Configure temporary access

This topic describes how to set temporary (expiring) access to Google Cloud resources using conditional role bindings in your allow policies. By using the date/time attributes, you can enforce time-based controls when accessing a given resource. For example, you can grant temporary access to a project that starts and stops at a specified time or on a scheduled and recurring basis.

Before you begin

  • Read Conditions Overview to understand the basics of Identity and Access Management (IAM) conditional role bindings.
  • Review the date/time attributes that can be used in a condition expression. Date/time attributes are recognized by all Google Cloud services.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to manage conditional role bindings, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles:

  • To manage access to projects: Project IAM Admin (roles/resourcemanager.projectIamAdmin) on the project
  • To manage access to folders: Folder Admin (roles/resourcemanager.folderAdmin) on the folder
  • To manage access to projects, folders, and organizations: Organization Admin (roles/resourcemanager.organizationAdmin) on the organization
  • To manage access to almost all Google Cloud resources: Security Admin (roles/iam.securityAdmin) on the project, folder, or organization whose resources you want to manage access to

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to manage conditional role bindings. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to manage conditional role bindings:

  • To manage access to projects:
    • resourcemanager.projects.getIamPolicy on the project
    • resourcemanager.projects.setIamPolicy on the project
  • To manage access to folders:
    • resourcemanager.folders.getIamPolicy on the folder
    • resourcemanager.folders.setIamPolicy on the folder
  • To manage access to organizations:
    • resourcemanager.organizations.getIamPolicy on the organization
    • resourcemanager.organizations.setIamPolicy on the organization

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

Grant temporary access

A conditional role binding can be used to grant time-bounded access to a resource, ensuring that a user can no longer access the resource after the specified expiry date and time.

Consider the following scenario: the company ExampleCo's information security rules emphasize that no employee should have indefinite access to resources in production projects. Previously, the admins have been manually setting and deleting IAM role bindings to meet the engineers' emergency needs. To reduce administrative overhead, ExampleCo can instead configure a conditional role binding with a date/time condition to set an end date for the binding.

To grant expirable access to a project resource:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

    Go to the IAM page

  2. From the list of principals, locate the desired principal and click the button.

  3. From the Edit permissions panel, locate the desired role to configure a condition for. Then under IAM condition (optional), click Add IAM condition.

  4. In the Edit condition panel, enter a title and optional description for the condition.

  5. You can add a condition expression using either the Condition builder or the Condition editor. The condition builder provides an interactive interface to select your desired condition type, operator, and other applicable details about the expression. The condition editor provides a text-based interface to manually enter an expression using CEL syntax.

    Condition builder:

    1. From the Condition type drop-down, select Expiring Access.
    2. From the Operator drop-down, select by.
    3. From the Time drop-down, click the button to select from a date and time range.
    4. Click Save to apply the condition.
    5. After the Edit condition panel is closed, click Save again from the Edit permissions panel to update your allow policy.

    Condition editor:

    1. Click the Condition editor tab and enter the following expression (replacing the timestamp with your own):

      request.time < timestamp("2020-07-01T00:00:00.000Z")

    2. After entering your expression, you can optionally choose to validate the CEL syntax by clicking Run Linter above the text box on the top-right.

    3. Click Save to apply the condition.

    4. After the Edit condition panel is closed, click Save again from the Edit permissions panel to update your allow policy.

gcloud

Allow policies are set using the read-modify-write pattern.

Execute the gcloud projects get-iam-policy command to get the current allow policy for the project. In the following example, the JSON version of the allow policy is downloaded to a path on disk.

Command:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy project-id --format=json > filepath

The JSON format of the allow policy is downloaded:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/owner"
    },
    {
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/iam.securityReviewer"
    }
  ],
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "version": 1
}

To configure the allow policy with expirable access, add the following highlighted condition expression (replacing the timestamp with your own). The gcloud CLI updates the version automatically:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/owner"
    },
    {
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/iam.securityReviewer",
      "condition": {
        "title": "Expires_July_1_2020",
        "description": "Expires on July 1, 2020",
        "expression":
          "request.time < timestamp('2020-07-01T00:00:00.000Z')"
      }
    }
  ],
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "version": 3
}

Next, set the new allow policy by executing the gcloud projects set-iam-policy command:

gcloud projects set-iam-policy project-id filepath

The new allow policy is applied, and the group's role grant will expire at the specified time.

