Troubleshoot common issues

This page lists various issues that you might encounter when configuring VPC Service Controls.

Unexpected scoped policy behavior

You might notice some unexpected VPC Service Controls violations that your scoped policy should allow. It is a known issue that if you don't have an organization-level access policy, then you might experience some unexpected issues with your scoped access policies.

To overcome this issue, create an access policy at the organization level using the following command:

gcloud access-context-manager policies create --organization <var>ORGANIZATION_ID</var> --title <var>POLICY_TITLE</var>

Replace the following:

  • ORGANIZATION_ID: The organization ID.
  • POLICY_TITLE: A human-readable title for your access policy.

For more information, see Create an access policy.

Shared VPC

When using Shared VPC, a service perimeter that includes projects that belong to a Shared VPC network must also include the project that hosts the network. When projects that belong to a Shared VPC network are not in the same perimeter as the host project, services might not work as expected or might be blocked entirely.

Ensure that the Shared VPC network host is in the same service perimeter as the projects connected to the network.

Unable to add a VPC network

The following error can occur when you try to add a VPC network to a service perimeter:

ERROR: (gcloud.access-context-manager.perimeters.update) PERMISSION_DENIED: Permission 'compute.networks.get' denied on resource '//compute.googleapis.com/projects/PROJECT_NAME/global/networks/VPC_NETWORK_NAME' (or it may not exist)

This error occurs due to one of the following reasons:

  • The VPC network doesn't exist.
  • The VPC network exists, but doesn't have a subnet.
  • The caller doesn't have the required permission.

To resolve this issue, complete the following steps:

  1. Verify if the VPC network specified in the error message exists by viewing the networks in your project.

    • Before verifying the VPC network, make sure that the Compute Engine API is enabled in the project associated with the API call by completing the following steps:

      1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the APIs & Services page.
        Go to APIs & Services

      2. On the APIs & Services page, verify if the Compute Engine API is listed.

      3. If the Compute Engine API is missing, enable the API.
        Enable the API

  2. Verify if at least one subnet exists in the VPC network by viewing the subnets. If there are no subnets, add a subnet to the VPC network.

  3. Check if the caller has the following permission on the host project of the VPC network: compute.networks.get. This permission lets you view VPC networks in a project.

    • Ask the administrator of the organization that owns the host project of the VPC network to grant the caller an IAM role with the compute.networks.get permission on the host project. For example, the Compute Network Viewer role.

      For more information about granting roles, see Manage access.

Ensure that you read the limitations associated with using VPC networks in service perimeters.

Requests between perimeters

Normally, access levels are used to allow requests from outside a service perimeter for protected resources inside a perimeter.

However, a request from a project in a perimeter for a protected resource in another perimeter is denied, even if an access level normally allows the request.

For example, assume Project A in Perimeter 1 requests a resource from Project B. The resource in Project B is protected by Perimeter 2. Because Project A is in a perimeter, even if an access level for Perimeter 2 normally permits the request for the protected resource, the request is denied.

Use one of the following approaches to facilitate requests between perimeters:

  • Use egress policy and ingress policy. To allow requests from another perimeter to protected resources in your perimeter, the other perimeter must use an egress policy and you must set an ingress policy in your perimeter.

  • Use perimeter bridges. Bridges allow two or more projects in different perimeters to make requests to any services in those projects. These requests are permitted even if the services are protected by the respective perimeters.

  • Ensure that both the requesting service and the target resource are unprotected by the perimeters. In this scenario, the operation succeeds because the services are not protected.

The email address is invalid or non-existent

When updating a perimeter that contains a deleted principal, you might encounter the The email address is invalid or non-existent error message.

To fix this issue, you can perform one of the following tasks:

  • Remove the invalid email address from the perimeter, that includes access levels and ingress and egress rules.

    You can use either the Google Cloud console or the Google Cloud CLI.

  • Do a bulk operation (Google Cloud CLI only) if the email address is in both, the Dry Run and the enforced perimeter.

