Dynamic credentials for Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

17min
|
Vault

Dynamic secrets are a core feature in Vault. A class of dynamic secrets is on-demand, revocable, time-limited access credentials for cloud providers. For example, the Dynamic Secrets getting started tutorial demonstrated the AWS secrets engine to dynamically generate AWS credentials (access key ID and secret access key).

Challenge

To consume Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services (e.g. GCP Kubernetes service), the client must have valid GCP credentials. GCP uses service accounts to authenticate services running in GCP with other GCP services. For example, a compute engine virtual machine (VM) requires credentials to authenticate with other GCP services.

Solution

Configure Vault to generate service account keys or OAuth tokens with a time-to-live (TTL) enforcing its validity so that the credentials are automatically revoked when they are no longer used.

In this tutorial, you will configure GCP to support Vault and setup Vault to generate either a OAuth token or service account key.

Personas

The end-to-end scenario described in this tutorial involves two personas:

admin with privileged permissions to configure Vault secrets engines and GCP resources
apps read the secrets from Vault

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes the following:

You have a Google Cloud Platform account with permission to:
- Create IAM service accounts, policies
- Enable GCP APIs
- Access the GCP Cloud Shell
- Create VMs
Vault installed on your local machine
jq installed

Policy requirements

Each persona requires a different set of capabilities. These are expressed in policies. If you are not familiar with policies, complete the policies tutorial.

Required Vault policies

The admin tasks require these capabilities.

# Mount secrets engines
path "sys/mounts/*" {
  capabilities = [ "create", "read", "update", "delete", "list" ]
}

# Configure the azure secrets engine and create roles
path "gcp/*" {
  capabilities = [ "create", "read", "update", "delete", "list" ]
}

# Write ACL policies
path "sys/policies/acl/*" {
  capabilities = [ "create", "read", "update", "delete", "list" ]
}

# Manage tokens for verification
path "auth/token/create" {
  capabilities = [ "create", "read", "update", "delete", "list", "sudo" ]
}

The apps tasks require these capabilities.

path "gcp/creds/edu-app" {
  capabilities = [ "read" ]
}

Lab setup

Workstation setup

Create a temporary directory to store the files used for this tutorial.
```
$ mkdir ~/TUTORIAL_TEMP
```
Retrieve the directory path and store it in the TUTORIAL_TEMP environment variable.
```
$ TUTORIAL_TEMP=$(echo ~/TUTORIAL_TEMP)
```
Go to the TUTORIAL_TEMP directory.
```
$ cd $TUTORIAL_TEMP
```

Vault setup

Open a new terminal window and start a Vault dev server with root as the root token.
```
$ vault server -dev -dev-root-token-id root
```
The Vault dev server defaults to running at 127.0.0.1:8200. The server is initialized and unsealed.
Insecure operation
Do not run a Vault dev server in production. This approach starts a Vault server with an in-memory database and runs in an insecure way.
Return to the terminal where you created the TUTORIAL_TEMP directory.
Export an environment variable for the vault CLI to address the Vault server.
```
$ export VAULT_ADDR=http://127.0.0.1:8200
```
Export an environment variable for the vault CLI to authenticate with the Vault server.
```
$ export VAULT_TOKEN=root
```
Note
For these tasks, you can use Vault's root token. However, it is recommended that root tokens are only used for enough initial setup or in emergencies. As a best practice, use an authentication method or token that meets the policy requirements.
The Vault server is ready.

Note

If you do not have access to an HCP Vault Dedicated cluster, visit the Create a Vault Cluster on HCP tutorial.

Launch the HCP Portal and login.
Click Vault in the left navigation pane.
In the Vault clusters pane, click vault-cluster.
Under Cluster URLs, click Public Cluster URL.
In the same terminal you set the TUTORIAL_TEMP environment variable, set the VAULT_ADDR environment variable to the copied address.
```
$ export VAULT_ADDR=<Public_Cluster_URL>
```
Return to the Overview page and click Generate token.
Within a few moments, a new token will be generated.
Copy the Admin Token.
Return to the terminal and set the VAULT_TOKEN environment variable.
```
$ export VAULT_TOKEN=<token>
```
Set the VAULT_NAMESPACE environment variable to admin.
```
$ export VAULT_NAMESPACE=admin
```
The admin namespace is the top-level namespace automatically created by HCP Vault. All CLI operations default to use the namespace defined in this environment variable.
Note
For these tasks, you can use HCP Vault Dedicated's admin token. However, it is recommended that admin tokens are only used for enough initial setup or in emergencies. As a best practice, use an authentication method or token that meets the policy requirements.
The Vault Dedicated server is ready.

