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Managing security policies

Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes allows you to use out-of-the-box security policies and define custom multi-factor policies for your container environment. Configuring these policies enables you to automatically prevent high-risk service deployments in your environment and respond to runtime security incidents.

Using default security policies

Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes includes a set of default policies that provide broad coverage to identify security issues and ensure best practices for security in your environment.

To view the default policies:

  • On the RHACS portal, navigate to Platform Configuration → System policies.

The Policies view lists the default policies and includes the following parameters for each policy:

  • Name: A short name for the policy.

  • Description: A longer, more detailed description of the alert for the policy.

  • Lifecycle: Corresponds to the phase of the container lifecycle (build, deploy, or runtime) that this policy applies to, and the phase at which enforcement will be applied, when the policy is enabled.

  • Severity: A ranking of the policy, either critical, high, medium, or low, for the amount of attention required.

The default policies have preconfigured parameters and belong to categories such as:

  • Anomalous Activity

  • Cryptocurrency Mining

  • DevOps Best Practices

  • Kubernetes

  • Network Tools

  • Package Management

  • Privileges

  • Security Best Practices

  • System Modification

  • Vulnerability Management

You can edit these categories create your own categories. When you create your own category, a new widget displays information about that category on the dashboard.

Modifying existing security policies

You can edit the policies you have created and the existing default policies provided by Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes.

Procedure

  • On the RHACS portal, navigate to Platform Configuration → System Policies from the left-hand navigation menu and select the policy you want to edit.

Creating policy categories

You can create new policy categories from the system policies view.

Procedure

  1. On the RHACS portal, naviagte to Platform Configuration → System Policies and select a policy you want to edit.

  2. Click Edit in the Policy Configuration panel on the right.

  3. Enter a new category name in the Categories section and then click Create <category>.

  4. Click Next.

  5. Click Next again.

  6. Click Save.

After you save the configuration, the new category displays on the dashboard if there are any violations for policies in the category.

Creating custom policies

In addition to using the default policies, you can also create custom policies in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes.

To build a new policy, you can clone an existing policy or create a new one from scratch.

  • You can also create policies based on the filter criteria in the Risk view in the RHACS portal.

  • You can also use AND, OR, and NOT logical operators for policy criteria to create advanced policies.

Creating a security policy from the system policies view

You can create new security policies from the system policies view.

Procedure

  1. On the RHACS portal, navigate to Platform Configuration → System policies.

  2. Click + New Policy below the filter box on the top right side.

  3. Turn off the Enable Policy toggle if you want to create a policy but enable it later.

  4. Enter the following details about your policy in the Policy Summary section:

    • Enter a Name for the policy.

    • Select a Severity level for this policy, either Critical, High, Medium, or Low.

    • Choose Lifecycle Stages to which your policy is applicable, from Build, Deploy, or Runtime. You can select more than one stage.

      • Build-time policies apply to image fields such as CVEs and Dockerfile instructions.

      • Deploy-time policies can include all build-time policy criteria but they can also include data from your cluster configurations, such as running in privileged mode or mounting the Docker socket.

      • Runtime policies can include all build-time and deploy-time policy criteria but they can also include data about process executions during runtime.

    • Enter details about the policy in the Policy Description box.

    • Enter an explanation about why the policy exists in the Rationale box.

    • Enter steps to resolve violations of this policy in the Remediation box.

    • Select policy Categories you want to apply to this policy.

    • Select Notifications channels to forward alert notifications when a violation occurs for this policy.

      You must integrate Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes with your notification provider, for example, webhooks, Jira, PagerDuty, Splunk, or others before you can forward alerts.

    • Use Restrict to Scope to enable this policy only for a specific cluster, a namespace, or a label. You can add multiple scopes and also use regular expressions in RE2 Syntax for namespaces and labels.

    • Use Exclude by Scope to exclude deployments, clusters, namespaces, and labels you specify, it means that the policy will not apply to the entities that you select. You can add multiple scopes and also use regular expressions in RE2 Syntax for namespaces and labels. However, you cannot use regular expressions for selecting deployments.

    • For Excluded Images (Build Lifecycle only), select all images that you do not want to trigger a violation for.

      The Excluded Images setting only applies when you check images in a continuous integration system with the Build lifecycle stage. It will not have any effect if you use this policy to check running deployments in the Deploy lifecycle stage or runtime activities in the Runtime lifecycle stage.

