Linting policies

This topic describes how to lint, or validate, your Identity and Access Management (IAM) allow policies.

Before you begin

Required roles

To lint a resource's allow policy, you need permissions to get the resource, and to get and set the allow policy for the resource. These permissions have the following form, where SERVICE is the name of the service that owns the resource and RESOURCE_TYPE is the name of the resource type that you want to manage access to:

  • SERVICE.RESOURCE_TYPE.get
  • SERVICE.RESOURCE_TYPE.getIamPolicy
  • SERVICE.RESOURCE_TYPE.setIamPolicy

For example, to lint a project's allow policy, you need the following permissions:

  • resourcemanager.projects.get
  • resourcemanager.projects.getIamPolicy
  • resourcemanager.projects.setIamPolicy

To gain the required permissions, ask your administrator to grant you a predefined or custom role that includes the permissions. For example, your administrator could grant you the Security Admin role (roles/iam.securityAdmin), which includes permissions to get almost all Google Cloud resources and manage their allow policies.

Understanding linting for allow policies

In the context of allow policies, linting is a method of examining a new or existing allow policy and checking it for specific issues. These issues include the following range of possibilities:

  • Suggestions
  • Warnings
  • Information that can help improve the intent of the allow policy, such as better syntax and semantics
  • Syntax or semantic errors that cause setIamPolicy operations to fail

If you try to update an allow policy, and you get an error, linting the allow policy can help you find the cause of the error. You can also use the linter to help ensure that a conditional role binding has the intended effect.

Linting a condition

Condition expressions can be complex, especially in scenarios that require multiple clauses and logic operators to appropriately manage access. If a condition expression contains invalid logic, or if the syntax violates the restrictions of a condition expression, you cannot add the condition to an allow policy.

Also, even if a condition expression uses the correct syntax, it might contain semantic errors, which can prevent your allow policies and role bindings from working as expected. Common semantic errors include the following:

  • Use of unrecommended functions
  • Use of legacy resource types or legacy service names
  • Ineffective conditions, such as an inapplicable date or time range

When you lint a condition, the linter inspects the condition expression and reports any syntax errors. It also reports possible semantic errors that could cause unexpected results.

Before attempting to set a new conditional role binding, you are encouraged to lint the expression first. This section shows you how to lint a condition expression using the Google Cloud console, Google Cloud CLI, or the REST API.

To lint a condition expression:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

    Go to IAM

  2. Click Select a project, choose a project, and click Open.

  3. From the list of principals, locate the desired principal and click the Edit button.

  4. From the Edit permissions panel, locate the desired role that you want to lint. Then under IAM condition (optional), click the name of the condition.

  5. In the Condition editor, manually add or edit a condition expression.

  6. To validate the CEL syntax, click Run Linter.

    If the syntax contains errors, an Error icon appears next to the incorrect line. To see details about each error, hold the pointer over the icon.

    If the condition uses the correct syntax, but the linter finds a possible issue, a Warning icon appears next to the line with the issue. To see details about each warning, hold the pointer over the icon.

  7. Make any necessary changes to the condition expression. After you click Run Linter, the linter runs automatically in the background while you edit the expression.

    You must correct all errors before you save the condition expression. We strongly encourage you to fix all warnings as well.

  8. When there are no errors or warnings, click Save to apply the condition.

  9. Once the Edit condition panel is closed, click Save again from the Edit permissions panel to update your allow policy.

gcloud

Execute the gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition command to lint a given condition expression. To execute this command, you can either create a text file that contains the condition, or specify flags for the condition's title, description, and expression.

The following example uses a text file that contains the following condition:

condition.json

{
  "title": "1_less_than_2",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "1 <"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

The output from the command contains the following:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: |-
    ERROR: Parse expression:1:3: mismatched input '<EOF>' expecting {'[', '{', '(', '.', '-', '!', 'true', 'false', 'null', NUM_FLOAT, NUM_INT, NUM_UINT, STRING, BYTES, IDENTIFIER}
      | 1 >
      | ...^
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 3
  severity: ERROR
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/ConditionCompileCheck
...

