Open Policy Agent: Konstraint

Konstraint is a tool for converting Open Policy Agent policies written in rego into ConstraintTemplates and Constraints for Gatekeeper. In Open Policy Agent: Introduction to Gatekeeper, we learned how to deploy Gatekeeper and create ConstraintTemplates and Constraints. Then in Open Policy Agent: Unit Testing Gatekeeper Policies, we copied rego from ConstraintTemplates to validate syntax and unit test policies.

This process left us with duplication of rego because it existed in the ConstraintTemplate and rego files. Konstraint is the missing piece. Konstraint can be used in a build process to convert rego into ConstraintTemplates and Constraints preventing us from having to duplicate code.

Download konstraint

konstraint can be downloaded from Konstraint’s releases page. I’ll be using version v0.9.2.

To install on Linux, for example, run:

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curl https://github.com/plexsystems/konstraint/releases/download/v0.9.2/konstraint-linux-amd64 \
  --location \
  --output ~/konstraint
chmod +x ~/konstraint
sudo mv ~/konstraint /usr/local/bin

To verify konstraint is installed correctly, run:

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konstraint --version

and the output should be:

konsstraint version v0.9.2

Project setup

We’ll use the existing structure from the previous post. Our project structure will look like:

~/policies
└── image-tag
    ├── src.rego
    └── src_test.rego

For this post, we’ll ignore the contents of src_test.rego as Konstraint ignores files that end with _test.rego.

We’ll start with the rego code that did not have a parameter, so src.rego is:

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package imagetag

violation[{"msg": msg}] {
  container := input.review.object.spec.containers[_]
  endswith(container.image, ":latest")
  msg := sprintf("container <%v> uses an image tagged with latest <%v>", [container.name, container.image])
}

Use Konstraint to create ConstraintTemplates and Constraints

With our project setup, now we can run:

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konstraint create ~/policies

Our project structure will then look like:

policies
└── image-tag
    ├── constraint.yaml
    ├── src.rego
    ├── src_test.rego
    └── template.yaml

Konstraint created two files, constraint.yaml and template.yaml.

template.yaml looks like:

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apiVersion: templates.gatekeeper.sh/v1beta1
kind: ConstraintTemplate
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: imagetag
spec:
  crd:
    spec:
      names:
        kind: ImageTag
  targets:
    - rego: |-
        package imagetag

        violation[{"msg": msg}] {
          container := input.review.object.spec.containers[_]
          endswith(container.image, ":latest")
          msg := sprintf("container <%v> uses an image tagged with latest <%v>", [container.name, container.image])
        }        
      target: admission.k8s.gatekeeper.sh
status: {}

Looks like what we created in Open Policy Agent: Introduction to Gatekeeper!

And constraint.yaml looks like:

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apiVersion: constraints.gatekeeper.sh/v1beta1
kind: ImageTag
metadata:
  name: imagetag

This Constraint works as-is but is different than what we did before. enforcementAction is omitted, meaning the default of deny is in effect. The match is also missing for this Constraint, so Gatekeeper will execute this policy against all resources.

Fortunately, Konstraint has a solution for this. We can add comments to our rego to set these options. Update src.rego to look like:

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# @enforcement dryrun
# @kinds core/Pod
package imagetag

violation[{"msg": msg}] {
  container := input.review.object.spec.containers[_]
  endswith(container.image, ":latest")
  msg := sprintf("container <%v> uses an image tagged with latest <%v>", [container.name, container.image])
}

Re-run:

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konstraint create ~/policies

and constraint.yaml will now look like:

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apiVersion: constraints.gatekeeper.sh/v1beta1
kind: ImageTag
metadata:
  name: imagetag
spec:
  enforcementAction: dryrun
  match:
    kinds:
      - apiGroups:
          - ""
        kinds:
          - Pod

Perfect. Now we’re able to only write rego code in one place, src.rego, and generate ConstraintTemplates and Constraints using Konstraint.

Use Konstraint to create parameterized ConstraintTemplates

Now, let’s update our src.rego to use a parameter.

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# @enforcement dryrun
# @kinds core/Pod
# @parameter tag string
package imagetag

violation[{"msg": msg}] {
  container := input.review.object.spec.containers[_]
  endswith(container.image, sprintf(":%s", [input.parameters.tag]))
  msg := sprintf("container <%v> uses an image tagged with %v <%v>", [container.name, input.parameters.tag, container.image])
}

Go ahead and delete the template.yaml and constraint.yaml files. Then re-run:

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konstraint create ~/policies

Note: konstraint create will verify each parameter referenced in rego is described with a @parameter comment and vice versa.

Notice now that only template.yaml is created, which looks like:

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apiVersion: templates.gatekeeper.sh/v1beta1
kind: ConstraintTemplate
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: imagetag
spec:
  crd:
    spec:
      names:
        kind: ImageTag
      validation:
        openAPIV3Schema:
          properties:
            tag:
              type: string
  targets:
    - rego: |-
        package imagetag

        violation[{"msg": msg}] {
          container := input.review.object.spec.containers[_]
          endswith(container.image, sprintf(":%s", [input.parameters.tag]))
          msg := sprintf("container <%v> uses an image tagged with %v <%v>", [container.name, input.parameters.tag, container.image])
        }        
      target: admission.k8s.gatekeeper.sh
status: {}

When Konstraint detects a parameterized rego, Konstraint will skip creating a constraint.yaml file. It is up to the user to manually create a constraint.yaml file as Konstraint doesn’t know the parameters.

A bit of a bummer, but we still get the incredible benefit of the automatic creation of ConstraintTemplates.

Note: @enforcement and @kinds comments are both ignored by Konstraint when the policy is parameterized, so no need to specify them.

Use Konstraint to build documentation

On top of creating ConstraintTemplate and Constraints (in some cases), Konstraint can generate policy documentation.

Once again, update src.rego to be:

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# @title imagetag
#
# imagetag validates if any pods' containers are using an invalid image tag.
#
# @enforcement dryrun
# @kinds core/Pod
# @parameter tag string
package imagetag

violation[{"msg": msg}] {
  container := input.review.object.spec.containers[_]
  endswith(container.image, sprintf(":%s", [input.parameters.tag]))
  msg := sprintf("container <%v> uses an image tagged with %v <%v>", [container.name, input.parameters.tag, container.image])
}

and then run:

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konstraint doc ~/policies --output ~/policies.md

Konstraint will create a file at ~/policies.md with the policy’s title, description, the rego code itself, enforcement kind, and any kinds/parameters specified.

More opa tools?

We’ve now tackled Gatekeeper, opa, and Konstraint. Konstraint is relatively new, but I look forward to future features it adds. Know any more tools to help with writing policies? Or better ways to use these tools? Please let me know on LinkedIn.