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Google Firewall Analysis using StackQL

· 2 min read
Technologist and Cloud Consultant

Analyzing firewall rules is crucial for maintaining security in your cloud infrastructure. Using StackQL, you can efficiently query and analyze Google Cloud firewall configurations to ensure that your security policies are correctly implemented and that there are no unexpected open ports or protocols that might pose a security risk. Below is a simple query that retrieves important details about the ingress firewall rules for a specific network in a Google Cloud project.

SELECT
name,
source_range,
ip_protocol,
allowed_ports,
direction
FROM (
SELECT
name,
source_ranges.value as source_range,
JSON_EXTRACT(allowed.value, '$.IPProtocol') as ip_protocol,
JSON_EXTRACT(allowed.value, '$.ports') as allowed_ports,
direction
FROM google.compute.firewalls, json_each(sourceRanges) as source_ranges, json_each(allowed) as allowed
WHERE project = 'stackql-k8s-the-hard-way-demo'
AND network = 'https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/stackql-k8s-the-hard-way-demo/global/networks/kubernetes-the-hard-way-dev-vpc'
) t
WHERE
source_range = '0.0.0.0/0'
and direction = 'INGRESS';

This query provides a comprehensive list of all ingress firewall rules that apply to any IP address (0.0.0.0/0) within the specified Google Cloud project and network. The results include the firewall rule name, the source IP range, the protocol, the allowed ports, and the direction of the traffic, an example is shown below:

|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| name | source_range | ip_protocol | allowed_ports | direction |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| default-allow-icmp | 0.0.0.0/0 | icmp | null | INGRESS |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| default-allow-rdp | 0.0.0.0/0 | tcp | ["3389"] | INGRESS |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| default-allow-ssh | 0.0.0.0/0 | tcp | ["22"] | INGRESS |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| kubernetes-the-hard-way-dev-allow-external-fw | 0.0.0.0/0 | tcp | ["22"] | INGRESS |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| kubernetes-the-hard-way-dev-allow-external-fw | 0.0.0.0/0 | tcp | ["6443"] | INGRESS |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|
| kubernetes-the-hard-way-dev-allow-external-fw | 0.0.0.0/0 | icmp | null | INGRESS |
|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|---------------|-----------|

You can use this query to help quickly identify potential security vulnerabilities. Regularly auditing these rules ensures that your cloud environment remains secure and that only the necessary ports and protocols are open to the internet.

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The 5 Minute Global AWS Inventory

· One min read
Technologist and Cloud Consultant

StackQL allows you to query and interact with your cloud and SaaS assets using a simple SQL framework. Use cases include CSPM, asset inventory and analysis, finops and more, as well as IaC and sysops (lifecycle management).

Using stackql and the aws provider (AWS Cloud Control provider for stackql), here's how you can query your entire AWS estate in real time (globally) and generate a simple report like this...

aws-inventory-example

Check out the code at AWS Global Inventory!

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Using StackQL in Native Cloud Shells in AWS, Azure and GCP

· 4 min read
Technologist and Cloud Consultant

StackQL allows you to query and interact with your cloud and SaaS assets using a simple SQL framework. Use cases include CSPM, asset inventory and analysis, finops and more, as well as our IaC and ops (lifecycle management).

The three major cloud providers all offer a built-in Linux shell for executing commands using their respective CLIs; in some cases, they come with tools like terraform pre-installed. They are pre-authorized with your credentials in the cloud console for the user you authenticated with.

Now you can easily use stackql - a unified analytics and IaC dev tool - in all major cloud providers' built-in shells, using cloud shell scripts packaged with the stackql Linux binary (available from v0.5.587 onwards).

StackQL is particularly useful for asynchronously querying across regions in AWS, projects in Google, or resource groups in Azure, which is challenging to do via the CLIs. For example:

SELECT region, COUNT(*) as num_functions
FROM aws.lambda.functions
WHERE region IN (
'us-east-1','us-east-2','us-west-1','us-west-2',
'ap-south-1','ap-northeast-3','ap-northeast-2',
'ap-southeast-1','ap-southeast-2','ap-northeast-1',
'ca-central-1','eu-central-1','eu-west-1',
'eu-west-2','eu-west-3','eu-north-1','sa-east-1')
GROUP BY region;

Additionally, you could authenticate to another provider from one cloud shell simultaneously and run multi-cloud inventory commands. For example:

