Basic external auth policy

Basic authentication sends encoded user credentials in a standard header within the request. Then, Gloo Mesh authenticates the request against a dictionary of usernames and passwords that are written in the external auth policy. If the credentials in the request header match the policy, the request is sent to the destination. If not, Gloo Mesh Gateway returns a 401 response.

You might use basic auth for testing environments, such as when you release a new API method or version to a small number of known users.

Before you begin

1. Complete the demo setup to install Gloo Mesh, Istio, and Bookinfo in your cluster.

2. Make sure that you have the following CLI tools, or something comparable:

   • htpasswd to generate hashed, salted passwords.
   • base64 to encode strings.

3. Create the Gloo Mesh resources for this policy in the management and workload clusters.

   The following files are examples only for testing purposes. Your actual setup might vary. You can use the files as a reference for creating your own tests.

   • Management cluster
   • Workload cluster 1

   1. Download the following Gloo Mesh resources:

      • KubernetesCluster for cluster 1
      • KubernetesCluster for cluster 2
      • Workspace

   2. Apply the files to your management cluster.

      kubectl apply -f kubernetes-cluster_gloo-mesh_cluster-1.yaml --context ${MGMT_CONTEXT}
      kubectl apply -f kubernetes-cluster_gloo-mesh_cluster-2.yaml --context ${MGMT_CONTEXT}
      kubectl apply -f workspace_gloo-mesh_anything.yaml --context ${MGMT_CONTEXT}
      

   1. Download the following Gloo Mesh resources:

      • External auth server
      • Route table
      • Virtual gateway
      • Workspace settings

   2. Apply the files to your workload cluster.

      kubectl apply -f ext-auth-server_bookinfo_default-server.yaml --context ${REMOTE_CONTEXT1}
      kubectl apply -f route-table_bookinfo_www-example-com.yaml --context ${REMOTE_CONTEXT1}
      kubectl apply -f virtual-gateway_bookinfo_north-south-gw.yaml --context ${REMOTE_CONTEXT1}
      kubectl apply -f workspace-settings_bookinfo_anything.yaml --context ${REMOTE_CONTEXT1}
      

Configure basic external auth policies

You can apply a basic external auth policy at the route or destination level. For more information, see Applying policies.

1. Generate a salt and hashed password for your user credentials. The following example uses the htpasswd tool for a user named user.

   htpasswd -nbm user password
   

   Example output:

   user:$apr1$TYiryv0/$8BvzLUO9IfGPGGsPnAgSu1
   

2. Retrieve the salt and hashed password from the output of the previous step.
   • Salt: TYiryv0/
   • Hashed password: 8BvzLUO9IfGPGGsPnAgSu1
3. Review the following sample configuration files.
   • Routes
   • Destinations

   apiVersion: security.policy.gloo.solo.io/v2
   kind: ExtAuthPolicy
   metadata:
     name: basic-auth
     namespace: bookinfo
   spec:
     applyToRoutes:
     - route:
         labels:
           route: ratings
     config:
       glooAuth:
         configs:
         - basicAuth:
             apr:
               users:
                 user:
                   hashedPassword: 8BvzLUO9IfGPGGsPnAgSu1
                   salt: TYiryv0/
       server:
         name: default-server
   

   apiVersion: security.policy.gloo.solo.io/v2
   kind: ExtAuthPolicy
   metadata:
     name: basic-auth
     namespace: bookinfo
   spec:
     applyToDestinations:
     - port:
         number: 9080
       selector:
         labels:
           app: reviews
     config:
       glooAuth:
         configs:
         - basicAuth:
             apr:
               users:
                 user:
                   hashedPassword: 8BvzLUO9IfGPGGsPnAgSu1
                   salt: TYiryv0/
       server:
         name: default-server
   

Apply external auth to external services

The following example is for an external auth policy that applies to an external service. Note that this policy requires different routing table and external auth server resources, as well as an external service.

apiVersion: security.policy.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ExtAuthPolicy
metadata:
  name: httpbin-basic-auth
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  applyToRoutes:
  - route:
      labels:
        route: external-service
  config:
    glooAuth:
      configs:
      - basicAuth:
          apr:
            users:
              user:
                hashedPassword: 8BvzLUO9IfGPGGsPnAgSu1
                salt: TYiryv0/
    server:
      name: default-server

apiVersion: admin.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ExtAuthServer
metadata:
  name: default-server
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  destinationServer:
    port:
      number: 8083
    ref:
      cluster: cluster-1
      name: ext-auth-service
      namespace: gloo-mesh

apiVersion: networking.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ExternalService
metadata:
  name: external-service
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  hosts:
  - httpbin.org
  ports:
  - name: http
    number: 80
    protocol: HTTP

apiVersion: networking.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: RouteTable
metadata:
  name: external-service-northsouth
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  defaultDestination:
    kind: EXTERNAL_SERVICE
    port:
      number: 80
    ref:
      name: external-service
      namespace: bookinfo
  hosts:
  - www.example.com
  http:
  - forwardTo: {}
    labels:
      "no": auth
    matchers:
    - headers:
      - name: noauth
        value: "true"
    name: external-service-no-auth
  - forwardTo: {}
    labels:
      route: external-service
    name: external-service-northsouth
  virtualGateways:
  - name: north-south-gw

Verify basic external auth policies

1. Apply the example basic external auth policy in the workload cluster.

   kubectl apply --context ${REMOTE_CONTEXT1} -f external-auth-policy.yaml
   

2. View the ext-auth-service deployment logs to verify that the policy was accepted. Look for a message similar to the following: "logger":"extauth","caller":"runner/run.go:179","msg":"got new config"

   kubectl logs -n gloo-mesh deploy/ext-auth-service -c ext-auth-service -f --context $REMOTE_CONTEXT1
   

3. Send a request to the httpbin app through the ingress gateway.

   curl -vik -H "Host: www.example.com" "http://$INGRESS_GW_IP/status/200/"
   

4. Verify that you notice the added or removed request and response headers.