Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
376 lines (313 loc) · 24.4 KB

sec-design.md

File metadata and controls

376 lines (313 loc) · 24.4 KB

BUSINESS POSTURE

The Puppet project aims to provide an infrastructure-as-code solution for automating the provisioning, configuration, and management of IT infrastructure. The primary business priorities and goals that Puppet addresses are:

  • Infrastructure Automation: Automating repetitive and manual tasks related to infrastructure management, reducing operational overhead and human error.
  • Configuration Management: Ensuring consistent and desired state configurations across all managed systems, improving system reliability and compliance.
  • Scalability and Efficiency: Enabling organizations to manage infrastructure at scale efficiently, supporting business growth and agility.
  • Compliance and Auditability: Providing a traceable and auditable system for infrastructure changes, facilitating compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies.
  • Reduced Downtime: Minimizing configuration drift and ensuring consistent system states, leading to reduced downtime and improved service availability.

Key business risks associated with these priorities and goals include:

  • Misconfiguration Risk: Incorrect or unintended configurations deployed through Puppet could lead to system outages, performance degradation, or security vulnerabilities across the managed infrastructure.
  • Security Vulnerability Risk: Vulnerabilities in the Puppet software itself or in the managed configurations could be exploited to compromise the managed infrastructure.
  • Compliance Violation Risk: Failure to properly configure and manage systems using Puppet could result in non-compliance with industry regulations or internal security policies, leading to legal and financial repercussions.
  • Operational Disruption Risk: Issues with the Puppet infrastructure (e.g., Puppet Server downtime) could disrupt infrastructure management operations and impact the ability to deploy critical updates or respond to incidents.
  • Data Breach Risk: Exposure of sensitive configuration data managed by Puppet (e.g., credentials, secrets) could lead to unauthorized access and data breaches.

SECURITY POSTURE

Existing security controls and accepted risks for the Puppet project, focusing on secure software development lifecycle and deployment model:

  • security control: Code is hosted on GitHub, leveraging GitHub's security features for access control and code integrity. Implemented: GitHub repository settings and features.
  • security control: Development workflow likely includes code reviews and pull requests before merging changes. Implemented: Development team processes, likely documented internally.
  • security control: Puppet likely undergoes testing as part of the development process. Implemented: Development team processes, likely documented internally.
  • security control: Puppet software is distributed as packages (e.g., RPM, DEB) and through the Puppet Forge, providing a degree of supply chain security through package signing and distribution channels. Implemented: Puppet release and distribution processes.
  • accepted risk: Dependency vulnerabilities in Puppet's codebase and its dependencies. Accepted risk: Acknowledged risk in software development, mitigated through dependency scanning and updates.
  • accepted risk: Misconfigurations in Puppet manifests and modules leading to security issues in managed infrastructure. Accepted risk: Inherent risk in configuration management, mitigated through testing, code reviews, and best practices.

Recommended security controls to implement as high priority:

  • recommended security control: Implement automated Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) in the CI/CD pipeline to identify vulnerabilities in Puppet codebase and modules.
  • recommended security control: Integrate dependency scanning tools to automatically detect and alert on vulnerable dependencies used by Puppet.
  • recommended security control: Implement secrets management practices to securely handle sensitive credentials and secrets used within Puppet configurations and modules.
  • recommended security control: Enforce Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) within Puppet Server to restrict access to sensitive functionalities and data based on user roles.
  • recommended security control: Implement regular vulnerability scanning and penetration testing of the Puppet infrastructure and managed environments.

