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Understanding the Compliance Operator

The Compliance Operator evaluates your OpenShift Container Platform cluster against compliance benchmarks and identifies gaps so you can remediate them. The Operator uses profiles that target platform components, node configurations, or both depending on the compliance standard you need to meet.

The Compliance Operator lets OpenShift Container Platform administrators describe the required compliance state of a cluster and provides them with an overview of gaps and ways to remediate them. The Compliance Operator assesses compliance of both the Kubernetes API resources of OpenShift Container Platform, and the nodes running the cluster. The Compliance Operator uses OpenSCAP, a NIST-certified tool, to scan and enforce security policies provided by the content.

warning

The Compliance Operator is available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) deployments only.

Compliance Operator profiles​

There are several profiles available as part of the Compliance Operator installation. You can use the oc get command to view available profiles, profile details, and specific rules.

  • View the available profiles:

    $ oc get profile.compliance -n openshift-compliance
    Example output
    NAME                       AGE     VERSION
    ocp4-cis                   3h49m   1.9.0
    ocp4-cis-1-9               3h49m   1.9.0
    ocp4-cis-node              3h49m   1.9.0
    ocp4-cis-node-1-9          3h49m   1.9.0
    ocp4-e8                    3h49m
    ocp4-high                  3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-high-node             3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-high-node-rev-4       3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-high-rev-4            3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-moderate              3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-moderate-node         3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-moderate-node-rev-4   3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-moderate-rev-4        3h49m   Revision 4
    ocp4-nerc-cip              3h49m
    ocp4-nerc-cip-node         3h49m
    ocp4-pci-dss               3h49m   4.0.0
    ocp4-pci-dss-3-2           3h49m   3.2.1
    ocp4-pci-dss-4-0           3h49m   4.0.0
    ocp4-pci-dss-node          3h49m   4.0.0
    ocp4-pci-dss-node-3-2      3h49m   3.2.1
    ocp4-pci-dss-node-4-0      3h49m   4.0.0
    ocp4-stig                  3h49m   V2R3
    ocp4-stig-node             3h49m   V2R3
    ocp4-stig-node-v2r3        3h49m   V2R3
    ocp4-stig-v2r3             3h49m   V2R3
    rhcos4-e8                  3h49m
    rhcos4-high                3h49m   Revision 4
    rhcos4-high-rev-4          3h49m   Revision 4
    rhcos4-moderate            3h49m   Revision 4
    rhcos4-moderate-rev-4      3h49m   Revision 4
    rhcos4-nerc-cip            3h49m
    rhcos4-stig                3h49m   V2R3
    rhcos4-stig-v2r3           3h49m   V2R3

    These profiles represent different compliance benchmarks. Each profile has the product name that it applies to added as a prefix to the name of the profile. ocp4-e8 applies the Essential 8 benchmark to the OpenShift Container Platform product, while rhcos4-e8 applies the Essential 8 benchmark to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) product.

  • Run the following command to view the details of the rhcos4-e8 profile:

    $ oc get -n openshift-compliance -oyaml profiles.compliance rhcos4-e8
    Example output
    apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    description: 'This profile contains configuration checks for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      CoreOS that align to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight.
      A copy of the Essential Eight in Linux Environments guide can be found at the ACSC
      website: https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/publications/hardening-linux-workstations-and-servers'
    id: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_e8
    kind: Profile
    metadata:
      annotations:
        compliance.openshift.io/image-digest: pb-rhcos4hrdkm
        compliance.openshift.io/product: redhat_enterprise_linux_coreos_4
        compliance.openshift.io/product-type: Node
      creationTimestamp: "2022-10-19T12:06:49Z"
      generation: 1
      labels:
        compliance.openshift.io/profile-bundle: rhcos4
      name: rhcos4-e8
      namespace: openshift-compliance
      ownerReferences:
      - apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
        blockOwnerDeletion: true
        controller: true
        kind: ProfileBundle
        name: rhcos4
        uid: 22350850-af4a-4f5c-9a42-5e7b68b82d7d
      resourceVersion: "43699"
      uid: 86353f70-28f7-40b4-bf0e-6289ec33675b
    rules:
    - rhcos4-accounts-no-uid-except-zero
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-dac-modification-chmod
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-dac-modification-chown
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-chcon
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-restorecon
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-semanage
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-setfiles
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-setsebool
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-seunshare
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-kernel-module-loading-delete
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-kernel-module-loading-finit
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-kernel-module-loading-init
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events-faillock
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events-lastlog
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events-tallylog
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-networkconfig-modification
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-sysadmin-actions
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-time-adjtimex
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-time-clock-settime
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-time-settimeofday
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-time-stime
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-time-watch-localtime
    - rhcos4-audit-rules-usergroup-modification
    - rhcos4-auditd-data-retention-flush
    - rhcos4-auditd-freq
    - rhcos4-auditd-local-events
    - rhcos4-auditd-log-format
    - rhcos4-auditd-name-format
    - rhcos4-auditd-write-logs
    - rhcos4-configure-crypto-policy
    - rhcos4-configure-ssh-crypto-policy
    - rhcos4-no-empty-passwords
    - rhcos4-selinux-policytype
    - rhcos4-selinux-state
    - rhcos4-service-auditd-enabled
    - rhcos4-sshd-disable-empty-passwords
    - rhcos4-sshd-disable-gssapi-auth
    - rhcos4-sshd-disable-rhosts
    - rhcos4-sshd-disable-root-login
    - rhcos4-sshd-disable-user-known-hosts
    - rhcos4-sshd-do-not-permit-user-env
    - rhcos4-sshd-enable-strictmodes
    - rhcos4-sshd-print-last-log
    - rhcos4-sshd-set-loglevel-info
    - rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-dmesg-restrict
    - rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-kptr-restrict
    - rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-randomize-va-space
    - rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-unprivileged-bpf-disabled
    - rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-yama-ptrace-scope
    - rhcos4-sysctl-net-core-bpf-jit-harden
    title: Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight

  • Run the following command to view the details of the rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events rule:

    $ oc get -n openshift-compliance -oyaml rules rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events
    Example output
    apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    checkType: Node
    description: |-
      The audit system already collects login information for all users and root. If the auditd daemon is configured to use the augenrules program to read audit rules during daemon startup (the default), add the following lines to a file with suffix.rules in the directory /etc/audit/rules.d in order to watch for attempted manual edits of files involved in storing logon events:

      -w /var/log/tallylog -p wa -k logins
      -w /var/run/faillock -p wa -k logins
      -w /var/log/lastlog -p wa -k logins

      If the auditd daemon is configured to use the auditctl utility to read audit rules during daemon startup, add the following lines to /etc/audit/audit.rules file in order to watch for unattempted manual edits of files involved in storing logon events:

      -w /var/log/tallylog -p wa -k logins
      -w /var/run/faillock -p wa -k logins
      -w /var/log/lastlog -p wa -k logins
    id: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_audit_rules_login_events
    kind: Rule
    metadata:
      annotations:
        compliance.openshift.io/image-digest: pb-rhcos4hrdkm
        compliance.openshift.io/rule: audit-rules-login-events
        control.compliance.openshift.io/NIST-800-53: AU-2(d);AU-12(c);AC-6(9);CM-6(a)
        control.compliance.openshift.io/PCI-DSS: Req-10.2.3
        policies.open-cluster-management.io/controls: AU-2(d),AU-12(c),AC-6(9),CM-6(a),Req-10.2.3
        policies.open-cluster-management.io/standards: NIST-800-53,PCI-DSS
      creationTimestamp: "2022-10-19T12:07:08Z"
      generation: 1
      labels:
        compliance.openshift.io/profile-bundle: rhcos4
      name: rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events
      namespace: openshift-compliance
      ownerReferences:
      - apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
        blockOwnerDeletion: true
        controller: true
        kind: ProfileBundle
        name: rhcos4
        uid: 22350850-af4a-4f5c-9a42-5e7b68b82d7d
      resourceVersion: "44819"
      uid: 75872f1f-3c93-40ca-a69d-44e5438824a4
    rationale: Manual editing of these files may indicate nefarious activity, such as
      an attacker attempting to remove evidence of an intrusion.
    severity: medium
    title: Record Attempts to Alter Logon and Logout Events
    warning: Manual editing of these files may indicate nefarious activity, such as an
      attacker attempting to remove evidence of an intrusion.

Compliance Operator profile types​

To assess both platform and node compliance for your required benchmarks, you can select from different Compliance Operator profile types.

Platform
Platform profiles evaluate your OpenShift Container Platform cluster components. For example, a Platform-level rule can confirm whether APIServer configurations are using strong encryption cyphers.
Node
Node profiles evaluate the OpenShift or RHCOS configuration of each host. You can use two node profiles: ocp4 node profiles and rhcos4 node profiles. The ocp4 node profiles evaluate the OpenShift configuration of each host. For example, they can confirm whether kubeconfig files have the correct permissions to meet a compliance standard. The rhcos4 node profiles evaluate the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) configuration of each host. For example, they can confirm whether the SSHD service is configured to disable password logins.
warning

For benchmarks that have Node and Platform profiles, such as PCI-DSS, you must run both profiles in your OpenShift Container Platform environment.

For benchmarks that have ocp4 Platform, ocp4 Node, and rhcos4 node profiles, such as FedRAMP High, you must run all three profiles in your OpenShift Container Platform environment.

note

In a cluster with many Nodes, both ocp4 Node and rhcos4 Node scans might take a long time to complete.

Additional resources