2023-05-22 - Kafka Topics RFC

2023-05-22 - Kafka Topics RFC

Date

May 22, 2023

Attendees 

  • @Craig McNally 

  • @Olamide Kolawole 

  • @Carol Sterenberg 

  • @Julian Ladisch 

  • @Marc Johnson 

  • @VBar 

  • @Florian Gleixner 

  • @Jeremy Huff 

  • @Jenn Colt 

Discussion items

Time

Item

Who

Notes

Time

Item

Who

Notes

1 min

Scribe

All

@Craig McNally will take notes

 

*

Kafka Topics RFC

All 

Background: 


Discussion Notes:

  • Summary of the problem:

    • With the current approach, it's possible to use Kafka ACLs to improve security.

      • See Kafka Temporary Security Proposal <add link>

    • Comments were made in the RFC suggesting that the proposal would prevent that from being an option if accepted/adopted.

  • @Marc Johnson (via chat):  We don't have a quorum... so an official decision won't happen in this meeting

  • Managing ACLs is currently the responsibility of system operators

    • This is currently a manual and cumbersome process...  Need to restart brokers, need to be aware of when topics are created, requires credential management, etc.

  • @Olamide Kolawole: The proposed changes are optional; essentially an opt-in.

  • @Marc Johnson: If I understand correctly, @Julian Ladisch indicates in the RFC that it's currently possible to implement the temporary Kafka security using ACLs  and @Olamide Kolawole suggests it isn't.

    • @Olamide Kolawole: It's not possible because code changes are required (provide credentials to authenticate with Kafka.

  • @Jeremy Huff: would adopting the proposal in the RFC paint us into a corner (security-wise)?

  • @Olamide Kolawole:  I don't think so.  It would be possible to use message encryption for instance, but that needs to be thought through and formally proposed.

  • @Julian Ladisch: if the modules automatically create the topics, then using ACLs is indeed challenging, but if you have some external process which creates the topics, it is more feasible.

  • @Julian Ladisch:  It might be sufficient to document the issue in the RFC.  It doesn't necessarily need to be a deal breaker for acceptance of the RFC.

  • The problematic statement in the RFC is that the one around ACLs being out of scope.  @Julian Ladisch feels it should be in-scope.

  • @Julian Ladisch maybe "in-scope" is a poor choice of words, but it is related or at least of note.

  • @Olamide Kolawole will work with @Julian Ladisch to get this sufficiently documented.

  • @Marc Johnson tried to gain a better understanding of what documentation changes are required, and to which section.  

  • After discussion, @Julian Ladisch indicated that he accepts the RFC in its current form.

Action Items