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rfc/016-node-access.md

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+# Node Access
+
+## Background
+
+A production Constellation cluster is currently configured not to allow any kind of remote administrative access.
+This choice is deliberate: any mechanism for remote accesss can potentially be exploited, or may leak sensitive data.
+
+However, some operations on a Kubernetes cluster require some form of access to the nodes.
+A good class of examples are etcd cluster maintenance tasks, like backup and recovery, or emergency operations like removing a permanently failed member.
+Some kubeadm operations, like certificate rotation, also require some form of cluster access.
+
+While some tasks can be accomplished by DaemonSets, CronJobs and the like, relying on Kubernetes objects is insufficient.
+Executing commands in a Kubernetes pod may fail because Kubernetes is not healthy, etcd is bricked or the network is down.
+Administrative access to the nodes through a side channel would greatly help remediate, or at least debug, those situations.
+
+## Requirements
+
+Constellation admins can log into Constellation nodes for maintenance, subject to the following restrictions:
+
+* Access must be encrypted end-to-end to protect from CSP snooping.
+* Access must be possible even if the Kubernetes API server is down.
+
+Nice-to-have:
+
+* The method of access should not require long-term storage of a second secret.
+* The method of access should be time-limited.
+
+## Proposed Design
+
+Core to the proposal is [certificate-based authentication for OpenSSH](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSSH/Cookbook/Certificate-based_Authentication).
+We can derive a valid SSH key from the Constellation master secret.
+An OpenSSH server on the node accepts certificates issued by this CA key.
+Admins can derive the CA key from the master secret on demand, and issue certificates for arbitrary public keys.
+An example program is in the [Appendix](#appendix).
+
+### Key Details
+
+We use an HKDF to derive an ed25519 private key from the master secret.
+This private key acts as an SSH certificate authority, whose signed certs allow access to cluster nodes.
+Since the master secret is available to both the cluster owner and the nodes, no communication with the cluster is needed to mint valid certificates.
+The choice of curve allows to directly use the derived secret bytes as key.
+This makes the implementation deterministic, and thus the CA key recoverable.
+
+### Server-side Details
+
+An OpenSSH server is added to the node image software stack.
+It's configured with a `TrustedUserCAKeys` file and a `RevokedKeys` file, both being empty on startup.
+All other means of authentication are disabled.
+
+After initialization, the bootstrapper fills the `TrustedUserCAKeys` file with the derived CA's public key.
+Joining nodes send their public host key as part of the `IssueJoinTokenRequest` and receive the CA certificate and an indefinitely valid certificate as response.
+
+The `RevokedKeys` KRL is an option for the cluster administrator to revoke keys, but it's not managed by Constellation.
+
+### Client-side Details
+
+A new `ssh` subcommand is added to the CLI.
+The exact name is TBD, but it should fit in with other key-related activity, like generating volume keys.
+It takes the master secret file and an SSH pub key file as arguments, and writes a certificate to stdout.
+Optional arguments may include principals or vailidity period.
+The implementation could roughly follow the PoC in the [Appendix](#appendix).
+
+As an extension, the subcommand could allow generating a key pair and a matching certificate in a temp dir, and `exec` the ssh program directly.
+This would encourage use of very short-lived certificates.
+
+## Security Considerations
+
+Exposing an additional service to the outside world increases the attack surface.
+We propose the following mitigations:
+
+1. The SSH port is only exposed to the VPC.
+   This restricts the attackers to malicious co-tenants and the CSP.
+   In an emergency, admins need to add a load balancer to be able to reach the nodes.
+2. A hardened OpenSSH config only allows the options strictly necessary for the scheme proposed here.
+   Authorized keys and passwords must be disabled.
+   Cipher suites should be restricted. etc.
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+
+### Enable Serial Console
+
+Serial consoles for cloud VMs are tunnelled through the CSP in the clear.
+To make this solution secure, an encrypted channel would need to be established on top of the serial connection.
+The author is not aware of any software providing such a channel.
+
+### SSH with Authorized Keys
+
+We could ask users to add a public key to their `constellation-conf.yaml` and add that to `/root/.ssh/authorized_keys` after joining.
+This would require the cluster owner to permanently manage a second secret, and there would be no built-in way to revoke access.
+
+### Debug Pod
+
+Some node administration tasks can be performed with a [debug pod].
+If privileged access is required, it's usually necessary to schedule a custom pod.
+This only works if the Kubernetes API server is still processing requests, pods can be scheduled on the target node and the network allows connecting to it.
+
+[debug pod]: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/debug/debug-cluster/kubectl-node-debug/
+
+### Host an Admin API Server
+
+There are alternatives to SSH that allow fine-grained authorization of node operations.
+An example would be [SansShell], which verifies node access requests with a policy.
+Setting up such a tool requires a detailed understanding of the use cases, of which some might be hard to foresee.
+This may be better suited as an extension of the low-level emergency access mechanisms.
+
+[SansShell]: https://www.snowflake.com/blog/sansshell-local-host-agent/
+
+## Appendix
+
+A proof-of-concept implementation of the certificate generation.
+Constellation nodes would stop after deriving the CA public key.
+
+```golang
+package main
+
+import (
+	"crypto/ed25519"
+	"crypto/rand"
+	"crypto/sha256"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"flag"
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+	"os"
+	"time"
+
+	"golang.org/x/crypto/hkdf"
+	"golang.org/x/crypto/ssh"
+)
+
+type secret struct {
+	Key  []byte `json:"key,omitempty"`
+	Salt []byte `json:"salt,omitempty"`
+}
+
+var permissions = ssh.Permissions{
+	Extensions: map[string]string{
+		"permit-port-forwarding": "yes",
+		"permit-pty":             "yes",
+	},
+}
+
+func main() {
+	masterSecret := flag.String("secret", "", "")
+	flag.Parse()
+
+	secretJSON, err := os.ReadFile(*masterSecret)
+	must(err)
+	var secret secret
+	must(json.Unmarshal(secretJSON, &secret))
+
+	hkdf := hkdf.New(sha256.New, secret.Key, secret.Salt, []byte("ssh-ca"))
+
+	_, priv, err := ed25519.GenerateKey(hkdf)
+	must(err)
+
+	ca, err := ssh.NewSignerFromSigner(priv)
+	must(err)
+
+	log.Printf("CA KEY: %s", string(ssh.MarshalAuthorizedKey(ca.PublicKey())))
+
+	buf, err := os.ReadFile(flag.Arg(0))
+	must(err)
+	pub, _, _, _, err := ssh.ParseAuthorizedKey(buf)
+	must(err)
+	certificate := ssh.Certificate{
+		Key:             pub,
+		CertType:        ssh.UserCert,
+		ValidAfter:      uint64(time.Now().Unix()),
+		ValidBefore:     uint64(time.Now().Add(24 * time.Hour).Unix()),
+		ValidPrincipals: []string{"root"},
+		Permissions:     permissions,
+	}
+	must(certificate.SignCert(rand.Reader, ca))
+
+	fmt.Printf("%s\n", string(ssh.MarshalAuthorizedKey(&certificate)))
+}
+
+func must(err error) {
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
+}
+```