291 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
291 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
---
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stage: Enablement
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group: Geo
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
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type: howto
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---
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# Geo security review (Q&A) **(PREMIUM ONLY)**
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The following security review of the Geo feature set focuses on security aspects of
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the feature as they apply to customers running their own GitLab instances. The review
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questions are based in part on the [OWASP Application Security Verification Standard Project](https://owasp.org/www-project-application-security-verification-standard/)
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from [owasp.org](https://owasp.org/).
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## Business Model
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### What geographic areas does the application service?
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- This varies by customer. Geo allows customers to deploy to multiple areas,
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and they get to choose where they are.
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- Region and node selection is entirely manual.
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## Data Essentials
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### What data does the application receive, produce, and process?
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- Geo streams almost all data held by a GitLab instance between sites. This
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includes full database replication, most files (user-uploaded attachments,
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etc) and repository + wiki data. In a typical configuration, this will
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happen across the public Internet, and be TLS-encrypted.
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- PostgreSQL replication is TLS-encrypted.
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- See also: [only TLSv1.2 should be supported](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/issues/2948)
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### How can the data be classified into categories according to its sensitivity?
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- The GitLab model of sensitivity is centered around public vs. internal vs.
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private projects. Geo replicates them all indiscriminately. “Selective sync”
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exists for files and repositories (but not database content), which would permit
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only less-sensitive projects to be replicated to a **secondary** node if desired.
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- See also: [GitLab data classification policy](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/security/data-classification-standard.html).
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### What data backup and retention requirements have been defined for the application?
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- Geo is designed to provide replication of a certain subset of the application
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data. It is part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
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## End-Users
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### Who are the application's end‐users?
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- **Secondary** nodes are created in regions that are distant (in terms of
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Internet latency) from the main GitLab installation (the **primary** node). They are
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intended to be used by anyone who would ordinarily use the **primary** node, who finds
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that the **secondary** node is closer to them (in terms of Internet latency).
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### How do the end‐users interact with the application?
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- **Secondary** nodes provide all the interfaces a **primary** node does
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(notably a HTTP/HTTPS web application, and HTTP/HTTPS or SSH Git repository
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access), but is constrained to read-only activities. The principal use case is
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envisioned to be cloning Git repositories from the **secondary** node in favor of the
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**primary** node, but end-users may use the GitLab web interface to view projects,
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issues, merge requests, snippets, etc.
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### What security expectations do the end‐users have?
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- The replication process must be secure. It would typically be unacceptable to
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transmit the entire database contents or all files and repositories across the
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public Internet in plaintext, for instance.
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- **Secondary** nodes must have the same access controls over its content as the
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**primary** node - unauthenticated users must not be able to gain access to privileged
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information on the **primary** node by querying the **secondary** node.
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- Attackers must not be able to impersonate the **secondary** node to the **primary** node, and
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thus gain access to privileged information.
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## Administrators
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### Who has administrative capabilities in the application?
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- Nothing Geo-specific. Any user where `admin: true` is set in the database is
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considered an admin with super-user privileges.
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- See also: [more granular access control](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/18242)
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(not Geo-specific).
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- Much of Geo’s integration (database replication, for instance) must be
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configured with the application, typically by system administrators.
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### What administrative capabilities does the application offer?
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- **Secondary** nodes may be added, modified, or removed by users with
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administrative access.
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- The replication process may be controlled (start/stop) via the Sidekiq
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administrative controls.
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## Network
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### What details regarding routing, switching, firewalling, and load‐balancing have been defined?
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- Geo requires the **primary** node and **secondary** node to be able to communicate with each
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other across a TCP/IP network. In particular, the **secondary** nodes must be able to
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access HTTP/HTTPS and PostgreSQL services on the **primary** node.
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### What core network devices support the application?
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- Varies from customer to customer.
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### What network performance requirements exist?
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- Maximum replication speeds between **primary** node and **secondary** node is limited by the
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available bandwidth between sites. No hard requirements exist - time to complete
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replication (and ability to keep up with changes on the **primary** node) is a function
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of the size of the data set, tolerance for latency, and available network
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capacity.
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### What private and public network links support the application?
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- Customers choose their own networks. As sites are intended to be
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geographically separated, it is envisioned that replication traffic will pass
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over the public Internet in a typical deployment, but this is not a requirement.
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## Systems
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### What operating systems support the application?
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- Geo imposes no additional restrictions on operating system (see the
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[GitLab installation](https://about.gitlab.com/install/) page for more
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details), however we recommend using the operating systems listed in the [Geo documentation](../index.md#requirements-for-running-geo).
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### What details regarding required OS components and lock‐down needs have been defined?
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- The supported installation method (Omnibus) packages most components itself.
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- There are significant dependencies on the system-installed OpenSSH daemon (Geo
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requires users to set up custom authentication methods) and the omnibus or
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system-provided PostgreSQL daemon (it must be configured to listen on TCP,
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additional users and replication slots must be added, etc).
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- The process for dealing with security updates (for example, if there is a
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significant vulnerability in OpenSSH or other services, and the customer
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wants to patch those services on the OS) is identical to the non-Geo
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situation: security updates to OpenSSH would be provided to the user via the
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usual distribution channels. Geo introduces no delay there.
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## Infrastructure Monitoring
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### What network and system performance monitoring requirements have been defined?
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- None specific to Geo.
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### What mechanisms exist to detect malicious code or compromised application components?
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- None specific to Geo.
