Securing routes

To secure application traffic, you can configure routes to serve custom certificates to clients by using edge, passthrough, or re-encrypt TLS termination, aand manage externally provided certificates. Additionally, you can enforce strict security protocols by securing a route with HTTP strict transport security (HSTS).

Creating an edge route with a custom certificate

To secure traffic by using a custom certificate, configure a route with edge TLS termination by running the oc create route command. This configuration terminates encryption at the Ingress Controller before forwarding traffic to the destination pod.

The route specifies the TLS certificate and key that the Ingress Controller uses for the route.

The procedure creates a Route resource with a custom certificate and edge TLS termination. The procedure assumes that the certificate/key pair are in the tls.crt and tls.key files in the current working directory. You may also specify a CA certificate if needed to complete the certificate chain. Substitute the actual path names for tls.crt, tls.key, and (optionally) ca.crt. Substitute the name of the service that you want to expose for frontend. Substitute the appropriate hostname for www.example.com.

Prerequisites

You must have a certificate/key pair in PEM-encoded files, where the certificate is valid for the route host.
You might have a separate CA certificate in a PEM-encoded file that completes the certificate chain.
You must have a service that you want to expose.

Note

Password protected key files are not supported. To remove a passphrase from a key file, use the following command:

terminal

$ openssl rsa -in password_protected_tls.key -out tls.key

Procedure

Create a secure Route resource using edge TLS termination and a custom certificate.

terminal

$ oc create route edge --service=frontend --cert=tls.crt --key=tls.key --ca-cert=ca.crt --hostname=www.example.com

If you examine the resulting Route resource, the resource should have a configuration similar to the following example:

YAML Definition of the Secure Route

apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
kind: Route
metadata:
  name: frontend
spec:
  host: www.example.com
  to:
    kind: Service
    name: frontend
  tls:
    termination: edge
    key: |-
      -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
      [...]
      -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
    certificate: |-
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      [...]
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    caCertificate: |-
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      [...]
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
# ...

See oc create route edge --help for more options.

Creating a re-encrypt route with a custom certificate

To secure traffic by using a custom certificate, configure a route with re-encrypt TLS termination by running the oc create route command. This configuration enables the Ingress Controller to decrypt traffic, and then re-encrypt traffic before forwarding the traffic to the destination pod.

The procedure creates a Route resource with a custom certificate and reencrypt TLS termination. The procedure assumes that the certificate/key pair are in the tls.crt and tls.key files in the current working directory. You must also specify a destination CA certificate to enable the Ingress Controller to trust the service’s certificate. You may also specify a CA certificate if needed to complete the certificate chain. Substitute the actual path names for tls.crt, tls.key, cacert.crt, and (optionally) ca.crt. Substitute the name of the Service resource that you want to expose for frontend. Substitute the appropriate hostname for www.example.com.

Prerequisites

You must have a certificate/key pair in PEM-encoded files, where the certificate is valid for the route host.
You may have a separate CA certificate in a PEM-encoded file that completes the certificate chain.
You must have a separate destination CA certificate in a PEM-encoded file.
You must have a service that you want to expose.

Note

Password protected key files are not supported. To remove a passphrase from a key file, use the following command:

terminal

$ openssl rsa -in password_protected_tls.key -out tls.key

Procedure

Create a secure Route resource using reencrypt TLS termination and a custom certificate:

terminal

$ oc create route reencrypt --service=frontend --cert=tls.crt --key=tls.key --dest-ca-cert=destca.crt --ca-cert=ca.crt --hostname=www.example.com

If you examine the resulting Route resource, the resource should have a configuration similar to the following example:

YAML Definition of the Secure Route

apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
kind: Route
metadata:
  name: frontend
spec:
  host: www.example.com
  to:
    kind: Service
    name: frontend
  tls:
    termination: reencrypt
    key: |-
      -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
      [...]
      -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
    certificate: |-
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      [...]
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    caCertificate: |-
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      [...]
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    destinationCACertificate: |-
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      [...]
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
# ...

See oc create route reencrypt --help for more options.

Creating a passthrough route

To send encrypted traffic directly to the destination without decryption at the router, configure a route with passthrough termination by running the oc create route command. This configuration requires no key or certificate on the route, as the destination pod handles TLS termination.

Prerequisites

You must have a service that you want to expose.