Configure GCP services for Vault

(Persona: admin)

Warning

Resources will be provisioned during this tutorial that may result in charges to your Google Cloud Platform account.

Before Vault can manage dynamic credentials using the GCP secrets engine, you need to configure the necessary resources in GCP. This includes enabling the required GCP APIs, creating a IAM service account and IAM policy for Vault, and a creating key for the service account that Vault will use to authenticate with GCP.

Open a browser and sign into the GCP console.
Click the terminal icon to launch the GCP Cloud Shell.
A new pane will open at the bottom of your window and provision a Cloud Shell instance.
In the Cloud Shell terminal, list the GCP project ID.
Note
If this is the first time using the Cloud Shell terminal, you will be prompted to authorize permission to use your credentials.
Click Authorize when prompted.
```
$ gcloud projects list

PROJECT_ID: abc-123defde860044c59e853ee2819
NAME: my-gcp-account-name
PROJECT_NUMBER: 85527753462
```
The project ID is used when configuring both GCP and Vault.
Verify the cloud resource manager and IAM API's are enabled.
```
$ gcloud services list --enabled | grep 'resource\|iam'

NAME: cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com
NAME: iam.googleapis.com
NAME: iamcredentials.googleapis.com
```
If cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com and iam.googleapis.com are not listed, expand the menu below and enable the API(s).
Enable the iam.googleapis.com API.
$ gcloud services enable iam.googleapis.com
Enable the cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com API.
$ gcloud services enable cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com

Create a service account for Vault to authenticate with GCP.

$ gcloud iam service-accounts create \
    VaultServiceAccount \
    --display-name="VaultServiceAccount"

Create a GCP IAM role for Vault and assign the required permissions.

$ gcloud iam roles create VaultServiceRole \
    --project=$DEVSHELL_PROJECT_ID \
    --title=VaultServiceRole \
    --stage=GA \
    --permissions=iam.serviceAccounts.create,iam.serviceAccounts.delete,iam.serviceAccounts.get,iam.serviceAccounts.list,iam.serviceAccounts.update,iam.serviceAccountKeys.create,iam.serviceAccountKeys.delete,iam.serviceAccountKeys.get,iam.serviceAccountKeys.list,iam.serviceAccounts.getAccessToken,resourcemanager.projects.getIamPolicy,resourcemanager.projects.setIamPolicy

Retrieve the role name and store it in the ROLE_NAME environment variable.

$ ROLE_NAME=$(gcloud iam roles list --project=$DEVSHELL_PROJECT_ID --format=json --filter="vault" | jq -r .[].name)

Retrieve the service account email and store it in the SERVICE_ACCOUNT environment variable.

$ SERVICE_ACCOUNT=$(gcloud iam service-accounts list --project=$DEVSHELL_PROJECT_ID --filter=vault --format=json | jq -r .[].email)

Add the Vault service account to the GCP project and bind the role to the service account.

$ gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding $DEVSHELL_PROJECT_ID \
    --member="serviceAccount:$SERVICE_ACCOUNT" \
    --role="$ROLE_NAME"

Create a service account key credential file.

$ gcloud iam service-accounts keys create VaultServiceAccountKey.json \
    --iam-account=$SERVICE_ACCOUNT \
    --project=$DEVSHELL_PROJECT_ID

Click the More button (represented by the vertical ellipsis) and select Download.
Click the folder icon, expand the directory, select the VaultServiceAccountKey.json file, and click Download.
Store the VaultServiceAccountKey.json file in TUTORIAL_TEMP directory you created in the lab setup section.
Tip
Depending on your browser settings, the file may automatically download to a default directory. To complete this tutorial, make sure the VaultServiceAccountKey.json file is located in the $TUTORIAL_TEMP directory.
Example OSX command:
$ mv ~/Downloads/VaultServiceAccountKey.json $TUTORIAL_TEMP/
Retrieve and copy the GCP project ID from the Cloud Shell terminal.
```
$ echo $DEVSHELL_PROJECT_ID
```
Return to the terminal where you set the TUTORIAL_TEMP environment variable and set the GCP_PROJECT_ID environment variable to the value from the previous step.
```
$ export GCP_PROJECT_ID=<actual-project-id>
```
You have completed the necessary configuration in GCP to support the Vault GCP secrets engine.

