knox 0.1.14
Certificate management utilities with Vault backend
License: Apache-2.0
Requires Python: >=3.7, !=3.0.*, !=3.1.*, !=3.2.*, !=3.3.*, !=3.4.*, !=3.5.*, !=3.6.*
Keywords: vault,hashicorp,ssl,certificates


What is Knox v0.1.14
====================

The name is derived from "Fort Knox" the safest place to store valuables in history. At least that is the myth. This tool or set of utilities is explicitly for managing TLS certificates including metadata about them and storing it in a backend.

Primary components used are Python, Hashicorp Vault, Let's Encrypt and certbot.

[Let’s Encrypt](<https://letsencrypt.org>) is a certificate authority managed by the [Internet Security Research Group (ISRG)](<https://www.abetterinternet.org/about/>). It utilizes the [Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME)](<https://github.com/ietf-wg-acme/acme/>) to automatically deploy free SSL certificates that are trusted by nearly all major browsers. [The certificate compatibility list can be found here](<https://letsencrypt.org/docs/certificate-compatibility/>). Lets Encrypt has revolutionized the distribution of certificates for public facing servers.

[Hashicorp Vault](<https://www.vaultproject.io/>) is a tool for storing secrets. It has a [PKI Secret Engine](<https://www.vaultproject.io/docs/secrets/pki/index.html>) backend which allows to use it as a certificate authority in an internal public key infrastructure deployment. Until now, Vault is best suited for issuing private certificates.

Let's Encrypt and Hashicorp Vault are complementary in certificate management.

Dataflow Diagram
==================

![](deployment-3D.png)

.. image:: deployment-3d.png

There may not necessarily be a container between Certbot or the Devops agent but the key is all access to manage the certs goes through a knox command. Once in place the cert can be accessed directly from Vault by deployment mechanisms with or without knox. Essentially its just a key value path to json. Knox just unifies how and what is stored and provides convenience methods for managing the certs.

Installation
============

To get started::

    pip install knox

You can also install the in-development version with::

    pip install git+ssh://git@github.com/8x8cloud/knox.git@develop

Or run it as a container::

    docker run 8x8cloud/knox

See [Dynaconf](https://dynaconf.readthedocs.io/) for how the configuration is read in. At its simplest just add environment variables into a `.env` file.


Metadata
========

Knox will store the certificate body, in its entirety, along with metadata related to the details of the certificate. The data will be organized and retreived using a tree struction mimicking the DNS naming heirarchy.

Tree Structure::

    certificates:
    ├── com
    │      └── example
    │       └── cloud
    │           ├── acceptance
    │           ├── production
    │           └── staging
    ├── internal
    │   └── example
    └── net
        └── example

As a result the host name www.example.com storage path will be /com/example/www

Additional data will be stored with the body of the certificates. A jinja template will be provided. Although the cert body and cert data will have alternate RBAC rules for accessing. Below is a sample::

    {
        "cert_info":
        {
            "subject": {
                 "commonName": "www.example.com",
                 "countryName": "US",
                 "emailAddress": "cert@example.com",
                 "localityName": "San Jose",
                 "organizationName": "Example, Inc.",
                 "organizationalUnitName": "Engineering",
                 "stateOrProvinceName": "CA"
            },
            "issuer": {
                 "commonName": "www.example.com",
                 "countryName": "US",
                 "emailAddress": "cert@example.com",
                 "localityName": "San Jose",
                 "organizationName": "Example, Inc.",
                 "organizationalUnitName": "Engineering",
                 "stateOrProvinceName": "CA"
            },
            "key_details": {
                 "fingerprint_sha256": "f6874a226e4d2ea54eed11d8d71e27f5fbd965630aa84f71414209b0227c448c",
                 "key": {
                   "size": 4096,
                   "type": "RSA"
                 },
                 "serial_number": "11672594923309745709",
                 "version": "v1"
            },
            "validity": {
                 "not_valid_after": "2021-05-17 18:49:00",
                 "not_valid_before": "2020-05-17 18:49:00"
            }
        },

        "cert_body":
        {
            "private": "REDACTED",
            "chain": "REDACTED",
            "public": "REDACTED"
        }
    }





Documentation
=============


https://knox.readthedocs.io/


Development
===========

This project was initialized using a very cool python project templating tool called [cookiecutter-pylibrary](https://github.com/ionelmc/cookiecutter-pylibrary) from [Ionel Cristian Mărieș](https://github.com/ionelmc). Definitely check it out to see all the tools available and good usage docs.

Python setup on a Mac using [pyenv](https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv#readme)::

    # Pyenv for managing multiple versions of python
    brew install pyenv

    # Install all versions you want to test locally
    pyenv install <version list>

    # Enable the versions
    pyenv local <version list>

To execute everything run::

	tox

To see all the tox environments::

	tox -l

To only build the docs::

	tox -e docs

To build and verify that the built package is proper and other code QA checks::

	tox -e check

To update [Travis CI](https://travis-ci.org) configuration::

	tox -e bootstrap


You will need a [Vault](https://hub.docker.com/_/vault) server running locally::

	>docker run \
	--cap-add=IPC_LOCK \
	-p 8201:8201 \
	-p 8200:8200 \
	-e 'VAULT_DEV_ROOT_TOKEN_ID=knox' \
	-d --name=dev-vault \
	vault

	>docker ps
	CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                              NAMES
	d89fbfd340c3        vault               "docker-entrypoint.s…"   5 hours ago         Up 5 hours          0.0.0.0:8200-8201->8200-8201/tcp   dev-vault

Set the token ID and container name to your preferences.
Verify you can talk to vault using the vault cli::

