Namespace Permissions (Kubernetes RBAC-based)

Namespace Permissions (Kubernetes RBAC-based)

You can regulate users' or user groups' access to Kubernetes resources in a single namespace based on their Kubernetes RBAC roles. The RBAC API declares four kinds of Kubernetes objects: Role, ClusterRole, RoleBinding, and ClusterRoleBinding, which are described as follows:

• Role: defines a set of rules for accessing Kubernetes resources in a namespace.
• RoleBinding: defines the relationship between users and roles.
• ClusterRole: defines a set of rules for accessing Kubernetes resources in a cluster (including all namespaces).
• ClusterRoleBinding: defines the relationship between users and cluster roles.

Role and ClusterRole specify actions that can be performed on specific resources. RoleBinding and ClusterRoleBinding bind roles to specific users, user groups, or ServiceAccounts. Illustration:

Figure 1 Role binding

Cluster Permissions (IAM-based) and Namespace Permissions (Kubernetes RBAC-based)

Users with different cluster permissions (assigned using IAM) have different namespace permissions (assigned using Kubernetes RBAC). Table 1 lists the namespace permissions of different users.

Precautions

• After you create a cluster, CCE automatically assigns the cluster-admin permission to you, which means you have full control on all resources in all namespaces in the cluster. The ID of a federated user changes upon each login and logout. Therefore, the user with the permissions is displayed as deleted. In this case, do not delete the permissions. Otherwise, the authentication fails. You are advised to grant the cluster-admin permission to a user group on CCE and add federated users to the user group.

Configuring Namespace Permissions (on the Console)

You can regulate users' or user groups' access to Kubernetes resources in a single namespace based on their Kubernetes RBAC roles.

1. Log in to the CCE console. In the navigation pane, choose Permissions.
2. Select a cluster for which you want to add permissions from the drop-down list on the right.
3. Click Add Permissions in the upper right corner.
4. Confirm the cluster name and select the namespace to assign permissions for. For example, select All namespaces, the target user or user group, and select the permissions.
   

   If you do not have IAM permissions, you cannot select users or user groups when configuring permissions for other users or user groups. In this case, you can enter a user ID or user group ID.

   Permissions can be customized as required. After selecting Custom for Permission Type, click Add Custom Role on the right of the Custom parameter. In the dialog box displayed, enter a name and select a rule. After the custom rule is created, you can select a value from the Custom drop-down list box.

5. Click OK.

Using kubectl to Configure Namespace Permissions

When you access a cluster using kubectl, CCE uses kubeconfig.json generated on the cluster for authentication. This file contains user information, based on which CCE determines which Kubernetes resources can be accessed by kubectl. The permissions recorded in a kubeconfig.json file vary from user to user. The permissions that a user has are listed in Cluster Permissions (IAM-based) and Namespace Permissions (Kubernetes RBAC-based).

In addition to cluster-admin, admin, edit, and view, you can define Roles and RoleBindings to configure the permissions to add, delete, modify, and obtain resources, such as pods, Deployments, and Services, in the namespace.

The procedure for creating a Role is very simple. To be specific, specify a namespace and then define rules. The rules in the following example are to allow GET and LIST operations on pods in the default namespace.

kind: Role
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  namespace: default                          # Namespace
  name: role-example
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["pods"]                         # The pod can be accessed.
  verbs: ["get", "list"]                      # The GET and LIST operations can be performed.

• apiGroups indicates the API group to which the resource belongs.
• resources indicates the resources that can be operated. Pods, Deployments, ConfigMaps, and other Kubernetes resources are supported.
• verbs indicates the operations that can be performed. get indicates querying a specific object, and list indicates listing all objects of a certain type. Other value options include create, update, and delete.

For details, see Using RBAC Authorization.

