Skip to main content

Managing Compliance Operator result and remediation

You can review compliance scan results and apply remediations to resolve failing rules. Remediations are not applied automatically, so you can verify each change before applying it to your cluster.

warning

Full remediation for Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance requires enabling FIPS mode for the cluster. To enable FIPS mode, you must run the installation program from a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) computer configured to operate in FIPS mode. For more information about configuring FIPS mode on RHEL, see Installing the system in FIPS mode.

FIPS mode is supported on the following architectures:

  • x86_64
  • ppc64le
  • s390x

Filters for compliance check results​

You can use the labels in the ComplianceCheckResult objects to query the checks and decide on the next steps after the results are generated.

List checks that belong to a specific suite:

$ oc get -n openshift-compliance compliancecheckresults \
  -l compliance.openshift.io/suite=workers-compliancesuite

List checks that belong to a specific scan:

$ oc get -n openshift-compliance compliancecheckresults \
-l compliance.openshift.io/scan-name=workers-scan

Not all ComplianceCheckResult objects create ComplianceRemediation objects. Only ComplianceCheckResult objects that can be remediated automatically do. A ComplianceCheckResult object has a related remediation if it is labeled with the compliance.openshift.io/automated-remediation label. The name of the remediation is the same as the name of the check.

List all failing checks that can be remediated automatically:

$ oc get -n openshift-compliance compliancecheckresults \
-l 'compliance.openshift.io/check-status=FAIL,compliance.openshift.io/automated-remediation'

List all failing checks sorted by severity:

$ oc get compliancecheckresults -n openshift-compliance \
-l 'compliance.openshift.io/check-status=FAIL,compliance.openshift.io/check-severity=high'
Example output
NAME                                                           STATUS   SEVERITY
nist-moderate-modified-master-configure-crypto-policy          FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-master-coreos-pti-kernel-argument       FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-master-disable-ctrlaltdel-burstaction   FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-master-disable-ctrlaltdel-reboot        FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-master-enable-fips-mode                 FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-master-no-empty-passwords               FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-master-selinux-state                    FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-worker-configure-crypto-policy          FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-worker-coreos-pti-kernel-argument       FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-worker-disable-ctrlaltdel-burstaction   FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-worker-disable-ctrlaltdel-reboot        FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-worker-enable-fips-mode                 FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-worker-no-empty-passwords               FAIL     high
nist-moderate-modified-worker-selinux-state                    FAIL     high
ocp4-moderate-configure-network-policies-namespaces            FAIL     high
ocp4-moderate-fips-mode-enabled-on-all-nodes                   FAIL     high

List all failing checks that must be remediated manually:

$ oc get -n openshift-compliance compliancecheckresults \
-l 'compliance.openshift.io/check-status=FAIL,!compliance.openshift.io/automated-remediation'

The manual remediation steps are typically stored in the description attribute in the ComplianceCheckResult object.

ComplianceCheckResult Status

ComplianceCheckResult StatusDescription
PASSCompliance check ran to completion and passed.
FAILCompliance check ran to completion and failed.
INFOCompliance check ran to completion and found something not severe enough to be considered an error.
MANUALCompliance check does not have a way to automatically assess the success or failure and must be checked manually.
INCONSISTENTCompliance check reports different results from different sources, typically cluster nodes.
ERRORCompliance check ran, but could not complete properly.
NOT-APPLICABLECompliance check did not run because it is not applicable or not selected.

Review a remediation​

You can review a ComplianceRemediation object and the ComplianceCheckResult object to understand what a check verifies, its severity and security controls, and how the remediation fixes the issue. After the first scan, check for remediations with the state MissingDependencies.

The ComplianceCheckResult object includes human-readable descriptions of what the check does and what security hardening it enforces.

The remediation payload is stored in the spec.current attribute. The payload can be any Kubernetes object, but because this remediation was produced by a node scan, the remediation payload in the following example is a MachineConfig object. For Platform scans, the remediation payload is often a different kind of an object (for example, a ConfigMap or Secret object). Typically, applying that remediation is up to the administrator. Otherwise, the Compliance Operator would have required a very broad set of permissions to manipulate any generic Kubernetes object. An example of remediating a Platform check is provided later in the text.

