Set up for on-premises clusters

Note: If you are using Google Distributed Cloud (software only) on bare metal, this document is only for users of version 1.15 or earlier. For version 1.16 or later, Binary Authorization can be configured during the cluster creation or update.

Note: This document or section includes references to one or more terms that Google considers disrespectful or offensive. The terms are used because they are keywords in the software that's described in the document.

The terms: whitelist

Note: This document is only for users of Google Distributed Cloud for bare metal 1.15 or earlier. For users of Google Distributed Cloud for bare metal 1.16 or later, Binary Authorization can be configured during the cluster creation or update.

This document shows you how to set up Binary Authorization for on-premises clusters created as part of Google Distributed Cloud. It then shows you how to configure a sample Binary Authorization policy.

Before you begin

1. Ensure your clusters have a supported Google Distributed Cloud version. Binary Authorization supports the following environments.

   Bare metal

   Google Distributed Cloud 1.14 or 1.15. For version 1.16 or later, Binary Authorization can be configured during cluster creation or update.

   VMware

   Distributed Cloud for VMware (Google Distributed Cloud) 1.4 or later.

2. The Binary Authorization service uses a external IP address, accessible through a regular internet connection. Configure your firewall rules for HTTPS to let the user cluster access the endpoint binaryauthorization.googleapis.com.

   Bare metal

   Configure Google Distributed Cloud firewall rules.

   VMware

   Configure Google Distributed Cloud firewall rules.

3. If you want to use centralized Cloud Audit Logs to view audit log entries, including those from Binary Authorization for clusters outside Google Cloud, you must configure Cloud Audit Logs in your cluster configuration.

   Bare metal

   Configure Cloud Audit Logs in Google Distributed Cloud.

   VMware

   Configure Cloud Audit Logs in Google Distributed Cloud.

4. You must enable the Binary Authorization API as follows:

   1. Go to Google Cloud console.

      Enable APIs

   2. In the project drop-down list, select your fleet host project. You can find this in the gkeConnect section of your user cluster configuration file. This is the Google Cloud project that connects your user cluster to Google Cloud.

Set up Binary Authorization

In this section, you set up Binary Authorization in your on-premises cluster.

Specify installation environment variables

To specify the environment variables, do the following:

Using Workload Identity

1. Specify your fleet host project:

   export PROJECT_ID=PROJECT_ID
   

2. Set the fleet membership ID to your cluster ID:

   The membership ID is listed in the NAME column when you run gcloud container fleet memberships list command.

   export MEMBERSHIP_ID=CLUSTER_NAME
   

Using service account key

1. Specify your fleet host project:

   export PROJECT_ID=PROJECT_ID
   

   Replace PROJECT_ID with the Google Cloud project in the gkeConnect section of your user cluster configuration file.

2. Specify the path of the user cluster's kubeconfig file:

   export KUBECONFIG=PATH
   

   Replace PATH with the path of your user cluster kubeconfig file.

3. Choose a name for the Binary Authorization API access service account:

   export SA_NAME=SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME
   

   Replace SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME with the service account name of your choice. The Binary Authorization Module uses this service account to access the Binary Authorization API.

4. Specify the path to the service account key file you download later in this guide:

   export SA_JSON_PATH=SA_KEY_FILE_PATH
   

   Replace SA_KEY_FILE_PATH with the path of the JSON key file for the service account.

Install the Binary Authorization module in your user cluster

To install the Binary Authorization module, do the following:

Using Workload Identity

Fleet Workload Identity lets the workloads in your cluster authenticate to Google without requiring you to download, manually rotate, and generally manage Google Cloud service account keys. You can find out more about how fleet Workload Identity works and the advantages of using it in Use fleet Workload Identity.

