Nodejs

Let's connect a nodejs app in one AWS VPC with a nodejs API in another AWS VPC. The example uses AWS CLI to create these VPCs.

Each company’s network is private, isolated, and doesn't expose ports. To learn how end-to-end trust is established, please read: “How does Ockam work?”

Run

This example requires Bash, Git, and AWS CLI. Please set up these tools for your operating system. In particular you need to login to your AWS account with aws sso login.

# Clone the Ockam repo from Github.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/build-trust/ockam && cd ockam

# Navigate to this example’s directory.
cd examples/command/portals/apis/nodejs/amazon_ec2/aws_cli

# Run the example, use Ctrl-C to exit at any point.
./run.sh

If everything runs as expected, you'll see the message: The example run was successful 🥳

Walkthrough

The run.sh script, that you ran above, and its accompanying files are full of comments and meant to be read. The example setup is only a few simple steps, so please take some time to read and explore.

Administrator

• The run.sh script calls the run function which invokes the enroll command to create an new identity, sign into Ockam Orchestrator, set up a new Ockam project, make you the administrator of this project, and get a project membership credential.
• The run function then generates two new enrollment tickets. The tickets are valid for 60 minutes. Each ticket can be redeemed only once and assigns attributes to its redeemer. The first ticket is meant for the Ockam node that will run in Monitoring Corp.’s network. The second ticket is meant for the Ockam node that will run in Travel App Corp.’s network.
• In a typical production setup an administrator or provisioning pipeline generates enrollment tickets and gives them to nodes that are being provisioned. In our example, the run function is acting on your behalf as the administrator of the Ockam project.

• The run function passes the enrollment tickets as variables of the run scripts provisioning Monitoring Corp.’s network and Travel App Corp.’s network.

Monitoring Corp

First, the monitoring_corp/run.sh script creates a network to host the database:

• We create a VPC and tag it.
• We create an Internet gateway and attach it to the VPC.
• We create a route table and create a route to the Internet via the gateway.
• We create a subnet, and associate it with the route table.
• We finally create a security group so that there is:

  • One TCP egress to the Internet,
  • And one SSH ingress to install nodejs and run the API service.

Then, the monitoring_corp/run.sh script creates an EC2 instance where the Ockam outlet node will run:

• We select an AMI.
• We start an instance using the AMI above and a start script based on run_ockam.sh where the

  ENROLLMENT_TICKET is replaced by the enrollment ticket created by the administrator and given as a parameter to run.sh.
• We tag the created instance and wait for it to be available.

Next, the instance is started and the run_ockam.sh script is executed:

• The ockam executable is installed.
• The enrollment ticket is used to create a default identity and make it a project member.
• We then create an Ockam node:

  • With a TCP outlet.
  • A policy associated to the outlet. The policy authorizes identities with a credential containing the attribute monitoring-api-inlet="true".
  • With a relay capable of forwarding the TCP traffic to the TCP outlet.

Finally, we wait for the instance to be ready and run the nodejs api application:

• The api.js file is copied to the instance (this uses the previously created key.pem file to identify).
• We can then SSH to the instance and:

  • Install nodejs.
  • Install dependencies.
  • Run the nodejs api application.

Travel App Corp

First, the travel_app_corp/run.sh script creates a network to host the nodejs application:

• We create a VPC and tag it.
• We create an Internet gateway and attach it to the VPC.
• We create a route table and create a route to the Internet via the gateway.
• We create a subnet, and associate it with the route table.
• We finally create a security group so that there is:

  • One TCP egress to the Internet,
  • And One SSH ingress to download and install the nodejs application.

Then, we create an EC2 instance where the Ockam inlet node will run:

• We select an AMI.
• We start an instance using the AMI above and a start script based on run_ockam.sh where the

  ENROLLMENT_TICKET is replaced by the enrollment ticket created by the administrator and given as a parameter to run.sh.

Next, the instance is started and the run_ockam.sh script is executed:

• The ockam executable is installed.
• The enrollment ticket is used to create a default identity and make it a project member.
• We then create an Ockam node:

  • With a TCP inlet.
  • A policy associated to the inlet. The policy authorizes identities with a credential containing the attribute monitoring-api-outlet="true".

Finally, we wait for the instance to be ready and run the nodejs client application:

• The client.js file is copied to the instance (this uses the previously created key.pem file to identify).
• We can then SSH to the instance and:

  • Install nodejs.
  • Run the nodejs client application.

Recap

We connected a nodejs app in one AWS VPC with a nodejs API service in another AWS VPC over an end-to-end encrypted portal.

Non-public access to private API endpoints are only accessible to enrolled members of the project with the appropriate attributes. The communication channel is mutually authenticated and authorized. Keys and credentials are automatically rotated. Access to the API can be easily revoked.

Travel App Corp. does not get unfettered access to Monitoring Corp.’s network. It only gets access to the API service. Monitoring Corp. does not get unfettered access to Travel App Corp.’s network. It gets access only to respond to requests over a tcp connection. Monitoring Corp. cannot initiate connections.

All access controls are secure-by-default. Only project members, with valid credentials, can connect with each other. NAT’s are traversed using a relay and outgoing tcp connections. Neither Monitoring Corp. nor Travel App Corp. expose any listening endpoints to the Internet. Their networks are completely closed and protected from any attacks from the Internet.

Cleanup

To delete all AWS resources created by this example:

./run.sh cleanup