Apache Argus Proposal (http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/ArgusProposal)
== Abstract ==
Argus is a framework to enable, monitor and manage comprehensive data security
across the Hadoop platform.
The name “Argus” is derived from Argus Panoptes, a 100-eyed giant in Greek
mythology, endowed with a role to keep “an eye” open and be an effective
watchman at all times.
== Background ==
The vision with Argus is to provide comprehensive security across the Apache
Hadoop ecosystem. With the advent of Apache YARN, the Hadoop platform can now
support a true data lake architecture. Enterprises can potentially run multiple
workloads, in a multi tenant environment. Data security within Hadoop needs to
evolve to support multiple use cases for data access, while also providing a
framework for central administration of security policies and monitoring of
user access.
XA Secure, a Hadoop security focused startup, developed the initial technology
behind Argus. XA Secure was acquired by Hortonworks, which now is contributing
the technology to the open source community to extend and innovate.
== Rationale ==
Many of the projects in the Hadoop ecosystem have their own authentication,
authorization, and auditing components. There are no central administration and
auditing capabilities. We are looking to address these enterprises security
needs of central administration and comprehensive security through the Argus
project.
Our initial focus would be around authorization and auditing, the longer term
vision would be to tie all aspects around data security within the Hadoop
platform.
== Proposal Details ==
The vision of Argus is to enable comprehensive data security across the Hadoop
platform. The goal is provide a single user interface or API to manage security
policies, monitor user access and policy changes history. The framework would
work with individual components in enforcing these policies and in capturing
relevant audit information.
Initial Goals
1. Donate the Argus source code and documentation to the Apache
Software Foundation
2. Setup and standardize the open governance of the Argus project
3. Build a user and developer community
4. Deeper Integration with Hadoop Platform
a. Enable integration with Apache Storm, Apache Knox and
Apache Falcon for authorization and auditing
5. Configurable centralized storage of audit data into HDFS
6. Enable framework to be run in both Linux and Windows
environments
7. Rationalize install procedure, making it easier for enterprises
to deploy
== Longer Term Goals ==
In longer term, Argus should provide a comprehensive security framework for
Hadoop platform components, covering the following
1. Centralized security administration to manage all security
related tasks in a central UI
2. Fine grained authorization to do a specific action and/or
operation with Hadoop component/tool and managed through a central
administration tool
a. Standardize authorization method across all Hadoop
components
b. Enhanced support for different authorization methods -
Role based access control, attribute based access control etc
c. Enable tag based global policies
3. Centralize auditing of user access and administrative actions
(security related) within all the components of Hadoop
== Current Status ==
Argus’ technology is currently being used by enterprises and is under active
development.
The key components of Argus are:
• Enterprise Security Administration Portal
◦ A Java Web Application, designed for administration of
security policies from a single location for the entire hadoop cluster (and
even multiple hadoop clusters)
• Security Agents
◦ A light-weight Java Agent, which will be embedded into
the hadoop component (e.g. Hive, HBase and Hadoop) as an authorization provider
to enforce the security policies and also collect access events/logs.
• User/Group Synchronizer Module
◦ A standalone daemon which allows the user/group
information to be synched from the enterprise user repositories like LDAP/AD to
Argus local database. This user/group information in Argus local database will
help the security policy administrators
▪ to define security policies by selecting
users/groups from a drop-down box (instead of typing their name/group in a
text-box).
▪ to delegate policy administration to other
users/groups
▪ to restrict view of reports based on the
users/groups
• Centralized Audit Logs and Monitoring
◦ Log events to central data storage/database
◦ Interactive query of audit events
◦ Audit administrator actions
The initial version provides ability to
1. Define security policies using a central security
administration UI.
2. Fine grained access control for HDFS (file level) , Hive
(column level) and HBase (column level)
3. Framework to record access/operational events/logs as part of
auditing and view using a central monitoring UI.
4. Support delegated policy administration
5. Centralized audit monitoring and query capabilities
=== Meritocracy ===
We plan to invest in supporting a meritocracy. We will discuss the requirements
in an open forum. Several companies have already expressed interest in this
project, and we intend to invite additional developers to participate. We will
encourage and monitor community participation so that privileges can be
extended to those that contribute.
=== Community ===
We are happy to report that there are existing Apache committers and corporate
users who are closely involved in the project already. We hope to extend the
user and developer base further in the future and build a solid open source
community around Argus, growing the community and adding committers following
the Apache meritocracy model.
=== Core Developers ===
The initial technology within Argus was originally built by the team at XA
Secure. XA Secure was founded and managed by experienced members with a wide
background in enterprise security. Some of the XA’s core team have been
proposed as core developers for this project. The developer list also include
an Apache member and PMC members from several Apache projects (Hadoop, HBase,
and Knox). A concern is that all of the core developers are employed by
Hortonworks and thus an emphasis will be on increasing the diversity of the
developer community.