REST

Use the read-modify-write pattern to allow access until a specific time.

First, read the allow policy for the project:

The Resource Manager API's projects.getIamPolicy method gets a project's allow policy.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.
  • POLICY_VERSION: The policy version to be returned. Requests should specify the most recent policy version, which is policy version 3. See Specifying a policy version when getting a policy for details.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID:getIamPolicy

Request JSON body: 

{
  "options": {
    "requestedPolicyVersion": POLICY_VERSION
  }
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

{
  "version": 1,
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "bindings": [
    {
      "role": "roles/owner",
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "roles/iam.securityReviewer",
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Next, modify the allow policy so that it allows access until a specific time. Make sure to change the version field to the value 3:

{
  "version": 3,
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "bindings": [
    {
      "role": "roles/owner",
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "roles/iam.securityReviewer",
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ],
      "condition": {
        "title": "Expires_July_1_2020",
        "description": "Expires on July 1, 2020",
        "expression":
          "request.time < timestamp('2020-07-01T00:00:00.000Z')"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Finally, write the updated allow policy:

The Resource Manager API's projects.setIamPolicy method sets the allow policy in the request as the project's new allow policy.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID:setIamPolicy

Request JSON body: 

{
  "policy": {
    "version": 3,
    "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
    "bindings": [
      {
        "role": "roles/owner",
        "members": [
          "user:[email protected]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "role": "roles/iam.securityReviewer",
        "members": [
          "group:[email protected]"
        ],
        "condition": {
          "title": "Expires_July_1_2020",
          "description": "Expires on July 1, 2020",
          "expression":
            "request.time < timestamp('2020-07-01T00:00:00.000Z')"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

The response contains the updated allow policy.


Manage access based on days/hours of the week

A conditional role binding can be used to grant access to a resource only within certain days or hours of the week on a recurring basis.

Consider the following scenario: the company ExampleCo has a quality assurance project. The entire QA team is required to have highly-privileged roles to complete their work. ExampleCo has to abide by labor laws in their location, which limit work hours to Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM. ExampleCo can use date/time conditions to ensure that their employees are only able to access Google Cloud during the work week and during scheduled work hours.

To grant access to a project resource for only certain days or hours of the week on a recurring basis:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

    Go to the IAM page

  2. From the list of principals, locate the desired principal and click the button.

  3. From the Edit permissions panel, locate the desired role to configure a condition for. Then under IAM condition (optional), click Add IAM condition.

  4. In the Edit condition panel, enter a title and optional description for the condition.

  5. You can add a condition expression using either the Condition builder or the Condition editor. The condition builder provides an interactive interface to select your desired condition type, operator, and other applicable details about the expression. The condition editor provides a text-based interface to manually enter an expression using CEL syntax.

    Condition builder:

    1. Click Add.
    2. From the Condition type drop-down, select Time Schedule Day of Week.
    3. From the Operator drop-down, select After or On.
    4. From the Day of Week drop-down, select Monday.
    5. From the Choose a time zone drop-down, select your desired time zone from the list.
    6. Ensure that the And operator is selected on the left, and then click Add again.
    7. From the Condition type drop-down, select Time Schedule Day of Week.
    8. From the Operator drop-down, select Before or On.
    9. From the Day of Week drop-down, select Friday.
    10. From the Choose a time zone drop-down, select your desired time zone from the list.

    At this point, you've configured access only on Monday through Friday. Now, you will configure access from 9 AM (09:00) to 5 PM (17:00).

    1. Ensure that the And operator is selected on the left, and then click Add again.

    2. From the Condition type drop-down, select Time Schedule Hour of Day.

      1. From the Operator drop-down, select After or On.
      2. From the Hour of Day drop-down, select 9 (9 AM).
      3. From the Choose a time zone drop-down, select your desired time zone from the list.
      4. From the Condition type drop-down, select Time Schedule Hour of Day.
      5. From the Operator drop-down, select Before or On. Note that for this selection, "on" will logically evaluate to all times between 17:00 (5 PM) and 17:59 (5:59 PM). To set access to expire at 4:59 PM, ensure the hour is set to 16 instead of 17.
      6. From the Hour of Day drop-down, select 17 (5 PM).
      7. From the Choose a time zone drop-down, select your desired time zone from the list.
      8. Click Save to apply the condition.
      9. Once the Edit condition panel is closed, click Save again from the Edit permissions panel to update your allow policy.