Security requirements for the Puppet project:

  • Authentication:
    • security requirement: Puppet Server should authenticate users (administrators, developers) accessing the web UI and API.
    • security requirement: Puppet Agents should securely authenticate to the Puppet Server.
    • security requirement: Mechanisms for authentication should support strong password policies and multi-factor authentication where applicable.
  • Authorization:
    • security requirement: Puppet Server should enforce authorization policies to control access to resources and actions based on user roles and permissions.
    • security requirement: Puppet Agents should only be authorized to retrieve configurations and apply changes for the nodes they are responsible for.
    • security requirement: Authorization mechanisms should follow the principle of least privilege.
  • Input Validation:
    • security requirement: Puppet Server and Agent should validate all inputs, including configurations, API requests, and data received from external sources, to prevent injection attacks and other input-related vulnerabilities.
    • security requirement: Input validation should be applied to both data format and content.
  • Cryptography:
    • security requirement: Sensitive data transmitted between Puppet Server and Agents should be encrypted in transit using TLS/HTTPS.
    • security requirement: Sensitive data at rest, such as secrets stored within Puppet Server or PuppetDB, should be encrypted.
    • security requirement: Cryptographic algorithms and key management practices should adhere to industry best practices and standards.

DESIGN

C4 CONTEXT

graph LR
    subgraph "Puppet Project"
        P["Puppet System"]
    end
    U1["DevOps Engineers"]
    U2["System Administrators"]
    I1["Managed Infrastructure"]
    S1["Configuration Management Database (CMDB)"]
    S2["Monitoring Systems"]
    S3["Package Repositories (Forge, OS Repos)"]

    U1 --> P
    U2 --> P
    P --> I1
    P --> S1
    P --> S2
    P --> S3
    style P fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
Loading

Context Diagram Elements:

  • Element:

    • Name: Puppet System
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: The Puppet infrastructure-as-code solution for automating IT infrastructure management. It includes Puppet Server, Agent, and related components.
    • Responsibilities: Automating infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, ensuring desired system states, providing audit trails, and facilitating compliance.
    • Security controls: Authentication, authorization, input validation, encryption of data in transit and at rest, secure software development lifecycle.

  • Element:

    • Name: DevOps Engineers
    • Type: User
    • Description: Users responsible for developing, deploying, and managing applications and infrastructure using DevOps practices. They interact with Puppet to define and manage infrastructure configurations.
    • Responsibilities: Defining infrastructure as code using Puppet language, creating and managing Puppet modules, and using Puppet to deploy and manage applications.
    • Security controls: Authentication to access Puppet Server, authorization based on roles to manage configurations and infrastructure.

  • Element:

    • Name: System Administrators
    • Type: User
    • Description: Users responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of IT systems. They use Puppet to ensure system consistency, apply updates, and troubleshoot configuration issues.
    • Responsibilities: Monitoring system health, using Puppet to apply configuration changes, troubleshooting configuration issues, and ensuring system compliance.
    • Security controls: Authentication to access Puppet Server, authorization based on roles to manage and monitor infrastructure.

  • Element:

    • Name: Managed Infrastructure
    • Type: Software System / Infrastructure
    • Description: The IT infrastructure being managed by Puppet. This includes servers, virtual machines, cloud resources, network devices, and other infrastructure components.
    • Responsibilities: Running applications and services, providing computing resources, and adhering to configurations enforced by Puppet.
    • Security controls: Security configurations applied by Puppet (e.g., firewall rules, user accounts, security patches), security monitoring, and vulnerability management.

  • Element:

    • Name: Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: A system that stores information about hardware and software assets and their configurations. Puppet may integrate with a CMDB to synchronize configuration data or report on managed infrastructure.
    • Responsibilities: Providing a central repository for configuration information, tracking asset inventory, and potentially integrating with Puppet for data synchronization.
    • Security controls: Access control to CMDB data, data integrity measures, and secure API integration with Puppet.

  • Element:

    • Name: Monitoring Systems
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: Systems used to monitor the health and performance of the managed infrastructure and applications. Puppet may integrate with monitoring systems to provide configuration status and trigger alerts.
    • Responsibilities: Monitoring system performance and availability, alerting on issues, and potentially integrating with Puppet to correlate configuration changes with system behavior.
    • Security controls: Secure API integration with Puppet, access control to monitoring data, and secure data transmission.

  • Element:

    • Name: Package Repositories (Forge, OS Repos)
    • Type: Software System
    • Description: Repositories that provide software packages and modules used by Puppet. This includes the Puppet Forge for community modules and OS-specific package repositories (e.g., apt, yum).
    • Responsibilities: Providing software packages and Puppet modules, ensuring package integrity, and managing package dependencies.
    • Security controls: Package signing, vulnerability scanning of packages, and secure access to repositories.

