Do browsers use client certificates to authenticate the user, the device, or both?Most browsers support client certificates for mutual TLS authentication. But what is really being authenticated here, the end user, their device, or both? Continue »
Deploying AD FS without domain admin privilegesBy default, installing AD FS requires domain admin access to Active Directory. But it’s possible to deploy AD FS in environments where we don’t have these privileges, like Google Cloud’s Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory. Continue »
Authenticating to Google Cloud by using an AWS EC2 instance profile and workload identity federationWhen an application running on AWS needs access to Google APIs, we can use workload identity federation to let the application use its AWS credentials to authenticate to Google APIs. Unfortunately, the C# client library doesn’t support that yet, but we can fill that gap. Continue »
Creating AWS request signaturesInstead of using OAuth and access tokens, AWS uses request signatures to authenticate API requests. Typically, we can let libraries do the request signing for us – but sometimes we have to do it ourselves. Continue »
Authenticating to Azure by using Cloud KMS and client assertionsBy using workload identity federation, we can let applications use Azure credentials to authenticate to Google Cloud. That’s useful if we have an application that runs on Azure and needs access to Google APIs. But what if we are in the opposite situation, where we have an application on Google Cloud that needs access to Azure APIs? Continue »
Authenticating to Google Cloud by using an Azure managed identity and workload identity federationWhen an application running on Azure needs access to Google APIs, we can use workload identity federation to let the application use its Azure credentials to authenticate to Google APIs. Unfortunately, the C# client library doesn’t support that yet, but we can fill that gap. Continue »
Best practices for managing service account keysService accounts play a key role in Google Cloud IAM, and there are multiple ways how service accounts can authenticate. One of them is by using a service account key – but service account keys turn into a security risk if they aren’t managed carefully. Continue »
Using IAM to control SSH and RDP accessWhenever we grant users SSH or RDP access to VM instances, we have to ensure that access is revoked when the user changes teams or leaves the organization. This is easier said than done. Continue »
Limit metadata server access to specific Windows users or processesBy default, access to the Compute Engine metadata server is not limited to specific processes or users on a VM, even low-privilege processes can request service account credentials. Can we limit metadata server access to specific Windows users or processes? Continue »
Best practices for using, managing, and securing service accounts on Google CloudService accounts play a key role in Google Cloud IAM, but they are easy to get wrong. If you’re not careful, you quickly end up with over-permissioned service accounts, accounts that are used across multiple applications, and service account keys being spread all across your environment. Continue »
Using Google Cloud’s “Set Windows password” function on a domain controllerWhat happens if you use the “Set Windows password” function on a domain controller? Continue »