To see exactly what the remediation does when applied, the MachineConfig object contents use the Ignition objects for the configuration. See the link to "Ignition specification" in Additional resources for further information about the format. In the following example, the spec.config.storage.files[0].path attribute specifies the file that is being created by this remediation (/etc/sysctl.d/75-sysctl_net_ipv4_conf_all_accept_redirects.conf) and the spec.config.storage.files[0].contents.source attribute specifies the contents of that file.

Procedure

  1. Review the example of a check and a remediation called sysctl-net-ipv4-conf-all-accept-redirects. This example is redacted to only show spec and status and omits metadata:

    spec:
      apply: false
      current:
      object:
        apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
        kind: MachineConfig
        spec:
          config:
            ignition:
              version: 3.2.0
            storage:
              files:
                - path: /etc/sysctl.d/75-sysctl_net_ipv4_conf_all_accept_redirects.conf
                  mode: 0644
                  contents:
                    source: data:,net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects%3D0
      outdated: {}
    status:
      applicationState: NotApplied

  2. Use the following Python script to view the contents:

    note

    The contents of the files are URL-encoded.

    $ echo "net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects%3D0" | python3 -c "import sys, urllib.parse; print(urllib.parse.unquote(''.join(sys.stdin.readlines())))"
    Example output
    net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects=0
    warning

    The Compliance Operator does not automatically resolve dependency issues that can occur between remediations. Users should perform a rescan after remediations are applied to ensure accurate results.

Apply remediation when using customized machine config pools​

When you create a custom MachineConfigPool, add a label to the MachineConfigPool so that machineConfigPoolSelector present in the KubeletConfig can match the label with MachineConfigPool.

warning

Do not set protectKernelDefaults: false in the KubeletConfig file, because the MachineConfigPool object might fail to unpause unexpectedly after the Compliance Operator finishes applying remediation.

Procedure

  1. List the nodes.

    $ oc get nodes -n openshift-compliance
    Example output
    NAME                                       STATUS  ROLES  AGE    VERSION
    ip-10-0-128-92.us-east-2.compute.internal  Ready   master 5h21m  v1.35.4
    ip-10-0-158-32.us-east-2.compute.internal  Ready   worker 5h17m  v1.35.4
    ip-10-0-166-81.us-east-2.compute.internal  Ready   worker 5h17m  v1.35.4
    ip-10-0-171-170.us-east-2.compute.internal Ready   master 5h21m  v1.35.4
    ip-10-0-197-35.us-east-2.compute.internal  Ready   master 5h22m  v1.35.4

  2. Add a label to nodes.

    $ oc -n openshift-compliance \
    label node ip-10-0-166-81.us-east-2.compute.internal \
    node-role.kubernetes.io/<machine_config_pool_name>=
    Example output
    node/ip-10-0-166-81.us-east-2.compute.internal labeled

  3. Create custom MachineConfigPool CR.

    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    kind: MachineConfigPool
    metadata:
      name: <machine_config_pool_name>
      labels:
        pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/<machine_config_pool_name>: ''
    spec:
      machineConfigSelector:
      matchExpressions:
      - {key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role, operator: In, values: [worker,<machine_config_pool_name>]}
      nodeSelector:
      matchLabels:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/<machine_config_pool_name>: ""

    where:

    metadata.labels.pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/<machine_config_pool_name>
    The labels field defines the label name to add for the machine config pool (MCP).

  4. Verify MCP created successfully.

    $ oc get mcp -w

Evaluate KubeletConfig rules against default configuration values​

The Compliance Operator uses the Node/Proxy API to evaluate KubeletConfig object rules against actual node configurations, preventing inaccurate results caused by incomplete configuration files and default values for missing options.

OpenShift Container Platform infrastructure might contain incomplete configuration files at run time, and nodes assume default configuration values for missing configuration options. Some configuration options can be passed as command-line arguments. As a result, the Compliance Operator cannot verify if the configuration file on the node is complete because it might be missing options used in the rule checks.

To prevent false negative results where the default configuration value passes a check, the Compliance Operator uses the Node/Proxy API to fetch the configuration for each node in a node pool, then all configuration options that are consistent across nodes in the node pool are stored in a file that represents the configuration for all nodes within that node pool. This increases the accuracy of the scan results.

