@vgs/vgs-satellite
VGS Offline integration/debugging application.

• Description
• How to start application
  • Using the source code
  • Using the Docker image
  • Using the Electron app
• Developer notes
  • Python dependencies
  • Running tests
  • DB management
  • Docker
  • Electron
  • Release process

Description

VGS Satellite is an application that can ease your integration with Very Good Security to achieve Zero Data security

VGS Satellite provides:

- Demo VGS Vault capabilities
- Redact/reveal functionality
- HTTP request/response payload transformer
- Route configuration generator according to specific request
- Route configuration editor
- Logging
- Man-in-the-middle proxy functionality (request intercept/replay/edit/etc)

This application gives you an ability to run requests with your service and transform them into suitable VGS route configuration without any need to sign up.

VGS Satellite's core depends on mitmproxy. mitmproxy or man-in-the-middle proxy is an interactive intercepting proxy with ton of build-in functionalities and protocol support. VGS Satellite is provided as a Open Source product under Apache License v2.0

How to start application

Using the source code

Note: If you are not interested in contributing to VGS Satellite and don't need the latest (not released) changes please consider using the Electron app or Docker image (when you don't need the UI).

Assuming you have the right versions of Python (3.8.*), npm (6.14.*) and node (14.15.*):

> git clone [email protected]:verygoodsecurity/vgs-satellite.git && cd vgs-satellite
vgs-satellite> npm ci
vgs-satellite> npm run start

After the app is up and running you can visit localhost:1234 to start configuring your routes.

Example request to the reverse proxy:

curl http://localhost:9098/post -H "Content-type: application/json" -d '{"foo": "bar"}'

Example request to the forward proxy:

curl https://httpbin.org/post -k -x localhost:9099 -H "Content-type: application/json" -d '{"foo": "bar"}'

The core app

The core of the VGS Satellite is a Python app providing 3 services:

1. Reverse proxy - use it for your inbound traffic
2. Forward proxy - use it for your outbound traffic
3. Management API which is used for routes configuration and request/response examination

The Python app can be run separately as:

vgs-satellite> python app.py

The core app can be configured via command line arguments, environment variables or a YAML config file. You can always get available configuration parameters invoking the app with --help option:

vgs-satellite> python app.py --help
Usage: app.py [OPTIONS]

Options:
  --debug                         [env:SATELLITE_DEBUG] (default:False) Debug
                                  mode.

  --web-server-port INTEGER       [env:SATELLITE_API_PORT] (default:8089) API
                                  port.

  --reverse-proxy-port INTEGER    [env:SATELLITE_REVERSE_PROXY_PORT] (default:
                                  9098) Reverse proxy port.

  --forward-proxy-port INTEGER    [env:SATELLITE_FORWARD_PROXY_PORT]
                                  (default:9099) Forward proxy port.

  --config-path FILE              [env:SATELLITE_CONFIG_PATH]
                                  (default:$HOME/.vgs-satellite/config.yml)
                                  Path to the config YAML file.

  --db-path FILE                  [env:SATELLITE_DB_PATH] (default:$HOME/.vgs-
                                  satellite/db.sqlite) Path to the DB file.

  --log-path FILE                 [env:SATELLITE_LOG_PATH] (default:None) Path
                                  to a log file.

  --silent                        [env:SATELLITE_SILENT] (default:False) Do
                                  not log into stdout.

  --volatile-aliases-ttl INTEGER  [env:VOLATILE_ALIASES_TTL] (default:3600)
                                  TTL for volatile aliases in seconds.

  --routes-path FILE              [env:SATELLITE_ROUTES_PATH] (default:None)
                                  Path to a routes config YAML file. If
                                  provided all the current  routes present in
                                  Satellite DB will be deleted.

  --help                          Show this message and exit.

Command line arguments take precedence over environment variables. Environment variables take precedence over the config file.

Upon the first launch VGS Satellite directory is created. By default the directory is $HOME/.vgs-satellite which can be changed via environment variable SATELLITE_DIR. By default VGS Satellite directory is used to store the DB file (where your routes are persisted) and is a default location where the app will search for the config file. Both of these paths (DB and config) can be changed via corresponding config parameters.

UI

VGS Satellite UI is a SPA served separately via node server (except when using the Electron app).

You can run the UI separately (assuming the core app is already started) as:

vgs-satellite> npm run serve

Caveat: Although you can change the API port, UI will still try to use the default value (8089). We will fix this eventually but currently it is what it is.

Using the Docker image

The core app (without the UI) is available as a Docker image:

docker pull verygood/satellite

Get help

docker run --rm verygood/satellite --help

Start a container

docker run --rm -v $HOME/.vgs-satellite/:/data -p 8089:8089 -p 9098:9098 -p 9099:9099 verygood/satellite

Note: You can use any directory you like to mount /data volume - just make sure the directory exists before you start a container.

Using the Electron app

VGS Satellite is available as an Electron app (for Linux and Mac). You can find the latest release versions of the app on the GitHub releases page.

Developer notes

Python dependencies

Do not add Python dependencies directly to requirements.txt/requirements-dev.txt. Instead add them to requirements.in/requirements-dev.in and run:

vgs-satellite> make pin_requirements

If you want to upgrade Python dependencies run:

vgs-satellite> make upgrade_requirements

Use requirements-dev.in to add a dev-only dependency.

Running tests

Unit tests for the core app can be run as:

vgs-satellite> make test

Before submitting a PR it is worth to run

vgs-satellite> make check

The above command

1. Runs the linter app over Python source code (we use flake8).
2. Runs Python unit tests.
3. Builds the Python distribution (used for the Electron app).
4. Tests the Python distribution built in the previous step.

UI tests can be run as:

vgs-satellite> npm run test

The above command

1. Starts both the core and UI apps.
2. Runs Cypress tests.

DB management

Routes configuration is stored in a SQLite DB. For DB migrations management we use Alembic. Migrations are applied to the DB automatically when the core app is started.

To generate a new migration run:

vgs-satellite> PYTHONPATH=. alembic revision --autogenerate -m "Describe your changes here."

There is a good chance that migration generated for your model changes will not work as is due to SQLite limited nature. Usually Alembic batch operations help in such situations.

Docker

The docker image can be built locally by running:

vgs-satellite> make docker_image

Publishing of the image is done via:

vgs-satellite> make docker_publish

Electron

In order to ship the core as part of the Electron app we "freeze" it with PyInstaller. To build the Python distribution run:

vgs-satellite> make dist

Usually PyInstaller does a good job guessing what should be included in the final distribution but sometimes some guidance is needed (see dist Make-target for details). It's always a good idea to test the distribution before pushing your changes:

vgs-satellite> make test_dist

The Electron app can be build locally by running:

vgs-satellite> npm run electron:build

On Mac the build process includes signing/notarizing steps which can be disabled by setting CSC_IDENTITY_AUTO_DISCOVERY environment variable to false.

vgs-satellite> CSC_IDENTITY_AUTO_DISCOVERY=false npm run electron:build

Release process

Make sure package.json has the right version set - the version you're going to release. To initiate the release process run:

vgs-satellite> npm run release

This pushes a GIT-tag named after the version and triggers the release CI-job. If everything went well a draft GH-release is created and a new Docker image is pushed. Finally you can add/review release notes and publish the GH release.