Configure Vault

(Persona: admin)

There are two types of credentials Vault can generate for GCP - a JSON formated service account key credential file, and an OAuth token. Each of these methods have benefits and contrstraints that need to be considered for your use case.

Service account keys have a limit of ten keys per service account. This limit can quickly be reached in large, or busy environments. Depending on the workload, this limitation can be managed by setting a low TTL that permits the workload to complete. Service keys, however, are supported across most clients and the lifetime of the key can be fully managed by Vault.

OAuth access tokens do not have any limits on the number of tokens that can be requested. This can be beneficial for large environments or when workloads have a long runtime because you will not reach the same limit as service account keys. OAuth tokens are not supported by all clients and Vault is not able to fully manage the token. All tokens have a default TTL of one hour and cannot be revoked by Vault.

New in Vault 1.13

Impersonated accounts are a way to generate an OAuth2 access token that is granted the permissions and accesses of another given service account. These access tokens do not have the same 10-key limit as service account keys do, yet they retain their short-lived nature.

Instead of Vault creating a unique service account in GCP based on the Vault roleset name, existing GCP service accounts can be impersonated to simplify the configuration. This will help alleviate reaching the 100 service account quota in GCP.

See the OAuth account impersonation tab below for more details.

In the terminal where you set the TUTORIAL_TEMP environment variable, enable the GCP secrets engine.
```
$ vault secrets enable gcp

Success! Enabled the gcp secrets engine at: gcp/
```

Configure the GCP secrets engine to use the VaultServiceAccountKey.json credentials.

$ vault write gcp/config \
    ttl="2m" \
    max_ttl="10m" \
    credentials=@$TUTORIAL_TEMP/VaultServiceAccountKey.json

Example output:

Success! Data written to: gcp/config

Define the bindings to be used by Vault in a file named gcpbindings.hcl.
```
$ tee $TUTORIAL_TEMP/gcpbindings.hcl <<EOF
 resource "//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/$GCP_PROJECT_ID" {
        roles = ["roles/viewer"]
      }
EOF
```
Note
The roles/viewer role is used in this tutorial for simplicity. You can use any predefined or custom role that provides the necessary permissions for the application.

Create a Vault roleset named edu-app-token.

$ vault write gcp/roleset/edu-app-token \
    project=$GCP_PROJECT_ID \
    secret_type="access_token"  \
    token_scopes="https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform" \
    bindings=@$TUTORIAL_TEMP/gcpbindings.hcl

Example output:

Success! Data written to: gcp/roleset/edu-app-token

The Vault configuration is complete.

Note

Account impersonation is not yet available for HCP Vault Dedicated.

Return to the GCP console.
Expand the hamburger menu and navigate to IAM & Admin >> Service Accounts.
Copy the full email address for the VaultServiceAccount ending with iam.gserviceaccount.com.
In the terminal where you set the TUTORIAL_TEMP environment variable, create an environment variable with the service account email address.
```
$ export GCP_SERVICE_ACCT=<actual-service-account-email>
```

Enable the GCP secrets engine.

$ vault secrets enable gcp

Success! Enabled the gcp secrets engine at: gcp/

Configure the GCP secrets engine to use the VaultServiceAccountKey.json credentials.

$ vault write gcp/config \
    ttl="2m" \
    max_ttl="10m" \
    credentials=@$TUTORIAL_TEMP/VaultServiceAccountKey.json

Example output:

Success! Data written to: gcp/config

Create a Vault roleset named edu-app-impersonate.

Note

The VaultServiceAccount service account is used in this tutorial for simplicity. You can impersonate any service account in the GCP project that Vault authenticates to that provides the necessary permissions for the application.

$ vault write gcp/impersonated-account/impersonate-vault-service \
     service_account_email="$GCP_SERVICE_ACCT" \
     token_scopes="https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/compute" \
     ttl="1h"

Example output:

Success! Data written to: gcp/impersonated-account/impersonate-vault-service

The Vault configuration is complete.

In the terminal where you set the TUTORIAL_TEMP environment variable, enable the GCP secrets engine.
```
$ vault secrets enable gcp

Success! Enabled the gcp secrets engine at: gcp/
```

Configure the GCP secrets engine to use the VaultServiceAccountKey.json credentials.

