Cloud Servers Authentication

When a user interacts with Sunstone, the server authenticates the request and then forwards the requested operation to the OpenNebula daemon.

The forwarded requests between the server and the core daemon include the original user name, and are signed with the credentials of a special server user.

In this guide this request forwarding mechanism is explained, and how it is secured with a symmetric-key algorithm.

Server Users

The Sunstone server communicate with the core using a server user. OpenNebula creates the serveradmin account at bootstrap, with the authentication driver server_cipher (symmetric key).

This server user uses a special authentication mechanism that allows the servers to perform an operation on behalf of another user.

Please note that you can have as many users with a server_* driver as you need.

Configure

You must update the configuration files in /var/lib/one/.one if you change the serveradmin’s password, or create a different user with the server_cipher driver.

ls -1 /var/lib/one/.one
sunstone_auth
cat /var/lib/one/.one/sunstone_auth
serveradmin:1612b78a4843647a4b541346f678f9e1b43bbcf9

Warning

The serveradmin password is hashed in the database. You can use the --sha256 flag when issuing oneuser passwd command for this user.

Warning

When Sunstone is running in a different machine than oned you should use an SSL connection. This can be archived with an SSL proxy like stunnel or apache/nginx acting as proxy. After securing the OpenNebula XML-RPC connection, configure Sunstone to use https with the proxy port:

:one_xmlrpc: https://frontend:2634/RPC2

Tuning & Extending

Files

You can find the drivers in these paths:

  • /var/lib/one/remotes/auth/server_cipher/authenticate

  • /var/lib/one/remotes/auth/server_server/authenticate

Authentication Session String

OpenNebula users with the server_cipher driver use a special authentication session string (the first parameter of the XML-RPC calls). A regular authentication token is in the form:

username:secret

whereas a user with the server_cipher* driver must use this token format:

username:target_username:secret

The core daemon understands a request with this authentication session token as “perform this operation on behalf of target_user”. The secret part of the token is signed with the mechanism explained before.

Two Factor Authentication

To use 2FA in Sunstone see the following link To use 2FA in FireEdge see the following link