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### What network and system security monitoring requirements have been defined?
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- None specific to Geo.
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## Virtualization and Externalization
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### What aspects of the application lend themselves to virtualization?
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- All.
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## What virtualization requirements have been defined for the application?
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- Nothing Geo-specific, but everything in GitLab needs to have full
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functionality in such an environment.
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### What aspects of the product may or may not be hosted via the cloud computing model?
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- GitLab is “cloud native” and this applies to Geo as much as to the rest of the
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product. Deployment in clouds is a common and supported scenario.
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## If applicable, what approach(es) to cloud computing will be taken (Managed Hosting versus "Pure" Cloud, a "full machine" approach such as AWS-EC2 versus a "hosted database" approach such as AWS-RDS and Azure, etc)?
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- To be decided by our customers, according to their operational needs.
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## Environment
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### What frameworks and programming languages have been used to create the application?
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- Ruby on Rails, Ruby.
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### What process, code, or infrastructure dependencies have been defined for the application?
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- Nothing specific to Geo.
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### What databases and application servers support the application?
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- PostgreSQL >= 11, Redis, Sidekiq, Puma.
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### How will database connection strings, encryption keys, and other sensitive components be stored, accessed, and protected from unauthorized detection?
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- There are some Geo-specific values. Some are shared secrets which must be
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securely transmitted from the **primary** node to the **secondary** node at setup time. Our
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documentation recommends transmitting them from the **primary** node to the system
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administrator via SSH, and then back out to the **secondary** node in the same manner.
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In particular, this includes the PostgreSQL replication credentials and a secret
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key (`db_key_base`) which is used to decrypt certain columns in the database.
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The `db_key_base` secret is stored unencrypted on the filesystem, in
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`/etc/gitlab/gitlab-secrets.json`, along with a number of other secrets. There is
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no at-rest protection for them.
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## Data Processing
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### What data entry paths does the application support?
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- Data is entered via the web application exposed by GitLab itself. Some data is
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also entered using system administration commands on the GitLab servers (e.g.,
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`gitlab-ctl set-primary-node`).
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- **Secondary** nodes also receive inputs via PostgreSQL streaming replication from the **primary** node.
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### What data output paths does the application support?
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- **Primary** nodes output via PostgreSQL streaming replication to the **secondary** node.
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Otherwise, principally via the web application exposed by GitLab itself, and via
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SSH `git clone` operations initiated by the end-user.
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### How does data flow across the application's internal components?
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- **Secondary** nodes and **primary** nodes interact via HTTP/HTTPS (secured with JSON web
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tokens) and via PostgreSQL streaming replication.
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- Within a **primary** node or **secondary** node, the SSOT is the filesystem and the database
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(including Geo tracking database on **secondary** node). The various internal components
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are orchestrated to make alterations to these stores.
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### What data input validation requirements have been defined?
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- **Secondary** nodes must have a faithful replication of the **primary** node’s data.
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### What data does the application store and how?
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- Git repositories and files, tracking information related to the them, and the GitLab database contents.
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### What data is or may need to be encrypted and what key management requirements have been defined?
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- Neither **primary** nodes or **secondary** nodes encrypt Git repository or filesystem data at
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rest. A subset of database columns are encrypted at rest using the `db_otp_key`.
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- A static secret shared across all hosts in a GitLab deployment.
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- In transit, data should be encrypted, although the application does permit
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communication to proceed unencrypted. The two main transits are the **secondary** node’s
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replication process for PostgreSQL, and for Git repositories/files. Both should
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be protected using TLS, with the keys for that managed via Omnibus per existing
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configuration for end-user access to GitLab.
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### What capabilities exist to detect the leakage of sensitive data?
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- Comprehensive system logs exist, tracking every connection to GitLab and PostgreSQL.
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### What encryption requirements have been defined for data in transit - including transmission over WAN, LAN, SecureFTP, or publicly accessible protocols such as http: and https:?
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- Data must have the option to be encrypted in transit, and be secure against
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both passive and active attack (e.g., MITM attacks should not be possible).
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## Access
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### What user privilege levels does the application support?
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- Geo adds one type of privilege: **secondary** nodes can access a special Geo API to
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download files over HTTP/HTTPS, and to clone repositories using HTTP/HTTPS.
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### What user identification and authentication requirements have been defined?
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- **Secondary** nodes identify to Geo **primary** nodes via OAuth or JWT authentication
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based on the shared database (HTTP access) or a PostgreSQL replication user (for
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database replication). The database replication also requires IP-based access
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controls to be defined.
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### What user authorization requirements have been defined?
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- **Secondary** nodes must only be able to *read* data. They are not currently able to mutate data on the **primary** node.
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### What session management requirements have been defined?
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- Geo JWTs are defined to last for only two minutes before needing to be regenerated.
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- Geo JWTs are generated for one of the following specific scopes:
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- Geo API access.
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- Git access.
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- LFS and File ID.
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- Upload and File ID.
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- Job Artifact and File ID.
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### What access requirements have been defined for URI and Service calls?
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- **Secondary** nodes make many calls to the **primary** node's API. This is how file
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replication proceeds, for instance. This endpoint is only accessible with a JWT token.
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- The **primary** node also makes calls to the **secondary** node to get status information.
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## Application Monitoring
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### What application auditing requirements have been defined? How are audit and debug logs accessed, stored, and secured?
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- Structured JSON log is written to the filesystem, and can also be ingested
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into a Kibana installation for further analysis.
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