1. Grant the binaryauthorization.policyEvaluator role to the Kubernetes service account on your fleet host project:

   gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding ${PROJECT_ID} \
       --member="serviceAccount:${PROJECT_ID}.svc.id.goog[binauthz-system/binauthz-admin]" \
       --role="roles/binaryauthorization.policyEvaluator"
   

2. Create a working directory:

   1. Make a directory called binauthz.

   2. Change to the directory.

3. Download the manifest-wi-0.2.6.yaml.tmpl file, which you use to install the Binary Authorization Module in your user cluster:

   Bare metal

   gcloud storage cp gs://anthos-baremetal-release/binauthz/manifest-wi-0.2.6.yaml.tmpl .
   

   VMware

   gcloud storage cp gs://gke-on-prem-release/binauthz/manifest-wi-0.2.6.yaml.tmpl .
   

4. Substitute the environment variables in the template:

   envsubst < manifest-wi-0.2.6.yaml.tmpl > manifest-0.2.6.yaml
   

5. Install the Binary Authorization Module in your user cluster:

   kubectl apply -f manifest-0.2.6.yaml
   

6. Verify the Deployment was created:

   kubectl get pod --namespace binauthz-system
   

   You see the Pod binauthz-module-deployment-* listed with Status of Running and 1/1 Pods ready, similar to this output:

   NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   binauthz-module-deployment-5fddf9594f-qjprz   1/1     Running   0          11s
   

Using service account key

1. Set the default project for the Google Cloud CLI:

   gcloud config set project ${PROJECT_ID}
   

2. Create a Binary Authorization API access service account:

   gcloud iam service-accounts create ${SA_NAME}
   

3. Grant the binaryauthorization.policyEvaluator role to the Binary Authorization API access service account on your fleet host project:

   gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding ${PROJECT_ID}\
       --member="serviceAccount:${SA_NAME}@${PROJECT_ID}.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
       --role="roles/binaryauthorization.policyEvaluator"
   

4. Create a working directory:

   1. Make a directory called binauthz.

   2. Change to the directory.

5. Download the manifest-0.2.6.yaml file, which you use to install the Binary Authorization Module in your user cluster:

   Bare metal

   gcloud storage cp gs://anthos-baremetal-release/binauthz/manifest-0.2.6.yaml .
   

   VMware

   gcloud storage cp gs://gke-on-prem-release/binauthz/manifest-0.2.6.yaml .
   

6. Create a YAML file for thebinauthz-system namespace.

   Copy the following to a file called namespace.yaml:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Namespace
   metadata:
     labels:
       control-plane: binauthz-controller
     name: binauthz-system
   

7. Create the namespace in your user cluster:

   kubectl apply -f namespace.yaml
   

   You see output similar to the following:

   namespace/binauthz-system created
   

8. Download a JSON key file for your service account:

   gcloud iam service-accounts keys create ${SA_JSON_PATH} --iam-account ${SA_NAME}@${PROJECT_ID}.iam.gserviceaccount.com
   

9. Save the service account key as a Kubernetes Secret in your user cluster:

   kubectl --namespace binauthz-system create secret generic binauthz-sa --from-file=key.json=${SA_JSON_PATH}
   

10. Install the Binary Authorization Module in your user cluster:

    kubectl apply -f manifest-0.2.6.yaml
    

11. Verify the Deployment was created:

    kubectl get pod --namespace binauthz-system
    

    You see the Pod binauthz-module-deployment-* listed with Status of Running and 1/1 Pods ready, similar to this output:

    NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    binauthz-module-deployment-5fddf9594f-qjprz   1/1     Running   0          11s
    

Set up and use Binary Authorization policies

This section shows you how to set up and use Binary Authorization policies for on-premises clusters.

In each example, you configure the policy and then test it by attempting to deploy a container image in your cluster.

Allow all

This section demonstrates a success case. You configure the Binary Authorization policy so that a container image satisfies the policy and is deployed.

Caution: This policy allows all container images to deploy.

In Google Cloud, do the following:

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Binary Authorization page.

