Native controllers #17496

kobelb · 2018-04-02T17:04:26Z

Native Controllers

Implements system call filtering for Linux and Windows, we don't currently support this level of protection with macOS, which is fine because we don't support macOS as an official operating system. This can currently be disabled via server.systemCallFilters.enable: false in the kibana.yml. I left this as an undocumented setting for the time being, as the only current use is with in the unit tests.

Native controllers are currently the only supported way of running code outside of the context of the system call filters, and it's currently only implemented by Reporting.

When installing a plugin that has a native controller, the user will be warned with the following prompt before the install configures:

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@        WARNING: plugin forks a native controller        @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
This plugin launches a native controller that is not subject
to the system call filters.

Continue with installation? [y/N]

When the Kibana server is starting up, we scan for plugins that contain a native controller and fork an instance of the src/server/native_controllers/native_controller_start.js that will require the actual native controller when it later receives the start IPC message. We then activate the system call filtering so no additional processes will be able to be spawned. The rest of the plugin discovery process then occurs, and once we are able to determine whether the plugins are enabled/disabled we either kill the native_controller_start.js process or send it the start message which loads the actual native controller code.

Reporting Native Controller

With the implementation of the system call filters, we're no longer able to spawn headless browsers from the Kibana server directly. Instead we have to implement a native controller that is responsible for spawning the browsers, and all communication must then go through the native controller.

Reporting's native_controller/index.js is loaded in a separate process when the Kibana server is initializing, and then we're handed the native controller process in the plugin's init method. The native controller itself responds to two types of messages: kill and spawn.

The native_controller_client is used from within the Kibana server process to communicate with the native controller and the headless browsers that it spawns. The SyntheticProcess provides the necessary interfaces that emulates a browser process, while multiplexing all communication with the actual browser process through the native controller over IPC.

We also pulled the @elastic/node-phantom-simple code into the source code as we needed to make some modifications so we could pass it an instance of the SyntheticProcess instead of having it spawn itself.

already killed

elasticmachine · 2018-05-10T15:58:31Z

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continuous-integration/kibana-ci/pull-request

elasticmachine · 2018-05-10T17:19:34Z

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continuous-integration/kibana-ci/pull-request

elasticmachine · 2018-05-10T21:45:19Z

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continuous-integration/kibana-ci/pull-request

kobelb · 2018-05-11T12:05:08Z

Jenkins, test this

elasticmachine · 2018-05-11T13:05:57Z

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continuous-integration/kibana-ci/pull-request

kobelb · 2018-05-11T13:09:25Z

Jenkins, test this

2 passes never hurt anyone 🤞

epixa · 2018-05-11T13:40:38Z

packages/kbn-sandbox/index.test.js

+// we have to spawn a process to actually run the test, or else we end up locking
+// down the test runner process and not letting us spawn anything in sunsequent tests
+test('sandboxes', async (done) => {
+  const cp = fork(path.resolve(__dirname, 'test_process.js'));


We remove certain test-related files globally from builds, like *.test.js and things under __tests__ directories. Since this test_process.js file doesn't follow any particular convention that we track, it's going to erroneously make its way into builds.

Good catch, I'll rename it so it's caught by these.

epixa · 2018-05-11T13:53:50Z

src/server/native_controllers/index.js

+        // this can happen before we have the logging configured, so we log to both
+        // console.error and server.log to ensure something is output somewhere.
+        const message = `${nativeController.pluginId}'s native controller exited with code ${code}`;
+        console.error(message);


Under what conditions can this fire before logging is configured?

If we can determine that logging is configured, we should conditionally log to console.error based on whether server.log is available rather than always logging to console.error.

If the native controller logic immediately errors out, logging generally won't be configured, or if the path of the native controller is incorrect.

The issue is that kbnServer.server.log will be there immediately after https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/master/src/server/kbn_server.js#L39 but won't be configured properly until after
https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/master/src/server/kbn_server.js#L42 and HapiJS doesn't expose a way to see if it's been "configured"

elasticmachine · 2018-05-11T14:11:32Z

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continuous-integration/kibana-ci/pull-request

epixa · 2018-05-11T15:40:14Z

src/server/native_controllers/index.test.js

+    triggerStarted();
+  });
+
+  test(`doesn't throw error when enabled plugin doesn't have a nativeController`, async () => {


I think this should be broken down into more tests.

