Understanding the Compliance Operator

The Compliance Operator lets OKD administrators describe the desired compliance state of a cluster and provides them with an overview of gaps and ways to remediate them. The Compliance Operator assesses compliance of both the Kubernetes API resources of OKD, as well as the nodes running the cluster. The Compliance Operator uses OpenSCAP, a NIST-certified tool, to scan and enforce security policies provided by the content.

Compliance Operator profiles

There are several profiles available as part of the Compliance Operator installation.

View the available profiles:

$ oc get -n <namespace> profiles.compliance

Example output

NAME              AGE
ocp4-cis          4h52m
ocp4-cis-node     4h52m
ocp4-e8           4h52m
ocp4-moderate     4h52m
rhcos4-e8         4h52m
rhcos4-moderate   4h52m

These profiles represent different compliance benchmarks.

View the details of a profile:

$ oc get -n <namespace> -oyaml profiles.compliance <profile name>

Example output

apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
description: |-
  This profile contains configuration checks for Red Hat
  Enterprise Linux CoreOS that align to the Australian
  Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight.
  A copy of the Essential Eight in Linux Environments guide can
  be found at the ACSC website: ...
id: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_profile_e8
kind: Profile
metadata:
  annotations:
    compliance.openshift.io/product: redhat_enterprise_linux_coreos_4
    compliance.openshift.io/product-type: Node
    creationTimestamp: "2020-09-07T11:42:51Z"
    generation: 1
  labels:
    compliance.openshift.io/profile-bundle: rhcos4
    name: rhcos4-e8
  namespace: openshift-compliance
rules:
- rhcos4-accounts-no-uid-except-zero
- rhcos4-audit-rules-dac-modification-chmod
- rhcos4-audit-rules-dac-modification-chown
- rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-chcon
- rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-restorecon
- rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-semanage
- rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-setfiles
- rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-setsebool
- rhcos4-audit-rules-execution-seunshare
- rhcos4-audit-rules-kernel-module-loading
- rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events
- rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events-faillock
- rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events-lastlog
- rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events-tallylog
- rhcos4-audit-rules-networkconfig-modification
- rhcos4-audit-rules-sysadmin-actions
- rhcos4-audit-rules-time-adjtimex
- rhcos4-audit-rules-time-clock-settime
- rhcos4-audit-rules-time-settimeofday
- rhcos4-audit-rules-time-stime
- rhcos4-audit-rules-time-watch-localtime
- rhcos4-audit-rules-usergroup-modification
- rhcos4-auditd-data-retention-flush
- rhcos4-auditd-freq
- rhcos4-auditd-local-events
- rhcos4-auditd-log-format
- rhcos4-auditd-name-format
- rhcos4-auditd-write-logs
- rhcos4-configure-crypto-policy
- rhcos4-configure-ssh-crypto-policy
- rhcos4-no-empty-passwords
- rhcos4-selinux-policytype
- rhcos4-selinux-state
- rhcos4-service-auditd-enabled
- rhcos4-sshd-disable-empty-passwords
- rhcos4-sshd-disable-gssapi-auth
- rhcos4-sshd-disable-rhosts
- rhcos4-sshd-disable-root-login
- rhcos4-sshd-disable-user-known-hosts
- rhcos4-sshd-do-not-permit-user-env
- rhcos4-sshd-enable-strictmodes
- rhcos4-sshd-print-last-log
- rhcos4-sshd-set-loglevel-info
- rhcos4-sshd-use-priv-separation
- rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-dmesg-restrict
- rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-kexec-load-disabled
- rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-kptr-restrict
- rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-randomize-va-space
- rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-unprivileged-bpf-disabled
- rhcos4-sysctl-kernel-yama-ptrace-scope
- rhcos4-sysctl-net-core-bpf-jit-harden
title: Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight

View the rules within a desired profile:

$ oc get -n <namespace> -oyaml rules.compliance <rule_name>

Example output

apiVersion: compliance.openshift.io/v1alpha1
description: '<code>auditd</code><code>augenrules</code><code>.rules</code><code>/etc/audit/rules.d</code><pre>-w /var/log/tallylog -p wa -k logins -w /var/run/faillock -p wa -k logins -w /var/log/lastlog -p wa -k logins</pre><code>auditd</code><code>auditctl</code><code>/etc/audit/audit.rules</code><pre>-w /var/log/tallylog -p wa -k logins -w /var/run/faillock -p wa -k logins -w /var/log/lastlog -p wa -k logins</pre>file in order to watch for unattempted manual edits of files involved in storing logon events:'
id: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_audit_rules_login_events
kind: Rule
metadata:
  annotations:
    compliance.openshift.io/rule: audit-rules-login-events
    control.compliance.openshift.io/NIST-800-53: AU-2(d);AU-12(c);AC-6(9);CM-6(a)
    policies.open-cluster-management.io/controls: AU-2(d),AU-12(c),AC-6(9),CM-6(a)
    policies.open-cluster-management.io/standards: NIST-800-53
    creationTimestamp: "2020-09-07T11:43:03Z"
    generation: 1
  labels:
    compliance.openshift.io/profile-bundle: rhcos4
  name: rhcos4-audit-rules-login-events
  namespace: openshift-compliance
  rationale: |-
    Manual editing of these files may indicate nefarious activity,
    such as an attacker attempting to remove evidence of an
    intrusion.
  severity: medium
  title: Record Attempts to Alter Logon and Logout Events
  warning: |-
    <ul><li><code>audit_rules_login_events_tallylog</code></li>
    <li><code>audit_rules_login_events_faillock</code></li>
    <li><code>audit_rules_login_events_lastlog</code></li></ul>
    This rule checks for multiple syscalls related to login
    events and was written with DISA STIG in mind.
    Other policies should use separate rule for
    each syscall that needs to be checked.

Each profile has the product name that it applies to added as a prefix to the profile’s name. ocp4-e8 applies the Essential 8 benchmark to the OKD product, while rhcos4-e8 applies the Essential 8 benchmark to the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) product.