   Go to Binary Authorization

2. Make sure to select your fleet host project ID.

3. Click Edit Policy.

4. Under Project default rule, select Allow all images.

5. Click Save Policy.

gcloud

1. Set the PROJECT_ID for your fleet host project. You can find this project ID in the gkeConnect field in your user cluster configuration file.

   export PROJECT_ID=PROJECT_ID
   

   Set the default Google Cloud project.

   gcloud config set project ${PROJECT_ID}
   

2. Export the policy YAML file to your local system:

   gcloud container binauthz policy export  > policy.yaml
   

   Your YAML file looks like the following:

   defaultAdmissionRule:
     enforcementMode: ENFORCED_BLOCK_AND_AUDIT_LOG
     evaluationMode: ALWAYS_ALLOW
   globalPolicyEvaluationMode: ENABLE
   name: projects/<var>PROJECT_ID</var>/policy
   

3. Edit policy.yaml.

4. Set evaluationMode to ALWAYS_ALLOW.

5. If you have a requireAttestationsBy block in the file, delete this block.

6. Save the file.

7. Import policy.yaml as follows:

   gcloud container binauthz policy import policy.yaml
   

To add an exempt image to the allowlist, add the following to the policy file:

admissionWhitelistPatterns:
  - namePattern: EXEMPT_IMAGE_PATH

Replace EXEMPT_IMAGE_PATH with the path to am image to exempt. To exempt additional images, add additional - namePattern entries. Learn more about admissionWhitelistPatterns.

On your admin workstation, do the following:

1. Create a manifest file for a Pod.

   Save the following to a file called pod.yaml:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Pod
   metadata:
     name: test-pod
   spec:
     containers:
     - name: test-container
       image: us-docker.pkg.dev/google-samples/containers/gke/hello-app@sha256:c62ead5b8c15c231f9e786250b07909daf6c266d0fcddd93fea882eb722c3be4
   

2. Create the Pod:

   kubectl apply -f pod.yaml
   

   You see that the Pod was successfully deployed.

3. Delete the Pod:

   kubectl delete -f pod.yaml
   

Disallow all

This section demonstrates a failure case. In this section, you configure the default policy to disallow your container image from being deployed.

Caution: This policy disallows all container images from deploying.

In Google Cloud do the following:

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Binary Authorization page.

   Go to Binary Authorization

2. Make sure your fleet host project is selected.

3. Click Edit Policy.

4. Under Project default rule, select Disallow all images.

5. Click Save policy.

gcloud

1. Set the PROJECT_ID to your fleet host project ID.

   export PROJECT_ID=PROJECT_ID
   

2. Set the default Google Cloud project.

   gcloud config set project ${PROJECT_ID}
   

3. Export the policy YAML file:

   gcloud container binauthz policy export  > policy.yaml
   

4. Edit policy.yaml.

5. Set evaluationMode to ALWAYS_DENY.

6. If you have a requireAttestationsBy block in the file, delete this block.

7. Save the file.

8. Import policy.yaml as follows:

   gcloud container binauthz policy import policy.yaml
   

Note: It can take a few minutes for the policy to take effect.

On your admin workstation, do the following:

1. Create a manifest file for a Pod.

   Save the following to a file called pod.yaml:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Pod
   metadata:
     name: test-pod
   spec:
     containers:
     - name: test-container
       image: us-docker.pkg.dev/google-samples/containers/gke/hello-app@sha256:c62ead5b8c15c231f9e786250b07909daf6c266d0fcddd93fea882eb722c3be4
   

2. Create the Pod:

   kubectl apply -f pod.yaml
   

   You see that the Pod was was blocked from being deployed. The output looks like the following:

   Error from server (VIOLATES_POLICY): error when creating "pod.yaml": admission webhook "binaryauthorization.googleapis.com" denied the request: Denied by default admission rule. Overridden by evaluation mode
   

Get the user cluster resource ID

This section shows you how to compose the cluster resource ID for your user cluster. In your Binary Authorization policy, you can create cluster-specific rules. You associate these rules with a cluster-specific resource ID, which is based on your cluster ID.

