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Delegate mTLS support

mTLS is part of the TLS protocol, which allows the server to verify the authenticity of the client. To achieve that, the client has to provide a client certificate during the TLS handshake, which is verified by the server using a previously configured CA certificate.

Due to security reasons, every customer must create their own CA certificate and signed client certificates, and Harness hosts a dedicated mTLS endpoint (subdomain) for every account that has mTLS enabled.

Harness supports the following mTLS modes:

  • LOOSE: Both non-mTLS and mTLS delegates are accepted.

  • STRICT: Only mTLS delegates are accepted. Any non-mTLS delegates are blocked.

note

mTLS is an advanced feature. Contact Harness Support to enable it.

Create a CA certificate and a client certificate

Harness does not create or distribute the CA and client certificates that are used for mTLS. You must set up the certificates and explicitly provide them to the delegate by mounting a Kubernetes secret.

Important note

Project-level certificates are not supported for mTLS delegates.

In the following examples, OpenSSL is used to create the required certificates. For the Subject, use the text of your choice. It does not have to match the mTLS DNS name or contain harness.io.

Create a CA certificate

  • Use the following OpenSSL comment to create a test CA certificate with no password and 25+ years of validity. You must provide the public portion of the CA certificate (ca.crt) to Harness to enable mTLS.

    openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 9999 -newkey rsa:2048 \ -subj "/O=Example ORG/CN=CA Cert" -keyout "ca.key" -out "ca.crt"

Create a client certificate

  1. Create the configuration used to create the client certificate:

     cat << EOF > "client.cnf"
    [req]
    default_bits = 2048
    prompt = no
    default_md = sha256
    x509_extensions = v3_req
    distinguished_name = dn

    [dn]
    O = Example ORG
    CN = Client

    [v3_req]
    # empty
    EOF
  2. After the configuration file has been created, create a new certificate signing request together with the key pair:

    openssl req -new -config "client.cnf" -nodes -out "client.csr" -keyout "client.key"

  3. Using the previously created CA certificate with the certificate signing request, create the final signed client certificate:

    openssl x509 -req -sha256 -days 9999 -extfile client.cnf -extensions v3_req \ -CAcreateserial -CA "ca.crt" -CAkey "ca.key" \ -in "client.csr" -out "client.crt"

    note

    You provide the client.crt and client.key to the delegate YAML when you install the delegate.

  4. After you create the certificates, provide the public cert of the CA certificate to Harness support.

  5. Provide a unique API prefix to the location where your mTLS endpoint is hosted. You can set any prefix for your directory path, but it must be unique.

    note

    After this, Harness will perform the steps to enable the mTLS.

Move delegates to mTLS

You can move existing delegates with an immutable image type (image tag yy.mm.xxxxx) to mTLS.

Prerequisites for delegate migration

Before you migrate an existing delegate to an mTLS-enabled delegate, make sure that you meet the following prerequisites.

  • The delegate must have an immutable image type (image tag yy.mm.xxxxx). For information on delegate types, go to Delegate image types.

  • You must have access to the delegate YAML.

Migrate a delegate to an mTLS-enabled delegate

To migrate an existing delegate for mTLS support, you must update the delegate YAML. For an example Kubernetes manifest, go to Sample Kubernetes manifest.

To migrate a delegate for mTLS support, do the following:

  1. In your delegate YAML, add the client.crt and client.key fields before the Deployment section.

     
    ---

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Secret
    metadata:
    name: PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_NAME-account-token
    namespace: harness-delegate-ng
    type: Opaque
    data:
    # Replace the values below with base64 encoded PEM files or mount an existing secret.
    client.crt: "{CERT}"
    client.key: "{KEY}"

    ---
  2. In the Deployment section, update the name: value from MANAGER_HOST_AND_PORT to https://<YOUR_FQDN>.agent.harness.io.

  3. Update the LOG_STREAMING_SERVICE_URL value to https://<YOUR_FQDN>.agent.harness.io/log-service/

  4. Add the two environment variables below.

    - name: DELEGATE_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE_PATH
    value: "/etc/mtls/client.crt"
    - name: DELEGATE_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE_KEY_PATH
    value: "/etc/mtls/client.key"
  5. Add the volumeMounts and volumes sections under containers.

       volumeMounts:
    - name: client-certificate
    mountPath: /etc/mtls
    readOnly: true
    value: "/etc/mtls/client.crt"
    volumes:
    - name: client-certificate
    secret:
    secretName: kubernetes-delegate-client-certificate
  6. Add the client certificate and key section in the ConfigMap upgrader-config, then add your managerHost and port.

    ---

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: ConfigMap
    metadata:
    name: PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_NAME-upgrader-config
    namespace: harness-delegate-ng
    data:
    config.yaml: |
    mode: Delegate
    dryRun: false
    workloadName: PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_NAME
    namespace: harness-delegate-ng
    containerName: delegate
    clientCertificateFilePath: /etc/mtls/client.crt
    clientCertificateKeyFilePath: /etc/mtls/client.key
    delegateConfig:
    accountId: PUT_YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID
    managerHost: PUT_YOUR_MANAGER_ENDPOINT
    ---
  7. In the CronJob section, add your certificate volumes and volumeMount.

    ---

    apiVersion: batch/v1
    kind: CronJob
    metadata:
    labels:
    harness.io/name: upgrader-job
    name: PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_NAME-upgrader-job
    namespace: harness-delegate-ng
    spec:
    schedule: "0 */1 * * *"
    concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
    startingDeadlineSeconds: 20
    jobTemplate:
    spec:
    template:
    spec:
    serviceAccountName: upgrader-cronjob-sa
    restartPolicy: Never
    containers:
    - image: harness/upgrader:latest
    name: upgrader
    imagePullPolicy: Always
    envFrom:
    - secretRef:
    name: PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_NAME-upgrader-token
    volumeMounts:
    - name: config-volume
    mountPath: /etc/config
    - name: client-certificate
    mountPath: /etc/mtls
    readOnly: true
    volumes:
    - name: config-volume
    configMap:
    name: PUT_YOUR_DELEGATE_NAME-upgrader-config
    - name: config-certificate
    secret:
    secretName: kubernetes-delegate-client-certificate
  8. Save and deploy the manifest.