  5. Optional: Under the MITRE ATT&CK section, select the Tactics and the Techniques you want to specify for the policy.

    1. Click Add tactic, and then select a tactic from the dropdown list.

    2. Click the Add icon to add techniques for the selected tactic. You can specify multiple techniques for a tactic.

      Specifying MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques is only available if you are using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes 3.65 or later.

  6. Select Next on the panel header.

  7. In the Policy Criteria section, configure the attributes that you you want to trigger the policy for.

    If you are using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes 3.0.45 or newer, select Next to view the Policy Criteria section.

  8. Select Next on the panel header.

  9. The new policy panel shows a preview of the violations that get triggered if you enable the policy.

  10. Select Next on the panel header.

  11. Choose the enforcement behavior for the policy. It is only available for the stages you select when configuring Lifecycle Stages. Select ON (enable) to enforce policy and report a violation, and OFF (disable) to only report a violation. The enforcement behavior is different for each lifecycle stage.

    • Build - Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes fails your continuous integration (CI) builds when images match the conditions of the policy.

    • Deploy - Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes blocks creation of deployments that match the conditions of the policy. In clusters with admission controller enforcement, the Kubernetes or OpenShift Container Platform API server blocks all noncompliant deployments. In other clusters, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes edits noncompliant deployments to prevent pods from being scheduled.

    • Runtime - Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes kills all pods that match the conditions of the policy.

      Policy enforcement can impact running applications or development processes. Before you enable enforcement options, inform all stakeholders and plan about how to respond to automated enforcement actions.

Creating a security policy from the risk view

While evaluating risks in your deployments in the Risk view, when you apply local page filtering, you can create new security policies based on the filtering criteria you are using.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the RHACS portal and select Risk from the navigation menu.

  2. Apply local page filtering criteria that you want to create a policy.

  3. Select New Policy and fill in the required fields to create a new policy.

Policy criteria

In the Policy Criteria section you can configure the data on which you want to trigger a policy.

You can configure the policy based on the attributes listed in the following table.

In this table:

  • The Regular expressions, AND, OR, and NOT columns indicate whether you can use regular expressions and other logical operators along with the specific attribute.

    • ! in the Regular expressions column indicates that you can only use regular expressions for the listed fields.

    • ! in the AND, OR column indicates that you can only use the mentioned logical operator for the attribute.

  • The RHACS version column indicates the version of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes that you must have to use the attribute.

  • You cannot use logical combination operators AND and OR for attributes that have:

    • Boolean values true and false

    • Minimum-value semantics, for example:

      • Minimum RBAC permissions

      • Days since image was created

  • You cannot use the NOT logical operator for attributes that have:

    • Boolean values true and false

    • Numeric values that already use comparison, such as the <, >, <=, >= operators.

    • Compound criteria that can have multiple values, for example:

      • Dockerfile Line, which includes both instructions and arguments.

      • Environment Variable, which consists of both name and value.

    • Other meanings, including Add Capabilities, Drop Capabilities, Days since image was created, and Days since image was last scanned.

To use logical operators AND, OR, and NOT for creating security policies, you need Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes version 3.0.45 or newer. However, on earlier versions you can still use regular expressions for the fields listed in the Regular expressions column.
Attribute Description RHACS version Regular expressions NOT AND, OR Phase

Namespace

The name of the namespace.

3.0.51 and newer

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Image Registry

The name of the image registry.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Image Remote

The full name of the image in registry, for example library/nginx.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Image Tag

Identifier for an image.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Days since image was created

The number of days from image creation date.

All

✕

✕

✕

Build

Days since image was last scanned

The number of days since the last image scan.

All

✕

✕

✕

Build

Dockerfile Line

A specific line in the Dockerfile, including both instructions and arguments.

All

! only for values

✕

✓

Build

Image is NOT Scanned

No scan data is available for the image.

All

✕

✕

✕

Build

CVSS

Common Vulnerability Scoring System, use it to match images with vulnerabilities whose scores are greater than >, less than <, or equal to = the specified CVSS.

All

✕

✕

✓

Build

Fixed By

The version string of a package that fixes a flagged vulnerability in an image.

All

✓

✓

✓

Build

CVE

Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, use it with specific CVE numbers.

All

✓

✓

✓

Build

Image Component

Name and version number of a specific software component present in an image.