C4 CONTAINER

graph LR
    subgraph "Puppet System"
        subgraph "Puppet Server Container"
            PS["Puppet Server"]
            PDB["PuppetDB"]
            PostgreSQL["PostgreSQL Database"]
        end
        PA["Puppet Agent Container"]
        CLI["Command Line Interface (CLI)"]
        Forge["Puppet Forge Container"]
    end
    U1["DevOps Engineers"]
    U2["System Administrators"]
    I1["Managed Infrastructure"]

    U1 --> CLI
    U2 --> CLI
    CLI --> PS
    PA --> PS
    PS --> PostgreSQL
    PS --> PDB
    PS --> Forge
    I1 --> PA
    style PS fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style PDB fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style PostgreSQL fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style PA fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style CLI fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Forge fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
Loading

Container Diagram Elements:

  • Element:

    • Name: Puppet Server
    • Type: Container / Application
    • Description: The central component of Puppet, responsible for compiling catalogs, managing agents, and providing APIs for user interaction. Implemented in Ruby and runs on a JVM.
    • Responsibilities: Catalog compilation, agent management, API endpoint for CLI and Forge, authentication and authorization, configuration data management.
    • Security controls: Authentication (user and agent), authorization (RBAC), input validation, TLS/HTTPS for communication, secure configuration management, logging and auditing.

  • Element:

    • Name: Puppet Agent
    • Type: Container / Application
    • Description: Runs on managed nodes and communicates with the Puppet Server to retrieve and apply configurations. Implemented in Ruby.
    • Responsibilities: Requesting catalogs from Puppet Server, applying configurations, reporting status back to the server, local resource management.
    • Security controls: Agent authentication to Puppet Server, secure catalog retrieval (TLS/HTTPS), local authorization for configuration application, input validation of received catalogs.

  • Element:

    • Name: PuppetDB
    • Type: Container / Database
    • Description: A data warehouse that collects and stores data generated by Puppet, such as node configurations, reports, and events.
    • Responsibilities: Storing and querying Puppet data, providing data for reporting and analysis, supporting Puppet Server operations.
    • Security controls: Access control to PuppetDB data, data encryption at rest (if configured), secure communication with Puppet Server, input validation of data received from Puppet Server.

  • Element:

    • Name: PostgreSQL Database
    • Type: Container / Database
    • Description: The database used by PuppetDB to store its data.
    • Responsibilities: Persistent storage of PuppetDB data, database management, ensuring data integrity and availability.
    • Security controls: Database access control, data encryption at rest (if configured), regular backups, database hardening, and security patching.

  • Element:

    • Name: Command Line Interface (CLI)
    • Type: Application
    • Description: A command-line tool used by administrators and developers to interact with the Puppet Server, manage configurations, and perform administrative tasks.
    • Responsibilities: Providing a command-line interface for Puppet management, interacting with Puppet Server API, facilitating configuration development and testing.
    • Security controls: Authentication to Puppet Server API, authorization based on user roles, secure handling of credentials, input validation of user commands.

  • Element:

    • Name: Puppet Forge
    • Type: Container / Web Application
    • Description: A web-based repository for sharing and discovering Puppet modules.
    • Responsibilities: Hosting and distributing Puppet modules, providing a platform for community module sharing, module metadata management.
    • Security controls: User authentication and authorization, module signing and verification, vulnerability scanning of modules, input validation for module uploads and downloads, protection against web application vulnerabilities.

