Approval-based workflow

GRR has support for an approval-based access control system. To turn it on, set the API.DefaultRouter configuration option in the server configuration (see API routers documentation for more details):

API.DefaultRouter: ApiCallRouterWithApprovalChecks

Approval-based workflow places certain restrictions on what users can do without getting an explicit approval from another user.

Actions that don’t require an approval

  1. Searching for clients.
  2. Getting information about a client host (including the history).
  3. Looking at the list of hunts.
  4. Looking at hunt results, logs and other related data.
  5. Looking at cron jobs.

Actions that do require an approval

  1. Browsing client’s Virtual File System.
  2. Inspecting client’s flows.
  3. Starting new flows on a client.
  4. Starting a new hunt (NOTE: this is a special case - starting a hunt requires an approval from an admin user).
  5. Downloading files collected by a hunt.
  6. Starting a new cron job.

Requesting an approval

Whenever you try to perform an action that requires an approval in the GRR web UI, you’ll see a popup dialog similar to this one:

GRR approval dialog

You need to fill-in a comma-separated list of approvers. Each approver will get a notification about a pending approval request in their GRR web UI.

You can also select CC option to send an email to a predefined email address. This helps if you have multiple possible approvers and they’re all subscribed to the same mailing list. CC option will only work if you have a proper Email Configuration in your GRR server config.

For every approval you also need to enter a reason you request one. This is done for auditing purposes. Also, when you access a client that you have an approval for, you’ll see the reason displayed in GRR web UI’s top left corner.

Granting an approval

Whenever somebody requests an approval, you’ll get a notification in the GRR web UI: the notification button in the top right corner will turn red and display a number of pending notifications.

When you click on a Please grant access to <…> notification, you’ll see an approval request review page similar to this one:

GRR approval review page

You can see the approval request reason on the review page and also some details about the object that the requestor is trying to access (a client, a hunt or a cron job). If you find the approval request justified, you click on the “Approve” button. The requestor will receive a notification then stating that the access was granted.