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Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz in a Cloud-Native Environment
The document discusses best practices for implementing authentication (authn) and authorization (authz) in cloud-native environments, emphasizing their importance and current trends. It outlines security risks related to authn/authz as per OWASP, standards for user and workload authentication, and various authorization models like attribute-based and relationship-based access control. Additionally, it provides recommendations based on NIST guidelines and mentions ongoing projects related to identity and access management.
Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz in a Cloud-Native Environment
- 1. © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz in a Cloud-Native Environment All Day DevOps 2024 Hitachi, Ltd. OSS Solution Center 10/11/2024 Yoshiyuki Tabata
- 2. 2 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. 1. Importance of Authentication and Authorization 2. Difficulty to Implement Authentication and Authorization 3. Current Trends of Authentication and Authorization Contents 4. Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz
- 3. 3 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Speaker • Specialist in API authorization Consulting for API management infrastructure and authentication/authorization systems in the financial, public, social, and industrial fields • Contributor to OSS related to authentication, authorization, and API management Keycloak (IAM OSS) 3scale (API management OSS) • Other activities Speaker at events such as KubeCon, Apidays, Open Source Summit, etc. Author of Keycloak books (Japanese) and writer of web articles about IAM (Japanese) Yoshiyuki Tabata Senior OSS Consultant at Hitachi, Ltd. CNCF Ambassador / Cloud Native Community Japan organizer / Cloud Native Security Japan founder LinkedIn: @ytabata, X: @yo_tabata, GitHub: @y-tabata
- 4. 4 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. 1. Importance of Authentication and Authorization 2. Difficulty to Implement Authentication and Authorization 3. Current Trends of Authentication and Authorization Contents 4. Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz
- 5. 5 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. What is Authentication / Authorization Authentication (Authn) is the process of verifying an entity's identity. Authorization (Authz) is the process of verifying that a requested action or service is approved for a specific entity. entities resources / APIs request Authentication Who/What does request resources? Authorization Can the entity take some action regarding resources?
- 6. 6 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Authn and Authz in OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks The top 3 security risks are regarding "Authn/Authz". * OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks - 2023 https://owasp.org/API-Security/editions/2023/en/0x11-t10/ Broken Object Level Authorization Broken Object Property Level Authorization Broken Function Level Authorization Broken Authentication Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows Security Misconfiguration Unrestricted Resource Consumption Server Side Request Forgery Improper Inventory Management Unsafe Consumption of APIs 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 5
- 7. 7 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Authorization in OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks Authorization is the most significant security risk, with 3 risks ranking in the top 5. #1 Broken Object Level Authorization Must not allow user 101 to obtain user 102's resources. #3 Broken Object Property Level Authorization Must not allow a general user to change sensitive object properties like "rank". #5 Broken Function Level Authorization Must not allow a general user to call administrator function. User 101 GET /users/102 PUT /users/101 {"rank": "gold"} GET /admin/users/all
- 8. 8 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. 1. Importance of Authentication and Authorization 2. Difficulty to Implement Authentication and Authorization 3. Current Trends of Authentication and Authorization Contents 4. Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz
- 9. 9 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Various Standards for Authentication This year marks 10 years since OpenID Connect 1.0 was published. In recent years, various standards have been published to address various attacks and social needs, and more will likely increase in the future. Standards: OSS: … OIDF standardizes IETF standardizes OASIS standardizes W3C standardizes … SAML 2.0 Web Authentication OpenID Connect Core 1.0 RFC6749: OAuth 2.0 extend FAPI 1.0 FAPI 2.0 OAuth 2.1 OID4VCI OpenID Connect Discovery 1.0 RFC 7636: PKCE RFC 6750: Bearer Token RFC 9449: DPoP RFC 7662: Token Introspection RFC 8693: Token Exchange OpenID Connect DCR 1.0 RFC 8705: OAuth MTLS RFC 8628: Device Flow CIBA FAPI-CIBA JARM
- 10. 10 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. No Standards and Various OSS for Authorization There is no standard and there are a lot of excellent OSS. Currently, OIDF AuthZEN WG is working to develop standards to address this situation. No standards for communicating authorization information … Standards: OSS:
- 11. 11 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. 1. Importance of Authentication and Authorization 2. Difficulty to Implement Authentication and Authorization 3. Current Trends of Authentication and Authorization Contents 4. Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz
- 12. 12 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Current Trend of Authentication In a cloud-native environment, not only User Authentication like OIDC, but also Workload Authentication is becoming increasingly important. In today's world, with an increasing number of complex software functions being built and deployed as workloads, IETF Workload Identity in Multi System Environments (WIMSE) WG was established in 2024 and is developing standards for workload authentication. Current Active Internet-Drafts Date Description WIMSE Service to Service Authentication 2024-08-15 Describes protocols for two workloads to verify each other's identity. Workload Identity in a Multi System Environment (WIMSE) Architecture 2024-07-08 Describes workload identity and its use cases. Best Current Practice for OAuth 2.0 Client Authentication in Workload Environments 2024-07-08 Describes OAuth 2.0 client authentication method in workload environments utilizing service account token volume projection and RFC7523.
