Secure Grafana Dashboards with Mutual TLS Authentication

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication is a security process that ensures that traffic is both secure and trusted in both directions between a client and server. For securing Grafana dashboards with mTLS, we need to undertake a series of steps which usually involve creating and managing certificates for authentication.

Here's a general overview of the steps you'd follow to secure Grafana dashboards with mTLS:

1. **Certificate Authority (CA) Setup**: Set up a Certificate Authority to issue and manage trust certificates.
2. **Server Certificate**: Generate a certificate for the Grafana server, which will be presented to clients during the TLS handshake.
3. **Client Certificates**: Generate client certificates that will be installed on the client machines, used for mTLS.
4. **Grafana Configuration**: Configure Grafana to require mTLS for connections, specifying the server certificate and the CA certificate.
5. **Client Configuration**: Install client certificates on clients that will access Grafana and configure them to use those certificates when connecting to Grafana.

Below you will find a Pulumi program written in Python. This program will not do the complete setup for you, but it provides a basic structure on how you might create a CA certificate, server certificate, and client certificate, which you can tailor further as per your requirements and environment.

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_vault as vault

# Assume you have configured Vault provider and Cloudflare provider as per Pulumi setup.

# Create a PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) secret backend for generating TLS certificates
pki_secret_backend = vault.Mount("pki", path="pki", type="pki", description="PKI backend to issue certificates")

# Configure the CA certificate and private key
ca_cert = vault.pkiSecret.SecretBackendRootSignedCert("ca-cert",
    backend=pki_secret_backend.path,
    common_name="Grafana CA",
    ttl="43800h",
    format="pem")

# Set up a role that you can use to generate more certificates
role = vault.pkiSecret.SecretBackendRole("grafana-server",
    backend=pki_secret_backend.path,
    allowed_domains=["grafana.example.com"],
    allow_subdomains=True,
    max_ttl="43800h",
    key_bits=2048,
    key_type="rsa",
    require_cn=True)

# Issue a certificate for the server
server_cert = vault.pkiSecret.SecretBackendCert("grafana-server-cert",
    backend=pki_secret_backend.path,
    name=role.name,
    common_name="grafana.example.com",
    ttl="720h",
    format="pem")

# Issue a certificate for the client
client_cert = vault.pkiSecret.SecretBackendCert("grafana-client-cert",
    backend=pki_secret_backend.path,
    name=role.name,
    common_name="client.user@example.com",
    ttl="720h",
    format="pem")

# Export the CA certificate, Grafana server certificate, and client certificate. For better security, you should handle these securely.
pulumi.export("ca_certificate_pem", ca_cert.certificate_pem)
pulumi.export("grafana_server_certificate_pem", server_cert.certificate_pem)
pulumi.export("grafana_server_private_key_pem", server_cert.private_key_pem)
pulumi.export("client_certificate_pem", client_cert.certificate_pem)
pulumi.export("client_private_key_pem", client_cert.private_key_pem)
```

In this program, Pulumi works with Vault to create a secure backend for managing the lifecycle of the TLS certificates. We set up a Certificate Authority (CA) and define roles for issuing certificates. The roles define policies for what domains and common names can be associated with a certificate when it gets created. Then we create certificates for both the Grafana server and the client, which can be used during the mTLS handshake process.

Make sure to replace `backend`, `allowed_domains`, and other parameters with the appropriate values for your setup. Once you have your certificates, you will need to configure Grafana to use them. This would typically be done in Grafana's configuration files or through its environment. You also need to distribute the client certificates to any clients that need to access the Grafana dashboards.

Please note, Pulumi in this example is used to script the setup process of creating certificates and doesn't cover the Grafana or infrastructure configuration. You should ensure the Grafana server and clients are configured properly to enable mTLS. Additionally, be sure to handle the sensitive outputs (like private keys) from Pulumi with care and avoid exposing them in logs or to unauthorized users.