--- title: Network policy configuration for cert-manager Operator --- # Network policy configuration for cert-manager Operator {#cert-manager-nw-policy} The cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift provides predefined `NetworkPolicy` resources to enhance security by controlling the ingress and egress traffic for its components. By default, this feature is disabled to prevent connectivity issues or breaking changes during an upgrade. To use this feature, you must enable it in the `CertManager` custom resource (CR). After enabling the default policies, you must manually configure additional egress rules to allow outbound traffic. These rules are required for cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift to communicate with external services beyond the API server and internal DNS. The examples of services that require custom egress rules include the following: - ACME servers, for example, Let’s Encrypt - DNS-01 challenge providers, for example, AWS Route53 or Cloudflare - External CAs, such as HashiCorp Vault > [!NOTE] > Network policies are expected to be enabled by default in a future release, which could cause connectivity failures during an upgrade. To prepare for this change, configure the required egress policies. ## Default ingress and egress rules {#cert-manager-nw-policy-rules_cert-manager-nw-policy} The default network policy applies the following ingress and egress rules to each component. | Component | Ingress ports | Egress ports | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `cert-manager` | 9402 | 6443, 5353 | Allows ingress traffic to metrics server and egress traffic to OpenShift API server. | | `cert-manager-webhook` | 9402, 10250 | 6443 | Allows ingress traffic to metrics and webhook servers, and egress traffic to OpenShift API server and internal DNS server. | | `cert-manager-cainjector` | 9402 | 6443 | Allows ingress traffic to metrics server and egress traffic to OpenShift API server. | | `istio-csr` | 6443, 9402 | 6443 | Allows ingress traffic to the gRPC Istio certificate request API, metrics servers and egress traffic to OpenShift API server. | ## Network policy configuration parameters {#cert-manager-nw-policy-params_cert-manager-nw-policy} You can enable and configure network policies for the cert-manager Operator components by updating the `CertManager` custom resource (CR). The CR includes the following parameters for enabling default network policies and defining custom egress rules.
Field Type Description
spec.defaultNetworkPolicy boolean Specifies whether to enable the default network policy for the cert-manager Operator components.
Important
Once you enable default network policies, you cannot disable them. This restriction prevents accidental security degradation. Before enabling this setting, ensure that you plan the network policy requirements.
spec.networkPolicies object Defines a list of custom network policy configuration. To apply the configuration, you must set spec.defaultNetworkPolicy to true.
spec.networkPolicies.componentName string Specifies the component that this network policy targets. The only valid value is CoreController.
spec.networkPolicies.egress object Defines the egress rules for the specified component. Set to {} to allow connections to all external providers.
spec.networkPolicies.egress.ports object Defines a list of network ports and protocols for the specified providers.
spec.networkPolicies.name string Specifies a unique name for the custom network policy, which is used to generate the NetworkPolicy resource name.
## Network policy configuration examples {#cert-manager-nw-policy-examples_cert-manager-nw-policy} To control traffic flow and enhance cluster security, enable network policies and custom rules for the cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift. To enable network policy and custom rules, see the following example: ```yaml apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1alpha1 kind: CertManager metadata: name: cluster spec: defaultNetworkPolicy: "true" ``` To allow egress access to all external issuer providers, see the following example: ```yaml apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1alpha1 kind: CertManager metadata: name: cluster spec: defaultNetworkPolicy: "true" networkPolicies: - name: allow-egress-to-all componentName: CoreController egress: - {} ``` To allow the cert-manager Operator controller to perform the ACME challenge self-check, see the following example. This process requires connections to the ACME provider, DNS API endpoints, and recursive DNS servers. ```yaml apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1alpha1 kind: CertManager metadata: name: cluster spec: defaultNetworkPolicy: "true" networkPolicies: - name: allow-egress-to-acme-server componentName: CoreController egress: - ports: - port: 80 protocol: TCP - port: 443 protocol: TCP - name: allow-egress-to-dns-service componentName: CoreController egress: - ports: - port: 53 protocol: UDP - port: 53 protocol: TCP ``` ## Verifying the network policy creation {#verifying-network-policy-creation_cert-manager-nw-policy} You can verify that the default and custom `NetworkPolicy` resources are created. **Prerequisites** - You have enabled network policy for cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift in the `CertManager` custom resource. **Procedure** - Verify the list of `NetworkPolicy` resources in the `cert-manager` namespace by running the following command: ```terminal $ oc get networkpolicy -n cert-manager ``` ```terminal {title="Example output"} NAME POD-SELECTOR AGE cert-manager-allow-egress-to-api-server app.kubernetes.io/instance=cert-manager 7s cert-manager-allow-egress-to-dns app=cert-manager 6s cert-manager-allow-ingress-to-metrics app.kubernetes.io/instance=cert-manager 7s cert-manager-allow-ingress-to-webhook app=webhook 6s cert-manager-deny-all app.kubernetes.io/instance=cert-manager 8s cert-manager-user-allow-egress-to-acme-server app=cert-manager 8s cert-manager-user-allow-egress-to-dns-service app=cert-manager 7s ``` The output lists the default policies and any custom policies that you created.