- 13. 13 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Current Trend of Authorization Authorization is recognized as the most important security risk, and while there is a demand for dynamic and fine-grained authorization schemes. OIDF Authorization Exchange (AuthZEN) WG was established in 2023 and is developing standards for authorization. Current Drafts Date Description Authorization API 1.0 2024-09-15 Describes API specification between Policy Decision Points (PDP) and Policy Enforcement Points (PEP).
- 14. 14 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. 1. Importance of Authentication and Authorization 2. Difficulty to Implement Authentication and Authorization 3. Current Trends of Authentication and Authorization Contents 4. Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz
- 15. 15 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authentication (User Authentication) Assess the adverse impact of failures and choose the appropriate user authentication methods among the many available, following NIST SP 800-63 Digital Identity Guidelines. Revision 4 of NIST SP 800-63 is currently available as a draft. Authenticator Assurance Levels (AAL) Permitted Authentication AAL1 single-factor authentication like password authentication AAL2 multi-factor authentication like synced passkey based on W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) AAL3 multi-factor cryptographic authentication like device-bound passkey based on WebAuthn
- 16. 16 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authentication (User Authentication) User authentication does not need to be implemented individually in the workload but is typically delegated to an IdP such as Keycloak. When delegating user authentication, choose the appropriate federation protocol, following NIST SP 800-63. Federation Assurance Levels (FAL) Federation Protocols FAL1 OIDC implicit flow SAML Web SSO profile FAL2 OIDC authorization code flow SAML artifact binding profile FAL3 OIDC holder-of-key ID token (no standard) SAML Holder-of-Key profile
- 17. 17 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authentication (User Authentication) When adopting OIDC, more specific implementation will be decided concerning OAuth 2.0 Security Best Current Practice, which summarizes the latest security recommendations for OAuth 2.0. OIDC has a high affinity for cloud-native environments and is often adopted because it is based on OAuth 2.0, the standard for API protection. Threat examples Mitigations Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) RFC7636: Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE) Misuse of Stolen Access Tokens RFC8705: OAuth 2.0 Mutual-TLS Client Authentication and Certificate-Bound Access Tokens (OAuth MTLS) RFC9449: OAuth 2.0 Demonstrating Proof of Possession (DPoP)
- 18. 18 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Node Node Best Practice of Authentication (Workload Authentication) The current mainstream is mTLS authentication using X.509 certificates with a SPIFFE-compliant implementation such as SPIRE. Some ways to interact with SPIRE Agent include implementing its client with SPIFFE Library, using SPIRE Helper utility, or using Envoy Proxy. Workload Workload SPIRE Agent SPIRE Agent SPIRE Server mTLS x.509 certificates x.509 certificates workload identities workload identities
- 19. 19 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authorization Separate authorization logic from application logic using the P*P architecture defined in XACML and NIST SP 800-162. By separating the authorization logic, workloads are freed from having to keep up with the complexity of authorization conditions as the service grows. entities (subjects) resources / APIs (objects) 1. unauthorized request Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) 4. authorized request Policy Decision Point (PDP) Policy Information Point (PIP) Policy Administration Point (PAP) authorization policies data 2. authorization delegation 3. authorization decision
- 20. 20 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authorization Depending on your use case, choose the PDP authorization model between Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) and Relationship-Based Access Control (ReBAC). entities (subjects) resources / APIs (objects) 1. unauthorized request Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) 4. authorized request Policy Decision Point (PDP) Policy Information Point (PIP) Policy Administration Point (PAP) authorization policies data 2. authorization delegation 3. authorization decision
- 21. 21 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authorization Depending on your use case, choose the PDP authorization model between Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) and Relationship-Based Access Control (ReBAC). ABAC (Policy as Code) ReBAC (Policy as Graph) Features Good at very fine-grained authorization, including depending on dynamic attributes such as time and location. Good at authorization using complex hierarchical relationships. Use case example Managers who are in APAC can view Trade Confidential files during business hours. Users who are assigned the Member role of the Development team will also be granted the Edit role for all files in that folder if the Development team is the parent of that folder. Representative implementation Open Policy Agent (OPA) OpenFGA