$ vault write gcp/config \
    ttl="2m" \
    max_ttl="10m" \
    credentials=@$TUTORIAL_TEMP/VaultServiceAccountKey.json

Example output:

Success! Data written to: gcp/config

Define the bindings to be used by Vault in a file named gcpbindings.hcl.
```
$ tee $TUTORIAL_TEMP/gcpbindings.hcl <<EOF
 resource "//cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/projects/$GCP_PROJECT_ID" {
        roles = ["roles/viewer"]
      }
EOF
```
Note
The roles/viewer role is used in this tutorial for simplicity. You can use any predefined or custom role that provides the necessary permissions for the application.

Create a Vault roleset named edu-app-key.

$ vault write gcp/roleset/edu-app-key \
    project=$GCP_PROJECT_ID \
    secret_type="service_account_key"  \
    bindings=@$TUTORIAL_TEMP/gcpbindings.hcl

Example output:

Success! Data written to: gcp/roleset/edu-app-key

The Vault configuration is complete.

Request GCP credentials

(Persona: app)

An application can read the Vault roleset to generate a unique OAuth token.

Read the edu-app-token roleset to generate a new token.

$ vault read gcp/roleset/edu-app-token/token

Key                   Value
---                   -----
expires_at_seconds    1677772328
token                 ya29.c.b0Aaekm1JDyWPbVqy...snip...ccVteJkpyvRBbYbWqli5Oz
token_ttl             59m58s

The token is generated with the default TTL of one hour (60 minutes).

OAuth tokens are managed by GCP, and not visible in the GCP console.

Return to the GCP console.
Expand the hamburger menu and navigate to IAM & Admin >> Service Accounts.
A service account has been created in GCP based on the Vault role name edu-app-token.
Click the vaultedu-app-token123456789@... service account and click the KEYS tab.

The key ID associated with the service account key Vault created will be listed. ui-gcp-serviceaccount-keys

This key is required by the Vault node when it authenticates with GCP. If the token is deleted, the Vault node will not be able to authenticate with GCP and produce the following error:

Error reading gcp/roleset/edu-app-token/token: Error making API request.

Namespace: admin/
URL: GET https://vault-cluster-public-vault-bdac9bb2.40d0ceab.z1.hashicorp.cloud:8200/v1/gcp/roleset/edu-app-token/token
Code: 400. Errors:

* unable to generate token - make sure your roleset service account and key are still valid: got error while creating OAuth2 token: oauth2: cannot fetch token: 400 Bad Request
Response: {"error":"invalid_grant","error_description":"Invalid JWT Signature."}

An application can read the Vault roleset to impersonate a service account and generate a unique OAuth token.

Read the edu-app-token roleset to generate a new token.

$ vault read gcp/impersonated-account/impersonate-vault-service/token

Key                   Value
---                   -----
expires_at_seconds    1677772328
token                 ya29.c.b0Aaekm1JDyWPbVqy...snip...ccVteJkpyvRBbYbWqli5Oz
token_ttl             10m

The token is generated with the TTL of ten minutes because the max TTL defined in the secrets engine configuration was set to 10m.

OAuth tokens are managed by GCP, and not visible in the GCP console.

An application can read the Vault roleset to generate a unique service account key.

Read the edu-app roleset to generate a new key.

$ vault read gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key

Key                 Value
---                 -----
lease_id            gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/ra4SvjyYlp9udTrkCBnsK3Ky.RfmoS
lease_duration      2m
lease_renewable     true
key_algorithm       KEY_ALG_RSA_2048
key_type            TYPE_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_FILE
private_key_data    ewogICJ0eXBlIjogInNlcnZpY2VfY...snip...dmF0ZV9rZXlfaWQiOiAiMWIyNzViOG

The lease_duration is set to 2m because the TTL defined in the secrets engine configuration was set to 2m.

They private_key_data value is a base64 encoded blob that has a properly formatted JSON file which the service can use to authenticate with GCP.

Generate a new key and base64 decode the private_key_data field to reveal the JSON formatted credential file.

$vault read --field private_key_data gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key | base64 --decode

Example output:

{
  "type": "service_account",
  "project_id": "abc-123DEFb547c4b85ab06e16606d",
  "private_key_id": "16f43c11931007f0131a2148a4add81ccd889ffd",
  "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEvQIBADCBKcwggSj...snip.../zL\nMmXo1ma5v8V4rPTAvkHNWbM=\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n",
  "client_email": "vaultedu-app-1677764256@abc-123DEF1b547c4b85ab06e16606d.iam.gserviceaccount.com",
  "client_id": "109361234567891786547",
  "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
  "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
  "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
  "client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/vaultedu-app-1677764256%40abc-123DEF1b547c4b85ab06e16606d.iam.gserviceaccount.com"
}

Return to the GCP console.
Expand the hamburger menu and navigate to IAM & Admin >> Service Accounts.
A service account has been created in GCP based on the Vault role name edu-app-key.
Click the vaultedu-app-key123456789@... service account and click the KEYS tab.
The key ID associated with the service account key you created will be listed.
Wait two minutes and refresh the page. They key ID is no longer listed because the TTL was set to two minutes and the key was revoked.

