiddleware` receives a request that is permitted due to an application credential with the `allow_chained` attribute set, it requests a service token and adds it to the request's object's headers. Keystone only allows setting this `allow_chained` attribute for an application credential all capabilities' underlying URL templates have the `allow_chained` attribute set to `True`. 2) Follow-up requests issued by the service will then send this service token along with the regular token resulting from the application credential. 3) If `keystonemiddleware` encounters an application credential generated token with `allow_chained` plus a valid service token it will ignore any non-empty capability lists and pass the request to the service as-is. API Examples ------------ An example creation request for an application credential might look as follows: :: POST /v3/users/{user_id}/application_credentials .. code-block:: json { "application_credential": { "allow_chained": false, "name": "allow-metrics-logs", "description": "Allow submitting metrics and logs to Monasca", "roles": [ {"name": "monasca-agent"} ] "capabilities": [ { "path": "/v2.0/metrics", "substitutions": {}, "type": "POST", "url_template": "376a83c4-c6e9-4cdf-b413-ba4880bfda4d" }, { "path": "/v3.0/logs", "substitutions": {}, "type": "POST", "url_template": "c73beef3-c982-4ed8-86d5-dd362af48614" } ] } } An example creation request (issued by an operator) for a URL template might look as follows: :: POST /v3/capability-templates .. code-block:: json { "capability_template": { "allow_chained": true, "role_id": "0dbbcb80-9d70-4c86-b38a-ae826e501885", "path": "/v2.1/servers/**", "substitutions": {}, "service": "67764758-3bdb-462e-babf-537c8fbe7bcd", "type": "GET" } } Any user may discover the current list of URL through a :: GET /v3/capability-templates In response they will get a list of URL templates: .. code-block:: json [ { "capability_template": { "id": "5631dd39-1451-4101-a961-bbc949624b2f", "allow_chained": true, "role_id": "0dbbcb80-9d70-4c86-b38a-ae826e501885", "path": "/v2.1/servers/**", "substitutions": {}, "service": "67764758-3bdb-462e-babf-537c8fbe7bcd", "type": "GET" } }, { "capability_template": { "id": "cdfeecfb-752a-4370-9aaf-03751d3645b3", "allow_chained": false, "role_id": null, "path": "/v2.1/servers/a13b634a-dde3-4e5d-bbcb-3c1482bcf6c8", "substitutions": {}, "service": "67764758-3bdb-462e-babf-537c8fbe7bcd", "type": "POST" } }, { "capability_template": { "id": "e86584c8-1a1a-4f5d-9da9-da5e265a0423", "allow_chained": false, "role_id": null, "path": "/v2.0/metrics", "substitutions": {}, "service": "1a5e983d-7ac2-4b27-a7a1-caa62a46d82a", "type": "POST" } }, { "capability_template": { "id": "8458c208-6a91-4f54-af89-4598b972cd52", "allow_chained": false, "role_id": null, "path": "/v3.0/logs", "substitutions": {}, "service": "f6bd818d-861f-450b-a523-2e1546a06a18", "type": "POST" } } ] Alternatives ------------ 1) One alternative to this exists already: internal ACL implementations by various OpenStack services. This situation is undesirable for several reasons, some of which are: (a) Auditability: authorization information is stored in multiple locations, all of which need to be checked to find out who is authorized to perform what operation. From an auditability perspective it would be preferable to have a central source of truth. (b) Maintenance: when there are multiple independent implementations a lot of code is duplicated and bugs may be duplicated as well as new projects implement their own ACL system. (c) Consistency: with multiple sources of truth, an individual service's ACLs may well end up overriding a cloud-wide policy permitting or denying an operation. 2) `391624 `_ proposes a superficially similar role check in `keystonemiddleware`. There are several key differences, though: (a) Application credential capabilities do not require a `Cambrian explosion `_ of fine-grained roles (one for every API operation of every OpenStack service) that must be managed by an administrator. (b) Application credential capabilities does not require any changes to existing policy enforcement. Instead, they add an additional check that takes place before policy enforcement even comes into play and rejects requests early. Not being entangled with policy enforcement gives us the freedom to start out with a very basic implementation and add features as required later (as opposed to having to be feature complete immediately). (c) The role check in `keystonemiddleware` targets administrators who want to create role profiles for their users, such as "give this user read-only access to any services' resources but without letting them create new ones". Application credential capabilities on the other hand, target OpenStack services and third party applications that only need access to a select handful of operations such as "submit SSL certificates to the Magnum API for signing". (d) Application credential capabilities do not require keystone to be the guardian of access control rules, since all the information needed to validate access is contained in the token. (e) Unlike a policy based check, a capability based check will also work for services that do not use `oslo.policy` such as Swift. 