All

✓

✕

✓

Build

Image OS

Name and version number of the base operating system of the image.

3.0.47 and newer

✓

✓

✓

Build

Environment Variable

Check environment variables by name or value.

All

! only for key and value

✕

✓

Deploy

Disallowed Annotation

An annotation which is not allowed to be present on Kubernetes resources in a specified environment.

All

✓

✕

✓

Deploy

Disallowed Image Label

Check for the presence of a Docker image label that should not be in use. The policy triggers if any image in the deployment has the specified label. You can use regular expressions for both key and value fields to match labels. The Disallowed Image Label policy criteria only works when you integrate with a Docker registry.

3.0.40 and newer

✓

✕

✓

Deploy

Required Image Label

Check for the presence of a required Docker image label. The policy triggers if any image in the deployment does not have the specified label. You can use regular expressions for both key and value fields to match labels. The Required Image Label policy criteria only works when you integrate with a Docker registry.

3.0.40 and newer

✓

✕

✓

Deploy

Required Label

Check for the presence of a required label in Kubernetes.

All

✓

✕

✓

Deploy

Required Annotation

Check for the presence of a required annotation in Kubernetes.

All

✓

✕

✓

Deploy

Volume Name

Name of the storage.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Volume Source

Indicates the form in which the volume is provisioned. For example, persistentVolumeClaim or hostPath.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Volume Destination

The path where the volume is mounted.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Volume Type

The type of volume.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Writable Volume

Volumes that are mounted as writable.

All

✕

✕

✕

Deploy

Protocol

Protocol, such as, TCP or UDP, that is used by the exposed port.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Port

Port numbers exposed by a deployment.

All

✕

✓

✓

Deploy

Privileged

Privileged running deployments.

All

✕

✕

✕

Deploy

Read-Only Root Filesystem

Containers running with the root file system configured as read only.

All

✕

✕

✕

Deploy

Drop Capabilities

Linux capabilities that must be dropped from the container. For example CAP_SETUID or CAP_NET_RAW.

All

✕

✕

✓

Deploy

Add Capabilities

Linux capabilities that must not be added to the container, for instance the ability to send raw packets or override file permissions.

All

✕

✕

✓

Deploy

Process Name

Name of the process executed in a deployment.

All

✓

✓

✓

Runtime

Process Ancestor

Name of any parent process for a process executed in a deployment.

All

✓

✓

✓

Runtime

Process Arguments

Command arguments for a process executed in a deployment.

All

✓

✓

✓

Runtime

Process UID

Unix user ID for a process executed in a deployment.

All

✕

✓

✓

Runtime

Port Exposure

Exposure method of the service, for example, load balancer or node port.

All

✕

✓

✓

Deploy

Service Account

The name of the service account.

All

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Writable Host Mount

Resource has mounted a path on the host with write permissions.

All

✕

✕

✕

Deploy

Unexpected Process Executed

Check deployments for which process executions are not listed in the deployment’s locked process baseline.

All

✕

✕

✕

Runtime

Minimum RBAC Permissions

Match if the deployment’s Kubernetes service account has Kubernetes RBAC permission level equal to = or greater than > the specified level.

All

✕

✓

✕

Deploy

Container Name

The name of the container.

3.0.52 and newer

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

Container CPU Request

Check for the number of cores reserved for a given resource.

All

✕

✕

✓

Deploy

Container CPU Limit

Check for the maximum number of cores a resource is allowed to use.

All

✕

✕

✓

Deploy

Container Memory Request

Check for the amount of memory reserved for a given resource.

All

✕

✕

✓

Deploy

Container Memory Limit

Check for the maximum amount of memory a resource is allowed to use.

All

✕

✕

✓

Deploy

Kubernetes Action

The name of the Kubernetes action, such as Pod Exec.

3.0.55 and newer

✕

✕

! OR only

Runtime

Kubernetes Resource

The name of the accessed Kubernetes resource, such as configmaps or secrets.

3.63 and newer

✕

✕

! OR only

Runtime

Kubernetes Resource Name

The name of the accessed Kubernetes resource.

3.63 and newer

✓

✓

! OR only

Runtime

Kubernetes API Verb

The Kubernetes API verb that is used to access the resource, such as GET or POST.