No additional configuration changes are required to use this feature with default master and worker node pools configurations.

Scan custom node pools​

The Compliance Operator does not maintain a copy of each node pool configuration.

The Compliance Operator aggregates consistent configuration options for all nodes within a single node pool into one copy of the configuration file. The Compliance Operator then uses the configuration file for a particular node pool to evaluate rules against nodes within that pool.

Procedure

  1. Add the example role to the ScanSetting object that will be stored in the ScanSettingBinding CR: 
    apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    kind: ScanSetting
    metadata:
      name: default
      namespace: openshift-compliance
    rawResultStorage:
      rotation: 3
      size: 1Gi
    roles:
    - worker
    - master
    - example
    scanTolerations:
    - effect: NoSchedule
      key: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
      operator: Exists
    schedule: '0 1 * * *'
  2. Create a scan that uses the ScanSettingBinding CR: 
    apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    kind: ScanSettingBinding
    metadata:
      name: cis
      namespace: openshift-compliance
    profiles:
    - apiGroup: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
      kind: Profile
      name: ocp4-cis
    - apiGroup: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
      kind: Profile
      name: ocp4-cis-node
    settingsRef:
      apiGroup: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
      kind: ScanSetting
      name: default

Verification

  • The Platform KubeletConfig rules are checked through the Node/Proxy object. You can find those rules by running the following command: 
    $ oc get rules -o json | jq '.items[] | select(.checkType == "Platform") | select(.metadata.name | contains("ocp4-kubelet-")) | .metadata.name'

Remediate KubeletConfig sub pools​

You can apply KubeletConfig remediation labels to MachineConfigPool sub-pools.

Procedure

  • Add a label to the sub-pool MachineConfigPool CR: 
    $ oc label mcp <sub-pool-name> pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/<sub-pool-name>=

Apply a remediation​

The boolean attribute spec.apply controls whether the remediation should be applied by the Compliance Operator. You can apply the remediation by setting the attribute to true.

Procedure

  1. Apply the remediation by setting the attribute to true:

    $ oc -n openshift-compliance \
    patch complianceremediations/<scan-name>-sysctl-net-ipv4-conf-all-accept-redirects \
    --patch '{"spec":{"apply":true}}' --type=merge

    After the Compliance Operator processes the applied remediation, the status.ApplicationState attribute would change to Applied or to Error if incorrect. When a machine config remediation is applied, that remediation along with all other applied remediations are rendered into a MachineConfig object named 75-$scan-name-$suite-name. That MachineConfig object is subsequently rendered by the Machine Config Operator and finally applied to all the nodes in a machine config pool by an instance of the machine control daemon running on each node.

    Note that when the Machine Config Operator applies a new MachineConfig object to nodes in a pool, all the nodes belonging to the pool are rebooted. This might be inconvenient when applying multiple remediations, each of which re-renders the composite 75-$scan-name-$suite-name MachineConfig object. To prevent applying the remediation immediately, you can pause the machine config pool by setting the .spec.paused attribute of a MachineConfigPool object to true.

  2. Optionally, the Compliance Operator can apply remediations automatically. Set autoApplyRemediations: true in the ScanSetting top-level object.

    warning

    Applying remediations automatically should only be done with careful consideration.

    warning

    The Compliance Operator does not automatically resolve dependency issues that can occur between remediations. Users should perform a rescan after remediations are applied to ensure accurate results.

Remediate a platform check manually​

You must manually remediate checks from Platform scans so you can fix findings that the Compliance Operator cannot apply automatically.

Manual remediations are necessary for the following reasons:

  • It is not always possible to automatically determine the value that must be set. One of the checks requires that a list of allowed registries is provided, but the scanner has no way of knowing which registries the organization wants to allow.
  • Different checks modify different API objects, requiring automated remediation to possess root or superuser access to modify objects in the cluster, which is not advised.

