Dynatrace Operator security
Kubernetes observability relies on components with different purposes, default configurations, and permissions. These different components need permissions to perform and maintain operational function of Dynatrace within your cluster.
Permission list
Dynatrace Operator
Purpose: Maintains the lifecycle of Dynatrace components. Replaces OneAgent Operator.
Default configuration: 1-replica-per-cluster
Cluster-wide permissions
nodes""namespaces""secrets""secrets""dynatrace-dynakube-configdynatrace-metadata-enrichment-endpointmutatingwebhookconfigurationsadmissionregistration.k8s.iodynatrace-webhookvalidatingwebhookconfigurationsadmissionregistration.k8s.iodynatrace-webhookcustomresourcedefinitionsapiextensions.k8s.iodynakubes.dynatrace.comedgeconnects.dynatrace.comsecuritycontextconstraintssecurity.openshift.ioprivilegednonroot-v2Namespace dynatrace permissions
dynakubesdynatrace.comedgeconnectsdynatrace.comdynakubes/finalizersdynatrace.comdynakubes/statusdynatrace.comedgeconnects/finalizersdynatrace.comedgeconnects/statusdynatrace.comstatefulsetsappsdaemonsetsappsreplicasetsappsdeploymentsappsdeployments/finalizersappsconfigmaps""pods""secrets""events""services""pods/log""serviceentriesnetworking.istio.iovirtualservicesnetworking.istio.ioleasescoordination.k8s.ioOneAgent
Purposes:
- Collects host metrics from Kubernetes nodes.
- Detects new containers and injects OneAgent code modules into application pods using classic full-stack injection. optional
Default configuration: 1-replica-per-node (deployed via a DaemonSet)
Policy settings: Allows HostNetwork, HostPID, to use any volume types.
Necessary capabilities: CHOWN, DAC_OVERRIDE, DAC_READ_SEARCH, FOWNER, FSETID, KILL, NET_ADMIN, NET_RAW, SETFCAP, SETGID, SETUID, SYS_ADMIN, SYS_CHROOT, SYS_PTRACE, SYS_RESOURCE
securitycontextconstraintssecurity.openshift.ioprivilegedDynatrace CSI driver
Purpose:
- For
applicationMonitoringconfigurations, it provides the necessary OneAgent binary for application monitoring to the pods on each node. - For
hostMonitoringconfigurations, it provides a writable folder for the OneAgent configurations when a read-only host file system is used. - For
cloudNativeFullStack, it provides both of the above.
Default configuration: 1-replica-per-node (deployed via a DaemonSet)
Cluster-wide permission
securitycontextconstraintssecurity.openshift.ioprivilegedNamespace dynatrace permissions
dynakubesdynatrace.comsecrets""configmaps""events""Dynatrace webhook server
Purposes:
- Modifies pod definitions to include Dynatrace code modules for application observability
- Validates DynaKube custom resources
- Handles the DynaKube conversion between versions
Default configuration: 1-replica-per-cluster, can be scaled
Cluster-wide permissions
namespaces""secrets""secrets""dynatrace-dynakube-configdynatrace-metadata-enrichment-endpointreplicationcontrollers""replicasetsappsstatefulsetsappsdaemonsetsappsdeploymentsappsjobsbatchcronjobsbatchdeploymentconfigsapps.openshift.iosecuritycontextconstraintssecurity.openshift.ioprivilegednonroot-v2Namespace dynatrace permissions
events""secrets""pods""configmaps""dynakubesdynatrace.comdaemonsetsappsDynatrace ActiveGate (Kubernetes Platform Monitoring)
Purpose: collects cluster and workload metrics, events, and status from the Kubernetes API.
Default configuration: 1-replica-per-cluster, can be scaled
Cluster-wide permissions
nodes""pods""namespaces""replicationcontrollers""events""resourcequotas""pods/proxy""nodes/proxy""nodes/metrics""services""jobsbatchcronjobsbatchdeploymentsappsreplicasetsappsstatefulsetsappsdaemonsetsappsdeploymentconfigsapps.openshift.ioclusterversionsconfig.openshift.iodynakubesdynatrace.comsecuritycontextconstraintssecurity.openshift.ioprivilegednonroot-v2CIS Benchmark of Dynatrace Operator components
The following table presents a detailed analysis of the security controls for Kubernetes components: Dynatrace Operator, Webhook, and CSI. This report is based on the CIS Benchmark, a globally recognized standard for securing Kubernetes deployments.
General:
component needs to communicate with the Kubernetes API
CSI:
CSI driver requires elevated permissions to create and manage mounts on the host system. For more details, see CSI driver privileges.
CSI driver communicates with kubelet using a socket on the host, to access this socket the CSI driver needs to run as root.
CSI driver stores/caches the OneAgent binaries on the host's filesystem, in order to do that it needs a hostVolume mount.
CSI driver needs seLinux level s0 for the application pods to see files from the volume created by the CSI driver.
Pod security policies
These permissions used to be managed using a PodSecurityPolicy (PSP), but in Kubernetes version 1.25 PSPs will be removed from the following components:
- Dynatrace Operator version 0.2.2
- LEGACY Dynatrace OneAgent Operator version 0.11.0
- Corresponding Helm charts
Dynatrace Operator version 0.2.1 is the last version in which PSPs are applied by default, so it's up to you to enforce these rules. As PSP alternatives, you can use other policy enforcement tools such as:
If you choose to use a PSP alternative, be sure to provide the necessary permissions to the Dynatrace components.
Dynatrace Operator security context constraints
Dynatrace Operator version 0.12.0+
Starting with Dynatrace Operator version 0.12.0, the built-in creation of custom security context constraints (SCCs) has been removed for Dynatrace Operator and Dynatrace Operator–managed components. This change was made to reduce complications caused by custom SCCs in unique OpenShift setups.
Despite this update, the components maintain the same permissions and security requirements as before.
The following tables show the SCCs used in different versions of Dynatrace Operator and OpenShift.
This SCC is the only built-in OpenShift SCC that allows usage of seccomp, which our components have set by default, and also the usage of CSI volumes.
It is still possible to create your own more permissive or restrictive SCCs that take your specific setup into consideration. You can safely remove the old SCCs that were created by a previous Dynatrace Operator version.
To remove the old SCCs, use the following command:
oc delete scc <scc-name>