Once Dashboard is installed and accessible we can focus on configuring access control to the cluster resources for users. As of release 1.7 Dashboard no longer has full admin privileges granted by default. All the privileges are revoked and only minimal privileges granted, that are required to make Dashboard work.
IMPORTANT: This note is only directed to people using Dashboard 1.7 and above. In case Dashboard is accessible only by trusted set of people, all with full admin privileges you may want to grant it admin privileges. Note that other applications should not access Dashboard directly as it may cause privileges escalation. Make sure that in-cluster traffic is restricted to namespaces or just revoke access to Dashboard for other applications inside the cluster.
Kubernetes supports few ways of authenticating and authorizing users. You can read about them here and here. Authorization is handled by Kubernetes API server. Dashboard only acts as a proxy and passes all auth information to it. In case of forbidden access corresponding warnings will be displayed in Dashboard.
createandwatchpermissions for secrets inkube-systemnamespace required to create and watch for changes ofkubernetes-dashboard-key-holdersecret.get,updateanddeletepermissions for secrets namedkubernetes-dashboard-key-holderandkubernetes-dashboard-certsinkube-systemnamespace.proxypermission toheapsterservice inkube-systemnamespace required to allow getting metrics from heapster.
createpermission for secrets inkube-systemnamespace required to createkubernetes-dashboard-key-holdersecret.get,updateanddeletepermissions for secrets namedkubernetes-dashboard-key-holderandkubernetes-dashboard-certsinkube-systemnamespace.getandupdatepermissions for config map namedkubernetes-dashboard-settingsinkube-systemnamespace.proxypermission toheapsterservice inkube-systemnamespace required to allow getting metrics from heapster.
T.B.D.
T.B.D.
As of release 1.7 Dashboard supports user authentication based on:
Authorization: Bearer <token>header passed in every request to Dashboard. Supported from release 1.6. Has the highest priority. If present, login view will not be shown.- Bearer Token that can be used on Dashboard login view.
- Username/password that can be used on Dashboard login view.
- Kubeconfig file that can be used on Dashboard login view.
Login view has been introduced in release 1.7. In case you are using the latest recommended installation then login functionality will be enabled by default. In any other case and if you prefer to configure certificates manually you need to pass --tls-cert-file and --tls-cert-key flags to Dashboard. HTTPS endpoint will be exposed on port 8443 of Dashboard container. You can change it by providing --port flag.
Using Skip option will make Dashboard use privileges of Service Account used by Dashboard. Skip button is disabled by default since 1.10.1. Use --enable-skip-login dashboard flag to display it.
Using authorization header is the only way to make Dashboard act as an user, when accessing it over HTTP. Note that there are some risks since plain HTTP traffic is vulnerable to MITM attacks.
To make Dashboard use authorization header you simply need to pass Authorization: Bearer <token> in every request to Dashboard. This can be achieved i.e. by configuring reverse proxy in front of Dashboard. Proxy will be responsible for authentication with identity provider and will pass generated token in request header to Dashboard. Note that Kubernetes API server needs to be configured properly to accept these tokens.
To quickly test it check out Requestly Chrome browser plugin that allows to manually modify request headers.
IMPORTANT: Authorization header will not work if Dashboard is accessed through API server proxy. Both kubectl proxy and API Server way of accessing Dashboard described in Accessing Dashboard guide will not work. It is due to the fact that once request reaches API server all additional headers are dropped.
It is recommended to get familiar with Kubernetes authentication documentation first to find out how to get token, that can be used to login. In example every Service Account has a Secret with valid Bearer Token that can be used to login to Dashboard.
Recommended lecture to find out how to create Service Account and grant it privileges:
To create sample user and to get its token, see Creating sample user guide.
There are many Service Accounts created in Kubernetes by default. All with different access permissions. In order to find any token, that can be used to login we'll use kubectl:
# Check existing secrets in kubernetes-dashboard namespace
$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard get secret
NAME TYPE DATA AGE
default-token-2pjhm kubernetes.io/service-account-token 3 81m
kubernetes-dashboard-certs Opaque 0 81m
kubernetes-dashboard-csrf Opaque 1 81m
kubernetes-dashboard-key-holder Opaque 2 81m
kubernetes-dashboard-token-x9nd8 kubernetes.io/service-account-token 3 81m
$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard describe secrets kubernetes-dashboard-token-x9nd8
Name: kubernetes-dashboard-token-x9nd8
Namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
Labels: <none>
Annotations: kubernetes.io/service-account.name: kubernetes-dashboard
kubernetes.io/service-account.uid: 2140a425-447f-437f-9966-24ab4e57217a
Type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token
Data
====
token: eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IiJ9.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.oSOjJZpQq-yiAIQWM12gFpVA6jiJz8-zApC0Wbet9iwzflmCVFlT1lWjEEduKMnJOF-viJ4fwLixA3INfCxDgWIBmxEvoA-R6ExQNkmFi4ljGdBX98fI2B4WFuqWIPoEjqf1l3eXHKmXgqbiMYA-UH_Ih4m2-aKKO3dfkmc5HmPP1ZjotCQKGpcq60c1y-SASqbC_FC3LHvp0l5N9bfhAOraNC_34ZlL3zkQ6cAL6mZG8Ci1MuXMHTH9g04QaVZb14f6BAY-K2X-Z5yDpMr4Zs5h6DOc_18sysf4uOVyo0wMXfI9gLsda-e3zX_5W39piBj-PwfBwBGslC_JztTCSQ
ca.crt: 1066 bytes
namespace: 20 bytes
We can now use printed token to login to Dashboard. To find out more about how to configure and use Bearer Tokens, please read Introduction section.
Basic authentication is disabled by default. The reason is that Kubernetes API server needs to be configured with authorization mode ABAC and --basic-auth-file flag provided. Without that API server automatically falls back to anonymous user and there is no way to check if provided credentials are valid.
In order to enable basic auth in Dashboard --authentication-mode=basic flag has to be provided. By default it is set to --authentication-mode=token.
This method of logging in is provided for convenience. Only authentication options specified by --authentication-mode flag are supported in kubeconfig file. In case it is configured to use any other way, error will be shown in Dashboard. External identity providers or certificate-based authentication are not supported at this time.
IMPORTANT: Make sure that you know what you are doing before proceeding. Granting admin privileges to Dashboard's Service Account might be a security risk.
You can grant full admin privileges to Dashboard's Service Account by creating below ClusterRoleBinding. Copy the YAML file based on chosen installation method and save as, i.e. dashboard-admin.yaml. Use kubectl create -f dashboard-admin.yaml to deploy it. Afterwards you can use Skip option on login page to access Dashboard.
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
name: kubernetes-dashboard
namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: ClusterRole
name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: kubernetes-dashboard
namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
name: kubernetes-dashboard-head
namespace: kubernetes-dashboard-head
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: ClusterRole
name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: kubernetes-dashboard-head
namespace: kubernetes-dashboard-head
Copyright 2019 The Kubernetes Dashboard Authors