Procedure

  1. The example below uses the ocp4-ocp-allowed-registries-for-import rule, which would fail on a default OpenShift Container Platform installation. Inspect the rule oc get rule.compliance/ocp4-ocp-allowed-registries-for-import -oyaml, the rule is to limit the registries the users are allowed to import images from by setting the allowedRegistriesForImport attribute, The warning attribute of the rule also shows the API object checked, so it can be modified and remediate the issue:

    $ oc edit image.config.openshift.io/cluster
    Example output
    apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
    kind: Image
    metadata:
      annotations:
        release.openshift.io/create-only: "true"
      creationTimestamp: "2020-09-10T10:12:54Z"
      generation: 2
      name: cluster
      resourceVersion: "363096"
      selfLink: /apis/config.openshift.io/v1/images/cluster
      uid: 2dcb614e-2f8a-4a23-ba9a-8e33cd0ff77e
    spec:
      allowedRegistriesForImport:
      - domainName: registry.redhat.io
    status:
      externalRegistryHostnames:
      - default-route-openshift-image-registry.apps.user-cluster-09-10-12-07.devcluster.openshift.com
      internalRegistryHostname: image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000

  2. Re-run the scan:

    $ oc -n openshift-compliance \
    annotate compliancescans/rhcos4-e8-worker compliance.openshift.io/rescan=

Update remediations​

When you update compliance content to a newer version, the Compliance Operator marks previously applied remediations as Outdated. Review these remediations and apply the updated versions to ensure your nodes use the latest configuration.

The previously applied remediation contents would then be stored in the spec.outdated attribute of a ComplianceRemediation object and the new updated contents would be stored in the spec.current attribute. After updating the content to a newer version, the administrator then needs to review the remediation. If the spec.outdated attribute exists, it would be used to render the resulting MachineConfig object. After the spec.outdated attribute is removed, the Compliance Operator re-renders the resulting MachineConfig object, which causes the Operator to push the configuration to the nodes.

warning

The Compliance Operator does not automatically resolve dependency issues that can occur between remediations. Users should perform a rescan after remediations are applied to ensure accurate results.

Procedure

  1. Search for any outdated remediations:

    $ oc -n openshift-compliance get complianceremediations \
    -l complianceoperator.openshift.io/outdated-remediation=
    Example output
    NAME                              STATE
    workers-scan-no-empty-passwords   Outdated
    note

    The currently applied remediation is stored in the Outdated attribute and the new, unapplied remediation is stored in the Current attribute. If you are satisfied with the new version, remove the Outdated field. If you want to keep the updated content, remove the Current and Outdated attributes.

  2. Apply the newer version of the remediation:

    $ oc -n openshift-compliance patch complianceremediations workers-scan-no-empty-passwords \
    --type json -p '[{"op":"remove", "path":/spec/outdated}]'

  3. The remediation state will switch from Outdated to Applied:

    $ oc get -n openshift-compliance complianceremediations workers-scan-no-empty-passwords
    Example output
    NAME                              STATE
    workers-scan-no-empty-passwords   Applied

  4. Verify that the nodes apply the newer remediation version and reboot.

Unapply a remediation​

You can unapply a remediation that was previously applied to roll back a change when you need to revert it.

warning

The Compliance Operator does not automatically resolve dependency issues that can occur between remediations. Users should perform a rescan after remediations are applied to ensure accurate results.

Procedure

  1. Set the apply flag to false:

    $ oc -n openshift-compliance \
    patch complianceremediations/rhcos4-moderate-worker-sysctl-net-ipv4-conf-all-accept-redirects \
    --patch '{"spec":{"apply":false}}' --type=merge

  2. Verify that the remediation status has changed to NotApplied and the composite MachineConfig object is re-rendered to not include the remediation.

    warning

    All affected nodes with the remediation will be rebooted.

Remove a KubeletConfig remediation​

KubeletConfig remediations are included in node-level profiles. To remove a KubeletConfig remediation, you must manually remove it from the KubeletConfig objects.