The current test is technically verifying a couple things, but the test name gives the impression that it only cares about one enabled plugin without a native controller, so a future refactor could end up leaving us in a place where the actual behaviors are not completely tested.

Ideally, we'll be testing three scenarios:

No plugins are enabled

One plugin is enabled but it doesn't have a native controller

Multiple plugins are enabled and none of them have native controllers

…ontrollers

elasticmachine · 2018-05-11T17:49:32Z

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continuous-integration/kibana-ci/pull-request

kobelb · 2018-05-22T12:05:42Z

This PR is on hold because of the impending merging of the "new platform". The plan forward is to implement native controllers as a component of the new platform, as having legacy and new platform plugins using the native controllers complicates the start-up process.

azasypkin · 2018-09-25T09:49:11Z

This PR is on hold because of the impending merging of the "new platform". The plan forward is to implement native controllers as a component of the new platform, as having legacy and new platform plugins using the native controllers complicates the start-up process.

Hey, #22190 landed a while ago, do you still need anything from the platform to move this forward?

elasticmachine · 2018-09-25T10:42:02Z

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continuous-integration/kibana-ci/pull-request

epixa · 2018-09-25T11:17:36Z

We need new platform plugins as well so we can move the reporting browser stuff to new platform native controllers.

azasypkin · 2018-09-25T11:45:29Z

Okay, got it, thanks

spalger · 2019-09-19T18:38:46Z

Please resubmit if you'd like

kobelb and others added 30 commits March 13, 2018 08:42

Introducing the server.spawnChildProcess facade

65a20e2

Implementing gatekeeper

da59e82

Updating getExecArgv for Node 8, debug port command arguments changed

96a9acd

Using md5 from plugin package.json to determine valid processes

2a2e984

Using a uuid for the processId

a867dbc

Consolidating the valid process serialization

0e2bd30

Cleaning up the acks

dd7bd3e

Adding killed flag to the SyntheticProcess

0ec51ce

Deleting the process from the gatekeeper when it's killed

c41d0bc

Sending signal to GatedProcess

f667901

Exposing a sandbox.$createSpawnChildProcess on the server

6e3554a

Kill is async now, throwing proper Error message

5b67903

Sending SIGKILL to the gatekeeper until we've spawned a child process

7c2cd2e

Adding some comments and trying to format code better

0cbd7ec

Adding prompt on install

b35270e

Switching to using the concept of native controllers

06edf1f

Fixing install prompt to specify native controllers

a225e5a

Renaming sandbox to system call filters

a4f0d03

safeChildProcess static signal

d044139

Cleaning artifcats on install exit

4c061ed

Switching from the native controllers mixin

ada3d41

Native Controllers can be disabled, and we might not know

fe8074f

a bit of refactoring

6fe7aef

throwing Error if more than one native controller specified for plugin

f5b190a

Pulling in node-sandbox to a kbn package

4bf61d1

Deleting the build folder

df8d0a0

Only tracking the .node

cd69ada

Adding updated sandbox_win32.node

1913939

Fixing some linting issues

dcd2e4f

We actually don't support this for mac

ade7854

kobelb added 6 commits May 10, 2018 08:11

Throwing errors when the native controllers is already started or

cc400a0

already killed

Added test for a null native controller schema

b84d78a

Moving config server.systemCallFilters to systemCallFilters

5c1c0db

Fixing bone-headed mistake

d9227af

Using server.log and console.error

1708089

Removing errant debugger statement

4ab2809

kobelb added 2 commits May 10, 2018 16:37

Passing configuration to the NativeController process via IPC

d274716

Fixing tests that set systemCallFilters to be disabled

2ffe8fd

epixa reviewed May 11, 2018

View reviewed changes

kobelb added 3 commits May 11, 2018 12:29

Moving tests so they're deleted for production builds

e9298fa

Tests for more different types of enabled plugins not having native c…

8b48a10

…ontrollers

Removing some whitespace

71c7a5c

epixa added the blocked label May 24, 2018

spalger closed this Sep 19, 2019

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Native controllers #17496

Native controllers #17496

kobelb commented Apr 2, 2018 •

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Native controllers #17496

Native controllers #17496

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kobelb commented Apr 2, 2018 • edited Loading

Native Controllers

Reporting Native Controller

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