You get the resource ID as follows:

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the GKE Clusters page.

   Go to Clusters

2. Select the fleet host project ID for your clusters. You can find this project ID in the gkeConnect section of your user cluster configuration file.

3. In the cluster list, find your cluster ID under the Name column.

4. To create the resource ID, add the prefix global. to the cluster ID so that the resource ID has the following format: global.CLUSTER_ID.

gcloud

1. Use SSH to connect to your admin workstation.

2. On the admin workstation, run the following command:

   kubectl get membership -o yaml
   

3. Get the cluster ID from spec.owner.id field of the output. Example output follows:

   apiVersion: v1
   items:
   - apiVersion: hub.gke.io/v1
     kind: Membership
     ...
     spec:
       owner:
         id: //gkehub.googleapis.com/projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/global/memberships/my-cluster-id
   

   In the example output, the cluster ID is my-cluster-id.

4. To create the resource ID, add the prefix global. to the cluster ID. In the example, the resource ID is global.my-cluster-id.

You use this resource ID when you define cluster-specific rules. Learn how to set cluster-specific rules by using the Google Cloud console or the gcloud CLI.

Update the failure policy

The Binary Authorization Module webhook can be configured to fail open or fail close.

Fail close

To update the failure policy to fail close, do the following:

1. Edit the manifest-0.2.6.yaml file and set failurePolicy to Fail

2. Re-enable the webhook:

   kubectl apply -f manifest-0.2.6.yaml
   

   You see output similar to the following:

   serviceaccount/binauthz-admin unchanged
   role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-role configured
   clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-role configured
   rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-rolebinding unchanged
   clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-rolebinding unchanged
   secret/binauthz-tls unchanged
   service/binauthz unchanged
   deployment.apps/binauthz-module-deployment unchanged
   validatingwebhookconfiguration.admissionregistration.k8s.io/binauthz-validating-webhook-configuration configured
   

Fail open

To update the failure policy to fail open, do the following:

1. Edit the manifest-0.2.6.yaml file and set failurePolicy to Ignore

2. Re-enable the webhook:

   kubectl apply -f manifest-0.2.6.yaml
   

   You see output similar to the following:

   serviceaccount/binauthz-admin unchanged
   role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-role configured
   clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-role configured
   rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-rolebinding unchanged
   clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/binauthz-rolebinding unchanged
   secret/binauthz-tls unchanged
   service/binauthz unchanged
   deployment.apps/binauthz-module-deployment unchanged
   validatingwebhookconfiguration.admissionregistration.k8s.io/binauthz-validating-webhook-configuration configured
   

To learn more, see webhook failure policy.

Clean up

1. The following code sample shows how to disable the webhook:

   kubectl delete ValidatingWebhookConfiguration/binauthz-validating-webhook-configuration
   

2. The following code sample shows how to re-enable the webhook:

   kubectl apply -f manifest-0.2.6.yaml
   

3. The following code sample shows how to delete all of the resources related to Binary Authorization:

   kubectl delete -f manifest-0.2.6.yaml
   kubectl delete namespace binauthz-system
   

What's next

• To check policy compliance at Pod creation time without actually blocking the Pod from being created, see Enable dry run.
• To force a Pod to be created that the Binary Authorization enforcer would otherwise block, see Use breakglass.
• Use the built-by-cloud-build attestor to deploy only images built by Cloud Build.
• To implement an attestor-based Binary Authorization policy, see the following:
  • Configure a policy using the Google Cloud console or the command-line tool. Set the default or cluster-specific rule to require attestations.
  • Create an attestor using the Google Cloud console or the command-line tool.
  • Create an attestation.
• To see log events related to Binary Authorization for Distributed Cloud, see View Cloud Audit Logs events.
• Monitor metrics.