fleet/docs/Using Fleet/fleetd.md

Fleetd

• Fleetd
  • Overview
    • Components
    • Capabilities
  • Packaging
    • Dependencies
    • Packaging support
    • Building packages
      • Configuration options
      • Fleet Desktop
      • Update channels
      • macOS signing & notarization
      • Fleetd osquery result and status logs
      • Fleetd mTLS support
      • Debug
  • Orbit
    • Usage
      • Permissions
        • macOS/Linux
        • Windows
    • Osquery shell
    • Connect to a Fleet server
    • Osquery flags
    • Osquery extensions
    • Orbit development
      • Run Orbit from source
      • Generate installer packages from Orbit source
    • Troubleshooting
      • Logs
    • Uninstall
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • macOS
  • Bugs
  • Try Fleetd
    • With fleetctl preview already running

Overview

Fleetd is the bundle of agents that includes:

• osquery
• Fleet Desktop

Capabilities

Capability	Status
Secure autoupdate for osquery	✅
Secure autoupdate for Orbit	✅
Configurable update channels	✅
Full osquery flag customization	✅
Package tooling for macOS .pkg	✅
Package tooling for Linux .deb	✅
Package tooling for Linux .rpm	✅
Package tooling for Windows .msi	✅
Manage/update osquery extensions	✅

Packaging

Fleetd is typically deployed via OS-specific packages. Tooling is provided with this repository to generate installation packages.

Dependencies

Fleetd currently supports building packages on macOS and Linux.

Before building packages, clone or download this repository and install Go.

Building Windows packages requires Docker to be installed.

Packaging support

• macOS - .pkg package generation with (optional) notarization and codesigning - Persistence via launchd.

• Linux - .deb (Debian, Ubuntu, etc.) & .rpm (RHEL, CentOS, etc.) package generation - Persistence via systemd.

• Windows - .msi package generation - Persistence via Services.

Building packages

Use fleetctl package to run the packaging tools.

The only required parameter is --type, use one of deb, rpm, pkg, or msi.

Configure osquery to connect to a Fleet (or other TLS) server with the --fleet-url and --enroll-secret flags.

A minimal invocation for communicating with Fleet:

fleetctl package --type deb --fleet-url=fleet.example.com --enroll-secret=notsosecret

This will build a .deb package configured to communicate with a Fleet server at fleet.example.com using the enroll secret notsosecret.

When the Fleet server uses a self-signed (or otherwise invalid) TLS certificate, package with the --insecure or --fleet-certificate options.

Configuration options

The following command-line flags allow you to configure an osquery installer further to communicate with a specific Fleet instance.

Flag	Options
--type	Required - Type of package to build. Options: pkg(macOS),msi(Windows), deb(Debian based Linux), rpm(RHEL, CentOS, etc.)
--fleet-desktop	Include Fleet Desktop.
--enroll-secret	Enroll secret for authenticating to Fleet server
--fleet-url	URL (host:port) of Fleet server
--fleet-certificate	Path to server certificate bundle
--identifier	Identifier for package product (default: com.fleetdm.orbit)
--version	Version for package product (default: 0.0.3)
--insecure	Disable TLS certificate verification (default: false)
--service	Install osquery with a persistence service (launchd, systemd, etc.) (default: true)
--sign-identity	Identity to use for macOS codesigning
--notarize	Whether to notarize macOS packages (default: false)
--disable-updates	Disable auto updates on the generated package (default: false)
--osqueryd-channel	Update channel of osqueryd to use (default: stable)
--orbit-channel	Update channel of Orbit to use (default: stable)
--desktop-channel	Update channel of desktop to use (default: stable)
--update-url	URL for update server (default: https://tuf.fleetctl.com)
--update-roots	Root key JSON metadata for update server (from fleetctl updates roots)
--use-system-configuration	Try to read --fleet-url and --enroll-secret using configuration in the host (currently only macOS profiles are supported)
--enable-scripts	Enable script execution (default: false)
--host-identifier	Sets the host identifier that orbit and osquery will use when enrolling to Fleet. Options: uuid and instance (requires Fleet >= v4.42.0) (default: uuid)
--debug	Enable debug logging (default: false)
--verbose	Log detailed information when building the package (default: false)
--help, -h	show help (default: false)

In addition to the command-line flags, the following environment variables can alter the behaviour of fleetd.

Environment variable	Options
FLEET_PREVENT_SCRIPT_TEMPDIR_DELETION	If set to a non-empty value, prevents deletion of the temporary directory where the scripts being executed are stored. Those are located in the temporary directory of the system, under a sub-directory starting with fleet-.

Fleet Desktop

Fleet Desktop is a menu bar icon available on macOS, Windows, and Linux that gives your end users visibility into the security posture of their machine.

