WARNING: This plugin was moved directly into Chef Infra Client in 16.0. This repo is no longer maintained.

• Umbrella Project: Knife

• Project State Deprecated

• Issues Response Time Maximum: None

• Pull Request Response Time Maximum: None

This is a Chef Software, Inc.-supported knife plugin which provides some user/group ACL operations for Chef server.

All commands assume a working knife configuration for an admin user of a Chef organization.

Reference:

1. Chef Server Permissions PDF
2. Chef Server Permissions Docs
3. Chef Server Groups Docs

This gem already ships as part of Chef-DK / Workstation.

The "Users" group is a special group and should not be managed with knife-acl. As such, knife-acl will give an error if either knife acl group add user users USER or knife acl group remove user users USER are run.

In the context of the Chef Server's API a container is just the API endpoint used when creating a new object of a particular object type.

For example, the container for creating client objects is called clients and the container for creating node objects is called nodes.

Two containers are used when creating (uploading) cookbooks. The cookbooks and sandboxes containers.

Here is a full list of the containers in a Chef Server.

• clients
• cookbooks
• data
• environments
• groups
• nodes
• policies
• policy_groups
• roles
• sandboxes

The permissions assigned to a container are inherited by the objects that the container creates. When a permission is changed on a container that change will only affect new objects. The change does not propagate to existing objects.

For reference and restoral purposes the Default Permissions for Containers section of this document contains knife-acl commands that will set the default permissions for the admins, clients and users groups on all containers. These can be helpful if you need to restore container permissions back to their default values.

The best practice for managing permissions is to only add clients and groups to an objects' permissions.

Adding a user to an objects' permissions is possible by first adding the group to the permissions and then adding the user to the group. This is much easier to maintain when compared to adding individual users to each objects' permissions.

To enforce this the knife acl add and knife acl bulk add commands can only add a client or a group to an objects' permissions.

If a group ever needs to be removed from the permissions of all objects the group can simply be deleted.

The "Users" group by default provides regular (non-admin) users a lot of access to modify objects in the Chef Server.

Removing the "Users" group from the "create", "update", "delete" and "grant" Access Control Entries (ACEs) of all objects and containers will create a default read-only access for non-admin users.

To completely prevent non-admin users from accessing all objects and containers then also remove the "Users" group from the "read" ACE.

Admin users will still have default admin access to all objects and containers.

NOTE: Please note that currently the Chef Manage web UI will appear to allow read-only users to edit some objects. However, the changes are not actually saved and they disappear when the read-only user refreshes the page.

knife acl remove group users containers clients create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users clients '.*' create,update,delete,grant


knife acl remove group users containers sandboxes create,update,delete,grant
knife acl remove group users containers cookbooks create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users cookbooks '.*' create,update,delete,grant


knife acl remove group users containers data create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users data '.*' create,update,delete,grant


knife acl remove group users containers environments create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users environments '.*' create,update,delete,grant


knife acl remove group users containers nodes create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users nodes '.*' create,update,delete,grant


knife acl remove group users containers policies create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users policies '.*' create,update,delete,grant


knife acl remove group users containers policy_groups create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users policy_groups '.*' create,update,delete,grant


knife acl remove group users containers roles create,update,delete,grant
knife acl bulk remove group users roles '.*' create,update,delete,grant

You can also create a new group and manage its members with knife-acl or the Manage web interface.

Then add this group to the ACEs of all appropriate containers and/or objects according to your requirements.

The following set of commands creates a group named read-only and gives it read access on all objects.

knife group create read-only


knife acl add group read-only containers clients read
knife acl bulk add group read-only clients '.*' read


knife acl add group read-only containers sandboxes read
knife acl add group read-only containers cookbooks read
knife acl bulk add group read-only cookbooks '.*' read


knife acl add group read-only containers data read
knife acl bulk add group read-only data '.*' read


knife acl add group read-only containers environments read
knife acl bulk add group read-only environments '.*' read


knife acl add group read-only containers nodes read
knife acl bulk add group read-only nodes '.*' read


knife acl add group read-only containers policies read
knife acl bulk add group read-only policies '.*' read


knife acl add group read-only containers policy_groups read
knife acl bulk add group read-only policy_groups '.*' read


knife acl add group read-only containers roles read
knife acl bulk add group read-only roles '.*' read

Show a list of users associated with your organization

List groups in the organization.

Create a new group GROUP_NAME to the organization.

Show the membership details for GROUP_NAME.

Add MEMBER_NAME to GROUP_NAME.

Valid MEMBER_TYPE values are

• client
• group
• user

Remove MEMBER_NAME from GROUP_NAME.

See the knife group add documentation above for valid MEMBER_TYPE values.

Removes group GROUP_NAME from the organization. All members of the group (clients, groups and users) remain in the system, only GROUP_NAME is removed.

The admins, billing-admins, clients and users groups are special groups so knife-acl will not allow them to be destroyed.

Shows the ACL for the specified object. Objects are identified by the combination of their type and name.