Manage leases

Service token eases can be renewed or revoked by either the requesting application or by a Vault admin.

Note

OAuth tokens are not managed by Vault after creation; therefore, this step is applicable to only the service account key. Please refer to the help and reference section for more information.

Renew an existing lease

Depending on the secrets engine configuration, leases can be renewed for a service account key up to the max_ttl defined in the configuration. When you configured the GCP secrets engine you defined a default ttl of 2m and a max_ttl of 10m. This means you can renew the lease for up to a total of 10 minutes.

Read the edu-app roleset to generate a new key.

$ vault read gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key

Key                 Value
---                 -----
lease_id            gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/ra4SvjyYlp9udTrkCBnsK3Ky.RfmoS
lease_duration      2m
lease_renewable     true
key_algorithm       KEY_ALG_RSA_2048
key_type            TYPE_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_FILE
private_key_data    ewogICJ0eXBlIjogInNlcnZpY2VfY...snip...dmF0ZV9rZXlfaWQiOiAiMWIyNzViOG

Copy the lease_id and lookup details about the lease.

$ vault lease lookup <actual-lease-id>

Key             Value
---             -----
expire_time     2023-03-01T20:00:55.521919304Z
id              gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/lJEjjNlYemVHs3TGpGqB4bfT.xET7e
issue_time      2023-03-01T19:58:55.521918994Z
last_renewal    <nil>
renewable       true
ttl             1m48s

The ttl will be some value less than 2 minutes.

Renew the lease.

$ vault lease renew gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/<actual-lease-id>

Key                Value
---                -----
lease_id           gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/lJEjjNlYemVHs3TGpGqB4bfT.xET7e
lease_duration     2m
lease_renewable    true

The lease duration is reset to 2 minutes.

The lease can be renewed up to the max_ttl value. Once the max_ttl is reached, you will receive a message that the TTL has been capped.

WARNING! The following warnings were returned from Vault:

* TTL of "2m" exceeded the effective max_ttl of "1m46s"; TTL value is capped
accordingly

The lease will expire once the max_ttl has been reached and can no longer be renewed.

Revoke a lease

When an application has completed the process that requires a service account key, the lease can be revoked before the TTL has expired. This is espcially useful with GCP service account keys which allow a maximum of 10 keys per service account. In large environments with multiple applications, the maxiumum number keys could be reached quickly.

Read the edu-app-key roleset to generate a new key.

$ vault read gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key

Key                 Value
---                 -----
lease_id            gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/ra4SvjyYlp9udTrkCBnsK3Ky.RfmoS
lease_duration      2m
lease_renewable     true
key_algorithm       KEY_ALG_RSA_2048
key_type            TYPE_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_FILE
private_key_data    ewogICJ0eXBlIjogInNlcnZpY2VfY...snip...dmF0ZV9rZXlfaWQiOiAiMWIyNzViOG

Copy the lease_id and lookup details about the lease.

$ vault lease lookup <actual-lease-id>

Key             Value
---             -----
expire_time     2023-03-01T20:00:55.521919304Z
id              gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/lJEjjNlYemVHs3TGpGqB4bfT.xET7e
issue_time      2023-03-01T19:58:55.521918994Z
last_renewal    <nil>
renewable       true
ttl             1m48s

The ttl will be some value less than 2 minutes.

Use the lease_id to revoke the lease early.

$ vault lease revoke <actual-lease-id>

All revocation operations queued successfully!

Attempt to look up the lease again.

$ vault lease lookup <actual-lease-id>

Example output:

error looking up lease id gcp/roleset/edu-app-key/key/sghVz5UYVCDF4wuERLQqVyD3.xET7e: Error making API request.

Namespace: admin/
URL: PUT https://vault-cluster2-public-vault-3819696e.d70ca1bc.z1.hashicorp.cloud:8200/v1/sys/leases/lookup
Code: 400. Errors:

* invalid lease

The lease ID is now invalid.

Help and reference

Rotate Azure auth method creds with Vault

Next Collection

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