Policy as Code (PaC)

Policies are written as declarative code (e.g., Rego, YAML, JSON) that specifies the desired state of compliance, not the step-by-step procedure to achieve it. This allows the enforcement engine to reason about the final configuration.

• Rego Language: A high-level declarative language purpose-built for expressing policies over complex hierarchical data structures like JSON.
• Idempotent Enforcement: The same policy applied multiple times yields the same result, preventing configuration drift.
• Version Control: Policy files are stored in Git repositories, enabling full audit trails, peer review, and rollback capabilities.

PaC integrates directly into the Kubernetes API server's admission control chain. Before any object is persisted to etcd, an admission webhook calls the policy engine to validate or mutate the request.

• Validating Webhooks: Reject non-compliant resource creation requests immediately, returning a clear denial reason to the operator.
• Mutating Webhooks: Automatically inject missing security defaults, such as adding a specific securityContext or sidecar proxy, without user intervention.
• Air-Gapped Operation: The admission controller runs entirely within the disconnected cluster, requiring no external API calls to evaluate policies.

PaC enables shift-left security by allowing developers to test policies locally or in CI/CD pipelines long before resources reach a production air-gapped cluster.

• Dry-Run Evaluation: Policy engines provide a CLI tool to evaluate local manifests against the same policies used in production.
• Pre-Commit Hooks: Integrate policy checks into Git workflows to catch violations before code is even committed.
• Reduced Rework: Catching a misconfiguration in a developer's branch is orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than remediating it after deployment in a locked-down facility.

PaC decouples the policy logic from the enforcement engine and the decision data. This separation allows a single, unified policy to govern diverse systems within the air gap.

• Policy Bundle Distribution: Signed bundles of policy code and static data (e.g., allowed registries, approved user lists) are distributed to enforcement points via sneakernet.
• Context-Aware Decisions: Policies can query external data sources available locally within the enclave to make dynamic decisions based on real-time inventory or vulnerability scan results.
• Audit Trail: Every decision made by the policy engine is logged with the full input context, providing a tamper-proof record for compliance auditors.

In a sovereign infrastructure, the integrity of the policy itself is paramount. PaC artifacts are treated as immutable, cryptographically signed bundles.

• Code Signing: Policy bundles are signed using a private key stored in an offline Hardware Security Module (HSM).
• Bundle Verification: The enforcement engine verifies the digital signature before loading any policy into memory, preventing tampered rules from executing.
• Immutable Storage: Approved policy bundles are stored in a local, write-once-read-many (WORM) artifact repository within the air-gapped network.

Beyond simple deny/allow decisions, PaC can trigger automated remediation workflows when a violation is detected in a running system.

• Drift Detection: Continuously evaluates the actual state of the cluster against the desired policy state, flagging any divergence.
• Automated Quarantine: A non-compliant pod can be immediately cordoned off from the service mesh, preventing lateral movement.
• Ticketing Integration: Violations can be written to a local, air-gapped ticketing system, creating an unalterable record for manual investigation and break-glass procedures.