Each of the lint results contain a debugMessage that can be used to help locate the problem with the condition expression. If the condition failed to compile, you may see many different validationUnitName types with the following debugMessage text:

The validation unit is skipped due to absence of a required object: CheckedExpr

Make changes so that the expression compiles, then lint the condition again.

REST

The iamPolicies.lintPolicy method lints, or validates, a condition expression in an allow policy.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • condition: An Expr object representing the condition to lint. For example: 

    "title": "1_less_than_2",
"description": "",
"expression": "1 <"

    To learn about the format of an Expr object, see the Expr schema reference.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/iamPolicies:lintPolicy

Request JSON body: 

{
  "condition": {
    condition
  }
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

The response body contains one or more LintResult objects, such as the following: 

{
  "lint_results": {
    "level": "CONDITION",
    "validation_unit_name": "LintValidationUnits/ConditionCompileCheck",
    "severity": "ERROR",
    "field_name": "condition.expression",
    "location_offset": "2",
    "debug_message": "ERROR: Parse expression:1:2: mismatched input \'<EOF>\' expecting {\'[\', \'{\', \'(\', \'.\', \'-\', \'!\', \'true\', \'false\', \'null\', NUM_FLOAT, NUM_INT, NUM_UINT, STRING, BYTES, IDENTIFIER}\n  | 1<\n  | ..^"
  },
  "lint_results": {
    "level": "CONDITION",
    "validation_unit_name": "LintValidationUnits/ConditionComplexityCheck",
    "severity": "NOTICE",
    "field_name": "condition.expression",
    "debug_message": "The validation unit is skipped due to absence of a required object: CheckedExpr"
  }
}

Each of the lint results contain a debug_message that can be used to help locate the problem with the condition expression. If the condition failed to compile, you may see many different validation_unit_name types with the following debugMessage text:

The validation unit is skipped due to absence of a required object: CheckedExpr

Make changes so that the expression compiles, then lint the condition again.

Supported validation units

As described previously, a validation unit is an individual lint type that evaluates the expression for syntactic issues. The table below summarizes supported validation units, each with intended linting level, linting result severity, and a brief description.

Validation unit Lint level Severity Description
ConditionCompileCheck CONDITION ERROR The condition expression contains a compilation error as a result of invalid CEL syntax.
ConditionComplexityCheck CONDITION ERROR The condition expression contains more than the maximum of 12 logic operators.
DateTimeCheck CONDITION WARNING

The condition expression specifies a timestamp comparison that always evaluates to either true or false, due to one of these issues:

DateTimeRangeCheck CONDITION WARNING Value out of range for the intended advanced timestamp function and the comparison expression. See the valid values for advanced timestamp functions.
DrgGetAttributeDefaultValueCheck CONDITION ERROR The condition expression calls api.getAttribute('iam.googleapis.com/modifiedGrantsByRole', V), where V is any value other than an empty list, []. For this API attribute, V must always be an empty list.
EffectiveTimeRangeCheck CONDITION WARNING In a more complex usage of timestamp functions and comparison, the expression results in an empty effective time range, and is therefore effectively false. Alternatively, the time range covers a full range, and is therefore effectively true.
HasOnlyListConstCheck CONDITION ERROR The condition expression calls hasOnly(List<T>), where the type T is not a constant type, such as a string or integer. The hasOnly() function accepts only a list of constants.
HasOnlyListLengthCheck CONDITION ERROR The condition expression calls hasOnly(List<T>), and List<T> contains more than the maximum of 10 elements.
ResourceServiceLiteralCheck CONDITION WARNING The specified resource.service value is not supported. The expression using such string literal for equality comparison is effectively false. Use a supported value.
ResourceTypeLiteralCheck CONDITION WARNING The specified resource.type value is not supported. The expression using such string literal for equality comparison is effectively false. Use a supported value.
RestrictedAttributesCheck CONDITION WARNING The expression uses an attribute that is restricted or not supported. Setting the condition expression might not succeed. See the list of attributes.

Linting examples

This section shows examples of conditions that cause each validation unit to report issues. Each example demonstrates linting by using the Google Cloud CLI.