- 22. 22 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authorization Interaction between PDP and PEP is implemented following OIDF AuthZEN WG Authorization API 1.0. Since this specification is still a draft, it is possible to break changes, so it is necessary to keep a close eye on trends. entities (subjects) resources / APIs (objects) 1. unauthorized request Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) 4. authorized request Policy Decision Point (PDP) Policy Information Point (PIP) Policy Administration Point (PAP) authorization policies data 2. authorization delegation 3. authorization decision
- 23. 23 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Best Practice of Authorization Obtain user identities used for authorization following RFC7662: OAuth 2.0 Token Introspection. Access token added to Token Introspection request is obtained from API request. entities resources / APIs 1. API request w/ access token (following RFC6750: OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token Usage) Authorization Server 2. Token Introspection request w/ access token (following RFC7662)
- 24. 24 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. In a cloud-native environment, the workload may need to interact with others. In this case, obtain a token following RFC8693: OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange and use it within a trusted domain. For details on this interaction, refer to Transaction Tokens, a draft of the IETF oauth WG. Trusted Domain Best Practice of Authorization entities 1. API request w/ access token Authorization Server 2. Token Exchange request w/ access token Workload Workload 4. API request w/ new token 3. Token Exchange response w/ new token
- 25. 25 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Trusted Domain A If workloads are distributed across multiple trusted domains, obtain a token for the other trusted domain following RFC8693 and RFC7523: JWT Profile for OAuth 2.0 Authorization Grants. For details on this interaction, refer to OAuth Identity and Authorization Chaining Across Domains, a draft of the IETF oauth WG. Trusted Domain B Best Practice of Authorization entities 1. API request w/ access token Authorization Server Workload Workload 6. API request w/ new access token Authorization Server 2. Token Exchange request w/ access token 3. Token Exchange response w/ authz grant JWT 4. Token request w/ authz grant JWT 5. Token response w/ new access token
- 26. 26 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Summary of Best Practice Authentication User Authentication NIST SP 800-63 Digital Identity Guidelines (AAL and FAL) OAuth 2.0 Security Best Current Practice Workload Authentication SPIFFE Authorization Architecture: P*P architecture (XACML / NIST SP 800-162) PDP and PEP interaction: Authorization API 1.0 Authorization Model: ABAC / ReBAC User Identity Propagation External to Internal RFC6750: OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token Usage RFC7662: OAuth 2.0 Token Introspection Internal to Internal (Same Trusted Domain) RFC8693: OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange Transaction Tokens Internal to Internal (Distributed across Multiple Trusted Domains) RFC8693: OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange RFC7523: JWT Profile for OAuth 2.0 Authorization Grants OAuth Identity and Authorization Chaining Across Domains
- 27. 27 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Let’s Join CNCF IAM White Paper PJ and TAG Security APAC! We are currently working on a project to write a white paper on Identity and Access Management (IAM) to discuss best practices for authentication and authorization such as those introduced in this session. If you are interested, don't hesitate to get in touch with us! https://github.com/cncf/tag-security/issues/1332 The CNCF Security Technical Advisory Group (TAG Security) APAC region meetings have started every other week from August 21st! This is in a more friendly time zone for the security freaks in attendance today, so please join us! https://zoom-lfx.platform.linuxfoundation.org/meetings/cncf?view=week
- 28. 28 © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Trademarks • OpenID is a trademark or registered trademark of OpenID Foundation in the United States and other countries. • GitHub is a trademark or registered trademark of GitHub, Inc. in the United States and other countries. • X is a trademark or registered trademark of X Corp. in the United States and other countries. • Other brand names and product names used in this material are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders.
- 29. © Hitachi, Ltd.2024. All rights reserved. Yoshiyuki Tabata 10/11/2024 Hitachi, Ltd. OSS Solution Center END Exploring Best Practices for Implementing Authn and Authz in a Cloud-Native Environment 29