You can include Fleet Desktop in the orbit package by including the --fleet-desktopoption.

Update channels

Fleetd uses the concept of "update channels" to determine the version of Orbit, Fleet Desktop, osquery, and any extensions (extension support coming soon) to run. This concept is modeled from the common versioning convention for Docker containers.

Configure update channels for Fleetd and osqueryd with the --orbit-channel, --desktop-channel and --osqueryd-channel flags when packaging.

Channel	Versions
4	4.x.x
4.6	4.6.x
4.6.0	4.6.0

Additionally, stable and edge are special channel names. The stable channel will provide the most recent osquery version that Fleet deems to be stable. When a new version of osquery is released, it's added to the edge channel for beta testing. Fleet then provides input to the osquery TSC based on testing. After the version is declared stable by the osquery TSC, Fleet will promote the version to stable ASAP.

macOS signing & notarization

Fleetd's packager can automate the codesigning and notarization steps to allow the resulting package to generate packages that appear "trusted" when installed on macOS hosts. Signing and notarization are supported only on macOS hosts.

For signing, a "Developer ID Installer" certificate must be available on the build machine (generation instructions). Use security find-identity -v to verify the existence of this certificate and make note of the identifier provided in the left column.

For notarization, valid App Store Connect credentials must be available on the build machine. Set these in the environment variables AC_USERNAME and AC_PASSWORD. It's common to configure this via app-specific passwords. Some organizations (notably those with Apple Enterprise Developer Accounts) may also need to specify AC_TEAM_ID. This value can be found on the Apple Developer "Membership" page under "Team ID."

Build a signed and notarized macOS package with an invocation like the following:

AC_USERNAME=zach@example.com AC_PASSWORD=llpk-sije-kjlz-jdzw fleetctl package --type=pkg --fleet-url=fleet.example.com --enroll-secret=63SBzTT+2UyW --sign-identity 3D7260BF99539C6E80A94835A8921A988F4E6498 --notarize

This process may take several minutes, as the notarization process completes on Apple's servers.

After successful notarization, the generated "ticket" is automatically stapled to the package.

Fleetd osquery result and status logs

If the logger_path configuration is set to filesystem, Fleetd will store osquery's "result" and "status" logs to the following directories:

• Windows: C:\Program Files\Orbit\osquery_log
• macOS: /opt/orbit/osquery_log
• Linux: /opt/orbit/osquery_log

Fleetd mTLS support

Fleetd supports using TLS client certificates for authentication to the Fleet server and TUF server. This functionality is licensed under the Fleet EE License. Usage requires a current Fleet EE subscription.

The mTLS feature requires Orbit to be version v1.10.0 or greater and fleetctl v4.31.0 or greater.

When generating the packages, use the following flags:

fleetctl package \
  [...]
  --fleet-tls-client-certificate=fleet-client.crt \
  --fleet-tls-client-key=fleet-client.key \
  --update-tls-client-certificate=update-client.crt \
  --update-tls-client-key=update-client.key \
  [...]

The certificates must be in PEM format.

The client certificates can also be pushed to existing installations by placing them in the following locations:

• For macOS and Linux:
  • /opt/orbit/fleet_client.crt
  • /opt/orbit/fleet_client.key
  • /opt/orbit/update_client.crt
  • /opt/orbit/update_client.key
• For Windows:
  • C:\Program Files\Orbit\fleet_client.crt
  • C:\Program Files\Orbit\fleet_client.key
  • C:\Program Files\Orbit\update_client.crt
  • C:\Program Files\Orbit\update_client.key

If using Fleet Desktop, you may need to specify an alternative host for the "My device" URL (in the Fleet tray icon). Such alternative host should not require client certificates on the TLS connection.

fleetctl package
  [...]
  --fleet-desktop \
  --fleet-desktop-alternative-browser-host=fleet-desktop.example.com \
  [...]

If this setting is not used, you will need to configure client TLS certificates on devices' browsers.

Debug

You can use the --debug option in fleetctl package to generate installers in "debug mode." This mode increases the verbosity of logging for orbit and osqueryd (log DEBUG level).

Orbit

Orbit is an osquery runtime and autoupdater that is bundled in Fleetd. With Orbit, it's easy to deploy osquery, manage configurations, and stay up to date. Orbit eases the deployment of osquery connected with a Fleet server and is a (near) drop-in replacement for osquery in a variety of deployment scenarios.

Orbit is the recommended agent for Fleet. But Orbit can be used with or without Fleet, and Fleet can be used with or without Orbit.

Usage

General information and flag documentation can be accessed by running orbit --help.

Permissions

Orbit generally expects root permissions to be able to create and access its working files.