3.63 and newer

✕

✕

! OR only

Runtime

Kubernetes User Name

The name of the user who accessed the resource.

3.63 and newer

✓

✓

! OR only

Runtime

Kubernetes User Group

The name of the group to which the user who accessed the resource belongs to.

3.63 and newer

✓

✕

! OR only

Runtime

User Agent

The user agent that the user used to access the resource. For example oc, or kubectl.

3.63 and newer

✓

✓

! OR only

Runtime

Source IP Address

The IP address from which the user accessed the resource.

3.63 and newer

✓

✓

! OR only

Runtime

Is Impersonated User

Check if the request was made by a user that is impersonated by a service account or some other account.

3.63 and newer

✕

✕

✕

Runtime

Runtime Class

The RuntimeClass of the deployment.

3.67 and newer

✓

✓

✓

Deploy

If you are using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes version 3.0.44 or older, the policy criteria you specify in the Policy criteria section are "AND"ed. It means that the violation only triggers if all the specified policy criteria match.

Adding logical conditions for the policy criteria

You can use the drag-and-drop policy fields panel to specify logical conditions for the policy criteria.

Prerequisites

  • You must be using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes version 3.0.45 or newer.

Procedure

  1. In the Policy Criteria section, select Add a new condition to add a new policy section.

    • You can click on the Edit icon to rename the policy section.

    • The Drag out a policy field section lists available policy criteria in multiple categories. You can expand and collapse these categories to view the policy criteria attributes.

  2. Drag an attribute to the Drop a policy field inside area of the policy section.

  3. Depending on the type of the attribute you select, you get different options to configure the conditions for the selected attribute. For example:

    • If you select an attribute with Boolean values Read-Only Root Filesystem, you will see READ-ONLY and WRITABLE options.

    • If you select an attribute with compound values Environment variable, you will see options to enter values for Key, Value, and Value From fields, and an icon to add more values for the available options.

      1. To combine multiple values for an attribute, click the Add icon.

      2. You can also click on the logical operator AND or OR listed in a policy section, to toggle between AND and OR operators. Toggling between operators only works inside a policy section and not between two different policy sections.

  4. You can specify more than one AND and OR condition by repeating these steps. After you configure the conditions for the added attributes, click Next to continue with the policy creation.

Sharing security policies

Beginning from Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes version 3.0.44, you can share your security policies between different Central instances, by exporting and importing policies. It helps you enforce the same standards for all your clusters. To share policies, you export them as JSON files, and then import them back into another Central instance.

Currently, you cannot export multiple security policies at once by using the RHACS portal. However, you can use the API for exporting multiple security policies. On the RHACS portal, navigate to Help → API reference to see the API reference.

Exporting a security policy

When you export a policy, it includes all the policy contents and also includes cluster scopes, cluster exclusions, and all configured notifications.

Procedure

  1. On the RHACS portal, navigate to Platform Configuration → System policies.

  2. Select a policy that you want to export.

  3. Click Export (download icon) on the Policy Details panel.

Importing a security policy

You can import a security policy from the System Policies view on the RHACS portal.

Procedure

  1. On the RHACS portal, navigate to Platform Configuration → System policies.

  2. On the Policies view header, select Import Policy and select the file you want to upload.

Each security policy in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes has a unique ID (UID) and a unique name. When you import a policy, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes handles the uploaded policy as follows:

  • If the imported policy UID and name do not match any existing policy, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes creates a new policy.

  • If the imported policy has the same UID as an existing policy, but a different name, you can either:

    • Keep both policies. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes saves the imported policy with a new UID.

    • Replace the existing policy with the imported policy.

  • If the imported policy has the same name as an existing policy, but a different UID, you can either:

    • Keep both policies by providing a new name for the imported policy.

    • Replace the existing policy with the imported policy.

  • If the imported policy has the same name and UID as an existing policy, the Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes checks if the policy criteria match to the existing policy. If the policy criteria match, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes keeps the existing policy and shows a success message. If the policy criteria do not match, you can either:

    • Keep both policies by providing a new name for the imported policy.

    • Replace the existing policy with the imported policy.

  • If you import into the same Central instance, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes uses all the exported fields.

  • If you import into a different Central instance, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes omits certain fields, such as cluster scopes, cluster exclusions, and notifications. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes shows these omitted fields in a message. These fields vary for every installation, and you cannot migrate them from one Central instance to another.