SELECT
name,
SPLIT_PART(machineType, '/', -1) as instance_type,
'google' as provider
FROM google.compute.instances
WHERE project IN ('myproject1','myproject2')
UNION
SELECT
instanceId as name,
instanceType as instance_type,
'aws' as provider
FROM aws.ec2.instances
WHERE region IN (
'us-east-1','us-east-2','us-west-1','us-west-2',
'ap-south-1','ap-northeast-3','ap-northeast-2',
'ap-southeast-1','ap-southeast-2','ap-northeast-1',
'ca-central-1','eu-central-1','eu-west-1',
'eu-west-2','eu-west-3','eu-north-1','sa-east-1');

Getting Started​

To get started with StackQL in your preferred cloud shell environment, download the StackQL package using the following command:

curl -L https://bit.ly/stackql-zip -O \
&& unzip stackql-zip

This command downloads the StackQL package, unzips it, and sets the appropriate permissions. From there, you can use our tailored scripts for AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure to integrate StackQL seamlessly into your cloud shell environment.

Using StackQL in the AWS Cloud Shell​

Run the stackql-aws-cloud-shell.sh as follows to use the StackQL command shell within the AWS cloud shell:

sh stackql-aws-cloud-shell.sh

An example is shown here:

aws-cloud-shell-example

You can also run stackql exec commands using the stackql-aws-cloud-shell.sh script; for instance, this command will write a CSV file for the results of a query that could be downloaded from the Cloud Shell.

sh stackql-aws-cloud-shell.sh exec \
--output csv --outfile instances.csv \
"SELECT region, instanceType FROM aws.ec2.instances WHERE region IN ('us-east-1')"

Additionally, you can supply an IAM role using the --role-arn argument to assume another role for your query or mutation operation, an example is shown here:

sh stackql-aws-cloud-shell.sh \
--role-arn arn:aws:iam::824532806693:role/SecurityReviewerRole exec \
--infile query.iql \
--output csv --outfile output.csv

Using StackQL in the Azure Cloud Shell​

Run the stackql-azure-cloud-shell.sh as follows to open a StackQL command shell from the Azure Cloud Shell:

sh stackql-azure-cloud-shell.sh

An example is shown here:

azure-cloud-shell-example

Similar to the AWS script, you can also invoke stackql exec as well, an example is shown here:

sh stackql-azure-cloud-shell.sh exec \
--output csv --outfile instances_by_location.csv \
"SELECT location, COUNT(*) as num_instances FROM azure.compute.virtual_machines WHERE resource_group_name = 'stackql-ops-cicd-dev-01' AND subscription_id = '631d1c6d-2a65-43e7-93c2-688bfe4e1468' GROUP BY location"

Using StackQL in the Google Cloud Shell​

Run the stackql-google-cloud-shell.sh as shown below to launch a StackQL command shell from within the google cloud shell:

sh stackql-google-cloud-shell.sh

An example is shown here:

google-cloud-shell-example

As with the other two providers, you can run exec commands following the example below:

sh stackql-google-cloud-shell.sh exec \
--output csv --outfile instances.csv \
"SELECT name, status FROM google.compute.instances WHERE project = 'stackql-demo'"

Please give us your feedback! Star us at github.com/stackql.

Cloud and SaaS Visibility with StackQL and PowerBI

· 2 min read
Technologist and Cloud Consultant
info

stackql is a dev tool that allows you to query and manage cloud and SaaS resources using SQL, which developers and analysts can use for CSPM, assurance, user access management reporting, IaC, XOps and more.

You can leverage the powerful combination of StackQL and PowerBI to create comprehensive dashboard interfaces. These dashboards are perfect for reporting on various aspects such as cloud security, inventory, and configuration.

stackql-powerbi-dashboard

Quick Start Guide​

Set Up StackQL Server​

To get started, you can run a StackQL server container on port 7432. Use the following project for easy setup: StackQL Server on GitHub.

Create an ODBC Connection​

Next, set up an ODBC connection using the PostgreSQL ODBC driver. You can download the latest driver from the PostgreSQL ODBC Driver Versions. Install this driver on your local machine to proceed.

Integrating with PowerBI​

Once your ODBC connection is ready, you can move on to PowerBI. Here’s how you can integrate StackQL queries into PowerBI:

  1. Create Data Sources in PowerBI: For each StackQL query that you want to visualize, create a new data source in PowerBI.

  2. Test Queries Locally: Before integrating with PowerBI, you can test your StackQL queries locally using psql. For example:

    $ psql -h localhost -p 7432 -U stackql -d stackql
    psql (14.9 (Ubuntu 14.9-0ubuntu0.22.04.1), server 0.0.0)
    Type "help" for help.

    stackql=> select name, stargazers FROM
    (select name, stargazers_count as stargazers
    from github.repos.repos
    where org = 'stackql'
    and visibility = 'public'
    order by stargazers_count desc) t
    limit 3;
    name | stargazers
    -----------------------------------+------------
    stackql | 179
    stackql-provider-registry | 21
    google-discovery-to-openapi | 18
    (3 rows)
  3. Visualize with PowerBI: With your named data sources created, you can now visualize the result sets in PowerBI. Use various visualization tools like bar charts, pie charts, and line charts to create rich and insightful dashboards.