Alignment
The initial committers strongly believe that a unified security portal for
Apache Hadoop, Hive, and HBase will gain broad adoption as an open source,
community driven project. Our hope is that the Apache Falcon, Apache Storm,
Apache Knox, and other communities will find tremendous value in Argus and will
adopt it en masse.
== Known Risks ==
=== Orphaned Products ===
The initial code behind Argus is under active development and is being actively
used by several enterprises. It is not expected to be orphaned.
=== Inexperience with Open Source ===
Many of the core developers have long-standing experience in open source, Dili
Aramugam, Kevin Minder and Larry McCay are committers on the Apache Knox
project. Sanjay Radia and Owen O’Malley are PMC members on several Apache
projects. We have several mentors that will work with the inexperienced
committers on building a thriving developer community.
=== Homogeneous Developers ===
The current core developers are all from Hortonworks. However, we expect to
establish a thriving developer community that includes users of Argus and
developers of other Hadoop components.
=== Reliance on Salaried Developers ===
Currently, all of the developers are paid to work on Argus. A key goal for the
incubation process will be to broaden the developer base.
Relationships with Other Apache Products
The biggest risk is fast rate of growth of new features within the Hadoop
ecosystem and security standards not being applied during the initial
development of these new products. We believe an active engagement from the
Hadoop community would significantly aid adoption of common security framework
across the ecosystem and will help in establishing cross component standards.
As mentioned in the Alignment section, Argus is closely integrated with Hadoop,
Hive and HBase in a numerous ways. We look forward to collaborating with those
communities, as well as other Apache communities.
There is some overlap between the goals of Argus and Apache Sentry. Apache
encourages disjoint teams to form independent projects, even when those
projects overlap in scope. Additionally, we feel that the distinct code bases,
development teams, and different approaches to the problem should be
represented by different projects. This will provide better choices for users
to choose from.
=== An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand ===
While we respect the reputation of the Apache brand and have no doubts that it
will attract contributors and users, our interest is primarily to give Argus a
solid home as an open source project with a broad developer base and to
encourage adoption by the related ASF projects and foster innovation around
security
== Documentation ==
http://hortonworks.com/blog/hortonworks-acquires-xasecure-to-provide-comprehensive-security-for-enterprise-hadoop/
== Initial Source ==
We will make the initial source available as a patch.
== Source and IP Submission Plan ==
1. All source will be moved to Apache Infrastructure
2. All outstanding issues in our in-house JIRA infrastructure will be
replicated into the Apache JIRA system.
3. We will be acquiring a twitter handle for project Argus (eg:
@apacheargus )
== External Dependencies ==
Argus has no external dependencies except for some Java libraries that are
considered ASF-compatible (JUnit, SLF4J, …) and Apache artifacts : Hadoop,
Log4J and the transient dependencies of all these artifacts.
== Cryptography ==
Argus does not incorporate encryption currently.
== Required Resources ==
=== Mailing Lists: ===
1. argus-dev
2. argus-commits
3. argus-private
=== Infrastructure: ===
1. Git repository
2. JIRA Argus
3. Gerrit for reviewing patches
The existing code includes local host integration tests, so we would like a
Jenkins instance to run them whenever a new patch is submitted.
== Initial Committers ==
* Balaji Ganesan (bganesan at hortonworks.com)
* Dilli Arumugam (darumugam at hortonworks.com)
* Don Bosco Durai (bdurai at hortonworks.com)
* Kevin Minder (kminder at apache.org)
* Larry McCay (lmccay at apache.org)
* Madhanmohan Neethiraj (mneethiraj at hortonworks.com)
* Owen O’Malley (omalley at apache.org)
* Ramesh Mani (rmani at hortonworks.com)
* Sanjay Radia (sradia at apache.org)
* Selvamohan Neethiraj (sneethiraj at hortonworks.com)
== Affiliations ==
* Balaji Ganesan - Hortonworks
* Dilli Arumugam - Hortonworks
* Don Bosco Durai - Hortonworks
* Kevin Minder - Hortonworks
* Larry McCay - Hortonworks
* Madhanmohan Neethiraj - Hortonworks
* Owen O’Malley - Hortonworks
* Ramesh Mani - Hortonworks
* Sanjay Radia - Hortonworks
* Selvamohan Neethiraj - Hortonworks
== Sponsors ==
=== Champion: ===
* Owen O’Malley (omalley at apache.org) - Hortonworks
=== Nominated Mentors: ===
* Alan Gates - Hortonworks
* Devaraj Das - Hortonworks
* Jakob Homan - LinkedIn
* Owen O’Malley - Hortonworks
=== Sponsoring Entity ===
Incubator PMC
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