Driverless AI Security

Objective

This document describes different aspects of Driverless AI security and provides guidelines to secure the system by reducing its surface of vulnerability.

This section covers the following areas of the product:

• User Access

  • Authentication (Also see Authentication Methods)

  • Authorization

• Data Security

  • Data Import

  • Data Export

  • Logs

  • User Data Isolation

• Client-Server Communication Security

  • Response Headers

  • Recommended Response Headers

  • Other Headers to Consider

• Web UI Security

• Custom Recipe Security

• Configuration Security (Also see in depth documentation on configuration security in DAI)

Important things to know

Warning

WARNING Security in a default installation of Driverless AI is DISABLED! By default, a Driverless AI installation targets ease-of- use and does not enable all security features listed in this document. For production environments, we recommend following this document and performing a secure Driverless AI installation.

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User Access

Authentication

Driverless AI supports Client Certificate, LDAP, Local, mTLS, OpenID, PAM, none, and unvalidated (default) authentication. These can be configured by specifying the environment variables when starting the Driverless AI Docker image or by specifying the appropriate configuration options in the config.toml file. For more info, see Authentication Methods.

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
authentication_method	"unvalidated"	Any supported authentication (e.g., LDAP, PAM) method except "unvalidated" and "none".	Define user authentication method.
authentication_default_timeout_hours	72	Consult your security requirements.	Number of hours after which a user has to relogin.

mTLS Authentication

Driverless AI supports Mutual TLS authentication (mTLS) by setting a specific verification mode along with a certificate authority file, an SSL private key, and an SSL certificate file. For more information, see the mTLS Authentication Example.

Authorization Methods

Driverless AI does not currently perform any authorization.

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Data Security

Data Import

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
enabled_file_systems	"upload, file, hdfs, s3"	Configure only needed data sources.	Control list of available/configured data sources.
max_file_upload_size	104857600000B	Configure based on expected file size and size of Driverless AI deployment.	Limit maximum size of uploaded file.
supported_file_types	see config.toml	It is recommended to limit file types to extension used in the target environment (e.g., parquet).	Supported file formats listed in filesystem browsers.
show_all_filesystems	true	false	Show all available data sources in WebUI (even though there are not configured). It is recommended to show only configured data sources.

Data Export

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
enable_dataset_downloading	true	false (disable download of datasets)	Control ability to download any datasets (uploaded, predictions, MLI). Note: if dataset download is disabled, we strongly suggest to disable custom recipes as well to remove another way how data could be exported from the application.
enable_artifacts_upload	false	false	Replace all downloads on the experiment page to “exports”, and allow users to push to the artifact store configured with artifacts_store. (See notes below.)
artifacts_store	file_system	file_system	Stores a MOJO on a file system directory denoted by artifacts_file_system_directory. (See notes below.)
artifacts_file_system_directory	tmp	tmp	File system location where artifacts will be copied in case artifacts_store is set to file_system. (See notes below.)

Notes about Artifacts:

• Currently, file_system is the only option that can be specified for artifacts_store. Additional options will be available in future releases.

• The location for artifacts_file_system_directory is expected to be a directory on your server.

• When these artifacts are enabled/configured, the menu options on the Completed Experiment Page page change. Specifically, all “Download” options (with the exception of AutoDoc) change to “Export.” Refer to Exporting Artifacts for more information.

Logs

The Driverless AI produces several logs:

• audit logs

• server logs

• experiment logs

The administrator of Driverless AI application (i.e., person who is responsible for configuration and setup of the application) has control over content which is written to the logs.

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
audit_log_retention_period	5 (days)	0 (disable audit log rotation)	Number of days to keep audit logs. The value 0 disable rotation.
do_not_log_list	see config.toml	—	Contain list of configuration options which are not recorded in logs.
log_level	1	see config.toml	Define verbosity of logging
collect_server_logs_in_experiment_logs	false	false	Dump server logs with experiment. Dangerous because server logs can contain information about experiments of other users using Driverless AI.
h2o_recipes_log_level	None	—	Log level for OSS H2O instances used by custom recipes.
debug_log	false	false	Enable debug logs.
write_recipes_to_experiment_logger	false	false	Dump a custom recipe source code into logs.