After creating a Role, you can bind the Role to a specific user, which is called RoleBinding. The following shows an example:

kind: RoleBinding
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: RoleBinding-example
  namespace: default
  annotations:
    CCE.com/IAM: 'true'
roleRef:
  kind: Role
  name: role-example
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
subjects:
- kind: User
  name: 0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8 # User ID of the user-example
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

The subjects section binds a Role with an IAM user so that the IAM user can obtain the permissions defined in the Role, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 2 Binding a Role to a user

You can also specify a user group in the subjects section. In this case, all users in the user group obtain the permissions defined in the Role.

subjects:
- kind: Group
  name: 0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7    # User group ID
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

Use the IAM user user-example to connect to the cluster and obtain the pod information. The following is an example of the returned pod information.

# kubectl get pod
NAME                                   READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
deployment-389584-2-6f6bd4c574-2n9rk   1/1     Running   0          4d7h
deployment-389584-2-6f6bd4c574-7s5qw   1/1     Running   0          4d7h
deployment-3895841-746b97b455-86g77    1/1     Running   0          4d7h
deployment-3895841-746b97b455-twvpn    1/1     Running   0          4d7h
nginx-658dff48ff-7rkph                 1/1     Running   0          4d9h
nginx-658dff48ff-njdhj                 1/1     Running   0          4d9h
# kubectl get pod nginx-658dff48ff-7rkph
NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
nginx-658dff48ff-7rkph   1/1     Running   0          4d9h

Try querying Deployments and Services in the namespace. The output shows that user-example does not have the required permissions. Try querying the pods in namespace kube-system. The output shows that user-example does not have the required permissions, either. This indicates that the IAM user user-example has only the GET and LIST Pod permissions in the default namespace, which is the same as expected.

# kubectl get deploy
Error from server (Forbidden): deployments.apps is forbidden: User "0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8" cannot list resource "deployments" in API group "apps" in the namespace "default"
# kubectl get svc
Error from server (Forbidden): services is forbidden: User "0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8" cannot list resource "services" in API group "" in the namespace "default"
# kubectl get pod --namespace=kube-system
Error from server (Forbidden): pods is forbidden: User "0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8" cannot list resource "pods" in API group "" in the namespace "kube-system"

Example: Assigning Cluster Administrator Permissions (cluster-admin)

You can use the cluster-admin role to assign all permissions on a cluster. This role contains the permissions for all cluster resources.

In the following example kubectl output, a ClusterRoleBinding has been created and binds the cluster-admin role to the user group cce-role-group.

# kubectl get clusterrolebinding
NAME                                                              ROLE                           AGE
clusterrole_cluster-admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7   ClusterRole/cluster-admin      61s

# kubectl get clusterrolebinding clusterrole_cluster-admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7 -oyaml
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  annotations:
    CCE.com/IAM: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2021-06-23T09:15:22Z"
  name: clusterrole_cluster-admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  resourceVersion: "36659058"
  selfLink: /apis/rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/clusterrolebindings/clusterrole_cluster-admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  uid: d6cd43e9-b4ca-4b56-bc52-e36346fc1320
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Group
  name: 0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7

Connect to the cluster as an authorized user. If the PVs and StorageClasses can be queried, the permission configuration takes effect.

# kubectl get pv
No resources found
# kubectl get sc
NAME                PROVISIONER                     RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
csi-disk            everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          Immediate              true                   75d
csi-disk-topology   everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   75d
csi-nas             everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          Immediate              true                   75d
csi-obs             everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          Immediate              false                  75d

Example: Assigning Namespace O&M Permissions (admin)

The admin role has the read and write permissions on most namespace resources. You can grant the admin permission on all namespaces to a user or user group.

In the following example kubectl output, a RoleBinding has been created and binds the admin role to the user group cce-role-group.

# kubectl get rolebinding
NAME                                                      ROLE                AGE
clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7   ClusterRole/admin   18s
# kubectl get rolebinding clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7 -oyaml
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  annotations:
    CCE.com/IAM: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2021-06-24T01:30:08Z"
  name: clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  resourceVersion: "36963685"
  selfLink: /apis/rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/default/rolebindings/clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  uid: 6c6f46a6-8584-47da-83f5-9eef1f7b75d6
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: admin
subjects:
- apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Group
  name: 0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7

Connect to the cluster as an authorized user. If the PVs and StorageClasses can be queried but a namespace cannot be created, the permission configuration takes effect.

