From 04262123483f1294d52d22f0451c9d05a4b753f9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Adrien Raffin-Caboisse Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2022 10:42:26 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] docs(acls): add example use case --- docs/acls.md | 228 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 226 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/acls.md b/docs/acls.md index d0708110..1d1c56d6 100644 --- a/docs/acls.md +++ b/docs/acls.md @@ -49,7 +49,231 @@ What could be improved would be to peer different headscale installation and all [1]: https://tailscale.com/kb/1068/acl-tags/ +## Example -## Get the better of both worlds +Let's build an example use case for a small business (It may be the place where +ACL's are the most useful). -If the current behavior has a lot of use cases we could maybe have a flag to trigger one behavior or the other. Or enabling the ACL's behavior if an ACL file is defined. +We have a small company with a boss, an admin, two developper and an intern. + +The boss should have access to all servers but not to the users hosts. Admin +should also have access to all hosts except that their permissions should be +limited to maintaining the hosts (for example purposes). The developers can do +anything they want on dev hosts, but only watch on productions hosts. Intern +can only interact with the development servers. + +Each user have at least a device connected to the network and we have some +servers. + +- database.prod +- database.dev +- app-server1.prod +- app-server1.dev +- billing.internal + +### Current headscale implementation + +Let's create some namespaces + +```bash +headscale namespaces create prod +headscale namespaces create dev +headscale namespaces create internal +headscale namespaces create users + +headscale nodes register -n users boss-computer +headscale nodes register -n users admin1-computer +headscale nodes register -n users dev1-computer +headscale nodes register -n users dev1-phone +headscale nodes register -n users dev2-computer +headscale nodes register -n users intern1-computer + +headscale nodes register -n prod database +headscale nodes register -n prod app-server1 + +headscale nodes register -n dev database +headscale nodes register -n dev app-server1 + +headscale nodes register -n internal billing + +headscale nodes list +ID | Name | Namespace | IP address +1 | boss-computer | users | 100.64.0.1 +2 | admin1-computer | users | 100.64.0.2 +3 | dev1-computer | users | 100.64.0.3 +4 | dev1-phone | users | 100.64.0.4 +5 | dev2-computer | users | 100.64.0.5 +6 | intern1-computer | users | 100.64.0.6 +7 | database | prod | 100.64.0.7 +8 | app-server1 | prod | 100.64.0.8 +9 | database | dev | 100.64.0.9 +10 | app-server1 | dev | 100.64.0.10 +11 | internal | internal | 100.64.0.11 +``` + +In order to only allow the communications related to our description above we +need to add the following ACLs + +```json +{ + "hosts":{ + "boss-computer": "100.64.0.1", + "admin1-computer": "100.64.0.2", + "dev1-computer": "100.64.0.3", + "dev1-phone": "100.64.0.4", + "dev2-computer": "100.64.0.5", + "intern1-computer": "100.64.0.6", + "prod-app-server1": "100.64.0.8", + }, + "groups":{ + "group:dev": ["dev1-computer", "dev1-phone", "dev2-computer"], + "group:admin": ["admin1-computer"], + "group:boss": ["boss-computer"], + "group:intern": ["intern1-computer"], + }, + "acls":[ + // boss have access to all servers but no users hosts + {"action":"accept", "users":["group:boss"], "ports":["prod:*","dev:*","internal:*"]}, + + // admin have access to adminstration port (lets only consider port 22 here) + {"action":"accept", "users":["group:admin"], "ports":["prod:22","dev:22","internal:22"]}, + + // dev can do anything on dev servers and check access on prod servers + {"action":"accept", "users":["group:dev"], "ports":["dev:*","prod-app-server1:80,443"]}, + + // interns only have access to port 80 and 443 on dev servers (lame internship) + {"action":"accept", "users":["group:intern"], "ports":["dev:80,443"]}, + + // users can access their own devices + {"action":"accept", "users":["dev1-computer"], "ports":["dev1-phone:*"]}, + {"action":"accept", "users":["dev1-phone"], "ports":["dev1-computer:*"]}, + ] +} +``` + +Since