doc/tutorials/install_gitlab_single_node/_index.md
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<!-- vale gitlab_base.FutureTense = NO -->In this tutorial you will learn how to install and securely configure a single node GitLab instance that can accommodate up to 20 RPS or 1,000 users.
To install a single node GitLab instance and configure it to be secure:
Before installing GitLab, start by configuring your server to be a bit more secure.
You need to open ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), and 443 (HTTPS). You can do this by either using your cloud provider's console, or at the server level.
In this example, you'll configure the firewall using ufw.
You'll deny access to all ports, allow ports 80 and 443, and finally, rate limit access to port 22.
ufw can deny connections from an IP address that has attempted to initiate 6 or more
connections in the last 30 seconds.
Install ufw:
sudo apt install ufw
Enable and start the ufw service:
sudo systemctl enable --now ufw
Deny all other ports except the required ones:
sudo ufw default deny
sudo ufw allow http
sudo ufw allow https
sudo ufw limit ssh/tcp
Finally, activate the settings. The following needs to run only once, the first time
you install the package. Answer yes (y) when prompted:
sudo ufw enable
Verify that the rules are present:
$ sudo ufw status
Status: active
To Action From
-- ------ ----
80/tcp ALLOW Anywhere
443 ALLOW Anywhere
22/tcp LIMIT Anywhere
80/tcp (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
443 (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
22/tcp (v6) LIMIT Anywhere (v6)
To further secure your server, configure SSH to accept public key authentication, and disable some features that are potential security risks.
Open /etc/ssh/sshd_config with your editor and make sure the following are present:
PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication yes
UsePAM yes
UseDNS no
AllowTcpForwarding no
X11Forwarding no
PrintMotd no
PermitTunnel no
# Allow client to pass locale environment variables
AcceptEnv LANG LC_*
# override default of no subsystems
Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server
# Protocol adjustments, these would be needed/recommended in a FIPS or
# FedRAMP deployment, and use only strong and proven algorithm choices
Protocol 2
Ciphers aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr
HostKeyAlgorithms ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521
KexAlgorithms ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521
Macs hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512
Save the file and restart the SSH server:
sudo systemctl restart ssh
If restarting SSH fails, check that you don't have any
duplicate entries in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
Next, ensure that users cannot pull down projects using SSH unless they have a valid GitLab account that can perform Git operations over SSH.
To ensure that only authorized users are using SSH for Git access:
Add the following to your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file:
# Ensure only authorized users are using Git
AcceptEnv GIT_PROTOCOL
Save the file and restart the SSH server:
sudo systemctl restart ssh
Kernel adjustments do not completely eliminate the threat of an attack, but they add an extra layer of security.
Open a new file with your editor under /etc/sysctl.d, for example
/etc/sysctl.d/99-gitlab-hardening.conf, and add the following.
[!note] The naming and source directory decide the order of processing, which is important because the last parameter processed might override earlier ones.
##
## The following help mitigate out of bounds, null pointer dereference, heap and
## buffer overflow bugs, use-after-free etc from being exploited. It does not 100%
## fix the issues, but seriously hampers exploitation.
##
# Default is 65536, 4096 helps mitigate memory issues used in exploitation
vm.mmap_min_addr=4096
# Default is 0, randomize virtual address space in memory, makes vuln exploitation
# harder
kernel.randomize_va_space=2
# Restrict kernel pointer access (for example, cat /proc/kallsyms) for exploit assistance
kernel.kptr_restrict=2
# Restrict verbose kernel errors in dmesg
kernel.dmesg_restrict=1
# Restrict eBPF
kernel.unprivileged_bpf_disabled=1
net.core.bpf_jit_harden=2
# Prevent common use-after-free exploits
vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd=0
## Networking tweaks ##
##
## Prevent common attacks at the IP stack layer
##
# Prevent SYNFLOOD denial of service attacks
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies=1
# Prevent time wait assassination attacks
net.ipv4.tcp_rfc1337=1
# IP spoofing/source routing protection
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter=1
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter=1
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_ra=0
net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_ra=0
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route=0
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route=0
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route=0
net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_source_route=0
# IP redirection protection
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects=0
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects=0
net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects=0
net.ipv4.conf.default.secure_redirects=0
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_redirects=0
net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects=0
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects=0
net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects=0
On the next server reboot, the values will be loaded automatically. To load them immediately:
sudo sysctl --system
Great work, you've completed the steps to secure your server! Now you're ready to install GitLab.