DEPLOYMENT

Deployment Architecture: On-Premise Deployment

This deployment architecture describes a typical on-premise deployment of Puppet, suitable for organizations managing infrastructure within their own data centers.

graph LR
    subgraph "On-Premise Data Center"
        subgraph "Puppet Infrastructure Zone"
            PS_VM["Puppet Server VM"]
            PDB_VM["PuppetDB VM"]
            DB_VM["PostgreSQL VM"]
        end
        subgraph "Managed Infrastructure Zone"
            Managed_Server_1["Managed Server 1"]
            Managed_Server_2["Managed Server 2"]
            Managed_Server_N["Managed Server N"]
        end
        Network["Internal Network"]
    end
    Admin_Workstation["Admin Workstation"]

    Admin_Workstation -- HTTPS --> PS_VM
    PS_VM -- HTTPS --> PDB_VM
    PS_VM -- HTTPS --> DB_VM
    Managed_Server_1 -- HTTPS --> PS_VM
    Managed_Server_2 -- HTTPS --> PS_VM
    Managed_Server_N -- HTTPS --> PS_VM
    PS_VM -- Network --> Managed_Server_1
    PS_VM -- Network --> Managed_Server_2
    PS_VM -- Network --> Managed_Server_N
    PDB_VM -- Network --> DB_VM

    style PS_VM fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style PDB_VM fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style DB_VM fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Managed_Server_1 fill:#ccf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Managed_Server_2 fill:#ccf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Managed_Server_N fill:#ccf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Admin_Workstation fill:#eee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
Loading

Deployment Diagram Elements:

  • Element:

    • Name: Puppet Server VM
    • Type: Virtual Machine
    • Description: Virtual machine hosting the Puppet Server application.
    • Responsibilities: Running Puppet Server, managing agents, compiling catalogs, providing APIs.
    • Security controls: Operating system hardening, network firewall rules, access control to VM, regular security patching, TLS/HTTPS configuration for Puppet Server.

  • Element:

    • Name: PuppetDB VM
    • Type: Virtual Machine
    • Description: Virtual machine hosting the PuppetDB application.
    • Responsibilities: Running PuppetDB, storing and querying Puppet data.
    • Security controls: Operating system hardening, network firewall rules, access control to VM, regular security patching, access control to PuppetDB application.

  • Element:

    • Name: PostgreSQL VM
    • Type: Virtual Machine
    • Description: Virtual machine hosting the PostgreSQL database for PuppetDB.
    • Responsibilities: Running PostgreSQL database, storing PuppetDB data persistently.
    • Security controls: Operating system hardening, network firewall rules, database access control, regular security patching, database hardening, data encryption at rest (if configured).

  • Element:

    • Name: Managed Server 1, 2, N
    • Type: Physical/Virtual Servers
    • Description: Example servers being managed by Puppet Agents.
    • Responsibilities: Running applications and services, being configured and managed by Puppet Agent.
    • Security controls: Operating system hardening, Puppet Agent for configuration enforcement, security configurations applied by Puppet, security monitoring on servers.

  • Element:

    • Name: Admin Workstation
    • Type: Physical Workstation
    • Description: Workstation used by administrators to access and manage the Puppet infrastructure.
    • Responsibilities: Accessing Puppet Server web UI and CLI, managing Puppet configurations.
    • Security controls: Workstation hardening, strong authentication, access control, and potentially multi-factor authentication for accessing Puppet infrastructure.

  • Element:

    • Name: Internal Network
    • Type: Network
    • Description: The internal network connecting all components within the on-premise data center.
    • Responsibilities: Providing network connectivity between Puppet components and managed infrastructure.
    • Security controls: Network segmentation, firewall rules to restrict traffic flow, network monitoring, and intrusion detection systems.

BUILD

graph LR
    Developer["Developer Workstation"] --> VCS["Version Control System (GitHub)"]
    VCS --> CI["CI/CD System (GitHub Actions)"]
    CI --> Build["Build Process"]
    Build --> Test["Automated Testing (Unit, Integration, Security)"]
    Test --> Artifacts["Build Artifacts (Packages, Modules)"]
    Artifacts --> Repos["Artifact Repositories (Forge, Internal)"]

    subgraph "Build Process Steps"
        Build --> Linter["Code Linting"]
        Build --> SAST["Static Application Security Testing (SAST)"]
        Build --> DependencyScan["Dependency Scanning"]
    end

    style Developer fill:#eee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style VCS fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style CI fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Build fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Test fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Artifacts fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Repos fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style Linter fill:#ccf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style SAST fill:#ccf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style DependencyScan fill:#ccf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
Loading

