appgate-conkolla

Conkolla

A HTTP API Gateway (aka proxy) for interacting with the AppGate API. The name is a portmanteau for Controller and kolla, translated from a discovered rune stone in Gothenburg in Sweden meaning: “to look at the Controller”.

History

While we, the Customer Reliability Team, have been working with various integration projects which involved AppGate API, we learned that a tool would be handy to rapid prototyping. Eventually “the tool” became more feature rich and we started to believe it is useful for anyone working with AppGate SDP integrations.

From an educational standpoint, Conkolla allows you to:

• Discover the API against a real system.
• Model or craft API requests and work with real responses.
• Let’s you retrieve tokens when you have not yet covered the auth process in your script.
• Can be used as a API gateway connecting to many AppGate Controllers at the same time.
• Gives you discovery with a Web based UI.
• Gives you all the scripting flexibility to use the http rest API (JSON).
• Administrate your AppGate.
• and many more….

The AppGate API can be learned and discovered in different ways. One of the common ways is to use the developer tools in a web browser while browsing through the AppGate admin UI, or use existing API Gateway or API Mocker such as postman or prism. However, with Conkolla you get another option to choose from.

Usage

Conkolla can be seen as a proxy, sitting between the user and the AppGate Controller:

Note: As to the diagram depicts the Packnot logo: Packnot is our own brand of fake business all for training purposes.

The user will basically do the following steps when using Conkolla:

1. Launch Conkolla.
2. Login to a AppGate Controller through Conkolla.
3. Use the the new connection in Conkolla to run rest calls against the connected Controller.

Quick start

Get Conkolla

Conkolla (64bit) runs on macOS, Windows and linux. Download the binaries:

• Conkolla latest release

Docker

docker pull mar8x/Conkolla:latest
docker run -p 4433:4433 mar8x/Conkolla:latest

k8s

See the example deployment.yaml:

# deploy
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

# pfwd to app
kubectl --namespace ${NAMESPACE} port-forward \
$(kubectl get pod --namespace ${NAMESPACE} -l app=conkolla -o template \
--template "") 4433

Run Conkolla

By default Conkolla serves on https://localhost:4433. Different serving options are available, check with Conkolla --h for more information. Keep the window in the background, it will reveal a good part of the interactions between client - Conkolla - Controller, and can be useful to follow the requests & responses, and payloads.

Windows

Open a cmd line or powershell, then type Conkolla.exe.

Linux & macOS

chmod +x Conkolla
./Conkolla

you will see a start message, something like this:

./Conkolla
{
    "copyright": "Cyxtera Technologies  2019",
    "date": "2019-03-29",
    "directory": "/Users/tornrösa/execbin",
    "certPath": "templates/cert.pem",
    "keyPath": "templates/key.pem",
    "url": "https://localhost:4433",
    "tls": true,
    "mode": "release",
    "version": "4.4.5 (2d3c)",
    "defaultAPIVersion": 9,
    "operatingSystem": "darwin",
    "memoryUsageMBbase2": 68.68773651123047,
    "numberGoRoutines": 1,
    "systemTime": "04-09-2019 10:49:27",
    "systemTimeZone": "Local"
}
{
    "universal.impactor": [
        "127.0.0.1/8",
        "::1/128",
        "fe80::1/64",
        "fe80::c38:9c81:e8e3:b333/64",
        "172.28.100.8/16",
        "fe80::8808:cdff:fe91:9ed/64",
        "fe80::aede:48ff:fe00:1122/64",
        "fe80::f9b5:38ea:e3f0:2c2b/64",
        "fe80::bcaa:a14c:98a5:1e5f/64",
        "fe80::63de:2e74:7ed5:e7e8/64",
        "172.16.133.39/ffffff0f"
    ]
}

Connect to a Controller

At this stage you will need to have a user with admin permission and privileges to read or write AppGate objects. For more information read:

• SDP Help > rest api

Make sure you know where Conkolla is serving:

• look for “url” in start message, or
• use the default https://localhost:4433

Connect to a Controller through web-based UI

• Open a browser and point to the url (look for “url” in start message)
• Default is https://localhost:4433/login/
• Allow the exception for the self signed cert when using TLS (recommended)

Check the examples page for how to connect via command line.