Now that your server is set up, install GitLab:
Install and configure the necessary dependencies:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y curl openssh-server ca-certificates perl locales
Configure the system language:
Edit /etc/locale.gen and make sure en_US.UTF-8 is uncommented.
Regenerate the languages:
sudo locale-gen
Add the GitLab package repository and install the package:
curl --location "https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ee/script.deb.sh" | sudo bash
To see the contents of the script, visit https://packages.gitlab.com/gitlab/gitlab-ee/install.
Install the GitLab package. Provide a strong password with
GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD and replace the EXTERNAL_URL
with your own. Don't forget to include https in the URL, so that a Let's Encrypt
certificate is issued.
sudo GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD="strong password" EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.example.com" apt install gitlab-ee
To learn more about the Let's Encrypt certificate or even use your own, read how to configure GitLab with TLS.
If the password you set wasn't picked up, read more about resetting the root account password.
After a few minutes, GitLab is installed. Sign in
using the URL you set up in EXTERNAL_URL. Use root as the username and
the password you set up in GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD.
Now it's time to configure GitLab!
GitLab comes with some sane default configuration options. In this section, we will change them to add more functionality, and make GitLab more secure.
For some of the options you'll use the Admin area UI, and for some of them you'll
edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb, the GitLab configuration file.
NGINX is used to serve up the web interface used to access the GitLab instance. For more information about configuring NGINX to be more secure, read about hardening NGINX.
Next, you'll set up and configure an email service. Emails are important for verifying new sign ups, resetting passwords, and notifying you of GitLab activity.
In this tutorial, you'll set up an SMTP server and use the Mailgun SMTP provider.
First, start by creating an encrypted file that will contain the login credentials, and then configure SMTP for the Linux package:
Create a YAML file (for example smtp.yaml) that contains the credentials
for the SMTP server.
Your SMTP password must not contain any string delimiters used in
Ruby or YAML (for example, ') to avoid unexpected behavior during the
processing of configuration settings.
user_name: '<SMTP user>'
password: '<SMTP password>'
Encrypt the file:
cat smtp.yaml | sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:smtp:secret:write
By default, the encrypted file is stored under
/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/encrypted_settings/smtp.yaml.enc.
Remove the YAML file:
rm -f smtp.yaml
Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and set up the rest of the SMTP settings.
Make sure gitlab_rails['smtp_user_name'] and gitlab_rails['smtp_password']
are not present, as we've already set them up as encrypted.
gitlab_rails['smtp_enable'] = true
gitlab_rails['smtp_address'] = "smtp.mailgun.org" # or smtp.eu.mailgun.org
gitlab_rails['smtp_port'] = 587
gitlab_rails['smtp_authentication'] = "plain"
gitlab_rails['smtp_enable_starttls_auto'] = true
gitlab_rails['smtp_domain'] = "<mailgun domain>"
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
You should now be able to send emails. To test that the configuration worked:
Enter the Rails console:
sudo gitlab-rails console
Run the following command at the console prompt to make GitLab send a test email:
Notify.test_email('<email_address>', 'Message Subject', 'Message Body').deliver_now
If you're unable to send emails, see the SMTP troubleshooting section.
Account email verification provides an additional layer of GitLab account security. When some conditions are met, for example, if there are three or more failed sign-in attempts in 24 hours, an account is locked.
Prerequisites:
To require email verification for locked accounts:
For more information, read about account email verification.
Notification emails sent by GitLab can be signed with S/MIME for improved security.
A single pair of key and certificate files must be provided:
Buy your certificate from a CA.
Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and adapt the file paths:
gitlab_rails['gitlab_email_smime_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['gitlab_email_smime_key_file'] = '/etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab_smime.key'
gitlab_rails['gitlab_email_smime_cert_file'] = '/etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab_smime.crt'
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
For more information, read about signing outgoing email with S/MIME.
In this tutorial, you learned how to set up your server to be more secure, how to install GitLab, and how to configure GitLab to meet some security standards. Some other steps you can take to secure GitLab include:
There are many other things you can configure apart from hardening your GitLab instance, like configuring your own runners to leverage the CI/CD features that GitLab has to offer, or properly backing up your instance.
You can read more about the steps to take after the installation.