Use custom organization policies for Privileged Access Manager

Preview

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

With custom organization policies, you can restrict how users create and modify Privileged Access Manager (PAM) entitlements and grants.

This page shows you how to use Organization Policy Service custom constraints to restrict specific operations on the following Google Cloud resources:

• privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Entitlement
• privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Grant

To learn more about Organization Policy, see Custom organization policies.

About organization policies and constraints

The Google Cloud Organization Policy Service gives you centralized, programmatic control over your organization's resources. As the organization policy administrator, you can define an organization policy, which is a set of restrictions called constraints that apply to Google Cloud resources and descendants of those resources in the Google Cloud resource hierarchy. You can enforce organization policies at the organization, folder, or project level.

Organization Policy provides built-in managed constraints for various Google Cloud services. However, if you want more granular, customizable control over the specific fields that are restricted in your organization policies, you can also create custom constraints and use those custom constraints in an organization policy.

Policy inheritance

By default, organization policies are inherited by the descendants of the resources on which you enforce the policy. For example, if you enforce a policy on a folder, Google Cloud enforces the policy on all projects in the folder. To learn more about this behavior and how to change it, refer to Hierarchy evaluation rules.

Limitations

Like all organization policy constraints, policy changes don't apply retroactively to existing resources.

• A new policy doesn't affect existing resource configurations.
• An existing resource configuration remains valid even if it has non-compliant values, unless it is updated.

Before you begin

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

• Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
• Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

• Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
• Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Install the Google Cloud CLI.

If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

gcloud init

1. Ensure that you know your organization ID.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to manage organization policies, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles:

• To manage organization policies: Organization Policy Administrator (roles/orgpolicy.policyAdmin) on the organization resource
• To create and manage entitlements: Privileged Access Manager Admin (roles/privilegedaccessmanager.admin) on the project resource

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

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

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to manage organization policies:

• To manage organization policies:
  • orgpolicy.constraints.list
  • orgpolicy.policies.create
  • orgpolicy.policies.delete
  • orgpolicy.policies.list
  • orgpolicy.policies.update
  • orgpolicy.policy.get
  • orgpolicy.policy.set
• To manage entitlements:
  • privilegedaccessmanager.entitlements.create
  • privilegedaccessmanager.entitlements.update

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

Identity and Access Management supported resources

The following table lists the Identity and Access Management resources that you can reference in custom constraints.

Resource	Field
privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Entitlement	resource.additionalNotificationTargets.adminEmailRecipients
	resource.additionalNotificationTargets.requesterEmailRecipients
	resource.approvalWorkflow.manualApprovals.requireApproverJustification
	resource.approvalWorkflow.manualApprovals.steps.approvalsNeeded
	resource.approvalWorkflow.manualApprovals.steps.approverEmailRecipients
	resource.maxRequestDuration
	resource.name
	resource.privilegedAccess.gcpIamAccess.resource
	resource.privilegedAccess.gcpIamAccess.resourceType
	resource.privilegedAccess.gcpIamAccess.roleBindings.conditionExpression
	resource.privilegedAccess.gcpIamAccess.roleBindings.role
privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Grant	resource.additionalEmailRecipients
	resource.justification.unstructuredJustification
	resource.name
	resource.requestedDuration

Set up a custom constraint

A custom constraint is defined in a YAML file by the resources, methods, conditions, and actions that are supported by the service on which you are enforcing the organization policy. Conditions for your custom constraints are defined using Common Expression Language (CEL). For more information about how to build conditions in custom constraints using CEL, see the CEL section of Creating and managing custom constraints.

Console

To create a custom constraint, do the following:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Organization policies page.

   Go to Organization policies

2. From the project picker, select the project that you want to set the organization policy for.
3. Click Custom constraint.
4. In the Display name box, enter a human-readable name for the constraint. This name is used in error messages and can be used for identification and debugging. Don't use personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive data in display names because this name could be exposed in error messages. This field can contain up to 200 characters.
5. In the Constraint ID box, enter the ID that you want for your new custom constraint. A custom constraint can only contain letters (including upper and lowercase) or numbers, for example custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h. This field can contain up to 70 characters, not counting the prefix (custom.), for example, organizations/123456789/customConstraints/custom. Don't include PII or sensitive data in your constraint ID, because it could be exposed in error messages.
6. In the Description box, enter a human-readable description of the constraint. This description is used as an error message when the policy is violated. Include details about why the policy violation occurred and how to resolve the policy violation. Don't include PII or sensitive data in your description, because it could be exposed in error messages. This field can contain up to 2000 characters.
7. In the Resource type box, select the name of the Google Cloud REST resource containing the object and field that you want to restrict—for example, container.googleapis.com/NodePool. Most resource types support up to 20 custom constraints. If you attempt to create more custom constraints, the operation fails.
8. Under Enforcement method, select whether to enforce the constraint on a REST CREATE method or both CREATE and UPDATE methods. If you enforce the constraint with the UPDATE method on a resource that violates the constraint, changes to that resource are blocked by the organization policy unless the change resolves the violation.