3) One implementation detail from the previous section was discussed at length at the Rocky PTG: one could have chosen to match for `oslo.policy` targets rather than URL paths in the capabilities, which would have been easier in some ways. In the end we opted for url paths for the following reasons: (a) This is user facing and unlike API paths, policy targets are not easily discoverable by the user since there is no documentation on them. Moreover, policy targets are not as formalized as APIs and may easily change over time, thus breaking existing capabilities. (b) URL paths can be rejected in keystonemiddleware, without involving `oslo.policy`, leading to a faster failure for unauthorized requests. Limitations ----------- This proposal does not restrict the body of requests in any sort of way. Security Impact --------------- This change tightens security by providing a means to restrict the permissions granted by application credentials. That being said, its implementation does have various security critical aspects: * This change adds additional information to the token data retrieved by keystonemiddleware upon token validation. * URLs in capabilities are user-supplied strings. Care must be taken to guard against format string attacks in these if anything beyond character by character comparison takes place. * It might be a good idea to limit the length/number of capability rules per API credential to prevent denial of service against the Keystone database (by filling it with bogus rules) or the Keystone API (via large validation payloads). Another reason to introduce such a limit is the possibility to slow down a service by creating application credentials with a large number of non-matching capabilities, which can be used to slow down a particular service. * This change is unlikely to allow privilege escalation since it only adds additional failing criteria to token validation and policy enforcement. These failing criteria need to be carefully tested for false positives, though. Notifications Impact -------------------- No new notifications will be added from this API. Other End User Impact --------------------- Since this changes adds extra information to application credentials, both python-keystoneclient and python-openstackclient need to be extended to handle that extra information. Performance Impact ------------------ The performance impact upon application credential creation is probably neglible, since all that happens is that a small amount of data is stored along with the application credential. That small amount of data may not be so small during the token validation, though, resulting in multiple/more packets being sent in response to a validation request, causing congestion and/or increasing latency. This can be mitigated by limiting the number of capabilities allowed per application credential. Other Deployer Impact --------------------- This change will introduce the following settings for Keystone: * `[application_credential]/soft_capability_quota` [Default: `5`] This setting determines the number of entries allowed in newly created capability lists globally. `-1` denotes an unlimited number of entries. Any existing application credentials with more capabilities will continue to work. * `[application_credential]/hard_capability_quota` [Default: `-1`] This setting determines the number of entries allowed in capability lists globally. `-1` denotes an unlimited number of entries. Any existing application credentials with more capabilities will fail token validation. Developer Impact ---------------- This change provides developers across all OpenStack services with a means to create application credentials with fine-grained permissions, allowing them to delegate access to a user's roles according to the principle of least privilege. As far as the application credentials API is concerned, it will be fully backwards compatible, since specifying capabilities when creating an application credential is optional: if none are specified, the `capabilities` attribute will be `None`, leading to no capability checks being performed. Implementation ============== Assignee(s) ----------- Primary assignee: * Johannes Grassler jgr-launchpad Other contributors: * Colleen Murphy cmurphy * Adam Young ayoung Work Items ---------- 1. Extend the application credential API and database schema in Keystone to allow for receiving and storing capability lists. 2. Implement handling for capabilities in python-keystoneclient and python-openstackclient. 3. Extend the Keystone token validation API to capability lists upon upon token validation. 4. Implement the endpoint list check in keystonemiddleware. Dependencies ============ None Documentation Impact ==================== * The capability related settings for application credentials need to be documented in the release notes and the admin guide. * The URL template "language" outlined in the `Permissible Path Templates`_ section needs to be documented in the Keystone admin guide. * Documentation on capabilities needs to be added to the *Application Credentials* section of the Keystone user documentation. References ========== * Etherpad with original proposal from the Barcelona 2016 summit: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/ocata-keystone-authorization * Etherpad with refined proposal from the Rocky PTG 2018: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/application-credentials-rocky-ptg * Spec for securing Monasca metric submission from inside VMs https://review.openstack.org/#/c/507110/ (would be greatly simplified by having capabilities in application credentials) * Documentation on Barbican ACLs: http://developer.openstack.org/api-guide/key-manager/acls.html * Documentation on Swift ACLs: https://www.swiftstack.com/docs/cookbooks/swift_usage/container_acl.html * Generating a list of URL patterns for OpenStack services http://adam.younglogic.com/2018/03/generating-url-patterns/