ox-break-glass

Precautions

This is sample code for a one-off tool, not an official product. As such, it is not supported, though issues will be addressed on a best-effort basis.

Background and design

To ensure quality and maintain trust, AppDev teams typically agree to safety procedures established by AppSec representatives. The most powerful of these blocks a build, with the intent of preventing a disaster (for example, inadvertent sharing of AWS keys publicly). Yet inevitably, situations arise that require emergency bypassing of established policies because the importance of getting a release out takes precedence over the risk to safety. The ability to bypass OX's safeguards can be controlled by creating an Exclusion.

The requirement is to not force the dev team to login to OX and instead use a familiar tools, their CI/CD pipeline and Slack, to create a temporary exemption, which then on a re-run of the build, allows it to proceed. This workflow delivers that.

Steps to install the app

1. clone this repo, cd into the ox-break-glass directory
2. make sure you've the necessary permissions by running slack auth list (reach out to your Slack admin if you don't have the proper permissions)
3. gather two tokens: an OX API Token from the Ox Dashboard & a Slack OAuth token with users.profile:read Bot Token Scope from a Slack app
4. run slack install from within the ox-break-glass directory and follow the prompts
5. run slack env add OX_API_KEY <your_api_key_here>
6. run slack env add SLACK_TOKEN <your_slack_xoxb*_token_here>
7. check that the environment variables were deployed with slack env list
8. run slack deploy to deploy the application
9. when prompted to Choose a trigger definition file accept the listed option (triggers/create_exclusion_trigger.ts)
10. you will then be provided a link to the Workflow which you should then copy and paste into an appropriately secured channel with only trained, authorized, and vetted members. The link will looks something like this: https://slack.com/shortcuts/Ft07661HPM0U/a30ad178a0227bd7d37c23274cb6a15f

Steps to use the workflow

1. create a Slack channel (i.e. Break Glass Workflow)
2. add the workflow link and pin that message to the channel for easy future access
3. use Start Workflow and enter in the "all issues" link from the OX output in your CI/CD platform

One option for retrieving the input (YAML scans):

Second option (GitHub App):

Third option (GitLab App):

Fourth option (BitBucket App):

4. check the output, which if successful will look something like this:

   Success! status: 200 response: {"data":{"excludeAlert":{"exclusions":[{"id":"6646e659d706ddad04646729",
   "issueName":"K8s container should not be privileged"}]}}}
   

5. check in Ox for a newly created Exclusion. The excluded by field should say [email protected] and the comments will have the Slack user's information. By default, the Exclusion has a hard coded 3 hour expiration.
6. if instead you see an error, follow the advice from it. Usually errors arise from malformed or previously used data

Here's a recording demonstrating how to use it:

Steps to debug

1. use slack run to create a locally running instance of the app
2. examine the output in the terminal where you ran slack run as you test the workflow/app
3. add console.log() statements as needed to the /functions/create_exclusion.ts

How the workflow & custom function were built

Follow this tutorial. You'll need to deviate slightly from their outdated instructions about custom inputs and use Forms instead. Add a form from the Steps area and then the rest should work.

Steps to uninstall the app

1. from the app's directory, run slack uninstall
2. to fully remove, run slack delete

You may need to remove the app from both the Deployed and Local environments

Historical info

Outdated given added workflow and trigger features but keeping for historical reasons...

Workflow details

Here's a screenshot of the workflow's form:

The custom Create Exclusion step is the key here that links the workflow to the code in the /functions/create_exclusion.ts file. You'll also need to add your OX_API_KEY and create a channel to run the workflow within.

Steps to create the workflow

1. from Slack -> ... More, choose Automations -> Workflow builder -> Create Workflow
2. start from scratch and select From a link in Slack
3. collect info from a form (the All Issues link)
4. use the "Custom Step" to select the ox-break-glass app and use the Create Exclusion function from that app
5. add a variable and choose {} Answer to: What is the All Issues link for the input and Submitting User as {} Person who used this workflow
   
6. add a send a message step, send it to the channel where the workflow was used and informative text
7. use the {} Output variable to confirm the Exclusion API's output