communications between namespace isn't possible we also have to share the +devices between the namespaces. + +```bash + +// add boss host to prod, dev and internal network +headscale nodes share -i 1 -n prod +headscale nodes share -i 1 -n dev +headscale nodes share -i 1 -n internal + +// add admin computer to prod, dev and internal network +headscale nodes share -i 2 -n prod +headscale nodes share -i 2 -n dev +headscale nodes share -i 2 -n internal + +// add all dev to prod and dev network +headscale nodes share -i 3 -n dev +headscale nodes share -i 4 -n dev +headscale nodes share -i 3 -n prod +headscale nodes share -i 4 -n prod +headscale nodes share -i 5 -n dev +headscale nodes share -i 5 -n prod + +headscale nodes share -i 6 -n dev +``` + +This fake network have not been tested but it should work. Operating it could +be quite tedious if the company grows. Each time a new user join we have to add +it to a group, and share it to the correct namespaces. If the user want +multiple devices we have to allow communication to each of them one by one. If +business conduct a change in the organisations we may have to rewrite all acls +and reorganise all namespaces. + +If we add servers in production we should also update the ACLs to allow dev access to certain category of them (only app servers for example). + +### example based on the proposition in this document + +Let's create the namespaces + +```bash +headscale namespaces create boss +headscale namespaces create admin1 +headscale namespaces create dev1 +headscale namespaces create dev2 +headscale namespaces create intern1 +``` + +We don't need to create namespaces for the servers because the servers will be +tagged. When registering the servers we will need to add the flag +`--advertised-tags=tag:,tag:`, and the user (namespace) that is +registering the server should be allowed to do it. Since anyone can add tags to +a server they can register, the check of the tags is done on headscale server +and only valid tags are applied. A tag is valid if the namespace that is +registering it is allowed to do it. + +Here are the ACL's to implement the same permissions as above: + +```json +{ + // groups are simpler and only list the namespaces name + "groups": { + "group:boss": ["boss"], + "group:dev": ["dev1","dev2"], + "group:admin": ["admin1"], + "group:intern": ["intern1"], + }, + "tagOwners": { + // the administrators can add servers in production + "tag:prod-databases": ["group:admin"], + "tag:prod-app-servers": ["group:admin"], + + // the boss can tag any server as internal + "tag:internal": ["group:boss"], + + // dev can add servers for dev purposes as well as admins + "tag:dev-databases": ["group:admin","group:dev"], + "tag:dev-app-servers": ["group:admin", "group:dev"], + + // interns cannot add servers + }, + "acls": [ + // boss have access to all servers + {"action":"accept", + "users":["group:boss"], + "ports":[ + "tag:prod-databases:*", + "tag:prod-app-servers:*", + "tag:internal:*", + "tag:dev-databases:*", + "tag:dev-app-servers:*", + ] + }, + + // admin have only access to administrative ports of the servers + {"action":"accept", + "users":["group:admin"], + "ports":[ + "tag:prod-databases:22", + "tag:prod-app-servers:22", + "tag:internal:22", + "tag:dev-databases:22", + "tag:dev-app-servers:22", + ] + }, + + {"action":"accept", "users":["group:dev"], "ports":[ + "tag:dev-databases:*", + "tag:dev-app-servers:*", + "tag:prod-app-servers:80,443", + ] + }, + + // interns have access to dev-app-servers only in reading mode + {"action":"accept", "users":["group:intern"], "ports":["tag:dev-app-servers:80,443"]}, + + // we still have to allow internal namespaces communications since nothing guarantees that each user have their own namespaces. This could be talked over. + {"action":"accept", "users":["boss"], "ports":["boss:*"]}, + {"action":"accept", "users":["dev1"], "ports":["dev1:*"]}, + {"action":"accept", "users":["dev2"], "ports":["dev2:*"]}, + {"action":"accept", "users":["admin1"], "ports":["admin1:*"]}, + {"action":"accept", "users":["intern1"], "ports":["intern1:*"]}, + ] +} +``` + +With this implementation, the sharing step is not necessary. Maintenance cost of the ACL file is lower and less tedious (no need to map hostname and IP's into it).