# kubectl get pv
No resources found
# kubectl get sc
NAME                PROVISIONER                     RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
csi-disk            everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          Immediate              true                   75d
csi-disk-topology   everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   75d
csi-nas             everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          Immediate              true                   75d
csi-obs             everest-csi-provisioner         Delete          Immediate              false                  75d
# kubectl apply -f namespaces.yaml
Error from server (Forbidden): namespaces is forbidden: User "0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8" cannot create resource "namespaces" in API group "" at the cluster scope

Example: Assigning Namespace Developer Permissions (edit)

The edit role has the read and write permissions on most namespace resources. You can grant the edit permission on all namespaces to a user or user group.

In the following example kubectl output, a RoleBinding has been created, the edit role is bound to the user group cce-role-group, and the target namespace is the default namespace.

# kubectl get rolebinding
NAME                                                      ROLE                AGE
clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7   ClusterRole/admin   18s
# kubectl get rolebinding clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7 -oyaml
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  annotations:
    CCE.com/IAM: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2021-06-24T01:30:08Z"
  name: clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  namespace: default
  resourceVersion: "36963685"
  selfLink: /apis/rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/default/rolebindings/clusterrole_admin_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  uid: 6c6f46a6-8584-47da-83f5-9eef1f7b75d6
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: edit
subjects:
- apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Group
  name: 0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7

Connect to the cluster as an authorized user. In this example, you can create and obtain resources in the default namespace, but cannot query resources in the kube-system namespace or cluster resources.

# kubectl get pod
NAME                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
test-568d96f4f8-brdrp   1/1     Running   0          33m
test-568d96f4f8-cgjqp   1/1     Running   0          33m
# kubectl get pod -nkube-system
Error from server (Forbidden): pods is forbidden: User "0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8" cannot list resource "pods" in API group "" in the namespace "kube-system"
# kubectl get pv
Error from server (Forbidden): persistentvolumes is forbidden: User "0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8" cannot list resource "persistentvolumes" in API group "" at the cluster scope

Example: Assigning Read-Only Namespace Permissions (view)

The view role has the read-only permissions on a namespace. You can assign permissions to users to view one or multiple namespaces.

In the following example kubectl output, a RoleBinding has been created, the view role is bound to the user group cce-role-group, and the target namespace is the default namespace.

# kubectl get rolebinding
NAME                                                     ROLE               AGE
clusterrole_view_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7   ClusterRole/view   7s

# kubectl get rolebinding clusterrole_view_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7 -oyaml
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  annotations:
    CCE.com/IAM: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2021-06-24T01:36:53Z"
  name: clusterrole_view_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  namespace: default
  resourceVersion: "36965800"
  selfLink: /apis/rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/namespaces/default/rolebindings/clusterrole_view_group0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7
  uid: b86e2507-e735-494c-be55-c41a0c4ef0dd
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: view
subjects:
- apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Group
  name: 0c96fad22880f32a3f84c009862af6f7

Connect to the cluster as an authorized user. In this example, you can query resources in the default namespace but cannot create resources.

# kubectl get pod
NAME                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
test-568d96f4f8-brdrp   1/1     Running   0          40m
test-568d96f4f8-cgjqp   1/1     Running   0          40m
# kubectl run -i --tty --image tutum/dnsutils dnsutils --restart=Never --rm /bin/sh
Error from server (Forbidden): pods is forbidden: User "0c97ac3cb280f4d91fa7c0096739e1f8" cannot create resource "pods" in API group "" in the namespace "default"

Example: Assigning Permissions for a Specific Kubernetes Resource Object

You can assign permissions on a specific Kubernetes resource object, such as pod, Deployment, and Service. For details, see Using kubectl to Configure Namespace Permissions.