Parsing an input file

It can be difficult to understand the internal representation of your input files as you write your Rego code. As we will see when we learn how to write a rule, the input value is a JSON-like object, but the input files could also be YAML, Terraform, or Terraform Plan JSON Output. To help understand how these are translated into JSON, we have provided a parse command.

You will need an IaC file to use as an input file. This input file can also be used when testing the rules, where we parse your files into JSON by default.

Parsing Terraform files

Take, for example, the following Terraform file:

example.tf

resource "aws_redshift_cluster" "example" {
  cluster_identifier = "tf-redshift-cluster"
  database_name      = "mydb"
  master_username    = "foo"
  master_password    = "Mustbe8characters"
  node_type          = "dc1.large"
  cluster_type       = "single-node"
}

To get the equivalent JSON format, run the parse command:

snyk-iac-rules parse example.tf --format hcl2

This prints out the JSON, which you can use as guidance for writing your rules:

{
	"resource": {
		"aws_redshift_cluster": {
			"example": {
				"cluster_identifier": "tf-redshift-cluster",
				"cluster_type": "single-node",
				"database_name": "mydb",
				"master_password": "Mustbe8characters",
				"master_username": "foo",
				"node_type": "dc1.large"
			}
		}
	}
}

In Rego, accessing the node_type field would look like:

input.resource.aws_redshift_cluster.example.node_type

Parsing YAML files

Another example is the following YAML file, defining a Kubernetes resource:

example.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: example
spec:
  containers:
    - name: example
      image: example:latest
      securityContext:
        privileged: true 

To get the equivalent JSON format, run the parse command:

snyk-iac-rules parse example.yaml --format=yaml

This prints out the JSON, which you can use as guidance for writing your rules:

{
	"apiVersion": "v1",
	"kind": "Pod",
	"metadata": {
		"name": "example"
	},
	"spec": {
		"containers": [
			{
				"image": "example:latest",
				"name": "example",
				"securityContext": {
					"privileged": true
				}
			}
		]
	}
}

In Rego, accessing the privileged field would look like:

input.spec.containers[0].securityContext.privileged

Parsing Terraform Plan JSON Output files

Another example is the following Terraform Plan JSON Output file, returned by the terraform show -json ./plan/example.json.tfplan command:

example.json.tfplan

{
  "format_version": "0.2",
  "terraform_version": "1.0.11",
  "planned_values": {
    "root_module": {
      "resources": [
        {
          "address": "aws_vpc.example",
          "mode": "managed",
          "type": "aws_vpc",
          "name": "example",
          "provider_name": "registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/aws",
          "schema_version": 1,
          "values": {
            "assign_generated_ipv6_cidr_block": false,
            "cidr_block": "10.0.0.0/16",
            "enable_dns_support": true,
            "instance_tenancy": "default",
            "tags": null
          },
          "sensitive_values": {
            "tags_all": {}
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "resource_changes": [
    {
      "address": "aws_vpc.example",
      "mode": "managed",
      "type": "aws_vpc",
      "name": "example",
      "provider_name": "registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/aws",
      "change": {
        "actions": [
          "create"
        ],
        "before": null,
        "after": {
          "assign_generated_ipv6_cidr_block": false,
          "cidr_block": "10.0.0.0/16",
          "enable_dns_support": true,
          "instance_tenancy": "default",
          "tags": null
        },
        "after_unknown": {
          "arn": true,
          "default_network_acl_id": true,
          "default_route_table_id": true,
          "default_security_group_id": true,
          "dhcp_options_id": true,
          "enable_classiclink": true,
          "enable_classiclink_dns_support": true,
          "enable_dns_hostnames": true,
          "id": true,
          "ipv6_association_id": true,
          "ipv6_cidr_block": true,
          "main_route_table_id": true,
          "owner_id": true,
          "tags_all": true
        },
        "before_sensitive": false,
        "after_sensitive": {
          "tags_all": {}
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "configuration": {
    "provider_config": {
      "aws": {
        "name": "aws",
        "expressions": {
          "region": {
            "constant_value": "us-east-1"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "root_module": {
      "resources": [
        {
          "address": "aws_vpc.example",
          "mode": "managed",
          "type": "aws_vpc",
          "name": "example",
          "provider_config_key": "aws",
          "expressions": {
            "cidr_block": {
              "constant_value": "10.0.0.0/16"
            }
          },
          "schema_version": 1
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

To get the equivalent JSON format, run the parse command:

snyk-iac-rules parse example.json.tfplan --format=tf-plan

This prints out the JSON, which you can use as guidance for writing your rules:

{
	"data": {},
	"resource": {
		"aws_vpc": {
			"example": {
				"assign_generated_ipv6_cidr_block": false,
				"cidr_block": "10.0.0.0/16",
				"enable_dns_support": true,
				"instance_tenancy": "default",
				"tags": null
			}
		}
	}
}

In Rego, accessing the tags field would look like:

input.resource.aws_vpc.example.tags