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Length: 03:44

Version: 14.x

Getting Started with Device Trust

warning

Device Trust supports the following components:

  • User devices: macOS and Windows.
  • Teleport client: tsh and Teleport connect.
  • Resources: SSH, Database and Kubernetes.

Support for other operating systems, access from Web UI and application access is planned for upcoming Teleport versions.

Device Trust requires two of the following steps to have been configured:

  • Device enforcement mode configured via either a role or a cluster-wide config.
  • Trusted device registered and enrolled with Teleport.

In this guide, you will update an existing user profile to assign the preset require-trusted-device role and then enroll a trusted device into Teleport to access a resource (a test linux server) protected with Teleport.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Teleport Enterprise cluster. For details on how to set this up, see our Enterprise Getting Started guide.

  • The Enterprise tctl admin tool and tsh client tool version >= 14.3.33, which you can download by visiting your Teleport account.

    $ tctl version
    # Teleport Enterprise v14.3.33 go1.21

    $ tsh version
    # Teleport v14.3.33 go1.21
  • To enroll a macOS device, you need:
  • To enroll a Windows device, you need:
    • A device that includes a TPM with 2.0 support.
    • tsh installed on the device. Download the Windows tsh installer.
    • Credentials for a user with administrator privileges for the device. This is only required during enrollment.
    • A Teleport version newer than v13.1.2.
  • User with editor role. 
    $ tsh status
    > Profile URL:      teleport.example.com:443
    Logged in as:       myuser
    Cluster:            teleport.example.com
    Roles:              access, auditor, editor
    Logins:             root, ubuntu, ec2-user
    Kubernetes:         disabled
    Valid until:        2023-08-22 03:30:24 -0400 EDT [valid for 11h52m0s]
    Extensions:         login-ip, permit-agent-forwarding, permit-port-forwarding, permit-pty, private-key-policy
  • Access to a linux server (any Linux server you can access via tsh ssh will do). 
    $ tsh ls
    Node Name        Address        Labels
    ---------------- -------------- --------------------------------------
    ip-172-31-35-170 ⟵ Tunnel

    # test connection to ip-172-31-35-170
    $ tsh ssh root@ip-172-31-35-170
    root@ip-172-31-35-170:~#

Once the above prerequisites are met, begin with the following step.

Step 1/2. Update user profile to enforce Device Trust​

To enforce Device Trust, a user must be assigned with a role with Device Trust mode "required".

For this guide, we will use the preset require-trusted-device role to update current user profile.

v13.3.5 and Below

The preset require-trusted-device role, as referenced in this guide, is only available from Teleport version 13.3.6 and above. For older Teleport cluster, you will need to update a role with device_trust_mode: required.

Update a role to enforce Device Trust

For simplicity, the example below updates the preset access role but you can update any existing access granting role which the user is assigned with to enforce Device Trust.

First, fetch a role so you can update it locally:

$ tctl edit role/access

Edit the role with device trust mode:

kind: role
metadata:
  labels:
    teleport.internal/resource-type: preset
  name: access
spec:
  allow:
    logins:
    - '{{internal.logins}}'
    ...
  options:
    # require authenticated device check for this role
+   device_trust_mode: "required" # add this line
    ...
  deny:
    ...

Save your edits.

Now that the access role is configured with device mode "required", users with this role will be enforced with Device Trust.

First, let's fetch the user profile locally so we can update it with the preset require-trusted-device role.

$ tctl get users/myuser > myuser.yaml

Edit the profile:

kind: user
metadata:
  id: 1692716146877042322
  name: myuser
spec:
  created_by:
    time: "2023-08-14T13:42:22.291972449Z"
  expires: "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
  roles:
  - access
  - auditor
  - editor
+ - require-trusted-device # add this line
  status:
    is_locked: false
  ...

Save and update user:

$ tctl create -f myuser.yaml

Now that the user profile is updated to enforce Device Trust, try to access the test server again.

$ tsh logout; tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=myuser
$ tsh ssh root@ip-172-31-35-170
ERROR: access denied to root connecting to ip-172-31-35-170:0

As you can verify from the above step, access to ip-172-31-35-170 ssh server, which was previously accessible, is now forbidden.

Step 2/2. Enroll device​

To access ip-172-31-35-170 server again, you will have to enroll your device.

Enrolling your device is easy, and can be done using tsh client:

$ tsh device enroll --current-device
Device "C00AA0AAAA0A"/macOS registered and enrolled
self enrollment: v13.3.5+

The --current-device flag tells tsh to enroll current device. User must have the preset editor or device-admin role to be able to self-enroll their device. For users without the editor or device-admin roles, an enrollment token must be generated by a device admin, which can then be used to enroll the device. Learn more about manual device enrollment in the device management guide

Relogin to fetch updated certificate with device extension:

$ tsh logout; tsh login --proxy=teleport.example.com --user=myuser

$ tsh status
> Profile URL:        teleport.example.com:443
  Logged in as:       myuser
  Cluster:            teleport.example.com:443
  Roles:              access, auditor, editor
  Logins:             root
  Kubernetes:         enabled
  Valid until:        2023-08-22 04:06:53 -0400 EDT [valid for 12h0m0s]
  Extensions:         login-ip, ... teleport-device-asset-tag, teleport-device-credential-id, teleport-device-id

The presence of the teleport-device-* extensions shows that the device was successfully authenticated.

Now, let's try to access server (ip-172-31-35-170) again:

$ tsh ssh root@ip-172-31-35-170
root@ip-172-31-35-170:~#

Congratulations! You have successfully configured a Trusted Device and accessed a resource protected with Device Trust enforcement.

Troubleshooting​

"binary missing signature or entitlements" on tsh device enroll​

A signed and notarized tsh binary is necessary to enroll and use a a trusted device. Download the macOS tsh installer to fix the problem.

"unauthorized device" errors using a trusted device​

A trusted device needs to be registered and enrolled before it is recognized by Teleport as such. Follow the registration and enrollment steps and make sure to tsh logout and tsh login after enrollment is done.

Auto enrollment not working​

Auto-enrollment ceremonies, due to their automated nature, are stricter than regular enrollment. Additional auto-enrollment checks include:

  1. Verifying device profile data, such as data originated from Jamf, against the actual device
  2. Verifying that the device is not enrolled by another user (auto-enroll cannot take devices that are already enrolled)

Check you audit log for clues: look for failed "Device Enroll Token Created" events and see the "message" field in the details (auto-enroll audit log details available since Teleport v14.3.33).

If you suspect (1) is the issue, compare the actual device against its inventory definition (tsh device collect executed in the actual device vs tctl get device/<asset_tag>). Tweaking the device profile, manual enrollment or waiting for the next MDM sync may solve the issue.

If you suspect (2), you can unenroll the device using tctl edit device/<asset_tag> and changing the "enroll_status" field to "not_enrolled".

Next steps​