Use the image freshness check

This page shows you how to use the Binary Authorization continuous validation (CV) image freshness check to check the freshness of the images associated with Pods running on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters where CV is enabled. To do this, CV checks when the image was uploaded to the image registry.

This check supports only Artifact Registry and Container Registry repositories.

Costs

This guide uses the following Google Cloud services:

Binary Authorization, but CV is available free of charge during the Preview stage
Google Kubernetes Engine

To generate a cost estimate based on your projected usage, use the pricing calculator.

Before you begin

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running

gcloud components
      update

Create or select a Google Cloud project.

Create a Google Cloud project:
```
gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID
```
Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.
Select the Google Cloud project that you created:
```
gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
```
Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Artifact Registry, Binary Authorization, Google Kubernetes Engine APIs:

gcloud services enable artifactregistry.googleapis.com binaryauthorization.googleapis.com cloudbuild.googleapis.com container.googleapis.com

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running

gcloud components
      update

Create or select a Google Cloud project.

Create a Google Cloud project:
```
gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID
```
Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.
Select the Google Cloud project that you created:
```
gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
```
Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Artifact Registry, Binary Authorization, Google Kubernetes Engine APIs:

gcloud services enable artifactregistry.googleapis.com binaryauthorization.googleapis.com cloudbuild.googleapis.com container.googleapis.com

Ensure that the gcloud CLI is updated to the latest version.
Install the kubectl command-line tool.
If your Binary Authorization policies and GKE clusters are in different projects, make sure that Binary Authorization is enabled in both projects.

Required roles

This section shows you how to set roles for this check.

Overview

If you run all of the products that are mentioned in this guide in the same project, you don't need to set any permissions. Binary Authorization configures the roles correctly when you enable it. If you run the products in different projects, you must set roles as described in this section.

To ensure that the policy project's Binary Authorization Service Agent has the necessary permissions to evaluate the CV image freshness check, ask your administrator to grant the policy project's Binary Authorization Service Agent the following IAM roles:

If your cluster project is different than the policy project: Binary Authorization Policy Evaluator (roles/binaryauthorization.policyEvaluator) on the cluster project Binary Authorization Service Agent, for it to access the policy project
If your Artifact Registry project—the project that stores your images—is different from your policy project: Artifact Registry Reader (roles/artifactregistry.reader) on the policy project Binary Authorization Service Agent, for it to access the attestation project
If your Artifact Registry project is different from your cluster project: Artifact Registry Reader (roles/artifactregistry.reader) on the cluster project Binary Authorization Service Agent, for it to access image metadata in the Artifact Registry project

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

Your administrator might also be able to give the policy project's Binary Authorization Service Agent the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

Grant roles using the gcloud CLI

To ensure that the Binary Authorization Service Agent in each project has the necessary permissions to evaluate this check, grant the Binary Authorization Service Agent in each project the following IAM roles.

Cluster project different than the policy project

Grant the Binary Authorization service agent in the cluster project the Binary Authorization Policy Evaluator (roles/binaryauthorization.policyEvaluator) role on the policy project.

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding POLICY_PROJECT_ID \
  --member="serviceAccount:service-$(gcloud projects describe CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID --format='value(projectNumber)')@gcp-sa-binaryauthorization.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role=roles/binaryauthorization.policyEvaluator

Replace the following:

POLICY_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project that contains your policy.
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the project ID of the cluster.

Policy project different than the artifact project

Grant the Binary Authorization service agent in the policy project the Artifact Registry Reader (roles/artifactregistry.reader) role on the artifact project.

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding ARTIFACT_PROJECT_ID \
    --member="serviceAccount:service-$(gcloud projects describe POLICY_PROJECT_ID --format='value(projectNumber)')@gcp-sa-binaryauthorization.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
    --role=roles/artifactregistry.reader

Replace ARTIFACT_PROJECT_ID with the ID of the project that contains your Artifact Registry repository.

Cluster project different than the artifact project

Grant the Binary Authorization service agent in the cluster project the Artifact Registry Reader (roles/artifactregistry.reader) role on the artifact project.

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding ARTIFACT_PROJECT_ID \
    --member="serviceAccount:service-$(gcloud projects describe CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID --format='value(projectNumber)')@gcp-sa-binaryauthorization.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
    --role=roles/artifactregistry.reader

Replace the following:

ARTIFACT_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project that contains your Artifact Registry repository.
Note: If you use Container Registry, you can use the Storage Object Viewer (roles/storage.objectViewer) role, but we recommend that you migrate to Artifact Registry. Container Registry is deprecated. For migration instructions, see Transition from Container Registry.
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the project ID that runs your GKE clusters.

Create a platform policy

To create a CV platform policy with the image freshness check, do the following:

Create the platform policy YAML file:
```
cat << EOF > /tmp/my-policy.yaml
gkePolicy:
  checkSets:
  - checks:
    - imageFreshnessCheck:
        maxUploadAgeDays: MAX_UPLOAD_AGE_DAYS
      displayName: CHECK_DISPLAY_NAME
    displayName: CHECK_SET_DISPLAY_NAME
EOF
```
Replace the following:
- MAX_UPLOAD_AGE_DAYS: the maximum elapsed time since the image was uploaded to the registry, in days.
- CHECK_SET_DISPLAY_NAME: an optional display name of your choice for the check set
- CHECK_DISPLAY_NAME: an optional display name of your choice for the check
Create the platform policy:

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:
- POLICY_ID: A platform policy ID of your choice. If the policy is in another project, you can use the full resource name: projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID.
- POLICY_PATH: A path to the policy file.
- POLICY_PROJECT_ID: The policy project ID.
Execute the following command:
Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.
```
gcloud beta container binauthz policy create POLICY_ID \
    --platform=gke \
    --policy-file=POLICY_PATH \
    --project=POLICY_PROJECT_ID
```
Windows (PowerShell)

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.
```
gcloud beta container binauthz policy create POLICY_ID `
    --platform=gke `
    --policy-file=POLICY_PATH `
    --project=POLICY_PROJECT_ID
```
Windows (cmd.exe)

Note: Ensure you have initialized the Google Cloud CLI with authentication and a project by running either gcloud init; or gcloud auth login and gcloud config set project.
```
gcloud beta container binauthz policy create POLICY_ID ^
    --platform=gke ^
    --policy-file=POLICY_PATH ^
    --project=POLICY_PROJECT_ID
```

Enable CV

You can create a new cluster or update an existing cluster to use CV monitoring with check-based platform policies.

Create a cluster that uses CV monitoring

In this section, you create a cluster that uses only CV monitoring with check-based platform policies.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

CLUSTER_NAME: a cluster name.
LOCATION: the location—for example, us-central1 or asia-south1.
POLICY_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where the policy is stored.
POLICY_ID: the policy ID.
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the cluster project ID.

Execute the following command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud beta container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME \
    --location=LOCATION \
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS \
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID \
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud beta container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME `
    --location=LOCATION `
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS `
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID `
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud beta container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME ^
    --location=LOCATION ^
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS ^
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID ^
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Create cluster that uses enforcement and CV monitoring

In this section, you create a cluster that uses both project-singleton policy enforcement and CV monitoring with check-based platform policies:

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

CLUSTER_NAME: a cluster name.
LOCATION: the location—for example, us-central1 or asia-south1.
POLICY_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where the policy is stored.
POLICY_ID: the policy ID.
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the cluster project ID.

Execute the following command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud beta container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME \
    --location=LOCATION \
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS_AND_PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE \
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID \
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud beta container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME `
    --location=LOCATION `
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS_AND_PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE `
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID `
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud beta container clusters create CLUSTER_NAME ^
    --location=LOCATION ^
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS_AND_PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE ^
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID ^
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Update a cluster to use CV monitoring

In this section, you update a cluster to use CV monitoring with check-based platform policies only. If the cluster already has project-singleton policy enforcement enabled, running this command disables it. Instead, consider updating the cluster with enforcement and CV monitoring enabled.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

CLUSTER_NAME: the cluster name
LOCATION: the location—for example: us-central1 or asia-south1
POLICY_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where the policy is stored
POLICY_ID: the policy ID
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the cluster project ID

Execute the following command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME \
    --location=LOCATION \
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS \
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID \
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME `
    --location=LOCATION `
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS `
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID `
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME ^
    --location=LOCATION ^
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS ^
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID ^
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Update a cluster to use enforcement and CV monitoring

In this section, you update a cluster to use both project-singleton policy enforcement and CV monitoring with check-based platform policies.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

CLUSTER_NAME: a cluster name
LOCATION: the location—for example: us-central1 or asia-south1
POLICY_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where the policy is stored
POLICY_ID: the policy ID
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the cluster project ID

Execute the following command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME \
    --location=LOCATION \
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS_AND_PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE \
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID \
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME `
    --location=LOCATION `
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS_AND_PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE `
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID `
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME ^
    --location=LOCATION ^
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=POLICY_BINDINGS_AND_PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE ^
    --binauthz-policy-bindings=name=projects/POLICY_PROJECT_ID/platforms/gke/policies/POLICY_ID ^
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

View logs for CV entries

You can search Cloud Logging entries to find CV configuration errors and CV platform policy validation violations.

CV logs errors and violations to Cloud Logging within 24 hours. You can usually see entries within a few hours.

View CV configuration error logs

To view CV configuration error logs, run the following command:

gcloud logging read \
     --order="desc" \
     --freshness=7d \
     --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID \
    'logName:"binaryauthorization.googleapis.com%2Fcontinuous_validation" "configErrorEvent"'

The following output shows a configuration error in which a CV platform policy isn't found:

{
  "insertId": "141d4f10-72ea-4a43-b3ec-a03da623de42",
  "jsonPayload": {
    "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.binaryauthorization.v1beta1.ContinuousValidationEvent",
    "configErrorEvent": {
      "description": "Cannot monitor cluster 'us-central1-c.my-cluster': Resource projects/123456789/platforms/gke/policies/my-policy does not exist."
    }
  },
  "resource": {
    "type": "k8s_cluster",
    "labels": {
      "cluster_name": "my-cluster",
      "location": "us-central1-c",
      "project_id": "my-project"
    }
  },
  "timestamp": "2024-05-28T15:31:03.999566Z",
  "severity": "WARNING",
  "logName": "projects/my-project/logs/binaryauthorization.googleapis.com%2Fcontinuous_validation",
  "receiveTimestamp": "2024-05-28T16:30:56.304108670Z"
}

View CV platform policy validation violations

If no images violate the platform policies that you have enabled, no entries appear in the logs.