User Data Isolation

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
data_directory	"./tmp"	Specify proper name and location of directory.	Directory where Driverless AI stores all computed experiments and datasets
file_hide_data_directory	true	true	Hide data_directory in file-system browser. It is recommended to hide it to protect data_directory from browsing and corruption.
file_path_filtering_enabled	false	true	Enable path filter for file-system browser (file data source). By default the filter is disabled which means users can browse the entire application-local filesystem.
file_path_filter_include	[]	Include a list of folder paths or {{DAI_USERNAME}} for the logged user’s directory. For example, "['/home/{{DAI_USERNAME}}/','/data/prod']".	List of absolute path prefixes to restrict access to in file-browser.
autodoc_additional_template_folder	""	""	Directory where Driverless AI searches for the updated AutoDoc templates. Providing empty value "" disables this functionality.

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Client-Server Communication Security

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
enable_https	false	true	Enable HTTPS
ssl_key_file	"/etc/dai/private_key.pem"	Correct private key.	Private key to setup HTTPS/SSL communication.
ssl_crt_file	"/etc/dai/cert.pem"	Correct public certifikate.	Public certificate to setup HTTPS/SSL.
ssl_no_sslv2	true	true	Prevents an SSLv2 connection.
ssl_no_sslv3	true	true	Prevents an SSLv3 connection.
ssl_no_tlsv1	true	true	Prevents an TLSv1 connectiona.
ssl_no_tlsv1_1	true	true	Prevents an TLSv1.1 connection.
ssl_no_tlsv1_2	false	false (disable TLSv1.2 only if TLSv1.3 is available)	Prevents a TLSv1.2 connection.
ssl_no_tlsv1_3	false	false	Prevents a TLSv1.3 connection.

HTTP Cookie Attributes

By default, HTTP cookies used by Driverless AI are issued with the following attributes:

• HTTPOnly: True

• SameSite: Lax

If either of these needs to be overridden, or if more custom attributes need to be set, you can use the config http_cookie_attributes to specify key-value pairs of so-called cookie morsels. For a list of supported keys, see the official Python documentation.

Response Headers

The response headers which are passed between Driverless AI server and client (browser, Python/R clients) are controlled via the following option:

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
extra_http_headers	"{}"	See below	Configure HTTP header returned in server response.

Recommended Response Headers

Header	Description	Example value	Link
Strict-Transport-Security	The header lets a web site tell browsers that it should only be accessed using HTTPS, instead of using HTTP. The max-age specifies time, in seconds, that the browser should remember that a site is only to be accessed using HTTPS.	max-age=63072000	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Strict-Transport-Security
Content-Security-Policy	Content Security Policy (CSP) is an added layer of security that helps to detect and mitigate certain types of attacks, including Cross Site Scripting and data injection attacks. Controls from where the page can download source.	default-src https: ; font-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-eval' 'unsafe-inline'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; object-src 'none' Note: The Driverless AI is still requires to have unsafe-eval and unsafe-inline configured, which potentionally makes the server vulnerable to XSS attacks.	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Security-Policy https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CSP https://infosec.mozilla.org/guidelines/web_security#Examples_5
X-Frame-Options	Controls where a page can get source to render in a frame. The value here overrides the default, which is SAMEORIGIN.	deny	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Frame-Options
X-Content-Type-Options	Prevents the browser from trying to determine the content-type of a resource that is different than the declared content-type.	nosniff	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Content-Type-Options
X-XSS-Protection	The HTTP X-XSS-Protection response header is a feature of Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari that stops pages from loading when they detect reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. When value is set to 1 and a cross-site scripting attack is detected, the browser will sanitize the page (remove the unsafe parts).	1; mode=block	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-XSS-Protection

Other Headers to Consider

Header	Documentation
Public-Key-Pins CORS-related headers	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Public_Key_Pinning https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS

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Web UI Security

Note

The Driverless AI UI is design to be user-friendly, and by default all features like auto-complete are enabled. Disabling the user-friendly features increases security of the application, but impacts user-friendliness and usability of the application.

