fluidb-old/doc/SECURITY.md

Securing rqlite

rqlite can be secured in various way, and with different levels of control.

File system security

You are responsible for securing access to the SQLite database files if you enable "on disk" mode (which is not the default mode). There is no reason for any user to directly access any SQLite file, and doing so may cause rqlite to work incorrectly. If you don't need to access a SQLite database file, then don't enable "on disk" mode. This will maximize file-level security.

Network security

Each rqlite node listens on 2 TCP ports -- one for the HTTP API, and the other for intra-cluster communications. Only the API port need be reachable from outside the cluster.

So, if possible, configure the network such that the Raft port on each node is only accessible from other nodes in the cluster. There is no need for the Raft port to be accessible by rqlite clients.

If the IP addresses (or subnets) of rqlite clients is also known, it may also be possible to limit access to the HTTP API from those addresses only.

AWS EC2 Security Groups, for example, support all this functionality. So if running rqlite in the AWS EC2 cloud you can implement this level of security at the network level.

HTTPS API

rqlite supports HTTPS access, ensuring that all communication between clients and a cluster is encrypted.

Node-to-node encryption

rqlite supports encryption of all inter-node traffic. To enable this, pass -encrypt to rqlited. Each node must also be supplied with the relevant SSL certificate and corresponding private key, in X.509 format. Note that every node in a cluster must operate with encryption enabled, or none at all.

One way to generate the necessary (possibly self-signed) resources is via openssl:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365

Basic Auth

The HTTP API supports Basic Auth. Each rqlite node can be passed a JSON-formatted configuration file, which configures valid usernames and associated passwords for that node.

Since the configuration file only controls the node local to it, it's important to ensure the configuration is correct on each node.

User-level permissions

rqlite, via the configuration file, also supports user-level permissions. Each user can be granted one or more of the following permissions:

• all: user can perform all operations on a node.
• execute: user may access the execute endpoint.
• query: user may access the query endpoint.
• load: user may load an SQLite dump file into a node.
• backup: user may perform backups.
• status: user can retrieve status information from the node.
• join: user can join a cluster. In practice only a node joins a cluster.
• remove: user can remove a node from a cluster.

Example configuration file

An example configuration file is shown below.

[
  {
    "username": "bob",
    "password": "secret1",
    "perms": ["all"]
  },
  {
    "username": "mary",
    "password": "secret2",
    "perms": ["query", "status"]
  }
]

This configuration file sets authentication for two usernames, bob and mary, and it sets a password for each. No other users will be able to access the cluster.

This configuration also sets permissions for both users. bob has permission to perform all operations, but mary can only query the cluster, as well as check the cluster status.

Secure cluster example

Starting a node with HTTPS enabled, node-to-node encryption, and with the above configuration file. It is assumed the HTTPS X.509 certificate and key are at the paths server.crt and key.pem respectively, and the node-to-node certificate and key are at node.crt and node-key.pem

rqlited -auth config.json -x509cert server.crt -x509key key.pem \
-encrypt -nodex509cert node.crt -nodex509key node-key.pem -nonodeverify \
~/node.1

Bringing up a second node, joining it to the first node. This allows you to block nodes from joining a cluster, unless those nodes supply a password.

rqlited -auth config.json -http localhost:4003 -x509cert server.crt \
-x509key key.pem -raft :4004 -join https://bob:secret1@localhost:4001 \
-encrypt -nodex509cert node.crt -nodex509key node-key.pem -nonodeverify \
~/node.2

Querying the node, as user mary.

curl -G 'https://mary:secret2@localhost:4001/db/query?pretty&timings' \
--data-urlencode 'q=SELECT * FROM foo'