To get root level permissions:

macOS/Linux

Prefix orbit commands with sudo (sudo orbit ...) or run in a root shell.

Windows

Run Powershell or cmd.exe with "Run as administrator" and start orbit commands from that shell.

Osquery shell

Run an osqueryi shell with orbit osqueryi or orbit shell.

Connect to a Fleet server

Use the --fleet-url and --enroll-secret flags to connect to a Fleet server.

For example:

orbit --fleet-url=https://localhost:8080 --enroll-secret=the_secret_value

Use --fleet_certificate to provide a path to a certificate bundle when necessary for osquery to verify the authenticity of the Fleet server (typically when using a Windows client or self-signed certificates):

orbit --fleet-url=https://localhost:8080 --enroll-secret=the_secret_value --fleet-certificate=cert.pem

Add the --insecure flag for connections using otherwise invalid certificates:

orbit --fleet-url=https://localhost:8080 --enroll-secret=the_secret_value --insecure

Osquery flags

Orbit can be used as a near drop-in replacement for osqueryd, enhancing standard osquery with autoupdate capabilities. Orbit passes through any options after -- directly to the osqueryd instance.

For example, the following would be a typical drop-in usage of Orbit:

orbit -- --flagfile=flags.txt

Osquery extensions

Orbit can be used to remotely deploy and manage osquery extensions. This saves the time and energy required to maintain extensions using a separate tool like Munki or an MDM solution.

Learn how

Orbit development

Run Orbit from source

To execute orbit from source directly, run the following command:

go run github.com/fleetdm/fleet/v4/orbit/cmd/orbit \
    --dev-mode \
    --disable-updates \
    --root-dir /tmp/orbit \
    --fleet-url https://localhost:8080 \
    --insecure \
    --enroll-secret Pz3zC0NMDdZfb3FtqiLgwoexItojrYh/ \
    -- --verbose

Or, using a flagfile.txt for osqueryd:

go run github.com/fleetdm/fleet/v4/orbit/cmd/orbit \
    --dev-mode \
    --disable-updates \
    --root-dir /tmp/orbit \
    -- --flagfile=flagfile.txt --verbose

Generate installer packages from Orbit source

The fleetctl package command generates installers by fetching the targets/executables from a TUF repository. To generate an installer that contains an Orbit built from source, you need to set up a local TUF repository. The following document explains how you can generate a TUF repository and installers that use it: tools/tuf/test.

Experimental Features

Any features listed here are not recommended for use in production environments

Using fleetd without enrolling Orbit

Only available in fleetd v1.15.1 on Linux and macOS

It is possible to generate a fleetd package that does not connect to Fleet by omitting the --fleet-url and --enroll-secret flags when building a package.

This can be useful in situations where you would like to test using fleetd to manage osquery updates while still managing osquery command-line flags and extensions locally but can result in a large volume of error logs. In fleetd v1.15.1, we added an experimental feature to reduce log chatter in this scenario.

Applying the environmental variable "FLEETD_SILENCE_ENROLL_ERROR"=1 on a host will silence fleetd enrollment errors if a --fleet-url is not present. This variable is read at launch and will require a restart of the Orbit service if it is not set before installing fleetd v1.15.1.

Troubleshooting

Logs

Orbit captures and streams osqueryd's stdout/stderr into its own stdout/stderr output. These are the log destinations for each platform:

• Linux: Orbit and osqueryd stdout/stderr output is sent to syslog (/var/log/syslog on Debian systems and /var/log/messages on CentOS).
• macOS: /private/var/log/orbit/orbit.std{out|err}.log.
• Windows: C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\FleetDM\Orbit\Logs\orbit-osquery.log (the log file is rotated). Users will need administrative permissions on the host to access these log destinations.

Uninstall

Windows

Use the "Add or remove programs" dialog to remove Orbit.

Linux

Uninstall the package with the corresponding package manager:

• Ubuntu

sudo apt remove fleet-osquery -y

• CentOS

sudo rpm -e fleet-osquery-X.Y.Z.x86_64

macOS

Run the cleanup script.

Bugs

Create an issue to report a bug or request a feature.

Try Fleetd

With fleetctl preview already running:

# With fleetctl in your $PATH
# Generate a macOS installer pointed at your local Fleet
fleetctl package --type=pkg --fleet-url=localhost:8412 --insecure --enroll-secret=YOUR_FLEET_ENROLL_SECRET_HERE

With fleetctl preview running, you can find your Fleet enroll secret by selecting the "Add hosts" button on the Hosts page in the Fleet UI.

An installer configured to point at your Fleet instance has now been generated.

Now run that installer (double click, on a Mac) to enroll your own computer as a host in Fleet. Refresh after several seconds (≈30s), and you should now see your local computer as a new host in Fleet.