Security Considerations for the PACC

This section describes key considerations for using Docker containers with secure and non-secure clusters.

Secure Clusters

Docker containers, like other virtualization technologies, allow client access from user identities that are not controlled by central IT. As a result, these technologies can be problematic when used with clusters that are not secure (where trust is based on trusting the client). Therefore, HPE suggests that you use secure clusters with PACCs.

PACCs, and applications built from them, are launched with a ticket that contains the application's identity from the perspective of the cluster. On secure clusters, the user identity, user ID (UID), and group ID (GID) are specified in the ticket and passed to the file system for cluster communication. The ticket ensures that operations, such as authorization and auditing, are performed as the authenticated user. A different ticket should be created for each container that is launched. The user’s identity should be the identity of the user who accesses data.

All access from Docker containers to the cluster requires a ticket be present inside the container. Users or administrators should generate a ticket for each container prior to launch, and pass the ticket into the container at runtime. The ticket must be generated for the user that your applications access the cluster as. You should create a container user with the same MAPR_CONTAINER_USER, MAPR_CONTAINER_GROUP, MAPR_CONTAINER_GID, and MAPR_CONTAINER_UID runtime environment variables.

Always use service or user tickets, not impersonation tickets. The ticket type and lifetime should consider the lifetime of the application being deployed. Use of impersonation tickets may allow rogue applications running in containers to impersonate arbitrary users (including root or mapr) and gain access to any data in the cluster.

The ticket file location in the container is set with the MAPR_TICKETFILE_LOCATION environment variable, which is set at runtime for the user specified in MAPR_CONTAINER_USER. The ticket file must always be stored in /tmp. For example: /tmp/mapr_ticket.

In case of loss or breach, you can revoke tickets.

Non-Secure Clusters

On non-secure clusters, you can restrict access by running the application inside the container as a user with appropriate privileges on the cluster. This is controlled using runtime environment variables.
NOTE HPE recommends that you do not use either mapr or root users.
  • MAPR_CONTAINER_USER and MAPR_CONTAINER_UID specify:
    • The default user invoked when starting the container
    • The user that the user application inside the container will run as
  • MAPR_CONTAINER_GID represents the GID that the application inside the Docker container will run as
  • MAPR_CONTAINER_GROUP represents the group that the application inside the Docker container will run as

Related Information

For more information related to security topics discussed in this section, see: