Protect Directories in SingleStore Using CTE

Get the List of Directories to Guard and Add them to CTE

The directories (or folders) identified by the following SingleStore directories need to be secured on every node in the cluster:

data
tracelogs
plancache
auditlogs

The nodes metadata file (usually called nodes.hcl) has to be secured on each host in the cluster.

If you are using the default SingleStore installation paths, use the following default directories as Guard points to simplify the process:

/var/lib/memsql for RPM/Debian based singlestoredb-server/memsql-server installations
$tar_install_dir/nodes for tar based singlestoredb-server/memsql-server installations

Otherwise, to find these directories, you can run sdb-admin describe-node --all.

Here is part of the sample output of this command corresponding to the master node in the cluster example:

+--------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| memsqlId           | D04E4F761C5651BAF9CE1922B3FC7C05E30CE037                                        
| host               | ec2-18-192-24-241.eu-central-1.compute.amazonaws.com                            
| role               | Master                                                                          
| port               | 3306                                                                            
| bindAddress        | 0.0.0.0                                                                        
| processState       | Running                                                                         
| version            | 7.1.11                                                                          
| memsqlConfig       | /home/memsql/memsql/nodes/d8d2b5f4-d046-4a6f-a0c1-9f6e0525fd16/memsql.cnf       
| datadir            | /home/memsql/memsql/nodes/d8d2b5f4-d046-4a6f-a0c1-9f6e0525fd16/data             
| plancachedir       | /home/memsql/memsql/nodes/d8d2b5f4-d046-4a6f-a0c1-9f6e0525fd16/plancache        
| tracelogsdir       | /home/memsql/memsql/nodes/d8d2b5f4-d046-4a6f-a0c1-9f6e0525fd16/tracelogs        
| auditlogsdir       | /home/memsql/memsql/nodes/d8d2b5f4-d046-4a6f-a0c1-9f6e0525fd16/auditlogs        
| memsqld            | /home/memsql/memsql/memsql-server-7.1.11-6c108deb15/memsqld                     
| nodeID             | 1                                                                               
| pid                | 22072                                                                           
| dpid               | 22079                                                                           
| autoRestartEnabled | true                                                                            
| isConnectable      | true                                                                            
| recoveryState      | Online                                                                          
| availabilityGroup  | --                                                                              
| config             | Omitted from table view. Use 'sdb-admin describe-node ... --property config'    
| variables          | Omitted from table view. Use 'sdb-admin describe-node ... --property variables'
+--------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To encrypt data and enable access control using CTE, you will need to set up Guard points at the directories shown in the output above as the values of:

datadir
plancachedir
tracelogsdir
auditlogsdir

You also need to guard the directory where nodesMetadataFile is located. You will need the path to memsqld (/home/memsql/memsql/memsql-server-7.1.11-6c108deb15 in our case) in order to find the location of the nodes metadata file. To find this, run <PATH TO memsqld>/memsqlctl env. Here is the sample output:

+-------------------+----------------------------------------+
| memsqlctlConfig   | /home/memsql/memsql/memsqlctl.hcl      |
| defaultInstallDir | /home/memsql/memsql/nodes              |
| nodeMetadataFile  | /home/memsql/memsql/nodes/nodes.hcl    |
| userInfo          | uid=1000(memsql) gid=1000(memsql)      |
| user              | memsql                                 |
+-------------------+----------------------------------------+

You should see the directory where nodesMetadataFile is located. Add it to the list of the directories to protect.

In default SingleStore installations, it is /var/lib/memsql. In our example, it is $tar_install_dir/nodes.

The example cluster used memsql-server-7.1.11.tar.gz for cluster setup, with tar_install_dir=/home/memsql/memsql, so it would require a guard point for the directory /home/memsql/memsql/nodes. The same procedure would apply for any other directories that you have configured in a non-default way. You will have to identify the specific path for each of those and configure CTE to protect them individually.

In addition to protecting the data, plancache, tracelogs, auditlogs, and nodes metadata, you may wish to secure the destination directory or directories for backups and SELECT INTO OUTFILE results. You can use the same set of policies to protect those directories. The location of those directories depends on your specific configuration.

Now that you have the locations of the directories, you can proceed to configuring DSM to guard them.

Configure Vormetric Data Security Manager (DSM)

Perform the following steps on the DSM using the web GUI:

Generate the SingleStore Key for Encryption
Create a SingleStore User Set
Create Encryption and Decryption Data Transformation Policies
Create a SingleStore Process Set
Configure Host File Settings
Create a SingleStore Security Policy
Create Encryption Guard Points and Transform Data
Enable the SingleStore Security Policy

Once you have completed these steps you can verify the installation and configuration.

Generate the SingleStore Key for Encryption

Select Keys > Agent Keys > Keys from the main menu.
Click the Add button to add the key. Enter the name singlestore_key. Choose the default template Default_SQL_Symmetric_KeyTemplate. Click Ok.

Create a SingleStore User Set

Select Policies > Manage Policies > User Sets from the main menu.
Enter the name for the User Set: SingleStoreUser.
Click Add.
Click Browse Users.
Select the host on which you want to add the user. Click Ok.
The list of users should appear in the bottom of the screen. Choose the user that is running SingleStore nodes on the host (memsql in most cases) and the user that is running Toolbox commands.

Create Encryption and Decryption Data Transformation Policies

Encryption Policy will be used for initial data encryption. Decryption Policy may be used in case you need to decrypt the data protected by CTE.

Encryption Policy

Select Policies > Manage Policies > Manage Policies.
Click Add.
Choose the Standard policy type.
Enter the name: SingleStore_encryption.
Under Security rules, click Add to add a security rule.
Click Select next to Action, choose key_op.
Click Select next to Effect, choose Permit, Apply key, Audit. Click Ok.
Under Key Selection Rules section, click Add, then Select.
Choose clear_key, click Select Key. Click Ok.
Under Data Transformation Rules, click Add, then Select.
Choose singlestore_key, click Select Key. Click Ok.

Decryption Policy

Select Policies > Manage Policies > Manage Policies.
Click Add.
Choose the Standard policy type.
Enter the name SingleStore_decryption.
Under Security rules, click Add to add a security rule.
Click Select next to Action, choose key_op.
Click Select next to Effect, choose Permit, Apply key, Audit. Click Ok.
Under Key Selection Rules section, click Add, then Select.
Choose singlestore_key, click Select Key. Click Ok.
Under Data Transformation Rules, click Add, then Select.
Choose clear_key, click Select Key. Click Ok.

Create a SingleStore Process Set

Note

This section specifies which processes access the data directories used by SingleStore nodes. If the operational model of the database changes, this list will need to be updated.

Select Policies > Manage Policies > Process Sets.
Click Add.
Enter the name: singlestore-process-set.
Add entries via the Add button on the left.
Select the SingleStore host.
Add the following entries:
- memsqld (main database daemon process)
- memsqld_safe (daemon that restarts memsqld if it crashes or is killed)
- memsqlctl (the tool that controls local DB nodes)
- bash, sh (to perform certain file operations)

Find the locations of the memsql* commands/binaries by running: sdb-admin describe-node --all on the Toolbox host. In the example above memsqld is located at /home/memsql/memsql/memsql-server-7.1.11-6c108deb15/memsqld. The same directory contains memsqld_safe and memsqlctl. That path (/home/memsql/memsql/memsql-server-7.1.11-6c108deb15/ in our example) is the MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH mentioned below. Wherever you see MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH below, replace it with your path.

When you know the location, you can enter it in the Directory field, then add the process name in File and click Ok. You should end up with a configuration similar to this:

Directory	Base Name
<MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH>	`memsqlctl`
<MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH>	`memsqld`
<MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH>	`memsqld_safe`
/bin/	bash
/bin/	sh
/bin/	cat
/bin/	touch

For Debian/RPM based installations singlestore-process-set should be similar to the following configuration:

Directory	Base Name
/bin/	bash
/bin/	sh
/bin/	touch
/bin/	chown
/bin/	chmod
/bin/	cat
/bin/	memsqlctl
/usr/bin/	bash
/usr/bin/	sudo
/usr/bin/	memsqlctl
/opt/memsql-server-*	memsqld
/opt/memsql-server-*	memsqld_safe
/opt/singlestoredb-server*	memsqld
/opt/singlestoredb-server*	memsqld_safe

Note that you may need to replace /bin/ with /usr/bin/ above. Although, you may need to include both the entries, /bin and /usr/bin.To check the bash location, run which bash.

Configure Host File Settings

On the DSM Management Console, navigate to the Hosts > Hosts page.
For each SingleStore host, click on the host’s IP Address or Hostname.

Select the Host Settings tab, and add the following host settings entries as new lines:

|authenticator_euid|<MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH>/memsqld
|authenticator_euid|<MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH>/memsqld_safe
|authenticator_euid|<MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH>/memsqlctl

Click the Re-Sign Host Settings checkbox.
Click Ok.

Create a SingleStore Security Policy

You need to create a specific SingleStore security policy that will include the user and process sets defined above. This SingleStore security policy will be used by the guard points to enforce read, write, and execution of files in the protected paths (/home/memsql/memsql/nodes in this example case). This is the main point where access control is defined, so it should be modified according to your needs.

Select Policies > Manage Policies > Manage Policies.
Click Add.
Choose the Standard policy type. Enter the name: SingleStore_security.
Under Security Rules, click Add. Add the following security rules in this order:
- This rule will be applied for any user to allow browsing the directories on host.
  - Action: f_rd_att, f_rd_sec, d_rd, d_rd_att, d_rd_sec
  - Effect: Permit
- This rule will be applied for the user(s) running SingleStore and the corresponding processes. It is the only policy with Apply Key enabled to decrypt data.
  - User: SingleStoreUser
  - Process: singlestore-process-set
  - Action: all_ops
  - Effect: Permit, Apply Key
- This rule allows everyone to read encrypted data.
  - Action: read
  - Effect: Permit
- This rule will be applied for all other users/processes attempting to access SingleStore data.
  - Action: all_ops
  - Effect: Audit, Deny
Under Key Selection Rules, click Add.
Select singlestore_key.
Click Ok.

Create Encryption Guard Points and Transform Data

Warning

Before encrypting the data, all nodes must be stopped. To do this, run sdb-admin stop-node --all --yes on the Toolbox host (the local machine, in the example configuration).

Select Hosts > Hosts in the main menu.
Click on the SingleStore Host name.
Go to the Guard Points tab.
Click Guard.
Choose the SingleStore_encryption Policy.
Enter the list of full paths to the directories you want to guard.
Click Ok.
The log file will show a message that the target directory paths are successfully guarded. You will see a green circle next to the guard point that you created.
On the host where CTE is installed, switch to a root user. For each of the guarded directories run dataxform --rekey --preserve_modified_time --gp <GUARD_DIR> (replacing GUARD_DIR with the the name of each directory).

Again, verify that you have created a guard point for all data, plan cache, audit log, trace log, nodes metadata, backup, and outfile directories (if any) that you wish to protect for your SingleStore environment.

Troubleshooting Tips

If you need to re-run dataxform for the same directory more than once, you may get the Automatic data transform status for /home/memsql/memsql/nodes: previous attempt completed error message. In this case you need to run dataxform --cleanup --gp <GUARD_DIR>
If you do not see a green circle next to your guard point, the directory may be busy, i.e. there is a shell connected to it. You have to exit the directory for the guard point to be active.
To decrypt the data, disable all the guard points, then create guard points for the same directories as you used for SingleStore_encryption but with SingleStore_decryption policy, and run dataxform --rekey --preserve_modified_time --gp GUARD_DIR

Enable the SingleStore Security Policy

Select Hosts > Hosts, click on your CTE host.
Disable all entries with Policy SingleStore_enryption.
Select Guard points tab, click Guard.
Select the SingleStore_security policy, Type: Directory (Auto Guard).
Enter the list of full paths to the directories you want to guard (/home/memsql/memsql/nodes in this example).
Click Ok.
The log file will show a message that the target directory paths are successfully guarded. You will see a green circle next to the guard point that you created.
Click Ok.
After a short delay you will see the green circle next to the newly created SingleStore_security entries. This means that the policy is active and SingleStore processes and data are protected.
Now you can start the SingleStore cluster by running sdb-admin start-node --all --yes.

Verify the Installation

In order to check that the process has been performed successfully:

On a SingleStore host, open one of the nodes’ config files:
Shell
```
cat /home/memsql/memsql/nodes/d8d2b5f4-d046-4a6f-a0c1-9f6e0525fd16/memsql.cnf
```
You should see that the data is encrypted.
Run sdb-admin describe-node --all. This should show the same result as before the encryption.
Connect to the database and run some queries: create a database or table, insert some data, select some data.

Configure Guard Points after SingleStore Upgrade

When upgrading SingleStore (say, from version 7.11 to 7.12), you need to update your configuration. For SingleStore, if the tar installation is used, the memsqlctl path changes on upgrade, and therefore you need to update the MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH directory to add the new binaries to the singlestore-process-set.

Note

If you are using CTE 7.1+, you can use wildcards to specify the location of binaries. This feature allows you to specify /opt/singlestoredb-server* and /opt/memsql-server-* as location of binaries for Debian/RPM clusters and upgrade SingleStore without additional configuration.

Run sdb-deploy install <desired version>.
Go to your tar_install_dir and find the newly installed memsql-server directory, e.g. memsql-server-7.1.12-2sdt55frq5.
In DSM, add three entries to singlestore-process-set with MEMSQL_BINARIES_PATH replaced by <tar_install_dir>/memsql-server-7.1.12-2sdt55frq5.
Run sdb-deploy upgrade <desired version>.
Delete entries corresponding to the old SingleStore version.

Appendix A

The following example explains how to prepare an AWS instance for use with CTE and Ubuntu. For other supported Linux distributions in AWS (including RHEL, CentOS, SLES, Amazon Linux) changing the kernel is not required before CTE installation.

Prepare an AWS Instance (Ubuntu Only)

Launch an AWS instance with at least 4 CPU cores and 16 GB of RAM. You will then need to modify it to install the CTE agent software.
Install the generic Ubuntu kernels:
Shell
```
sudo apt install linux-generic
```

Find the $menuentry_id_option for the submenu:

Shell

grep submenu /boot/grub/grub.cfg

SAMPLE OUTPUT:

submenu 'Advanced options for Debian GNU/Linux' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc'

Find the $menuentry_id_option for the menu entry for the generic kernel version you want to use. You can choose any kernel version up to 4.4.0-189-generic:

Shell

grep gnulinux /boot/grub/grub.cfg

SAMPLE OUTPUT:

 menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { submenu 'Advanced options for Debian GNU/Linux' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64 (recovery mode)' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64-recovery-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' {menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { submenu 'Advanced options for Debian GNU/Linux' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64 (recovery mode)' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-rt-amd64-recovery-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' { menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc' {

Comment out your current GRUB_DEFAULT definition in /etc/default/grub and replace it with the submenu $menuentry_id_option from step 3, and the selected kernel’s $menuentry_id_option from step 4 separated by >.

Example modified GRUB_DEFAULT: #GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_DEFAULT="gnulinux-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc>gnulinux-4.18.0-0.bpo.1-amd64-advanced-38ea4a12-6cfe-4ed9-a8b5-036295e62ffc"
Update grub to save the changes:
Shell
```
sudo update-grub
```
Reboot the server; after reboot you should be running the generic kernel that you selected. Confirm by running:
Shell
```
sudo uname -a
```

Protect Directories in SingleStore Using CTE

On this page

Get the List of Directories to Guard and Add them to CTE

Configure Vormetric Data Security Manager (DSM)

Generate the SingleStore Key for Encryption

Create a SingleStore User Set

Create Encryption and Decryption Data Transformation Policies

Encryption Policy

Decryption Policy

Create a SingleStore Process Set

Configure Host File Settings

Create a SingleStore Security Policy

Create Encryption Guard Points and Transform Data

Enable the SingleStore Security Policy

Verify the Installation

Configure Guard Points after SingleStore Upgrade

Appendix A

Prepare an AWS Instance (Ubuntu Only)

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