	>export VAULT_ADDR=http://0.0.0.0:8200
	>export VAULT_TOKEN=knox

	>vault status

	Key             Value
	---             -----
	Seal Type       shamir
	Initialized     true
	Sealed          false
	Total Shares    1
	Threshold       1
	Version         1.4.1
	Cluster Name    vault-cluster-31da8ea9
	Cluster ID      043bfc14-09b1-6033-1c3b-8aeace3adc60
	HA Enabled      false

Setup your local app role::

    # Add the cert admin policy
    >vault policy write cert_admin config/cert_admin-policy.hcl
    Success! Uploaded policy: cert_admin

    # Enable approle auth
    >vault auth enable approle
    Success! Enabled approle auth method at: approle/

    # Create an app role
    >vault write auth/approle/role/knox-admin \
      bind_secret_id=true \
      period=0 \
      policies="cert_admin" \
      token_num_uses=1 \
      token_ttl=5m \
      token_max_tll=30m \
      secret_id_num_uses=0 \
      secret_id_ttl=0 \
      token_no_default_policy=true
    Success! Data written to: auth/approle/role/knox-admin

    # Read role-id
    vault read auth/approle/role/knox-admin/role-id
    export KNOX_VAULT_APPROLE=$(vault read -format=json auth/approle/role/knox-admin/role-id | jq -r '.data.role_id')

    # generate secret-id
    vault write -f auth/approle/role/knox-admin/secret-id
    export KNOX_VAULT_SECRET_ID=$(vault write -f -format=json auth/approle/role/knox-admin/secret-id | jq -r '.data.secret_id')


Update your knox configuration using `.env` or direct environment variables::

    ENVVAR_PREFIX_FOR_DYNACONF=KNOX
    INCLUDES_FOR_DYNACONF='./config/*'

    KNOX_TEMP=/tmp
    KNOX_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
    KNOX_STORE_ENGINE=vault
    KNOX_VAULT_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8200
    KNOX_VAULT_TOKEN="knox"
    KNOX_VAULT_MOUNT="certificates"
    KNOX_VAULT_CLIENT_MAX_VERSIONS=10
    KNOX_VAULT_CLIENT_CAS=False
    KNOX_FILE_HOME=./test

And Or use a settings file::

    {
      "default": {
        "ENVVAR_PREFIX_FOR_DYNACONF": "KNOX",
        "INCLUDES_FOR_DYNACONF": "./config/*",
        "KNOX_TEMP": "./tmp",
        "KNOX_LOG_LEVEL": "DEBUG",
        "KNOX_STORE_ENGINE": "vault",
        "KNOX_VAULT_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8200",
        "KNOX_VAULT_TOKEN": "knox",
        "KNOX_VAULT_MOUNT": "certificates",
        "KNOX_VAULT_CLIENT_MAX_VERSIONS": "10",
        "KNOX_VAULT_CLIENT_CAS": "True",
        "KNOX_FILE_HOME": "./test"
      },
      "development": {
        "ENVVAR_PREFIX_FOR_DYNACONF": "KNOX",
        "INCLUDES_FOR_DYNACONF": "./config/*"
      },
      "production": {
        "ENVVAR_PREFIX_FOR_DYNACONF": "KNOX",
        "INCLUDES_FOR_DYNACONF": "./config/*"
      }
    }


Generate some test self signed certificates::

    # create a config file for openssl
    [req]
    distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
    x509_extensions = v3_req
    prompt = no
    [req_distinguished_name]
    C = US
    ST = VA
    L = SomeCity
    O = MyCompany
    OU = MyDivision
    CN = www.company.com
    [v3_req]
    keyUsage = keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment
    extendedKeyUsage = serverAuth
    subjectAltName = @alt_names
    [alt_names]
    DNS.1 = www.company.net
    DNS.2 = company.com
    DNS.3 = company.net

    openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 \
     -keyout cert-key.pem \
     -out cert-pub.pem \
     -config san.cnf -extensions 'v3_req'

    xtensions 'v3_req'
    Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key
    ..................................+++
    ...........+++
    writing new private key to 'cert-key.pem'
    -----

Save a certificate to vault::

    export VAULT_ADDR=http://localhost:8200
    export KNOX_VAULT_URL=http://localhost:8200
    export KNOX_VAULT_TOKEN=knox
    export KNOX_VAULT_APPROLE=$(vault read -format=json auth/approle/role/knox-admin/role-id | jq -r '.data.role_id')
    export KNOX_VAULT_SECRET_ID=$(vault write -f -format=json auth/approle/role/knox-admin/secret-id | jq -r '.data.secret_id')

    knox cert --pub cert-pub.pem --key cert-key.pem save www.company.com


Search for stored certificates::

    knox store find \*              # list all the certificates info
    knox store find www.company.com
    knox store find *.example.com   # list all the *.example.com certificates
    knox store find com/example/www # list about www.example.com

Don't want to install python, I got you::

    docker run --net=host 8x8cloud/knox --help
    Usage: knox [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

      Utilities for managing and storing TLS certificates using backing store
      (Vault).

    Options:
      -l, --log [TRACE|DEBUG|INFO|SUCCESS|WARNING|ERROR|CRITICAL]
                                      Sets the level of logging displayed
                                      [default: INFO]

      -v, --verbose                   Display log output to console
      --version                       Show the version and exit.
      --help                          Show this message and exit.

    Commands:
      cert   Certificate utilities.
      store  Store commands.

If using docker mount a volume to get to your certs::

    docker run --net=host \
    -v ~/dev/knox/examples/:/examples \
    8x8cloud/knox cert \
    --pub /examples/sample_cert1.pem \
    --key /examples/sample_key1.pem \
    save www.example.com


Changelog
=========

0.0.0 (2020-05-08)
------------------

* First release on PyPI.