Using the UI

It is recommended to use chrome browser (tested only in chrome/ECMAScript2018 or later). The browser helps user to quickly work against the Controller API. The UI supports

• Autocomplete for Upstream API path (indexed from the onboard API only).
• If entities have been in the results containing IDs, you can pre-set from a dropdown list API path with {id}.
• The on-board editor is the Ace editor configured for JSON mode.

Editing many entities (advanced)

You can only update or create one entity (for example an appliance or entitlement) with a single request. Hence you will need to have a single entity in the editor window (for create or update at least). If you need to manipulate multiple entities use the developer mode in chrome and manipulate records with JavaScript. Check the advanced page for details:

• advanced, developer mode

Crafting REST calls via Conkolla

Rest calls to an AppGate Controller

Rest calls towards an AppGate Controller are in the form of:

• https://{URL}:{PORT}/admin/{RESOURCE or PATH}

where as:

• URL is the Controllers URL
• PORT: the port of the admin access, default is 444
• RESOURCE or PATH: the actual rest resource

Example:

• https://cc1.packnot.com:444/admin/stats/appliances

Rest calls via Conkolla

Note the separation of the different calls:

• From user to Conkolla: proxy call
• From Conkolla to Controller: upstream call

The first one is what the user will use to make calls, where the second is always initiated by Conkolla.

In Conkolla, a you always reference a connection; a connection which you previously logged into. Example, the same rest-call as above, you would specify it by referencing to connection 1 or cc1.packnot.comdev:

• https://localhost:4433/get/1/stats/appliances
• https://localhost:4433/get/cc1.packnot.comdev/stats/appliances

From the command line:

curl -k -X POST -H "Accept: application/json" https://localhost:4433/get/1/appliances

Use always method POST for the proxy call. The upstream HTTP method is included in the proxy call’s path.

Note: you need to drop the /admin part of the path. Do not specify the /admin part in the path for the rest call. Conkolla adds it automatically on the upstream call.

Upstream Call Method	Proxy Call Method	Description	Proxy Call Parameters
GET	POST	Get entitites.	restCall
POST	POST	Create new entities.	restCall objectData
PUT	POST	Change entities.	restCall objectData
DELETE	POST	Delete entities	restCall

restCall: the upstream rest call, example: /entitlements/0c32530f-e15b-4720-a261-acae73c3d417. objectData: the payload (JSON data in the body).

Check the examples page.

AppGate connection specifics

Login options and controls

Either you browse the login form from the UI or get the possible options/fields from a rest call. Note there might be more options from the rest call than on the web login form:

curl -k -H "Accept: application/json" https://localhost:4433/login/

{
  "accept_header_suffix": "+json",
  "api_version": 9,
  "content_type_header": "application/json",
  "loginFormFields": {
    "controllerURL": "",
    "controllerPort": 0,
    "username": "",
    "password": "",
    "otp": "",
    "providerName": "",
    "apiVersion": 0,
    "acceptHeaderSuffix": "",
    "contentTypeHeader": "",
    "label": "",
    "machineId": "",
    "hideToken": "",
    "skipVerifySSL": "",
    "dumpAGResponse": "",
    "autoTokenRenewal": "",
    "renewToken": ""
  },
  "pageinfo": "login page"
}

Note that the form data and the JSON data render to the same attributes and some boolean values might be therefore treated as a non-empty value instead as real booleans. Absence signifies falsewhere presence of any value signifies true