Procedure

Create a Route resource:
terminal
```
$ oc create route passthrough route-passthrough-secured --service=frontend --port=8080
```
If you examine the resulting Route resource, it should look similar to the following:
A Secured Route Using Passthrough Termination
```
apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
kind: Route
metadata:
  name: route-passthrough-secured
spec:
  host: www.example.com
  port:
    targetPort: 8080
  tls:
    termination: passthrough
    insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy: None
  to:
    kind: Service
    name: frontend
```
where:
metadata.name
Specifies the name of the object, which is limited to 63 characters.
tls.termination
Specifies the termination field is set to passthrough. This is the only required tls field.
tls.insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy
Specifies the type of edge termination policy. Optional parameter. The only valid values are None, Redirect, or empty for disabled. The destination pod is responsible for serving certificates for the traffic at the endpoint. This is currently the only method that can support requiring client certificates, also known as two-way authentication.

Creating a route with externally managed certificates

You can configure OpenShift Container Platform routes with third-party certificate management solutions by using the .spec.tls.externalCertificate field of the route API. You can reference externally managed TLS certificates via secrets, eliminating the need for manual certificate management.

By using the externally managed certificate, you can reduce errors to ensure a smoother rollout of certificate updates and enable the OpenShift Container Platform router to serve renewed certificates promptly. You can use externally managed certificates with both edge routes and re-encrypt routes.

Prerequisites

You must have a secret containing a valid certificate or key pair in PEM-encoded format of type kubernetes.io/tls, which includes both tls.key and tls.crt keys. Example command: $ oc create secret tls myapp-tls --cert=server.crt --key=server.key.
Important
Note the following considerations for externally managed certificates:
- When using externalCertificate, the router does not automatically pull a CA bundle from the secret. If your route requires a specific tls.caCertificate (for example, for client authentication or re-encryption), you must either provide it manually in the Route spec or bundle the full certificate chain directly into the tls.crt entry of the secret.
- The Ingress Controller uses SubjectAccessReview to load external certificates. This means the ability of the router to serve the certificate is tied to the route creator’s permissions on that secret. If the user’s permissions are revoked, the router will eventually lose its lease on that certificate, and the route status will reflect a validation failure.

Procedure

Create a role object in the same namespace as the secret to allow the router service account read access by running the following command:
terminal
```
$ oc create role secret-reader --verb=get,list,watch --resource=secrets --resource-name=<secret-name> \
--namespace=<current-namespace>
```
Where:
<secret-name>
Specifies the actual name of your secret.
<current-namespace>
Specifies the namespace where both your secret and route reside.
Create a rolebinding object in the same namespace as the secret and bind the router service account to the newly created role by running the following command:
terminal
```
$ oc create rolebinding secret-reader-binding --role=secret-reader --serviceaccount=openshift-ingress:router --namespace=<current-namespace>
```
Where:
<current-namespace>
Specifies the namespace where both your secret and route reside.

Create a YAML file that defines the route and specifies the secret containing your certificate using the following example.

YAML definition of the secure route

apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
kind: Route
metadata:
  name: myedge
  namespace: test
spec:
  host: myedge-test.apps.example.com
  tls:
    externalCertificate:
      name: <secret-name>
    termination: edge
    [...]
[...]

Where:

<secret-name>: Specifies the actual name of your secret.

Create a route resource by running the following command:
terminal
```
$ oc apply -f <route.yaml>
```
Where:
<route.yaml>
Specifies the generated YAML filename. If the secret exists and has a certificate/key pair, the router will serve the generated certificate if all prerequisites are met.
Note
If .spec.tls.externalCertificate is not provided, the router uses default generated certificates.
You cannot provide the .spec.tls.certificate field or the .spec.tls.key field when using the .spec.tls.externalCertificate field.

Troubleshooting

If your route is not serving the externally managed certificate, check the route’s status conditions by running the following command:

terminal

$ oc describe route <route-name> -n <route-namespace>

Look for the following specific failure reasons in the output to diagnose the issue without needing to consult the router logs:

ExternalCertificateGetFailed: Indicates an RBAC or SubjectAccessReview issue. Verify that the route creator has the correct permissions to read the secret and that the RoleBinding is properly configured.
ExternalCertificateValidationFailed: Indicates that the secret exists but is the wrong type. Ensure the secret was explicitly created as type kubernetes.io/tls and contains both the tls.key and tls.crt keys.

HTTP Strict Transport Security

To enhance security and optimize website performance, use the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) policy. This mechanism signals browsers to use only HTTPS traffic on the route host, eliminating the need for HTTP redirects and speeding up user interactions.

When HSTS policy is enforced, HSTS adds a Strict Transport Security header to HTTP and HTTPS responses from the site. You can use the insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy value in a route to redirect HTTP to HTTPS. When HSTS is enforced, the client changes all requests from the HTTP URL to HTTPS before the request is sent, eliminating the need for a redirect.

