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Application credentials

Application credentials allow you to interact with Pouta via the OpenStack command-line tools or directly via the API, by allowing you to create a role specific and time limited TOKEN that can be revoked at any time. The most immediate advantage is that you no longer need to use or write your CSC password while using Pouta's API.

  • Role specific means that the credentials can be created with limited permissions. You can create credentials that are only allowed to get data of your project, but not modify it. You can also create credentials that can only modify a specific resource. It is also possible to create credentials that can do everything that you can.

  • Time limited means that the credentials can have a much shorter life than the password of the account that created it. This is useful to limit the repercussion of a credential leak.

  • Other advantages are that credentials can be revoked at any time, and that you cannot change or obtain the password if you have only the application credential that created it.

Application credentials are linked to the personal account

It is important to remember that the application credentials are personal, which means that the application credentials are owned by a user account and all operations that the credentials do is on behalf of the user that created the credentials. This means that if a user is removed from the project the user's credentials will stop working.

In general Application credentials give the power and flexibility to allow a safer interaction with Pouta's API.

Creating application credential

  1. Go to Pouta's web-interface.
  2. Choose which project you want to use. (You will only see the projects that have cPouta activated in my.csc.fi.)
  3. Go to Identitiy -> Application Credentials.

  4. Press Create Application Credential. A dialog will open.

    Create Application Credential cPouta

  5. It is a good idea to choose a descriptive name and description. Otherwise you might get confused in the future why the application credentials exist. It might be a good idea to name your first credentials Testing application credentials $TODAYS_DATE.

  6. Secret should be a long random string that you should keep secret. If you leave this empty the service will create a secret for you, this is probably the preferred method.
  7. It is a good idea to put an expiration date especially if you are testing the credentials only for today.
  8. There are four roles in cPouta, member, heat_stack_owner, object_store_user and creator. Usually you want to use the member role. You can find out more in the Using roles sections.
  9. The Unrestricted (dangerous) check-box will allow your application credentials to create new application credentials. You should never give an application or automation any credentials that have this permission.

  10. Once you have created the application credentials you can either download the credentials as a file that you can source, a YAML file that can be used directly by the CLI, or alternatively add the secret to your secret manager. This is the first and last time that you will be able to get access to this secret. If you lose it, you will need to revoke it and create a new one.

    If you downloaded the openrc file you will get a file that contains something like this:

    #!/usr/bin/env bash

export OS_AUTH_TYPE=v3applicationcredential
export OS_AUTH_URL=https://pouta.csc.fi:5001/v3
export OS_IDENTITY_API_VERSION=3
export OS_REGION_NAME="regionOne" # Depends if you are using cPouta or ePouta
export OS_INTERFACE=public
export OS_APPLICATION_CREDENTIAL_ID=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
export OS_APPLICATION_CREDENTIAL_SECRET=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    If you source that file, you can use it together with with OpenStack command-line tools.

    You can also download the cloud.yaml file that will look like this:

    # This is a clouds.yaml file, which can be used by OpenStack tools as a source
# of configuration on how to connect to a cloud. If this is your only cloud,
# just put this file in ~/.config/openstack/clouds.yaml and tools like
# python-openstackclient will just work with no further config. (You will need
# to add your password to the auth section)
# If you have more than one cloud account, add the cloud entry to the clouds
# section of your existing file and you can refer to them by name with
# OS_CLOUD=openstack or --os-cloud=openstack
clouds:
  openstack:

    auth:

      auth_url: https://pouta.csc.fi:5001/v3

      application_credential_id: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
      application_credential_secret: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 


    regions:

    - regionOne # Depends if you are using cPouta or ePouta


    interface: "public"
    identity_api_version: 3
    auth_type: "v3applicationcredential"

    See the comment on the file itself on how to use it.

Verify the credentials

It is a good idea to test that the application credentials are allowed to do what you expect them to be able to do. It is also a good idea to verify that they are NOT allowed to do what you expect them not to be allowed to do.

Using roles

In cPouta, there are four roles available: member, heat_stack_owner, object_store_user and creator.

  • member role is the normal user role. It can make changes to the system. When you login into the web-interface you have the member role enabled.

  • heat_stack_owner can operate over Heat stacks, that is create, modify and delete infrastructure. This is useful for using it in a IaC setup.

  • object_store_user can operate over Allas and Objects Store.

  • creator can create secrets such as passwords, encryption keys.

If you are using Applications credentials in ePouta, it's slightly different. There are two roles available: member and heat_stack_owner.

  • member role is the normal user role. When you login into the web-interface you have the member role enabled.

  • heat_stack_owner can operate over Heat stacks, that is create, modify and delete infrastructure. This is useful for using it in a IaC setup.

Last update: November 3, 2023