Centralized Authorization for Data Pipelines with Keycloak LDAP

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Centralized authorization for data pipelines essentially involves managing and enforcing access controls to pipeline resources. Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management solution that can integrate with LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) for user federation. The integration enables Keycloak to use LDAP as the backend for user information and authentication, supporting single sign-on and centralized user management.

When building data pipelines in a cloud environment, you may be using services like AWS Data Pipeline or Google Cloud Dataflow. In this context, centralized authorization could mean that users who need to create, manage, or monitor data pipelines must authenticate through Keycloak, which, in turn, delegates authentication to an LDAP server.

To setup Keycloak with LDAP for this purpose, you would typically follow these steps:

1. Install and configure Keycloak, if it’s not already in place.
2. Configure Keycloak to connect to an LDAP server, defining how users and their credentials are imported or synchronized with Keycloak’s internal store.
3. In Keycloak, set up roles and permissions that correspond to different levels of access required by the data pipelines.
4. Configure the data pipeline service (AWS Data Pipeline, Google Cloud Dataflow, etc.) to use Keycloak for authentication and authorization decisions.

Using Pulumi, we can automate the creation of Keycloak LDAP federation and role mappers necessary for such a setup. Below is a Python program using Pulumi with the `pulumi_keycloak` provider to set up LDAP user federation and associated role mappers in Keycloak. This is a crucial part of centralizing authentication for a data pipeline.

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_keycloak as keycloak

# Create a new LDAP user federation provider in Keycloak, connecting it to an external LDAP server.
ldap_user_federation = keycloak.ldap.UserFederation(
    "ldapUserFederation",
    realm_id="your_realm_id",  # Replace with the id of the Keycloak realm you're working with.
    name="my-ldap",
    enabled=True,
    connection_url="ldap://your-ldap-server:389",  # Replace with your LDAP server connection URL.
    users_dn="ou=users,dc=example,dc=com",  # The DN of the LDAP tree where users are located.
    bind_dn="cn=readonly,dc=example,dc=com",  # DN of the LDAP account to bind with.
    bind_credential="readonly-password",  # Password for the bind account.
    import_enabled=True,
    sync_registrations=False,  # Don't sync registration back to LDAP.
    use_password_modify_extended_op=False,  # Use the standard LDAP password modification.
    trust_email=False,  # Whether to trust email from this federation provider.
    use_truststore_spi="NEVER",  # Use truststore SPI.
    sync_interval=60,  # Sync interval in seconds.
    vendor="other",  # Type of LDAP server.
    uuid_ldap_attribute="entryUUID",  # LDAP attribute to use as a UUID.
    user_object_classes=["inetOrgPerson", "organizationalPerson"],  # Object classes for user entries.
)

# Create a role mapper that maps LDAP roles to Keycloak roles.
ldap_role_mapper = keycloak.ldap.RoleMapper(
    "ldapRoleMapper",
    realm_id="your_realm_id",  # Replace with the id of the Keycloak realm you're working with.
    ldap_user_federation_id=ldap_user_federation.id,
    name="role-mapper",
    roles_dn="ou=roles,dc=example,dc=com",  # The DN of the LDAP tree where roles are located.
    role_name_ldap_attribute="cn",  # LDAP attribute to map to the role name in Keycloak.
    role_object_classes=["groupOfNames"],  # Object class of role.
    use_realm_roles_mapping=True,  # Map to realm roles.
)

pulumi.export('ldap_user_federation_id', ldap_user_federation.id)
```

In the program above, we define two resources using the `pulumi_keycloak` package:

1. `ldapUserFederation`: This resource connects Keycloak to an external LDAP server. It includes configurations like the connection URL, user DNs (Distinguished Names), and which attributes to use as Keycloak's UUID.

2. `ldapRoleMapper`: This resource establishes a mapping between LDAP roles and Keycloak roles, which is used to assign data pipeline access permissions to users authenticated via LDAP.

These resources are foundational when setting up a central authentication system that integrates Keycloak with LDAP. However, remember, this Pulumi code does not provision the actual data pipelines or configure the data pipeline service to use Keycloak for authentication. That would be a separate concern, typically involving interaction with cloud service APIs or additional service-specific Pulumi resources.

To apply this configuration, you will need to have the Pulumi CLI installed and configured, Keycloak running, and credentials to access the Keycloak API. You should also ensure you have the correct realm ID from Keycloak and update the LDAP-specific strings (like `connection_url`, `users_dn`, `bind_dn`, and `roles_dn`) with actual values from your LDAP server.