illuminatio - The kubernetes network policy validator

illuminatio is a tool for automatically testing kubernetes network policies. Simply execute illuminatio clean run and illuminatio will scan your kubernetes cluster for network policies, build test cases accordingly and execute them to determine if the policies are in effect.

An overview of the concept is visualized in the concept doc.

Demo

Watch it on asciinema with NetworkPolicy enabled or with NetworkPolicy disabled.

Getting started

Follow these instructions to get illuminatio up and running.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.6 or greater
• Pip 3

Installation

with pip:

pip3 install illuminatio

or directly from the repository:

pip3 install git+https://github.com/inovex/illuminatio

Kubectl plugin

In order to use illuminatio as a kubectl plugin run the following command:

ln -s $(which illuminatio) /usr/local/bin/kubectl-illuminatio

And now cross check that the plugin exists:

kubectl plugin list --name-only | grep illuminatio
The following compatible plugins are available:

kubectl-illuminatio

Example Usage

Create a Deployment to test with:

kubectl create deployment web --image=nginx
kubectl expose deployment web --port 80 --target-port 80

Define and create a NetworkPolicy for your Deployment:

cat <<EOF | kubectl create -f -
kind: NetworkPolicy
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: web-deny-all
spec:
  podSelector:
    matchLabels:
      app: web
  ingress: []
EOF

Test your newly created NetworkPolicy:

illuminatio clean run
Starting cleaning resources with policies ['on-request', 'always']
Deleting namespaces [] with cleanup policy on-request
Deleting namespaces [] with cleanup policy always
Deleting DSs in default with cleanup policy on-request
Deleting pods in default with cleanup policy on-request
Deleting svcs in default with cleanup policy on-request
Deleting CfgMaps in default with cleanup policy on-request
Deleting CRBs  with cleanup policy on-request globally
Deleting SAs in default with cleanup policy on-request
Deleting DSs in default with cleanup policy always
Deleting pods in default with cleanup policy always
Deleting svcs in default with cleanup policy always
Deleting CfgMaps in default with cleanup policy always
Deleting CRBs  with cleanup policy always globally
Deleting SAs in default with cleanup policy always
Finished cleanUp

Starting test generation and run.
Got cases: [NetworkTestCase(from=ClusterHost(namespace=default, podLabels={'app': 'web'}), to=ClusterHost(namespace=default, podLabels={'app': 'web'}), port=-*)]
Generated 1 cases in 0.0701 seconds
FROM             TO               PORT
default:app=web  default:app=web  -*

Using existing cluster role
Creating cluster role binding
TestResults: {'default:app=web': {'default:app=web': {'-*': {'success': True}}}}
Finished running 1 tests in 18.7413 seconds
FROM             TO               PORT  RESULT
default:app=web  default:app=web  -*    success

The clean keyword assures that illuminatio clears all potentially existing resources created in past illuminatio runs to prevent potential issues, however no user generated resources are affected.

PLEASE NOTE that currently each new run requires a clean, as the runners do not continuously look for new cases.

For the case that you really want to keep the generated resources you are free to omit the clean keyword.

If you are done testing you might want to easily delete all resources created by illuminatio:

illuminatio clean

To preview generated test cases without running tests use illuminatio run's --dry option:

illuminatio run --dry
Starting test generation and run.
Got cases: [NetworkTestCase(from=ClusterHost(namespace=default, podLabels={'app': 'web'}), to=ClusterHost(namespace=default, podLabels={'app': 'web'}), port=-*)]
Generated 1 cases in 0.0902 seconds
FROM             TO               PORT
default:app=web  default:app=web  -*

Skipping test execution as --dry was set

All options and further information can be found using the --help flag on any level:

illuminatio --help

Usage: illuminatio [OPTIONS] COMMAND1 [ARGS]... [COMMAND2 [ARGS]...]...

Options:
  -v, --verbosity LVL  Either CRITICAL, ERROR, WARNING, INFO or DEBUG
  --incluster
  --help               Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  clean
  run

Docker Usage

Instead of installing the illumnatio cli on your machine you can also use our Docker image. You will need to provide the kubeconfig to the container and probably some certificates:

docker run -ti -v ~/.kube:/home/illuminatio/.kube:ro inovex/illuminatio illuminatio clean run

Minikube

Minikube will store the certificates in the users home so we need to pass these to the container:

docker run -ti -v "${HOME}/.minikube":"${HOME}/.minikube" -v "${HOME}/.kube:"/home/illuminatio/.kube:ro inovex/illuminatio illuminatio clean run

If the minikube VM is not reachable from your container try to pass the --net=host flag to the docker run command.

Compatibility

illuminatio 1.1 was tested using:

• python 3.5.2
• pip 19.2.1

illuminatio 1.1 is confirmed to be working properly with the following kubernetes environments:

• minikube v0.34.1, kubernetes v1.13.3
• Google Kubernetes Engine, v1.12.8-gke.10
• kubeadm 1.15.0-00, kubernetes v1.15.2

PodSecurityPolicy

If your cluster has the PodSecurityPolicy Admission Controller you must ensure that the illuminatio runner has the following rights to be created:

• Wants to run as root
• Needs the SYS_ADMIN capability
• Needs allowPrivilegeEscalation: true
• Needs access to the hostPath for the network namespaces and the cri socket

A PodSecurityPolicy granting these privileges needs to be bound to the illuminatio-runner ServiceAccount in the illuminatio namespace. For more details look at the illuminatio DaemonSet

References

The logo was created by Pia Blum.

Example Network Policies are inspired by kubernetes-network-policy-recipes

Presentation from ContainerDays 2019, slides

There is also a blog post about the background of illuminatio: illuminatio-kubernetes-network-policy-validator

Contributing

We are happy to read your issues and accept your Pull Requests. This project uses the standard github flow. For more information on developing illuminatio refer to the development docs.

License

This project excluding the logo is licensed under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license. The logo is licensed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.