To view CV log entries for the last seven days, run the following command:

gcloud logging read \
     --order="desc" \
     --freshness=7d \
     --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID \
    'logName:"binaryauthorization.googleapis.com%2Fcontinuous_validation" "policyName"'

Replace CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID with the cluster project ID.

Check types

CV logs check violation information to checkResults. In the entry, the value checkType indicates the check. The values for each check are as follows:

ImageFreshnessCheck
SigstoreSignatureCheck
SimpleSigningAttestationCheck
SlsaCheck
TrustedDirectoryCheck
VulnerabilityCheck

Example log

The following example CV Logging entry describes a non-conformant image that violates a trusted directory check:

{
  "insertId": "637c2de7-0000-2b64-b671-24058876bb74",
  "jsonPayload": {
    "podEvent": {
      "endTime": "2022-11-22T01:14:30.430151Z",
      "policyName": "projects/123456789/platforms/gke/policies/my-policy",
      "images": [
        {
          "result": "DENY",
          "checkResults": [
            {
              "explanation": "TrustedDirectoryCheck at index 0 with display name \"My trusted directory check\" has verdict NOT_CONFORMANT. Image is not in a trusted directory",
              "checkSetName": "My check set",
              "checkSetIndex": "0",
              "checkName": "My trusted directory check",
              "verdict": "NON_CONFORMANT",
              "checkType": "TrustedDirectoryCheck",
              "checkIndex": "0"
            }
          ],
          "image": "gcr.io/my-project/hello-app:latest"
        }
      ],
      "verdict": "VIOLATES_POLICY",
      "podNamespace": "default",
      "deployTime": "2022-11-22T01:06:53Z",
      "pod": "hello-app"
    },
    "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.binaryauthorization.v1beta1.ContinuousValidationEvent"
  },
  "resource": {
    "type": "k8s_cluster",
    "labels": {
      "project_id": "my-project",
      "location": "us-central1-a",
      "cluster_name": "my-test-cluster"
    }
  },
  "timestamp": "2022-11-22T01:44:28.729881832Z",
  "severity": "WARNING",
  "logName": "projects/my-project/logs/binaryauthorization.googleapis.com%2Fcontinuous_validation",
  "receiveTimestamp": "2022-11-22T03:35:47.171905337Z"
}

Clean up

This section describes how to clean up the CV monitoring you configured earlier in this guide.

You can disable CV monitoring or both Binary Authorization and CV in your cluster.

Disable Binary Authorization in a cluster

To disable both CV and Binary Authorization enforcement in your cluster, run the following command:

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME \
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=DISABLED \
    --location=LOCATION \
    --project=CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID

Replace the following:

CLUSTER_NAME: the name of the cluster
LOCATION: the cluster location
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the cluster project ID

Disable check-based policy monitoring in a cluster

To disable CV with check-based policies in the cluster, and re-enable enforcement using the Binary Authorization enforcement policy, run the following command:

gcloud beta container clusters update CLUSTER_NAME  \
    --binauthz-evaluation-mode=PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE \
    --location=LOCATION \
    --project="CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID"

Replace the following:

CLUSTER_NAME: the name of the cluster
LOCATION: the cluster location
CLUSTER_PROJECT_ID: the cluster project ID

Note that --binauthz-evaluation-mode=PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE is equivalent to the older flag --enable-binauthz.

Delete the policy

To delete the policy, run the following command. It is not necessary to delete the check-based platform policy to disable check-based policy auditing.

gcloud beta container binauthz policy delete POLICY_ID \
    --platform=gke \
    --project="POLICY_PROJECT_ID"

Replace the following:

POLICY_ID: the ID of the policy
POLICY_PROJECT_ID: the policy project ID

Use the image freshness check

Costs

Before you begin

Required roles

Overview

Grant roles using the gcloud CLI

Cluster project different than the policy project

Policy project different than the artifact project

Cluster project different than the artifact project

Create a platform policy

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Windows (PowerShell)

Windows (cmd.exe)

Enable CV

Create a cluster that uses CV monitoring

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Windows (PowerShell)

Windows (cmd.exe)

Create cluster that uses enforcement and CV monitoring

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Windows (PowerShell)

Windows (cmd.exe)

Update a cluster to use CV monitoring

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Windows (PowerShell)

Windows (cmd.exe)

Update a cluster to use enforcement and CV monitoring

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Windows (PowerShell)

Windows (cmd.exe)

View logs for CV entries

View CV configuration error logs

View CV platform policy validation violations

Check types

Example log

Clean up

Disable Binary Authorization in a cluster

Disable check-based policy monitoring in a cluster

Delete the policy

What's next