Let us know your thoughts! Visit us and give us a ⭐ on GitHub

Query Resources Across AWS Regions Asynchronously

· 4 min read
Technologist and Cloud Consultant
info

stackql is a dev tool that allows you to query and manage cloud and SaaS resources using SQL, which developers and analysts can use for CSPM, assurance, user access management reporting, IaC, XOps and more.

Most AWS services and resources are regionally scoped, meaning the UI, CLI, SDKs, and all other methods of querying the aws provider give you a regional view (us-east-1 or ap-southeast-2, for instance). Many customer AWS estates span multiple regions - for multinational organizations, for example, or organizations with numerous dispersed locations within the US.

Sure, you could write custom scripts wrapping the CLI or SDKs - which would require development effort (not reusable for other providers); or get an abstract view with tools like AWS Config or Systems Manager, which requires these services to be enabled and configured (not flexible and not extendible to other providers). In either case:

  1. You can't write and run customized queries and generate custom reports - as you can do in SQL
  2. Any solutions you build will have to be rebuilt entirely for other providers

Using the latest (AWS provider for StackQL - which leverages the AWS Cloud Control API) and the executeQueriesAsync method in the pystackql Python package, I've put together an example here which runs a query to bring back attributes from all AWS Lambda functions deployed across 17 different AWS regions asynchronously. Results can be returned as a list of Python dictionaries or a Pandas dataframe. I am doing the former here, which took less than 10s.

from pystackql import StackQL
from pprint import pprint
from asyncio import run
stackql = StackQL()
stackql.executeStmt("REGISTRY PULL aws") # not required if the aws provider is already installed

async def stackql_async_queries(queries):
return await stackql.executeQueriesAsync(queries)

regions= ["us-east-1","us-east-2","us-west-1","us-west-2","ap-south-1","ap-northeast-3","ap-northeast-2","ap-southeast-1",
"ap-southeast-2","ap-northeast-1","ca-central-1","eu-central-1","eu-west-1","eu-west-2","eu-west-3","eu-north-1",
"sa-east-1"]

# list functions from all regions asynchronously
get_fns = [
f"""
SELECT region, FunctionName AS function_name
FROM aws.lambda.functions
WHERE region = '{region}'
"""
for region in regions
]

functions = run(stackql_async_queries(get_fns))

# get function details for all functions across all regions asynchronously
get_fn_details = [
f"""
SELECT
JSON_EXTRACT(Configuration, '$.FunctionName') AS function_name,
region,
JSON_EXTRACT(Configuration, '$.FunctionArn') AS arn,
JSON_EXTRACT(Configuration, '$.Description') AS description,
JSON_EXTRACT(Configuration, '$.Architectures') AS architectures,
JSON_EXTRACT(Configuration, '$.MemorySize') AS memory_size,
JSON_EXTRACT(Configuration, '$.Runtime') AS runtime
FROM aws.lambda.functions
WHERE region = '{function['region']}'
AND data__Identifier = '{function['function_name']}'
"""
for function in functions
]

function_details = run(stackql_async_queries(get_fn_details))
pprint(function_details)

which returns...

[{'architectures': '["x86_64"]',
'arn': 'arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:824532806693:function:stackql-helloworld-fn',
'description': '',
'function_name': 'stackql-helloworld-fn',
'memory_size': '128',
'region': 'us-east-1',
'runtime': 'nodejs18.x'},
{'architectures': '["x86_64"]',
'arn': 'arn:aws:lambda:us-east-2:824532806693:function:stackql-helloworld-fn',
'description': '',
'function_name': 'stackql-helloworld-fn',
'memory_size': '128',
'region': 'us-east-2',
'runtime': 'nodejs18.x'},
{'architectures': '["x86_64"]',
'arn': 'arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:824532806693:function:stackql-helloworld-fn',
'description': '',
'function_name': 'stackql-helloworld-fn',
'memory_size': '128',
'region': 'us-west-1',
'runtime': 'nodejs18.x'},
...

You could customize the StackQL query to run specific reports and visualize the results in a Jupyter notebook, for example:

  • Functions by runtimes
  • Function by memory size
  • Functions by tags
  • etc...

You could do something similar for other hyperscalars, for example, GCP, which scopes resources by projects, or Azure, which scopes resources by resource groups.

Let us know your thoughts! Visit us and give us a ⭐ on GitHub