istio.io/_docs/tasks/security/basic-access-control.md

title	overview	order	layout	type
Setting up Basic Access Control	This task shows how to control access to a service using the Kubernetes labels.	20	docs	markdown

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This task shows how to control access to a service using the Kubernetes labels.

Before you begin

• Set up Istio on Kubernetes by following the instructions in the Installation guide.

• Deploy the BookInfo sample application.

• Initialize the application version routing to direct reviews service requests from test user "jason" to version v2 and requests from any other user to v3.

  istioctl create -f samples/bookinfo/kube/route-rule-reviews-test-v2.yaml
  istioctl create -f samples/bookinfo/kube/route-rule-reviews-v3.yaml
  

  Note: if you have conflicting rules that you set in previous tasks, use istioctl replace instead of istioctl create.

  Note: if you are using a namespace other than default, use istioctl -n namespace ... to specify the namespace.

Access control using denials

Using Istio you can control access to a service based on any attributes that are available within Mixer. This simple form of access control is based on conditionally denying requests using Mixer selectors.

Consider the BookInfo sample application where the ratings service is accessed by multiple versions of the reviews service. We would like to cut off access to version v3 of the reviews service.

1. Point your browser at the BookInfo productpage (http://$GATEWAY_URL/productpage).

   If you log in as user "jason", you should see black rating stars with each review, indicating that the ratings service is being called by the "v2" version of the reviews service.

   If you log in as any other user (or logout) you should see red rating stars with each review, indicating that the ratings service is being called by the "v3" version of the reviews service.

2. Explicitly deny access to version v3 of the reviews service.

   Run the following command to set up the deny rule along with a handler and an instance.

   istioctl create -f samples/bookinfo/kube/mixer-rule-deny-label.yaml
   

   You can expect to see the output similar to the following:

   Created config denier/default/denyreviewsv3handler at revision 2882105
   Created config checknothing/default/denyreviewsv3request at revision 2882106
   Created config rule/default/denyreviewsv3 at revision 2882107
   

   Notice the following in the denyreviewsv3 rule:

   match: destination.labels["app"] == "ratings" && source.labels["app"]=="reviews" && source.labels["version"] == "v3"
   

   It matches requests coming from the service reviews with label v3 to the service ratings.

   This rule uses the denier adapter to deny requests coming from version v3 of the reviews service. The adapter always denies requests with a pre-configured status code and message. The status code and the message is specified in the denier adapter configuration.

3. Refresh the productpage in your browser.

   If you are logged out or logged in as any user other than "jason" you will no longer see red ratings stars because the reviews:v3 service has been denied access to the ratings service. In contrast, if you log in as user "jason" (the reviews:v2 user) you continue to see the black ratings stars.

Access control using whitelists

Istio also supports attribute-based whitelists and blacklists.

1. Add an adapter definition for the listchecker adapter that lists versions v1, v2:

   apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
   kind: listchecker
   metadata:
     name: staticversion
     namespace: default
   spec:
     # providerUrl: ordinarily black and white lists are maintained
     # externally and fetched asynchronously using the providerUrl.
     overrides: ["v1", "v2"]  # overrides provide a static list
     blacklist: false
   

2. Extract the version label by creating an instance of the listentry template:

   apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
   kind: listentry
   metadata:
     name: appversion
     namespace: default
   spec:
     value: source.labels["version"]
   

3. Enable whitelist checking for the ratings service:

   apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
   kind: rule
   metadata:
     name: checkversion
     namespace: default
   spec:
     match: destination.labels["app"] == "ratings"
     actions:
     - handler: staticversion.listchecker
       instances:
       - appversion.listentry
   

Cleanup

• Remove the mixer configuration:

  istioctl delete -f /path/to/file.yaml
  

• Remove the application routing rules:

  istioctl delete -f samples/bookinfo/kube/route-rule-reviews-test-v2.yaml
  istioctl delete -f samples/bookinfo/kube/route-rule-reviews-v3.yaml
  

• If you are not planning to explore any follow-on tasks, refer to the BookInfo cleanup instructions to shutdown the application.

Further reading

• Learn how to securely control access based on the service account here.

• Learn more about Mixer and Mixer Config.

• Discover the full Attribute Vocabulary.

• Read the reference guide to Writing Config.

• Understand the differences between Kubernetes network policies and Istio access control policies from this blog.