A scalable authorization application built on Casbin

Casbin-Mesh

Casbin-Mesh is a lightweight, distributed authorization application. Casbin-Mesh uses Raft to gain consensus across all the nodes.

TOC

• Install
• Quick Start
• Documentation
• License

Install

Single Node

Docker

You can easily start a single Casbin-Mesh node like:

$ docker pull ghcr.io/casbin/casbin-mesh:latest

$ docker run -it -p 4002:4002 --name=casbin_mesh_single ghcr.io/casbin/casbin-mesh:latest

Binary

$ casmesh --node-id node0 ~/node1_data

Cluster

• The first benefit of the cluster is that it can be fault-tolerant several nodes crash, which will not affect your business.

• For some special scenarios, you can read from the follower nodes which can increment the throughput of enforcing (reading) operations.

Docker Compose

docker-compose.yml

version: "3"
services:
  node0:
    image: ghcr.io/casbin/casbin-mesh:latest
    command: >
      --node-id node0
      --raft-address 0.0.0.0:4002
      --raft-advertise-address node0:4002
      --endpoint-no-verify
    ports:
      - "4002:4002"
    volumes:
      - ./store/casbin/node1:/casmesh/data
  node1:
    image: ghcr.io/casbin/casbin-mesh:latest
    command: >
      --node-id node1
      --raft-address 0.0.0.0:4002
      --raft-advertise-address node1:4002
      --join http://node0:4002
      --endpoint-no-verify
    ports:
      - "4004:4002"
    volumes:
      - ./store/casbin/node2:/casmesh/data
    depends_on:
      - node0
  node2:
    image: ghcr.io/casbin/casbin-mesh:latest
    command: >
      --node-id node2
      --raft-address 0.0.0.0:4002
      --raft-advertise-address node2:4002
      --join http://node0:4002
      --endpoint-no-verify
    ports:
      - "4006:4002"
    volumes:
      - ./store/casbin/node3:/casmesh/data
    depends_on:
      - node0

$ docker-compose up

Helm

You can start a three node Casbin-Mesh cluster on Kubernetes using Helm:

Helm install <cluster-name> --set replicaCount=3 ./chart

The Casbin-Mesh nodes will be exposed on service <cluster-name>-casbin-mesh:4002

Binary

$ casmesh --node-id --raft-address localhost:4002 --raft-advertise-address localhost:4002 node0 ~/node1_data

$ casmesh --node-id --raft-address localhost:4004 --raft-advertise-address localhost:4004 node1 --join http://localhost:4002  ~/node2_data

$ casmesh --node-id --raft-address localhost:4006 --raft-advertise-address localhost:4006 node2 --join http://localhost:4002  ~/node3_data

Notes: In practice, you should deploy nodes on different machines.

Quick Start

Create namespaces

First, We need to create a new namespace, which can be done by performing an HTTP request on the /create/namespace on any Casbin-Mesh node.

$ curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:4002/create/namespace' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "ns": "test"
}'

Set an RBAC model for the test namespace

To setup an Casbin model for a specific namespace, executes following request on /set/model endpoint. See all supported models.

$ curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:4002/set/model' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "ns":"test",
    "text":"[request_definition]\nr = sub, obj, act\n\n[policy_definition]\np = sub, obj, act\n\n[role_definition]\ng = _, _\n\n[policy_effect]\ne = some(where (p.eft == allow))\n\n[matchers]\nm = g(r.sub, p.sub) && r.obj == p.obj && r.act == p.act"
}'

List all namespaces

Now, let's list the namespaces which we created.

$ curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:4002/list/namespaces'

The response:

["test"]

Add Policies

Let's add policies for the test namespace. See more of Policies

$ curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:4002/add/policies' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "ns":"test",
    "sec":"p",
    "ptype":"p",
    "rules":[["alice","data1","read"],["bob","data2","write"]]
}'

We will receive the sets of effected rules from the response.

{
  "effected_rules": [
    ["alice", "data1", "read"],
    ["bob", "data2", "write"]
  ]
}

First enforce

Now, Let's figure out whether Alice can read data1.

$ curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:4002/enforce' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "ns":"test",
    "params":["alice","data1","read"]
}'

The answer is yes:

{
  "ok": true
}

Documentation

APIs Overview

HTTP Endpoints

HTTP endpoints for managing the namespaces and policies in casbin-mesh:

• /create/namespace: to create a new namespace.
• /list/namespaces: to list all existing namespaces.
• /print/model: to print the model for a given namespace.
• /list/policies: to list all policies for a given namespace.
• /set/model: to set the model for a given namespace.
• /add/policies: to add policies to a given namespace.
• /remove/policies: to remove policies from a given namespace.
• /remove/filtered_policies: to remove policies matching a filter from a given namespace.
• /update/policies: to update policies in a given namespace.
• /clear/policy: to clear all policies from a given namespace.
• /enforce: to enforce a policy for a given namespace.
• /stats: to get statistics for a given namespace.

gRPC Endpoints

gRPC endpoints for managing the namespaces and policies in casbin-mesh:

• Enforce: to enforce a policy for a given namespace.
• CreateNamespace: to create a new namespace.
• SetModelFromString: to set the model for a given namespace.
• AddPolicies: to add policies to a given namespace.
• RemovePolicies: to remove policies from a given namespace.
• RemoveFilteredPolicy: to remove policies matching a filter from a given namespace.
• UpdatePolicies: to update policies in a given namespace.
• ClearPolicy: to clear all policies from a given namespace.
• PrintModel: to print the model for a given namespace.
• ListPolicies: to list all policies for a given namespace.

gRPC API Reference for the Command Service

The casbin-mesh service has the following methods:

• ShowStats: This method take a StatsRequest message and returns a StatsResponse message. It can be used to retrieve statistical information about the Casbin system.
• ListNamespaces: This method takes a ListNamespacesRequest message and returns a ListNamespacesResponse message. It can be used to list all the namespaces in the Casbin system.
• PrintModel: This method takes a PrintModelRequest message and returns a PrintModelResponse message. It can be used to retrieve the model of a specific namespace in the Casbin system.
• ListPolicies: This method takes a ListPoliciesRequest message and returns a ListPoliciesResponse message. It can be used to list all the policies in a specific namespace in the Casbin system.
• Request: This method takes a Command message and returns a Response message. It can be used to send various commands to the Casbin system.
• Enforce: This method takes an EnforceRequest message and returns an EnforceResponse message. It can be used to check if a request is authorized or not.
• The StatsRequest, ListNamespacesRequest, PrintModelRequest, and ListPoliciesRequest messages are all empty. They only serve as a placeholder for metadata that can be added to the request.
• The StatsResponse, PrintModelResponse, and ListPoliciesResponse messages all contain a payload field that can be used to pass back additional information.
• The ListNamespacesResponse message contains a list of namespaces in the namespace field.
• The Command message is used to send various commands to the Casbin system. It has a type field that specifies the type of command being sent, a namespace field that specifies the namespace the command should be applied to, a payload field that contains additional data for the command, and a metadata field that can be used to pass metadata along with the command.
• The EnforceRequest message is used to request authorization for a specific action. It has a namespace field that specifies the namespace to check the authorization in, an enforce_payload field that contains the details of the request, and a metadata field that can be used to pass metadata along with the request.
• The EnforceResponse message is used to respond to an EnforceRequest. It has an ok field that specifies if the request is authorized or not.

All documents were located in docs directory.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.