Cluster administrators can configure HSTS to do the following:

Enable HSTS per-route
Disable HSTS per-route
Enforce HSTS per-domain, for a set of domains, or use namespace labels in combination with domains

Important

HSTS works only with secure routes, either edge-terminated or re-encrypt. The configuration is ineffective on HTTP or passthrough routes.

Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security per-route

To enforce secure HTTPS connections for specific applications, enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) on a per-route basis. Applying the haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header annotation to edge and re-encrypt routes ensures that browsers reject unencrypted traffic.

Prerequisites

You are logged in to the cluster with a user with administrator privileges for the project.
You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

To enable HSTS on a route, add the haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header value to the edge-terminated or re-encrypt route. You can use the oc annotate tool to do this by running the following command. To properly run the command, ensure that the semicolon (;) in the haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header route annotation is also surrounded by double quotation marks ("").
Example annotate command that sets the maximum age to 31536000 ms (approximately 8.5 hours)
```
$ oc annotate route <route_name> -n <namespace> --overwrite=true "haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header=max-age=31536000;\
includeSubDomains;preload"
```
Example route configured with an annotation
```
apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
kind: Route
metadata:
  annotations:
    haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header: max-age=31536000;includeSubDomains;preload
# ...
spec:
  host: def.abc.com
  tls:
    termination: "reencrypt"
    ...
  wildcardPolicy: "Subdomain"
# ...
```
where:
max-age
Specifies the measurement of the length of time, in seconds, for the HSTS policy. If set to 0, it negates the policy.
includeSubDomains
Specifies that all subdomains of the host must have the same HSTS policy as the host. Optional parameter.
preload
Specifies that the site is included in the HSTS preload list when max-age is greater than 0. For example, sites such as Google can construct a list of sites that have preload set. Browsers can then use these lists to determine which sites they can communicate with over HTTPS, even before they have interacted with the site. Without preload set, browsers must have interacted with the site over HTTPS, at least once, to get the header. Optional parameter.

Disable HTTP Strict Transport Security per-route

To allow unencrypted connections or troubleshoot access issues, disable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) for a specific route. Setting the max-age route annotation to 0 instructs browsers to stop enforcing HTTPS requirements on the route host.

Prerequisites

You are logged in to the cluster with a user with administrator privileges for the project.
You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

To disable HSTS, enter the following to set the max-age value in the route annotation to 0:

terminal

$ oc annotate route <route_name> -n <namespace> --overwrite=true "haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header"="max-age=0"

Tip

You can alternatively apply the following YAML to create the config map for disabling HSTS per-route:

yaml

kind: Route
apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
metadata:
  annotations:
    haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header: max-age=0

To disable HSTS for every route in a namespace, enter the following command:

terminal

$ oc annotate route --all -n <namespace> --overwrite=true "haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header"="max-age=0"

Verification

To query the annotation for all routes, enter the following command:

terminal

$ oc get route  --all-namespaces -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if .metadata.annotations}}{{$a := index .metadata.annotations "haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header"}}{{$n := .metadata.name}}{{with $a}}Name: {{$n}} HSTS: {{$a}}{{"\n"}}{{else}}{{""}}{{end}}{{end}}{{end}}'

Example output

Name: routename HSTS: max-age=0

Enforcing HTTP Strict Transport Security per-domain

To enforce HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) per-domain for secure routes, add a requiredHSTSPolicies record to the Ingress spec to capture the configuration of the HSTS policy.

If you configure a requiredHSTSPolicy to enforce HSTS, then any newly created route must be configured with a compliant HSTS policy annotation.

Note

To handle upgraded clusters with non-compliant HSTS routes, you can update the manifests at the source and apply the updates.

Note

You cannot use oc expose route or oc create route commands to add a route in a domain that enforces HSTS, because the API for these commands does not accept annotations.

Important

HSTS cannot be applied to insecure, or non-TLS routes, even if HSTS is requested for all routes globally.