Build Process Description:

The Puppet project build process typically involves the following steps, focusing on security controls:

  1. Developer Workstation: Developers write code, including Puppet modules and core Puppet components, on their local workstations. Security controls: Secure coding practices, workstation security hardening, and code review before committing.
  2. Version Control System (GitHub): Code is committed to a version control system, such as GitHub. Security controls: Access control to the repository, branch protection rules, code review process enforced through pull requests.
  3. CI/CD System (GitHub Actions): A CI/CD system, like GitHub Actions, is triggered upon code changes in the repository. Security controls: Secure CI/CD pipeline configuration, access control to CI/CD system, and audit logging.
  4. Build Process: The CI/CD system executes the build process, which includes:
    • Code Linting: Automated linters check the code for style and potential errors. Security controls: Automated code quality checks to identify potential security issues and coding flaws.
    • Static Application Security Testing (SAST): SAST tools analyze the source code for security vulnerabilities. Security controls: Early detection of potential vulnerabilities in the codebase.
    • Dependency Scanning: Tools scan project dependencies for known vulnerabilities. Security controls: Identification of vulnerable dependencies to ensure supply chain security.
  5. Automated Testing: Automated tests, including unit tests, integration tests, and security tests, are executed. Security controls: Verification of code functionality and security properties through automated testing.
  6. Build Artifacts: If tests pass, build artifacts are created, such as packages (RPM, DEB) for Puppet Server and Agent, and Puppet modules. Security controls: Artifact signing to ensure integrity and authenticity.
  7. Artifact Repositories: Build artifacts are published to artifact repositories, such as the Puppet Forge for modules and internal repositories for Puppet packages. Security controls: Access control to artifact repositories, secure artifact storage, and vulnerability scanning of published artifacts.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Critical business processes protected by Puppet:

  • Infrastructure Provisioning: Automating the creation and setup of new infrastructure resources.
  • Configuration Management: Ensuring consistent and desired configurations across all managed systems.
  • Application Deployment: Deploying and configuring applications on managed infrastructure.
  • Compliance Enforcement: Enforcing security and compliance policies across the IT environment.
  • Incident Response: Facilitating rapid and consistent remediation of security incidents through automated configuration changes.

Data being protected and its sensitivity:

  • Configuration Data: Puppet manages sensitive configuration data, including:
    • Credentials (passwords, API keys, certificates) used for system access and authentication. Sensitivity: High. Exposure could lead to unauthorized access and system compromise.
    • Network Configurations (firewall rules, routing tables). Sensitivity: High. Misconfiguration or exposure could disrupt network operations or create security vulnerabilities.
    • Application Configurations. Sensitivity: Medium to High, depending on the application and data it handles. Misconfiguration could lead to application vulnerabilities or data breaches.
  • System Inventory Data: PuppetDB stores information about managed nodes, including hardware and software inventory, and configuration status. Sensitivity: Medium. Exposure could provide attackers with information about the IT environment.
  • Audit Logs: Puppet generates audit logs of configuration changes and user activities. Sensitivity: Medium. Logs are important for security monitoring and incident investigation.

QUESTIONS & ASSUMPTIONS

Questions:

  • What specific security features are currently implemented in Puppet Server and Agent for authentication, authorization, and encryption?
  • What type of vulnerability scanning and penetration testing is currently performed on the Puppet project and infrastructure?
  • What secrets management solution is recommended or currently used for managing sensitive credentials within Puppet configurations?
  • What is the process for security patching and updating Puppet Server and Agents in a deployed environment?
  • Are there specific compliance requirements (e.g., PCI DSS, HIPAA) that Puppet is designed to help organizations meet?

Assumptions:

  • Puppet project follows secure software development lifecycle best practices, including code reviews and testing.
  • Puppet deployments are typically within enterprise environments with existing security infrastructure and policies.
  • Security is a significant concern for Puppet users, and the project prioritizes addressing security vulnerabilities and providing secure configuration management capabilities.
  • The provided GitHub repository represents the core Puppet project and its related components.
  • The described on-premise deployment architecture is a common and representative deployment scenario for Puppet.