To see supported methods for each service, find the service in Services that support custom constraints.

9. To define a condition, click Edit condition.
1. In the Add condition panel, create a CEL condition that refers to a supported service resource, for example, resource.management.autoUpgrade == false. This field can contain up to 1000 characters. For details about CEL usage, see Common Expression Language. For more information about the service resources you can use in your custom constraints, see Custom constraint supported services.
2. Click Save.
10. Under Action, select whether to allow or deny the evaluated method if the condition is met.

The deny action means that the operation to create or update the resource is blocked if the condition evaluates to true.

The allow action means that the operation to create or update the resource is permitted only if the condition evaluates to true. Every other case except those explicitly listed in the condition is blocked.

11. Click Create constraint.

When you have entered a value into each field, the equivalent YAML configuration for this custom constraint appears on the right.

gcloud

1. To create a custom constraint, create a YAML file using the following format:

name: organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/customConstraints/CONSTRAINT_NAME
resourceTypes: RESOURCE_NAME
methodTypes:
  - CREATE
  - UPDATE 
condition: "CONDITION"
actionType: ACTION
displayName: DISPLAY_NAME
description: DESCRIPTION

Replace the following:

• ORGANIZATION_ID: your organization ID, such as 123456789.
• CONSTRAINT_NAME: the name that you want for your new custom constraint. A custom constraint can only contain letters (including upper and lowercase) or numbers, for example, custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h. This field can contain up to 70 characters, not counting the prefix (custom.)— for example, organizations/123456789/customConstraints/custom. Don't include PII or sensitive data in your constraint ID, because it could be exposed in error messages.
• RESOURCE_NAME: the fully qualified name of the Google Cloud resource containing the object and field that you want to restrict. For example, privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Entitlement. Most resource types support up to 20 custom constraints. If you attempt to create more custom constraints, the operation fails.
• methodTypes: the REST methods that the constraint is enforced on. Can be CREATE or both CREATE and UPDATE. If you enforce the constraint with the UPDATE method on a resource that violates the constraint, changes to that resource are blocked by the organization policy unless the change resolves the violation.

To see the supported methods for each service, find the service in Services that support custom constraints.

• CONDITION: a CEL condition that is written against a representation of a supported service resource. This field can contain up to 1000 characters. For example, "resource.maxRequestDuration < duration('7200s')".

For more information about the resources available to write conditions against, see Supported resources.

• ACTION: the action to take if the condition is met. Possible values are ALLOW and DENY.

The allow action means that if the condition evaluates to true, the operation to create or update the resource is permitted. This also means that every other case except the one explicitly listed in the condition is blocked.

The deny action means that if the condition evaluates to true, the operation to create or update the resource is blocked.

• DISPLAY_NAME: a human-readable name for the constraint. This name is used in error messages and can be used for identification and debugging. Don't use PII or sensitive data in display names because this name could be exposed in error messages. This field can contain up to 200 characters.
• DESCRIPTION: a human-friendly description of the constraint to display as an error message when the policy is violated. This field can contain up to 2000 characters.
2. After you have created the YAML file for a new custom constraint, you must set it up to make it available for organization policies in your organization. To set up a custom constraint, use the gcloud org-policies set-custom-constraint command:

gcloud org-policies set-custom-constraint CONSTRAINT_PATH

Replace CONSTRAINT_PATH with the full path to your custom constraint file. For example, /home/user/customconstraint.yaml.

After this operation is complete, your custom constraints are available as organization policies in your list of Google Cloud organization policies.

3. To verify that the custom constraint exists, use the gcloud org-policies list-custom-constraints command:

gcloud org-policies list-custom-constraints --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID

Replace ORGANIZATION_ID with the ID of your organization resource.

For more information, see Viewing organization policies.

Enforce a custom organization policy

You can enforce a constraint by creating an organization policy that references it, and then applying that organization policy to a Google Cloud resource.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Organization policies page.

   Go to Organization policies

2. From the project picker, select the project that you want to set the organization policy for.
3. From the list on the Organization policies page, select your constraint to view the Policy details page for that constraint.
4. To configure the organization policy for this resource, click Manage policy.
5. On the Edit policy page, select Override parent's policy.
6. Click Add a rule.
7. In the Enforcement section, select whether this organization policy is enforced or not.
8. Optional: To make the organization policy conditional on a tag, click Add condition. Note that if you add a conditional rule to an organization policy, you must add at least one unconditional rule or the policy cannot be saved. For more information, see Scope organization policies with tags.
9. To enforce the organization policy in dry-run mode, click Set dry run policy. For more information, see Test organization policies.
10. After you verify that the organization policy in dry-run mode works as intended, set the live policy by clicking Set policy.

gcloud

1. To create an organization policy with boolean rules, create a policy YAML file that references the constraint:

name: projects/PROJECT_ID/policies/CONSTRAINT_NAME
spec:
  rules:
  - enforce: true

dryRunSpec:
  rules:
  - enforce: true

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: the project that you want to enforce your constraint on.
• CONSTRAINT_NAME: the name you defined for your custom constraint. For example, custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h.
2. To enforce the organization policy in dry-run mode, run the following command with the dryRunSpec flag:

gcloud org-policies set-policy POLICY_PATH --update-mask=dryRunSpec

Replace POLICY_PATH with the full path to your organization policy YAML file. The policy requires up to 15 minutes to take effect.