Prerequisites

You are logged in to the cluster with a user with administrator privileges for the project.
You installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

Edit the Ingress configuration YAML by running the following command and updating fields as needed:
terminal
```
$ oc edit ingresses.config.openshift.io/cluster
```
Example HSTS policy
```
apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  domain: 'hello-openshift-default.apps.username.devcluster.openshift.com'
  requiredHSTSPolicies: (1)
  - domainPatterns: (2)
    - '*hello-openshift-default.apps.username.devcluster.openshift.com'
    - '*hello-openshift-default2.apps.username.devcluster.openshift.com'
    namespaceSelector: (3)
      matchLabels:
        myPolicy: strict
    maxAge: (4)
      smallestMaxAge: 1
      largestMaxAge: 31536000
    preloadPolicy: RequirePreload (5)
    includeSubDomainsPolicy: RequireIncludeSubDomains (6)
  - domainPatterns:
    - 'abc.example.com'
    - '*xyz.example.com'
    namespaceSelector:
      matchLabels: {}
    maxAge: {}
    preloadPolicy: NoOpinion
    includeSubDomainsPolicy: RequireNoIncludeSubDomains
```
1. Required. requiredHSTSPolicies are validated in order, and the first matching domainPatterns applies.
2. Required. You must specify at least one domainPatterns hostname. Any number of domains can be listed. You can include multiple sections of enforcing options for different domainPatterns.
3. Optional. If you include namespaceSelector, it must match the labels of the project where the routes reside, to enforce the set HSTS policy on the routes. Routes that only match the namespaceSelector and not the domainPatterns are not validated.
4. Required. max-age measures the length of time, in seconds, that the HSTS policy is in effect. This policy setting allows for a smallest and largest max-age to be enforced.
  - The largestMaxAge value must be between 0 and 2147483647. It can be left unspecified, which means no upper limit is enforced.
  - The smallestMaxAge value must be between 0 and 2147483647. Enter 0 to disable HSTS for troubleshooting, otherwise enter 1 if you never want HSTS to be disabled. It can be left unspecified, which means no lower limit is enforced.
5. Optional. Including preload in haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header allows external services to include this site in their HSTS preload lists. Browsers can then use these lists to determine which sites they can communicate with over HTTPS, before they have interacted with the site. Without preload set, browsers need to interact at least once with the site to get the header. preload can be set with one of the following:
  - RequirePreload: preload is required by the RequiredHSTSPolicy.
  - RequireNoPreload: preload is forbidden by the RequiredHSTSPolicy.
  - NoOpinion: preload does not matter to the RequiredHSTSPolicy.
6. Optional. includeSubDomainsPolicy can be set with one of the following:
  - RequireIncludeSubDomains: includeSubDomains is required by the RequiredHSTSPolicy.
  - RequireNoIncludeSubDomains: includeSubDomains is forbidden by the RequiredHSTSPolicy.
  - NoOpinion: includeSubDomains does not matter to the RequiredHSTSPolicy.
You can apply HSTS to all routes in the cluster or in a particular namespace by entering the oc annotate command.
- To apply HSTS to all routes in the cluster, enter the oc annotate command. For example:
  terminal
```
$ oc annotate route --all --all-namespaces --overwrite=true "haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header"="max-age=31536000"
```
- To apply HSTS to all routes in a particular namespace, enter the oc annotate command. For example:
  terminal
```
$ oc annotate route --all -n my-namespace --overwrite=true "haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header"="max-age=31536000"
```

Verification

You can review the HSTS policy you configured. For example:

To review the maxAge set for required HSTS policies, enter the following command:

terminal

$ oc get clusteroperator/ingress -n openshift-ingress-operator -o jsonpath='{range .spec.requiredHSTSPolicies[*]}{.spec.requiredHSTSPolicies.maxAgePolicy.largestMaxAge}{"\n"}{end}'

To review the HSTS annotations on all routes, enter the following command:

terminal

$ oc get route  --all-namespaces -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if .metadata.annotations}}{{$a := index .metadata.annotations "haproxy.router.openshift.io/hsts_header"}}{{$n := .metadata.name}}{{with $a}}Name: {{$n}} HSTS: {{$a}}{{"\n"}}{{else}}{{""}}{{end}}{{end}}{{end}}'

Example output

Name: <_routename_> HSTS: max-age=31536000;preload;includeSubDomains

Securing routes¶

Creating an edge route with a custom certificate¶

Creating a re-encrypt route with a custom certificate¶

Creating a passthrough route¶

Creating a route with externally managed certificates¶

HTTP Strict Transport Security¶

Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security per-route¶

Disable HTTP Strict Transport Security per-route¶

Enforcing HTTP Strict Transport Security per-domain¶

Securing routes

Creating an edge route with a custom certificate

Creating a re-encrypt route with a custom certificate

Creating a passthrough route

Creating a route with externally managed certificates

HTTP Strict Transport Security

Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security per-route

Disable HTTP Strict Transport Security per-route

Enforcing HTTP Strict Transport Security per-domain