Files
netbird/management
Zoltan Papp 174dc24867 [management] Add SSO session extend flow (management) (#6197)
* add SSO session extend flow (management)

Adds the management-server half of the SSO session-extension feature:

- New ExtendAuthSession gRPC RPC that refreshes a peer's session expiry
  using a fresh JWT, validated through the same pipeline as Login but
  without tearing down the tunnel or redoing the NetworkMap sync.
- Per-peer SessionExpiresAt timestamp on every LoginResponse and
  SyncResponse so connected clients learn the deadline on the existing
  long-lived stream, and admin-side changes (toggling expiration,
  changing the expiration window) reach every peer within seconds.
- SessionExpiresAt(...) helper on Peer that derives the absolute UTC
  deadline from LastLogin + the account-level PeerLoginExpiration
  setting, returning zero when the peer is not SSO-tracked or expiration
  is disabled.

The matching client-side consumer of these fields lands separately.

* encode SessionExpiresAt as 3-state on the wire

Previously the `sessionExpiresAt` field on LoginResponse, SyncResponse
and ExtendAuthSessionResponse was 2-state: a valid timestamp meant
"new deadline", and nil meant "clear". That conflated two distinct
meanings — "no info in this snapshot" vs "expiry is explicitly off /
peer is not SSO-tracked" — so a Sync push that legitimately couldn't
compute the deadline (settings lookup failed) would silently clear the
client's anchor and lose the warning window.

Three states now, encoded on the same field number (no .proto schema
churn — only comments and the server-side encoder change):

  - nil pointer (field absent) → "no info"; client preserves anchor
  - &Timestamp{} (seconds=0, nanos=0) → explicit "disabled / not SSO"
    sentinel; client clears
  - valid timestamp → new absolute UTC deadline

A new encodeSessionExpiresAt helper centralises the zero/non-zero
encoding and is shared by the Sync, Login and ExtendAuthSession
builders. The Sync builder still emits nil when settings are missing.
Login and ExtendAuthSession always carry an authoritative value.

The matching client-side decoder lands on feature/session-extend.

* add UserExtendedPeerSession activity event

ExtendAuthSession previously reused UserLoggedInPeer for its audit
record, which conflated two distinct user actions: a full interactive
SSO login (tunnel re-established, network map resync) versus an
in-place deadline refresh (tunnel untouched). Auditors reading the log
couldn't tell which one happened, and downstream dashboards/alerts on
"login" volume were polluted by routine extends.

Adds a dedicated UserExtendedPeerSession Activity (code 125,
"user.peer.session.extend") and switches ExtendPeerSession over to it.
The peer-extend audit trail is now distinguishable from interactive
logins.

* make ExtendAuthSession JWT-retry backoff cancellable

Skip the retry log and 200ms wait on the final attempt, and replace the
uncancellable time.Sleep with a select on time.After/ctx.Done so an
upstream cancellation aborts the wait instead of running it to
completion.
2026-05-28 19:14:14 +02:00
..

netbird Management Server

netbird management server will control and synchronize peers configuration within your Netbird account and network.

Command Options

The CLI accepts the command management with the following options:

start Netbird Management Server

Usage:
  netbird-mgmt management [flags]

Flags:
      --cert-file string            Location of your SSL certificate. Can be used when you have an existing certificate and don't want a new certificate be generated automatically. If letsencrypt-domain is specified this property has no effect
      --cert-key string             Location of your SSL certificate private key. Can be used when you have an existing certificate and don't want a new certificate be generated automatically. If letsencrypt-domain is specified this property has no effect
      --datadir string              server data directory location
  -h, --help                        help for management
      --letsencrypt-domain string   a domain to issue Let's Encrypt certificate for. Enables TLS using Let's Encrypt. Will fetch and renew certificate, and run the server with TLS
      --port int                    server port to listen on (default 33073)

Global Flags:
      --config string      Netbird config file location to write new config to (default "/etc/netbird")
      --log-file string    sets Netbird log path. If console is specified the the log will be output to stdout (default "/var/log/netbird/management.log")
      --log-level string    (default "info")

Run Management service (Docker)

You can run service in 2 modes - with TLS or without (not recommended).

Run with TLS (Let's Encrypt).

By specifying the --letsencrypt-domain the daemon will handle SSL certificate request and configuration.

In the following example 33073 is the management service default port, and 443 will be used as port for Let's Encrypt challenge and HTTP API.

The server where you are running a container has to have a public IP (for Let's Encrypt certificate challenge).

Replace with your server's public domain (e.g. mydomain.com or subdomain sub.mydomain.com).

# create a volume
docker volume create netbird-mgmt
# run the docker container
docker run -d --name netbird-management \
-p 33073:33073  \
-p 443:443  \
-v netbird-mgmt:/var/lib/netbird  \
-v ./config.json:/etc/netbird/config.json  \
netbirdio/management:latest \
--letsencrypt-domain <YOUR-DOMAIN>

An example of config.json can be found here management.json

Trigger Let's encrypt certificate generation:

curl https://<YOUR-DOMAIN>

The certificate will be persisted in the datadir/letsencrypt/ folder (e.g. /var/lib/netbird/letsencrypt/) inside the container.

Make sure that the datadir is mapped to some folder on a host machine. In case you used the volume command, you can run the following to retrieve the Mountpoint:

docker volume inspect netbird-mgmt
[
    {
        "CreatedAt": "2021-07-25T20:45:28Z",
        "Driver": "local",
        "Labels": {},
        "Mountpoint": "/var/lib/docker/volumes/mgmt/_data",
        "Name": "netbird-mgmt",
        "Options": {},
        "Scope": "local"
    }
]

Consequent restarts of the container will pick up previously generated certificate so there is no need to trigger certificate generation with the curl command on every restart.

Run without TLS.

# create a volume
docker volume create netbird-mgmt
# run the docker container
docker run -d --name netbird-management \
-p 33073:33073  \
-v netbird-mgmt:/var/lib/netbird  \
-v ./config.json:/etc/netbird/config.json  \
netbirdio/management:latest

Debug tag

We also publish a docker image with the debug tag which has the log-level set to default, plus it uses the gcr.io/distroless/base:debug image that can be used with docker exec in order to run some commands in the Management container.

shell $ docker run -d --name netbird-management-debug \
-p 33073:33073  \
-v netbird-mgmt:/var/lib/netbird  \
-v ./config.json:/etc/netbird/config.json  \
netbirdio/management:debug-latest

shell $ docker exec -ti netbird-management-debug /bin/sh
container-shell $ 

For development purposes:

Install golang gRpc tools:

#!/bin/bash
go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go@v1.26
go install google.golang.org/grpc/cmd/protoc-gen-go-grpc@v1.1

Generate gRpc code:

#!/bin/bash
protoc -I proto/ proto/management.proto --go_out=. --go-grpc_out=.