beyond

Control access to services beyond your perimeter network. Deploy with split-DNS to alleviate VPN in a zero-trust transition. Inspired by Google BeyondCorp research: https://research.google.com/pubs/pub45728.html

Features

Authenticate via:
- OpenID Connect
- OAuth2 Tokens
- SAMLv2
Automate Configuration w/ https://your.json
Customize Nexthop Learning (via Favorite Ports: 443, 80, ...)
Supports WebSockets
Supports GitHub Enterprise
Supports Private Docker Registry APIs (v2)
Analytics with ElasticSearch

Install

$ docker pull presbrey/beyond

or:

$ go get -u -x github.com/presbrey/beyond

Usage

Example Configurations

Basic OIDC Setup

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -beyond-host beyond.example.com \
  -cookie-domain .example.com \
  -oidc-issuer https://your-idp.com/oidc \
  -oidc-client-id your-client-id \
  -oidc-client-secret your-client-secret

OIDC with Access Control

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -beyond-host beyond.example.com \
  -cookie-domain .example.com \
  -oidc-issuer https://accounts.google.com \
  -oidc-client-id your-google-client-id \
  -oidc-client-secret your-google-client-secret \
  -allowlist-url https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yourorg/config/main/allowlist.json \
  -fence-url https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yourorg/config/main/fence.json \
  -sites-url https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yourorg/config/main/sites.json

SAML with Docker Registry Support

docker run --rm -p 80:80 \
  -v /path/to/certs:/certs \
  presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -beyond-host beyond.example.com \
  -cookie-domain .example.com \
  -saml-metadata-url https://your-idp.com/metadata \
  -saml-cert-file /certs/saml.cert \
  -saml-key-file /certs/saml.key \
  -docker-urls https://harbor.example.com,https://ghcr.example.com

GitHub Enterprise with Token Auth

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -beyond-host beyond.example.com \
  -cookie-domain .example.com \
  -oidc-issuer https://github.example.com \
  -oidc-client-id your-github-app-id \
  -oidc-client-secret your-github-app-secret \
  -token-base https://api.github.example.com/user \
  -docker-urls https://docker.pkg.github.example.com

Production with Elasticsearch Logging

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -beyond-host beyond.example.com \
  -cookie-domain .example.com \
  -oidc-issuer https://login.example.com \
  -oidc-client-id production-client-id \
  -oidc-client-secret production-client-secret \
  -allowlist-url https://config.example.com/allowlist.json \
  -fence-url https://config.example.com/fence.json \
  -sites-url https://config.example.com/sites.json \
  -hosts-url https://config.example.com/hosts.json \
  -log-elastic https://elasticsearch.example.com:9200 \
  -log-json \
  -error-email support@example.com

Cookie Key Management

Beyond requires a single cryptographic key for session cookie encryption. You have two options:

Option 1: Auto-Generated Key (Development/Testing)

If no cookie key is provided, Beyond will automatically generate a secure random key at startup and log it:

WARN[0000] No cookie key provided, generated random key for this session:
WARN[0000]   -cookie-key a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef123456
WARN[0000] IMPORTANT: Sessions will not persist across restarts. Set explicit key for production use.

Option 2: Explicit Key (Production)

For production deployments, always set an explicit key to maintain session persistence:

# Generate key once and reuse it
export COOKIE_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -cookie-key "$COOKIE_KEY" \
  # ... other parameters

Host Management

Beyond supports rewriting backend hostnames to different values and restricting access to only specific hosts. This is useful for legacy system migrations, internal name mapping, and creating secure host allowlists.

Host Rewriting

You can configure host rewriting in two ways:

Option 1: Command Line Replacement values can include protocols and ports for advanced routing:

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -hosts-csv "old-api.example.com=https://new-api.example.com:8443,legacy.corp=http://modern.corp.example.com:8080" \
  # ... other parameters

Option 2: JSON Configuration File Create a JSON file with hostname mappings. Replacement values can include protocols and ports:

{
  "old-api.example.com": "new-api.example.com",
  "legacy.mycompany.net": "https://modern.mycompany.net:8443",
  "internal.corp": "http://internal.corp.example.com:8080",
  "secure.app": "https://secure.app.example.com"
}

Then reference it:

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -hosts-url https://config.example.com/hosts.json \
  # ... other parameters

Protocol and Port Support

When replacement values include full URLs (with http:// or https://), Beyond extracts the protocol and port information for backend connections:

Simple hostname replacement: "old.example.com": "new.example.com" - preserves original protocol and port
Protocol specification: "legacy.api": "https://modern.api" - forces HTTPS connection to backend
Port specification: "internal.app": "http://internal.app:8080" - connects to specific port
Full URL: "old.secure": "https://new.secure:9443" - specifies both protocol and port

Subdomain matching is preserved: if api.legacy.com maps to https://api.modern.com:8443, then service.api.legacy.com becomes service.api.modern.com with HTTPS on port 8443.

