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Logging network policy events

As a cluster administrator, you can configure network policy audit logging for your cluster and enable logging for one or more namespaces.

Audit logging of network policies is available for only the OVN-Kubernetes cluster network provider.

Network policy audit logging

The OVN-Kubernetes cluster network provider uses Open Virtual Network (OVN) ACLs to manage network policy. Audit logging exposes allow and deny ACL events.

You can configure the destination for network policy audit logs, such as a syslog server or a UNIX domain socket. Regardless of any additional configuration, an audit log is always saved to /var/log/ovn/acl-audit-log.log on each OVN-Kubernetes pod in the cluster.

Network policy audit logging is enabled per namespace by annotating the namespace with the k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging key as in the following example:

Example namespace annotation
kind: Namespace
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: example1
  annotations:
    k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging: |-
      {
        "deny": "info",
        "allow": "info"
      }

The logging format is compatible with syslog as defined by RFC5424. The syslog facility is configurable and defaults to local0. An example log entry might resemble the following:

Example ACL deny log entry
2021-06-13T19:33:11.590Z|00005|acl_log(ovn_pinctrl0)|INFO|name="verify-audit-logging_deny-all", verdict=drop, severity=alert: icmp,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=0a:58:0a:80:02:39,dl_dst=0a:58:0a:80:02:37,nw_src=10.128.2.57,nw_dst=10.128.2.55,nw_tos=0,nw_ecn=0,nw_ttl=64,icmp_type=8,icmp_code=0

The following table describes namespace annotation values:

Table 1. Network policy audit logging namespace annotation
Annotation Value

k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging

You must specify at least one of allow, deny, or both to enable network policy audit logging for a namespace.

deny

Optional: Specify alert, warning, notice, info, or debug.

allow

Optional: Specify alert, warning, notice, info, or debug.

Network policy audit configuration

The configuration for audit logging is specified as part of the OVN-Kubernetes cluster network provider configuration. The following YAML illustrates default values for network policy audit logging feature.

Audit logging configuration
apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  defaultNetwork:
    ovnKubernetesConfig:
      policyAuditConfig:
        destination: "null"
        maxFileSize: 50
        rateLimit: 20
        syslogFacility: local0

The following table describes the configuration fields for network policy audit logging.

Table 2. policyAuditConfig object
Field Type Description

rateLimit

integer

The maximum number of messages to generate every second per node. The default value is 20 messages per second.

maxFileSize

integer

The maximum size for the audit log in bytes. The default value is 50000000 or 50 MB.

destination

string

One of the following additional audit log targets:

libc

The libc syslog() function of the journald process on the host.

udp:<host>:<port>

A syslog server. Replace <host>:<port> with the host and port of the syslog server.

unix:<file>

A Unix Domain Socket file specified by <file>.

null

Do not send the audit logs to any additional target.

syslogFacility

string

The syslog facility, such as kern, as defined by RFC5424. The default value is local0.

Configuring network policy auditing for a cluster

As a cluster administrator, you can customize network policy audit logging for your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • Log in to the cluster with a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  • To customize the network policy audit logging configuration, enter the following command:

    $ oc edit network.operator.openshift.io/cluster

    You can alternatively customize and apply the following YAML to configure audit logging:

    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
kind: Network
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  defaultNetwork:
    ovnKubernetesConfig:
      policyAuditConfig:
        destination: "null"
        maxFileSize: 50
        rateLimit: 20
        syslogFacility: local0
Verification

  1. To create a namespace with network policies complete the following steps:

    1. Create a namespace for verification:

      $ cat <<EOF| oc create -f -
kind: Namespace
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: verify-audit-logging
  annotations:
    k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging: '{ "deny": "alert", "allow": "alert" }'
EOF
      Example output
      namespace/verify-audit-logging created

    2. Enable audit logging:

      $ oc annotate namespace verify-audit-logging k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging='{ "deny": "alert", "allow": "alert" }'
      namespace/verify-audit-logging annotated

    3. Create network policies for the namespace:

      $ cat <<EOF| oc create -n verify-audit-logging -f -
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: deny-all
spec:
  podSelector:
    matchLabels:
  policyTypes:
  - Ingress
  - Egress
---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
  name: allow-from-same-namespace
spec:
  podSelector: {}
  policyTypes:
   - Ingress
   - Egress
  ingress:
    - from:
        - podSelector: {}
  egress:
    - to:
       - namespaceSelector:
          matchLabels:
            namespace: verify-audit-logging
EOF
      Example output
      networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/deny-all created
networkpolicy.networking.k8s.io/allow-from-same-namespace created

  2. Create a pod for source traffic in the default namespace:

    $ cat <<EOF| oc create -n default -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: client
spec:
  containers:
    - name: client
      image: registry.access.redhat.com/rhel7/rhel-tools
      command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
      args:
        ["sleep inf"]
EOF

  3. Create two pods in the verify-audit-logging namespace:

    $ for name in client server; do
cat <<EOF| oc create -n verify-audit-logging -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: ${name}
spec:
  containers:
    - name: ${name}
      image: registry.access.redhat.com/rhel7/rhel-tools
      command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
      args:
        ["sleep inf"]
EOF
done
    Example output
    pod/client created
pod/server created

  4. To generate traffic and produce network policy audit log entries, complete the following steps:

    1. Obtain the IP address for pod named server in the verify-audit-logging namespace:

      $ POD_IP=$(oc get pods server -n verify-audit-logging -o jsonpath='{.status.podIP}')