Param	Value	Description
label	String:text	Labels a connection with the given text. Allows you to connect many times to same AppGate Controller under different label. Labels allows you also to do bulk rest calls and help you sort and find connections. Any space in the will be replaced with -.
otp	String:number	if the user account uses MFA, enter the next MFA code here. Supports only built-in MFA.
acceptHeaderSuffix	+json or +gpg	Default +json, +gpg is used for downloading backup files. You can change it after login.
apiVersion	Integer:number	specifies what AppGate API version to indicate in the upstream headers, usually defaults ok.You can change it after login.
machineID	String:UUIDv4	A UUIDv4 string to identify Conkolla as a client ID towards AppGate Controller. None or faulty given, Conkolla generates a random one.
hideToken	String:"true" or ""	Disables any display/retrieval of the token for the AppGate connection for security reasons.
dumpAGResponse	String:"true" or ""	Conkolla will log the the request and response send to the upstream server. Good for debugging or curious people.
autoTokenRenewal	String:"true" or ""	Conkolla will renew the token if it will expire in less than 5 minutes from now. Also, you will be able to force renewal of tokens by the /renewtokencall (see below). Auto Renew does not work when using MFA.
renewToken	String:"true" or ""	Setting this flag allows you to renew the token for an existing connection with a login request. The fields to identify existing connection are: controllerURL and label. The required field to renew token is: password (and otp if required).

Conkolla internals

Proxy scheme (proxy call)

Proxy API to a connected Controller connection follows the scheme:

• {HTTPS or HTTP}://{HOST}:{PORT}{UPSTREAM HTTP METHOD}/{CONNECTION}/{UPSTREAM RESTCALL} :: {BODY}

UPSTREAM HTTP METHOD The method to be used in the upstream rest call:

• GET, POST, PUT, DELETE

CONNECTION: every connection has two references which can be used in Conkolla proxying calls, either

• a numeric ID assigned by Conkolla at login time,
• or the combined string of {ControllerURL}{label}.

UPSTREAM RESTCALL

• AppGate API path/resource, without the /admin in the path.

BODY

• JSON encoded payload if any

Proxy Method: Always use POST (this covers all upstream calls which are embedded in the proxy rest call).

Conkolla API calls

Global

Path	Method	Description
/settings	GET	Displays Conkolla and runtime information.
/login	POST GET	Login form, login JSON params, do login on a Controller.
/apispec	GET	Displays the on-board apispec (might be outdated, use the linked from the menu for reference).

Connection

These are related to the AppGate connection and might do rest calls to upstream AppGate Controllers.

Path	Method	Description
/agc/{connection}/conf	GET POST	Display, change the connection settings for a Controller.
/agc/{connection}/headers	GET	Download a file containing the headers for upstream calls for this connection
/agc/{connection}/renewtoken	GET	Renews the user and entitlement token for this connection. Only supported if no MFA is used and connection is set to ‘Auto renew tokens’ at login time.

Note: /renewtoken is currently controlled via a GET whereas it would be more reasonable with a PUT– this might change in the future.

Operations specific

Note these calls will always do rest calls to upstream AppGate Controllers.

Path	Method	Description
/stats/{connection}/{label}	GET	Retrieves stats from connected Controller(s). Displaying single stats: /stats/{connection}/, where connection is a reference for the connection. Display stats of all connected Controllers: /stats/0/. Display the stats for a certain label: /stats/0/{label}.
/revoke/{connection}/{label}	GET	Revokes the tokens for the connection. Revoking single connection: /revoke/{connection}/, where connection is a reference for the connection. Revoke all connected Controllers: /revoke/0/. Revoke for all Controllers under a certain label: /revoke/0/{label}.
/forget/{connection}/{label}	GET	Revokes and removes the connection. Revoking & remove single connection: /revoke/{connection}/, where connection is a reference for the connection. Revoke & remove all connected Controllers: /revoke/0/. Revoke & remove for all Controllers under a certain label: /revoke/0/{label}.

Note: the /stats, /revoke and /forget are not typical rest resources and will operate on one or many connections. For now we use method GET while this might change in the future.