3. After you verify that the organization policy in dry-run mode works as intended, set the live policy with the org-policies set-policy command and the spec flag:

gcloud org-policies set-policy POLICY_PATH --update-mask=spec

Replace POLICY_PATH with the full path to your organization policy YAML file. The policy requires up to 15 minutes to take effect.

Test the custom organization policy

The following example restricts the maximum request duration for Privileged Access Manager entitlements to less than two hours.

Before you begin, you must know the following:

• Your organization ID
• A project ID

Create the constraint

1. Save the following file as constraint-limit-pam-duration.yaml:

   name: organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/customConstraints/custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h
   resourceTypes:
   - privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Entitlement
   methodTypes:
   - CREATE
   - UPDATE
   condition: "resource.maxRequestDuration < duration('7200s')"
   actionType: ALLOW
   displayName: Restrict maximum PAM request duration
   description: Entitlements must have a maximum request duration of less than two hours.
   

   This constraint lets you create or update entitlements only if their maximum request duration is less than two hours.

2. Apply the constraint:

   gcloud org-policies set-custom-constraint ~/constraint-limit-pam-duration.yaml
   

3. Verify that the constraint exists:

   gcloud org-policies list-custom-constraints --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID
   

   The output is similar to the following:

   CUSTOM_CONSTRAINT                                       ACTION_TYPE  METHOD_TYPES   RESOURCE_TYPES                                     DISPLAY_NAME
   custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h ALLOW        CREATE,UPDATE  privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Entitlement Restrict maximum PAM request duration
   ...
   

Create the policy

1. Save the following file as policy-restrict-duration.yaml:

   name: projects/PROJECT_ID/policies/custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h
   spec:
     rules:
     - enforce: true
   

   Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

2. Apply the policy:

   gcloud org-policies set-policy ~/policy-restrict-duration.yaml
   

3. Verify that the policy exists:

   gcloud org-policies list --project=PROJECT_ID
   

   The output is similar to the following:

   CONSTRAINT                                              LIST_POLICY  BOOLEAN_POLICY        ETAG
   custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h -            SET                   CPHYssIGEOi23pAB-
   

After you apply the policy, wait about two minutes for Google Cloud to start enforcing the policy.

Test the policy

To test the custom organization policy, try to create an entitlement with a maximum request duration of 3 hours (10,800 seconds) in your test project:

gcloud beta pam entitlements create ent-test-id \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --location=global \
    --max-request-duration=3h \
    --eligible-users="user:[e-mail]" \
    --privileged-resources="projects/test-project" \
    --privileged-roles="roles/viewer"

The output is similar to the following:

Operation denied by custom org policies: ["customConstraints/custom.allowEntitlementWithMaxRequestDurationLessThan2h": "Entitlements must have a maximum request duration of less than 2 hours."]

Example custom organization policies for common use cases

This table provides syntax examples for some common custom constraints.

Description	Constraint syntax
Limit maximum request duration for all entitlements to 4 hours	name: organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/customConstraints/custom.limitPamEntitlementDuration resourceTypes: - privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Entitlement methodTypes: - CREATE - UPDATE condition: "resource.maxRequestDuration <= duration('14400s')" actionType: ALLOW displayName: Limit PAM entitlement duration description: >- Entitlements cannot have a maximum request duration of more than 4 hours.
Require approver justification for all entitlements	name: organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/customConstraints/custom.requirePamApproverJustification resourceTypes: - privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Entitlement methodTypes: - CREATE - UPDATE condition: >- has(resource.approvalWorkflow.manualApprovals) && resource.approvalWorkflow.manualApprovals.requireApproverJustification == true actionType: ALLOW displayName: Require PAM approver justification description: >- Approvers must provide a justification for all PAM entitlement grants.
Restrict grants from being requested for more than 1 hour	name: organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/customConstraints/custom.limitPamGrantDuration resourceTypes: - privilegedaccessmanager.googleapis.com/Grant methodTypes: - CREATE condition: "resource.requestedDuration <= duration('3600s')" actionType: ALLOW displayName: Limit PAM grant duration description: Grants cannot be requested for more than 1 hour.

What's next

• Learn more about Organization Policy Service.
• Learn more about how to create and manage organization policies.
• See the full list of managed organization policy constraints.