No validation issues

Example condition:

{
  "title": "1_less_than_2",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "1 < 2"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

{}

ConditionCompileCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Condition not compiling",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "true=false"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: |-
    ERROR: Parse expression:1:4: token recognition error at: '=f'
      | true=false
      | ....^
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 4
  severity: ERROR
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/ConditionCompileCheck

ConditionComplexityCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Condition not compiling",
  "description": "",
  "expression":
    "1<2 || 2<3 || 3<4 || 4<5 || 5<6 || 6<7 || 7<8 || 8<9 || 9<10 || 10<11 || 11<12 || 12<13 || 13<14 || 14<15"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: Logical operators count must not be more than 12
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  severity: ERROR
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/ConditionComplexityCheck

DateTimeCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Condition not compiling",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "request.time < timestamp('2000-01-01T00:00:00Z')"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: Ineffective date time value 2000-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 parsed
    from "2000-01-01T00:00:00Z"; condition is effectively False. Time expired
    already.
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 25
  severity: WARNING
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/DateTimeCheck

DateTimeRangeCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Time function out of range",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "request.time.getMonth() > 13"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: The value being compared to the specified timestamp function
    (getMonth) must be in range [0, 11].
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 26
  severity: WARNING
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/DateTimeRangeCheck

DrgGetAttributeDefaultValueCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "DRG condition takes non empty list as default value",
  "description": "",
  "expression":
    "api.getAttribute('iam.googleapis.com/modifiedGrantsByRole', ['roles/viewer']).hasOnly(['roles/editor'])"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: api.getAttribute call on
    'iam.googleapis.com/modifiedGrantsByRole' can only
    accept empty list ('[]') as default value.
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 60
  severity: ERROR
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/DrgGetAttributeDefaultValueCheck

EffectiveTimeRangeCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Empty time range",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "request.time.getMonth() > 5 && request.time.getMonth() < 4"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: The aggregate of time functions [getMonth] results in empty ranges.
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  severity: WARNING
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/EffectiveTimeRangeCheck

HasOnlyListConstCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "hasOnly contains more than constant value",
  "description": "",
  "expression":
    "api.getAttribute('somekey', []).hasOnly(['somevalue', resource.name])"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: hasOnly() expects an argument of type list containing only const
      values, but a non-const expression was found in the list.
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 59
  severity: ERROR
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/HasOnlyListConstCheck

HasOnlyListLengthCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "hasOnly contains more than 10 elements",
  "description": "",
  "expression":
    "api.getAttribute('somekey', []).hasOnly([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11])"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: The list argument to hasOnly() cannot have more than 10 elements
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 39
  severity: ERROR
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/HasOnlyListLengthCheck

ResourceServiceLiteralCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Condition with unsupported resource service string",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "resource.service == 'resourcemanager'"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: 'resource.service : resourcemanager is not supported. Using this
    value in condition may lead to unintended consequences. Check user guide at
    https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/conditions-resource-attributes#resource_service_values
    for supported values for resource.service.'
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 20
  severity: WARNING
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/ResourceServiceLiteralCheck

ResourceTypeLiteralCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Condition with legacy resource type",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "resource.type == 'resourcemanager.projects'"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: 'resource.type : resourcemanager.projects is not supported.
    Using this value in condition may lead to unintended consequences. Check
    user guide at https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/conditions-resource-attributes#resource_type_values
    for supported values for resource.type.'
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 17
  severity: WARNING
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/ResourceTypeLiteralCheck

RestrictedAttributesCheck

Example condition:

{
  "title": "Condition with restricted attribute",
  "description": "",
  "expression": "'accessPolicies/123/accesslevels/TRUSTED' in request.auth.access_levels"
}

Run command:

gcloud alpha iam policies lint-condition --condition-from-file="condition.json"

Lint result:

lintResults:
- debugMessage: Condition attribute `request.auth.access_levels` is restricted
    or unsupported. Please check https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/conditions-overview
    for the full list of supported attributes
  fieldName: condition.expression
  level: CONDITION
  locationOffset: 57
  severity: WARNING
  validationUnitName: LintValidationUnits/RestrictedAttributesCheck