Host Allowlist (hosts-only mode)

Use the -hosts-only flag to restrict access to only hosts defined in your host mappings:

docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd \
  -hosts-url https://config.example.com/hosts.json \
  -hosts-only \
  # ... other parameters

When hosts-only is enabled:

Only hosts in the mapping (from -hosts-csv or -hosts-url) are allowed
Requests to unmapped hosts return 403 "Host not allowed"
Subdomain matching works (e.g., api.example.com matches example.com)

Both command-line and URL mappings can be used together - they are merged at startup.

Command Line Options

$ docker run --rm -p 80:80 presbrey/beyond httpd --help
  -401-code int
    	status to respond when a user needs authentication (default 418)
  -404-message string
    	message to use when backend apps do not respond (default "Please contact the application administrators to setup access.")
  -allowlist-url string
    	URL to site allowlist (eg. https://github.com/myorg/beyond-config/main/raw/allowlist.json)
  -beyond-host string
    	hostname of self (default "beyond.myorg.net")
  -cookie-age int
    	MaxAge setting in seconds (default 21600)
  -cookie-domain string
    	session cookie domain (default ".myorg.net")
  -cookie-key string
    	64-char hex key for cookie encryption (example: "t8yG1gmeEyeb7pQpw544UeCTyDfPkE6uQ599vrruZRhLFC144thCRZpyHM7qGDjt")
  -cookie-name string
    	session cookie name (default "beyond")
  -debug
    	set debug loglevel (default true)
  -docker-auth-scheme string
    	(only for testing) (default "https")
  -docker-url string
    	when there is only one (legacy option) (default "https://docker.myorg.net")
  -docker-urls string
    	csv of docker server base URLs (default "https://harbor.myorg.net,https://ghcr.myorg.net")
  -error-color string
    	css h1 color for errors (default "#69b342")
  -error-email string
    	address for help (eg. support@mycompany.com)
  -error-plain
    	disable html on error pages
  -federate-access string
    	shared secret, 64 chars, enables federation
  -federate-secret string
    	internal secret, 64 chars
  -fence-url string
    	URL to user fencing config (eg. https://github.com/myorg/beyond-config/main/raw/fence.json)
  -ghp-hosts string
    	CSV of github packages domains (default "ghp.myorg.net")
  -header-prefix string
    	prefix extra headers with this string (default "Beyond")
  -health-path string
    	URL of the health endpoint (default "/healthz/ping")
  -health-reply string
    	response body of the health endpoint (default "ok")
  -home-url string
    	redirect users here from root (default "https://google.com")
  -host-masq string
    	rewrite nexthop hosts (format: from1=to1,from2=to2)
  -http string
    	listen address (default ":80")
  -insecure-skip-verify
    	allow TLS backends without valid certificates
  -learn-dial-timeout duration
    	skip port after this connection timeout (default 8s)
  -learn-http-ports string
    	after HTTPS, try these HTTP ports (csv) (default "80,8080,6000,6060,7000,7070,8000,9000,9200,15672")
  -learn-https-ports string
    	try learning these backend HTTPS ports (csv) (default "443,4443,6443,8443,9443,9090")
  -learn-nexthops
    	set false to require explicit allowlisting (default true)
  -log-elastic string
    	csv of elasticsearch servers
  -log-elastic-interval duration
    	how often to commit bulk updates (default 1s)
  -log-elastic-prefix string
    	insert this on the front of elastic indexes (default "beyond")
  -log-elastic-workers int
    	bulk commit workers (default 3)
  -log-http
    	enable HTTP logging to stdout
  -log-json
    	use json output (logrus)
  -log-xff
    	include X-Forwar

Beyond

Install / Use

README