vpp/docs/usecases/contiv/SECURITY.rst

Security
========

There are two types of security that are utilized in Contiv, and are
discussed in this section: `HTTP <#http-security>`__ and
`ETCD <#etcd-security>`__.

HTTP Security
-------------

By default, the access to endpoints (liveness, readiness probe,
prometheus stats, …) served by Contiv-vswitch and Contiv-ksr is open to
anybody. Contiv-vswitch exposes endpoints using port ``9999`` and
contiv-ksr uses ``9191``.

To secure access to the endpoints, the SSL/TLS server certificate and
basic auth (username password) can be configured.

In Contiv-VPP, this can be done using the Helm charts in `k8s/contiv-vpp
folder <https://github.com/contiv/vpp/tree/master/k8s/contiv-vpp>`__.

To generate server certificate the approach described in `ETCD
security <#etcd-security>`__ can be leveraged.

ETCD Security
-------------

By default, the access to Contiv-VPP ETCD is open to anybody. ETCD gets
deployed on the master node, on port ``12379``, and is exposed using the
NodePort service on port ``32379``, on each node.

To secure access to ETCD, we recommend using the SSL/TLS certificates to
authenticate both the client and server side, and encrypt the
communication. In Contiv-VPP, this can be done using the Helm charts in
`k8s/contiv-vpp
folder <https://github.com/contiv/vpp/tree/master/k8s/contiv-vpp>`__.

The prerequisite for that is the generation of SSL certificates.

Generate Self-Signed Certificates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In order to secure ETCD, we need to create our own certificate
authority, and then generate the private keys and certificates for both
the ETCD server and ETCD clients.

This guide uses CloudFlare’s
`cfssl <https://github.com/cloudflare/cfssl>`__ tools to do this job. It
follows the steps described in this `CoreOS
guide <https://github.com/coreos/docs/blob/master/os/generate-self-signed-certificates.md>`__.

Perform the following steps to generate private keys and certificates:

1. Install cfssl
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

::

   mkdir ~/bin
   curl -s -L -o ~/bin/cfssl https://pkg.cfssl.org/R1.2/cfssl_linux-amd64
   curl -s -L -o ~/bin/cfssljson https://pkg.cfssl.org/R1.2/cfssljson_linux-amd64
   chmod +x ~/bin/{cfssl,cfssljson}
   export PATH=$PATH:~/bin

2. Initialize a Certificate Authority
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

::

   echo '{"CN":"CA","key":{"algo":"rsa","size":2048}}' | cfssl gencert -initca - | cfssljson -bare ca -
   echo '{"signing":{"default":{"expiry":"43800h","usages":["signing","key encipherment","server auth","client auth"]}}}' > ca-config.json

3. Generate Server Key + Certificate
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Replace the IP address ``10.0.2.15`` below with the IP address of your
master node:

::

   export ADDRESS=127.0.0.1,10.0.2.15
   export NAME=server
   echo '{"CN":"'$NAME'","hosts":[""],"key":{"algo":"rsa","size":2048}}' | cfssl gencert -config=ca-config.json -ca=ca.pem -ca-key=ca-key.pem -hostname="$ADDRESS" - | cfssljson -bare $NAME

4. Generate Client Key + Certificate
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

::

   export ADDRESS=
   export NAME=client
   echo '{"CN":"'$NAME'","hosts":[""],"key":{"algo":"rsa","size":2048}}' | cfssl gencert -config=ca-config.json -ca=ca.pem -ca-key=ca-key.pem -hostname="$ADDRESS" - | cfssljson -bare $NAME

The above commands produce the following files that will be needed in
order to secure ETCD: - ``ca.pem``: certificate of the certificate
authority - ``server.pem``: certificate of the ETCD server -
``server-key.pem``: private key of the ETCD server - ``client.pem``:
certificate for the ETCD clients - ``client-key.pem``: private key for
the ETCD clients

Distribute Certificates and Generate Contiv-VPP Deployment Yaml
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are two options for distributing the certificates to all nodes in
a k8s cluster. You can either distribute the certificates
`manually <#distribute-certificates-manually>`__, or embed the
certificates into the deployment yaml file and distribute them as `k8s
secrets <https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/>`__.

Distribute Certificates Manually
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In this case, you need to copy the ``ca.pem``, ``client.pem`` and
``client-key.pem`` files into a specific folder
(``/var/contiv/etcd-secrets`` by default) on each worker node. On the
master node, you also need to add the ``server.pem`` and
``server-key.pem`` into that location.

Then you can generate the Contiv-VPP deployment YAML as follows:

::

   cd k8s
   helm template --name my-release contiv-vpp --set etcd.secureTransport=True > contiv-vpp.yaml

Then you can go ahead and deploy Contiv-VPP using this yaml file.

Embed the certificates into deployment the yaml and use k8s secret to distribute them {: #Embed-certificates }
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In this case, you need to copy all 5 generated files into the folder
with helm definitions (``k8s/contiv-vpp``) and generate the Contiv-VPP
deployment YAML as follows:

::

   cd k8s
   helm template --name my-release contiv-vpp --set etcd.secureTransport=True --set etcd.secrets.mountFromHost=False > contiv-vpp.yaml

Then just deploy Contiv-VPP using this yaml file.

Please note that the path of the mount folder with certificates, as well
as the certificate file names can be customized using the config
parameters of the Contiv-VPP chart, as described in `this
README <https://github.com/contiv/vpp/blob/master/k8s/contiv-vpp/README.md>`__.