Setting up Basic Access Control

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.

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.
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.
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. The following whitelist configuration is equivalent to the denier configuration in the previous section. The rule effectively rejects requests from version v3 of the reviews service.

Remove the denier configuration that you added in the previous section.

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

Verify that when you access the Bookinfo productpage (http://$GATEWAY_URL/productpage) without logging in, you see red stars. After performing the following steps you will no longer be able to see stars unless you are logged in as “jason”.

Create configuration for the list adapter that lists versions v1, v2. Save the following YAML snippet as whitelist-handler.yaml:

apiVersion: config.istio.io/v1alpha2
kind: listchecker
metadata:
  name: whitelist
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

and then run the following command:

istioctl create -f whitelist-handler.yaml

Extract the version label by creating an instance of the listentry template. Save the following YAML snippet as appversion-instance.yaml:

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

and then run the following command:

istioctl create -f appversion-instance.yaml

Enable whitelist checking for the ratings service. Save the following YAML snippet as checkversion-rule.yaml:

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

and then run the following command:

istioctl create -f checkversion-rule.yaml

Verify that when you access the Bookinfo productpage (http://$GATEWAY_URL/productpage) without logging in, you see no stars. Verify that after logging in as “jason” you see black stars.

Cleanup

Remove the mixer configuration:

istioctl delete -f checkversion-rule.yaml
istioctl delete -f appversion-instance.yaml
istioctl delete -f whitelist-handler.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.

What’s next

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.