Valid OBJECT_TYPE values are

• clients
• containers
• cookbooks
• data
• environments
• groups
• nodes
• policies
• policy_groups
• roles

For example, use the following command to obtain the ACL for a node named "web.example.com":

knife acl show nodes web.example.com

The best practice is to only add clients and groups to ACLs. To enforce this best practice the knife acl add command is only able to add a client or a group to ACLs.

Valid MEMBER_TYPE values are

• client
• group

Add MEMBER_NAME to the PERMS access control entry of OBJECT_NAME. Objects are specified by the combination of their type and name.

Valid OBJECT_TYPE values are

• clients
• containers
• cookbooks
• data
• environments
• groups
• nodes
• policies
• policy_groups
• roles

Valid PERMS are:

• create
• read
• update
• delete
• grant

Multiple PERMS can be given in a single command by separating them with a comma with no extra spaces.

For example, use the following command to give the superusers group the ability to delete and update the node called "web.example.com":

knife acl add group superusers nodes web.example.com delete,update

The best practice is to only add clients and groups to ACLs. To enforce this best practice the knife acl bulk add command is only able to add a client or a group to ACLs.

Valid MEMBER_TYPE values are

• client
• group

Add MEMBER_NAME to the PERMS access control entry for each object in a set of objects of OBJECT_TYPE.

The set of objects are specified by matching the objects' names with the given REGEX regular expression surrounded by quotes.

See the knife acl add documentation above for valid OBJECT_TYPE and PERMS values.

Appending -y or --yes to the knife acl bulk add command will run the command without any prompts for confirmation.

For example, use the following command to give the superusers group the ability to delete and update all nodes matching the regular expression 'WIN-.*':

knife acl bulk add group superusers nodes 'WIN-.*' delete,update --yes

Remove MEMBER_NAME from the PERMS access control entry of OBJECT_NAME. Objects are specified by the combination of their type and name.

Valid MEMBER_TYPE values are

• client
• group
• user

Valid OBJECT_TYPE values are

• clients
• containers
• cookbooks
• data
• environments
• groups
• nodes
• policies
• policy_groups
• roles

Valid PERMS are:

• create
• read
• update
• delete
• grant

Multiple PERMS can be given in a single command by separating them with a comma with no extra spaces.

For example, use the following command to remove the superusers group from the delete and update access control entries for the node called "web.example.com":

knife acl remove group superusers nodes web.example.com delete,update

Remove MEMBER_NAME from the PERMS access control entry for each object in a set of objects of OBJECT_TYPE.

The set of objects are specified by matching the objects' names with the given REGEX regular expression surrounded by quotes.

See the knife acl remove documentation above for valid MEMBER_TYPE, OBJECT_TYPE and PERMS values.

Appending -y or --yes to the knife acl bulk add command will run the command without any prompts for confirmation.

For example, use the following command to remove the superusers group from the delete and update access control entries for all nodes matching the regular expression 'WIN-.*':

knife acl bulk remove group superusers nodes 'WIN-.*' delete,update --yes

The following commands will set the default permissions for the admins, clients and users groups on all containers. These can be helpful if you need to restore container permissions back to their default values.

knife acl add group admins containers clients create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl remove group clients containers clients create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers clients read,delete
knife acl remove group users containers clients create,update,grant

knife acl add group admins containers cookbook_artifacts create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers cookbook_artifacts read
knife acl remove group clients containers cookbook_artifacts create,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers cookbook_artifacts create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers cookbook_artifacts grant

knife acl add group admins containers cookbooks create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers cookbooks read
knife acl remove group clients containers cookbooks create,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers cookbooks create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers cookbooks grant

knife acl add group admins containers data create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers data read
knife acl remove group clients containers data create,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers data create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers data grant

knife acl add group admins containers environments create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers environments read
knife acl remove group clients containers environments create,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers environments create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers environments grant

knife acl add group admins containers groups create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl remove group clients containers groups create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers groups read
knife acl remove group users containers groups create,update,delete,grant

knife acl add group admins containers nodes create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers nodes create,read
knife acl remove group clients containers nodes update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers nodes create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers nodes grant

knife acl add group admins containers policies create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers policies read
knife acl remove group clients containers policies create,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers policies create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers policies grant

knife acl add group admins containers policy_groups create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers policy_groups read
knife acl remove group clients containers policy_groups create,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers policy_groups create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers policy_groups grant

knife acl add group admins containers roles create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group clients containers roles read
knife acl remove group clients containers roles create,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers roles create,read,update,delete
knife acl remove group users containers roles grant

knife acl add group admins containers sandboxes create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl remove group clients containers sandboxes create,read,update,delete,grant
knife acl add group users containers sandboxes create
knife acl remove group users containers sandboxes read,update,delete,grant

For information on contributing to this project see https://github.com/chef/chef/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Unless otherwise specified all works in this repository are

Copyright 2013-2018 Chef Software, Inc.

|         |
--------- | --------------------------------------------:
Author    |                  Seth Falcon (seth@chef.io)
Author    |           Jeremiah Snapp (jeremiah@chef.io)
Copyright | Copyright (c) 2013-2015 Chef Software, Inc.
License   |                 Apache License, Version 2.0

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.