    2. Ping the IP address from the previous command from the pod named client in the default namespace and confirm that all packets are dropped:

      $ oc exec -it client -n default -- /bin/ping -c 2 $POD_IP
      Example output
      PING 10.128.2.55 (10.128.2.55) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 10.128.2.55 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 2041ms

    3. Ping the IP address saved in the POD_IP shell environment variable from the pod named client in the verify-audit-logging namespace and confirm that all packets are allowed:

      $ oc exec -it client -n verify-audit-logging -- /bin/ping -c 2 $POD_IP
      Example output
      PING 10.128.0.86 (10.128.0.86) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.128.0.86: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.21 ms
64 bytes from 10.128.0.86: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.440 ms

--- 10.128.0.86 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.440/1.329/2.219/0.890 ms

  5. Display the latest entries in the network policy audit log:

    $ for pod in $(oc get pods -n openshift-ovn-kubernetes -l app=ovnkube-node --no-headers=true | awk '{ print $1 }') ; do
    oc exec -it $pod -n openshift-ovn-kubernetes -- tail -4 /var/log/ovn/acl-audit-log.log
  done
    Example output
    Defaulting container name to ovn-controller.
Use 'oc describe pod/ovnkube-node-hdb8v -n openshift-ovn-kubernetes' to see all of the containers in this pod.
2021-06-13T19:33:11.590Z|00005|acl_log(ovn_pinctrl0)|INFO|name="verify-audit-logging_deny-all", verdict=drop, severity=alert: icmp,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=0a:58:0a:80:02:39,dl_dst=0a:58:0a:80:02:37,nw_src=10.128.2.57,nw_dst=10.128.2.55,nw_tos=0,nw_ecn=0,nw_ttl=64,icmp_type=8,icmp_code=0
2021-06-13T19:33:12.614Z|00006|acl_log(ovn_pinctrl0)|INFO|name="verify-audit-logging_deny-all", verdict=drop, severity=alert: icmp,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=0a:58:0a:80:02:39,dl_dst=0a:58:0a:80:02:37,nw_src=10.128.2.57,nw_dst=10.128.2.55,nw_tos=0,nw_ecn=0,nw_ttl=64,icmp_type=8,icmp_code=0
2021-06-13T19:44:10.037Z|00007|acl_log(ovn_pinctrl0)|INFO|name="verify-audit-logging_allow-from-same-namespace_0", verdict=allow, severity=alert: icmp,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=0a:58:0a:80:02:3b,dl_dst=0a:58:0a:80:02:3a,nw_src=10.128.2.59,nw_dst=10.128.2.58,nw_tos=0,nw_ecn=0,nw_ttl=64,icmp_type=8,icmp_code=0
2021-06-13T19:44:11.037Z|00008|acl_log(ovn_pinctrl0)|INFO|name="verify-audit-logging_allow-from-same-namespace_0", verdict=allow, severity=alert: icmp,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=0a:58:0a:80:02:3b,dl_dst=0a:58:0a:80:02:3a,nw_src=10.128.2.59,nw_dst=10.128.2.58,nw_tos=0,nw_ecn=0,nw_ttl=64,icmp_type=8,icmp_code=0

Enabling network policy audit logging for a namespace

As a cluster administrator, you can enable network policy audit logging for a namespace.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • Log in to the cluster with a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  • To enable network policy audit logging for a namespace, enter the following command:

    $ oc annotate namespace <namespace> \
  k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging='{ "deny": "alert", "allow": "notice" }'

    where:

    <namespace>

    Specifies the name of the namespace.

    You can alternatively apply the following YAML to enable audit logging:

    kind: Namespace
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: <namespace>
  annotations:
    k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging: |-
      {
        "deny": "alert",
        "allow": "notice"
      }
    Example output
    namespace/verify-audit-logging annotated
Verification

  • Display the latest entries in the network policy audit log:

    $ for pod in $(oc get pods -n openshift-ovn-kubernetes -l app=ovnkube-node --no-headers=true | awk '{ print $1 }') ; do
    oc exec -it $pod -n openshift-ovn-kubernetes -- tail -4 /var/log/ovn/acl-audit-log.log
  done
    Example output
    2021-06-13T19:33:11.590Z|00005|acl_log(ovn_pinctrl0)|INFO|name="verify-audit-logging_deny-all", verdict=drop, severity=alert: icmp,vlan_tci=0x0000,dl_src=0a:58:0a:80:02:39,dl_dst=0a:58:0a:80:02:37,nw_src=10.128.2.57,nw_dst=10.128.2.55,nw_tos=0,nw_ecn=0,nw_ttl=64,icmp_type=8,icmp_code=0

Disabling network policy audit logging for a namespace

As a cluster administrator, you can disable network policy audit logging for a namespace.

Prerequisites

  • Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).

  • Log in to the cluster with a user with cluster-admin privileges.

Procedure

  • To disable network policy audit logging for a namespace, enter the following command:

    $ oc annotate --overwrite namespace <namespace> k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging-

    where:

    <namespace>

    Specifies the name of the namespace.

    You can alternatively apply the following YAML to disable audit logging:

    kind: Namespace
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: <namespace>
  annotations:
    k8s.ovn.org/acl-logging: null
    Example output
    namespace/verify-audit-logging annotated

Additional resources