Procedure

  1. Locate the scan-name and compliance check for the one-rule-tp-node-master-kubelet-eviction-thresholds-set-hard-imagefs-available remediation:

    $ oc -n openshift-compliance get remediation \ one-rule-tp-node-master-kubelet-eviction-thresholds-set-hard-imagefs-available -o yaml
    Example output
    apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    kind: ComplianceRemediation
    metadata:
      annotations:
        compliance.openshift.io/xccdf-value-used: var-kubelet-evictionhard-imagefs-available
      creationTimestamp: "2022-01-05T19:52:27Z"
      generation: 1
      labels:
        compliance.openshift.io/scan-name: one-rule-tp-node-master
        compliance.openshift.io/suite: one-rule-ssb-node
      name: one-rule-tp-node-master-kubelet-eviction-thresholds-set-hard-imagefs-available
      namespace: openshift-compliance
      ownerReferences:
      - apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
        blockOwnerDeletion: true
        controller: true
        kind: ComplianceCheckResult
        name: one-rule-tp-node-master-kubelet-eviction-thresholds-set-hard-imagefs-available
        uid: fe8e1577-9060-4c59-95b2-3e2c51709adc
      resourceVersion: "84820"
      uid: 5339d21a-24d7-40cb-84d2-7a2ebb015355
    spec:
      apply: true
      current:
        object:
          apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
          kind: KubeletConfig
          spec:
            kubeletConfig:
              evictionHard:
                imagefs.available: 10%
      outdated: {}
      type: Configuration
    status:
      applicationState: Applied

    where:

    • metadata.labels.compliance.openshift.io/scan-name specifies the scan name of the remediation.

    • spec.current.object.spec.kubeletConfig.evictionHard.imagefs.available specifies the remediation that was added to the KubeletConfig objects.

      note

      If the remediation invokes an evictionHard kubelet configuration, you must specify all of the evictionHard parameters: memory.available, nodefs.available, nodefs.inodesFree, imagefs.available, and imagefs.inodesFree. If you do not specify all parameters, only the specified parameters are applied and the remediation will not function properly.

  2. Remove the remediation:

    1. Set apply to false for the remediation object:

      $ oc -n openshift-compliance patch \
      complianceremediations/one-rule-tp-node-master-kubelet-eviction-thresholds-set-hard-imagefs-available \
      -p '{"spec":{"apply":false}}' --type=merge

    2. Using the scan-name, find the KubeletConfig object that the remediation was applied to:

      $ oc -n openshift-compliance get kubeletconfig \
      --selector compliance.openshift.io/scan-name=one-rule-tp-node-master
      Example output
      NAME                                 AGE
      compliance-operator-kubelet-master   2m34s

    3. Manually remove the remediation, imagefs.available: 10%, from the KubeletConfig object:

      $ oc edit -n openshift-compliance KubeletConfig compliance-operator-kubelet-master
      warning

      All affected nodes with the remediation will be rebooted.

      note

      You must also exclude the rule from any scheduled scans in your tailored profiles that auto-applies the remediation, otherwise, the remediation will be re-applied during the next scheduled scan.

Inconsistent ComplianceScan​

The ScanSetting object lists the node roles that the compliance scans generated from the ScanSetting or ScanSettingBinding objects would scan. Each node role usually maps to a machine config pool.

warning

All machines in a machine config pool are expected to be identical and all scan results from the nodes in a pool should be identical.

If a compliance scan results in an INCONSISTENT result, re-run the compliance scan to get a consistent result by annotating the scan with the compliance.openshift.io/rescan= option.

The ScanSetting object lists the node roles that the compliance scans generated from the ScanSetting or ScanSettingBinding objects would scan. Each node role usually maps to a machine config pool.

Because the number of machines in a pool might be quite large, the Compliance Operator attempts to find the most common state and list the nodes that differ from the common state. The most common state is stored in the compliance.openshift.io/most-common-status annotation and the annotation compliance.openshift.io/inconsistent-source contains pairs of hostname:status of check statuses that differ from the most common status. If no common state can be found, all the hostname:status pairs are listed in the compliance.openshift.io/inconsistent-source annotation.

If possible, a remediation is still created so that the cluster can converge to a compliant status. However, this might not always be possible and correcting the difference between nodes must be done manually.

Procedure

  • Re-run the compliance scan to get a consistent result by annotating the scan with the compliance.openshift.io/rescan= option: 
    $ oc -n openshift-compliance \
    annotate compliancescans/rhcos4-e8-worker compliance.openshift.io/rescan=

Additional resources