      You've now configured access from Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM.

      Condition editor:

      1. Click the Condition editor tab and enter the following expression (replacing the placeholder values with your own):

        request.time.getHours("Europe/Berlin") >= 9 &&
request.time.getHours("Europe/Berlin") <= 17 &&
request.time.getDayOfWeek("Europe/Berlin") >= 1 &&
request.time.getDayOfWeek("Europe/Berlin") <= 5

      2. After entering your expression, you can optionally choose to validate the CEL syntax by clicking Run Linter above the text box on the top-right.

      3. Click Save to apply the condition.

      4. Once the Edit condition panel is closed, click Save again from the Edit permissions panel to update your allow policy.

gcloud

Allow policies are set using the read-modify-write pattern.

Execute the gcloud projects get-iam-policy command to get the current allow policy for the project. In the following example, the JSON version of the allow policy is downloaded to a path on disk.

Command:

gcloud projects get-iam-policy project-id --format=json > filepath

The JSON format of the allow policy is downloaded:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/owner"
    },
    {
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/bigquery.dataViewer"
    }
  ],
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "version": 1
}

To configure the allow policy with scheduled access, add the following highlighted condition expression (replacing the timestamp with your own). The gcloud CLI updates the version automatically:

{
  "bindings": [
    {
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/owner"
    },
    {
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ],
      "role": "roles/bigquery.dataViewer",
      "condition": {
        "title": "Business_hours",
        "description": "Business hours Monday-Friday",
        "expression": "request.time.getHours('Europe/Berlin') >= 9 && request.time.getHours('Europe/Berlin') <= 17 && request.time.getDayOfWeek('Europe/Berlin') >= 1 && request.time.getDayOfWeek('Europe/Berlin') <= 5"
      }
    }
  ],
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "version": 3
}

Next, set the new allow policy by executing the gcloud projects set-iam-policy command:

gcloud projects set-iam-policy project-id filepath

The new allow policy is applied, and the group's role grant will allow access between the specified days and times.

REST

Use the read-modify-write pattern to allow scheduled access.

First, read the allow policy for the project:

The Resource Manager API's projects.getIamPolicy method gets a project's allow policy.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.
  • POLICY_VERSION: The policy version to be returned. Requests should specify the most recent policy version, which is policy version 3. See Specifying a policy version when getting a policy for details.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID:getIamPolicy

Request JSON body: 

{
  "options": {
    "requestedPolicyVersion": POLICY_VERSION
  }
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

{
  "version": 1,
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "bindings": [
    {
      "role": "roles/owner",
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "roles/bigquery.dataViewer",
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Next, modify the allow policy to allow scheduled access.

Add the following highlighted condition expression (replacing the timestamp with your own). Ensure that you've updated the version value to 3:

{
  "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
  "version": 3,
  "bindings": [
    {
      "role": "roles/owner",
      "members": [
        "user:[email protected]"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "roles/bigquery.dataViewer",
      "members": [
        "group:[email protected]"
      ],
      "condition": {
        "title": "Business_hours",
        "description": "Business hours Monday-Friday",
        "expression":
          "request.time.getHours('Europe/Berlin') >= 9 &&
          request.time.getHours('Europe/Berlin') <= 17 &&
          request.time.getDayOfWeek('Europe/Berlin') >= 1 &&
          request.time.getDayOfWeek('Europe/Berlin') <= 5"
      }
    }
  ]
}

The Resource Manager API's projects.setIamPolicy method sets the allow policy in the request as the project's new allow policy.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.

HTTP method and URL: 

POST https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID:setIamPolicy

Request JSON body: 

{
  "policy": {
    "etag": "BwWKmjvelug=",
    "version": 3,
    "bindings": [
      {
        "role": "roles/owner",
        "members": [
          "user:[email protected]"
        ]
      },
      {
        "role": "roles/bigquery.dataViewer",
        "members": [
          "group:[email protected]"
        ],
        "condition": {
          "title": "Business_hours",
          "description": "Business hours Monday-Friday",
          "expression": "request.time.getHours('Europe/Berlin') >= 9 && request.time.getHours('Europe/Berlin') <= 17 && request.time.getDayOfWeek('Europe/Berlin') >= 1 && request.time.getDayOfWeek('Europe/Berlin') <= 5"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

The response contains the updated allow policy.


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