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
allow_form_autocomplete	true	false	Control auto-completion in Web UI elements (e.g., login inputs).
allow_localstorage	true	false	Disable use of web browser local storage.
show_all_filesystems	true	false	Show all available data sources in WebUI (even though there are not configured). It is recommended to show only configured data sources.
verify_session_ip	false	true	Verifies each request IP against IP which initialized the session.
allow_concurrent_sessions	true	false	Disable concurrent sessions (logins).
enable_xsrf_protection	true	true	Enable XSRF (cross-site request forgery) protection.
enable_secure_cookies	false	true	Enable SECURE cookie flag. Note that HTTPS must be enabled.

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Custom Recipe Security

Note

By default Driverless AI enables custom recipes as a main route for the way data-science teams can extend the application capabilities. In enterprise environments, it is recommended to follow best software engineering practices for development of custom recipes (i.e., code reviews, testing, stage releasing, etc.) and bundle only a pre-defined and approved set of custom Driverless AI extensions.

Option	Default Value	Recommended Value	Description
enable_custom_recipes	true	false	Enable custom Python recipes.
enable_custom_recipes_upload	true	false	Enable uploading of custom recipes.
enable_custom_recipes_from_url	true	false	Enable downloading of custom recipes from external URL.
include_custom_recipes_by_default	false	false	Include custom recipes in default inclusion lists. (warning: enables all custom recipes)
custom_recipe_security_analysis_enabled	false	true	Enable code static analysis for custom recipes

Note

custom_recipe_security_analysis_enabled is disabled by default, because enabling it can cause problems with old experiments using recipes, which cannot pass security analysis. Due to that, you may not be able to score new datasets with those experiments and you’ll need to re-upload the recipes again. It is still recommended to enable this options for security reasons.

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Configuration Security

Driverless AI provides the option to store sensitive or secure configuration information in an encrypted keystore as an alternative to keeping security settings as clear text in the config.toml file. Encrypting sensitive information is highly recommended. For more information, see Configuration Security.

Baseline Secure Configuration

The following Driverless AI configuration is an example of secure configuration. Ensure that all necessary config options are specified. For more information, see Using the config.toml File.

#
# Authentication
#

# Configure auth method
authentication_method="PAM"

# Redirect user to login page after 24 hours
authentication_default_timeout_hours=24

#
# Data
#

# Configure available connectors
enabled_file_systems="hdfs"
show_all_filesystems=false

# Restrict downloads
enable_dataset_downloading=false

#
# Logs
#

# Enable removal of audit log records every five days
audit_log_retention_period=5

# Disable collection of server logs
collect_server_logs_in_experiment_logs=false

#
# User data isolation
#

# Disable access to DAI data_directory from file browser
file_hide_data_directory=true

# (Optional) Enable usage of path filters
# file_path_filtering_enabled=true

# (Optional) Specify a list of absolute path prefixes to restrict access to in file browser
# file_path_filter_include = "['/data']")

# (Optional) Specify a directory containing updated AutoDoc templates
# autodoc_additional_template_folder = ""

#
# Client-Server Communication
#

enable_https=true
ssl_key_file="<<FILL ME>>"
ssl_crt_file="<<FILL ME>>"

# (Optional) Disable support of TLSv1.2 on server side only if your environment supports TLSv1.3
# ssl_no_tlsv1_2=true

#
# Web UI security
#

allow_form_autocomplete=false
allow_localstorage=false
verify_session_ip=true
allow_concurrent_sessions=false
enable_xsrf_protection=true

extra_http_headers='{ "Strict-Transport-Security":"max-age=63072000","Content-Security-Policy":"default-src https: ; font-src \'self\'; script-src \'self\' \'unsafe-eval\' \'unsafe-inline\'; style-src \'self\' \'unsafe-inline\'; object-src \'none\'", "X-Frame-Options":"deny", "X-Content-Type-Options":"nosniff", "X-XSS-Protection":"1; mode=block" }'

#
# Custom Recipes
#

enable_custom_recipes=false
enable_custom_recipes_upload=false
enable_custom_recipes_from_url=false
include_custom_recipes_by_default=false
custom_recipe_security_analysis_enabled=true