    1. Get all of your perimeters:
      gcloud access-context-manager perimeters list --format=list \
   --policy=<POLICY_NAME> > my-perimeters.yaml

    1. Remove the invalid email address from the my-perimeters.yaml file and save it as my-perimeters-updated.yaml.

    2. Replace all of your perimeters:

      gcloud access-context-manager perimeters replace-all --format=list \
    --source-file=my-perimeters-updated.yaml \
    --policy=<POLICY_NAME>

Ingress and egress rules violations

The audit log contains information about the ingress and egress rules violations that help you understand perimeter violations.

Ingress rule violation

An ingress rule violation indicates that an API client outside of the perimeter tried to access a resource inside the perimeter. The service perimeter rejects the request as there are no matching ingress rules or access levels.

An ingress rule violation in the audit log contains the following details:

  • The name of the perimeter in which the ingress rule violation occurred.
  • The resource inside the perimeter that the API client outside the perimeter tried to access.

In the following ingress rule violation example, an API client outside the perimeter tries to access the Cloud Storage bucket prod-protected-storage-bucket inside the perimeter prod-perimeter.

ingressViolations: [
  0: {
    targetResource: "projects/1234/buckets/prod-protected-storage-bucket"
    servicePerimeter: "accessPolicies/123456789/servicePerimeters/prod-perimeter"
  }
]

To resolve this issue, create an ingress rule for your perimeter. For more information about ingress rules, see Ingress rules reference.

Egress rule violation

An egress rule violation in the audit log indicates one of the following events:

  • An API client inside the perimeter tried to access a resource outside the perimeter.
  • An API request that involves a resource inside the perimeter and a resource outside the perimeter. For example, a Cloud Storage client that calls a copy command where one bucket is within the perimeter and the other bucket is outside the perimeter.

The service perimeter rejects the request because there are no matching egress rules. An egress rule violation in the audit log includes the following details:

  • The source type such as network or resource.
  • The source, which is a resource or network, whose perimeter encountered an egress violation.
  • The perimeter that encountered an egress violation.
  • The target resource outside the perimeter that the request tried to access.

In the following egress rule violation example, the API request includes a resource from projects/5678, which is inside the perimeter prod-perimeter, and an object from the Cloud Storage bucket external-storage-bucket, which is outside the perimeter.

egressViolations: [
  0: {
    sourceType: "Resource"
    source: "projects/5678"
    targetResource: "projects/4321/buckets/external-storage-bucket/objects/corp-resources.json"
    servicePerimeter: "accessPolicies/123456789/servicePerimeters/prod-perimeter"
  }
]

To resolve this issue, create an egress rule for your perimeter. For more information about egress rules, see Egress rules reference.

Debugging requests blocked by VPC Service Controls

The VPC Service Controls audit log is the primary tool for debugging a request blocked by VPC Service Controls.

When access has been blocked unexpectedly, consult the audit logs in the project protected by the service perimeter. These logs contain significant data about the requested resources and the reason why the request was denied. For information about the audit logs, see Diagnosing issues using Troubleshooter.

The following sections list the violationReason values that you might encounter when using VPC Service Controls.

NETWORK_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER

The reason for this issue might be one of the following:

  • A client in a VPC network within a service perimeter tries to access a project that is not in the same perimeter. This request results in an egress violation. Create an egress rule to fix this issue.
  • A client in a VPC network that is outside a service perimeter tries to access a project that is protected by the service perimeter. This request results in an ingress violation. Create an ingress rule to fix this issue.

The client might send the request from a Compute Engine or Google Kubernetes Engine VM, or from an on-premises network through Cloud Interconnect or a VPN configured using a VPC network.

The following diagram shows that an egress violation occurs when a client in a VPC network within a service perimeter tries to access a project outside the perimeter:

An egress violation due to NETWORK_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER.

Here is an example of an egress violation:

egressViolations: [
{
  servicePerimeter: "accessPolicies/<POLICY_NAME>/servicePerimeters/<PERIMETER_NAME>"
  source: "projects/<NETWORK_PROJECT_NUMBER>"
  sourceType: "Network"
  targetResource: "projects/<RESOURCE_PROJECT_NUMBER>"
}
]

Where:

  • <POLICY_NAME> is the numeric name of your access policy.
  • <PERIMETER_NAME> is the name of the service perimeter.
  • <NETWORK_PROJECT_NUMBER> is the project number of the Google Cloud project that holds your VPC network.
  • <RESOURCE_PROJECT_NUMBER> is the project number of the Google Cloud project that contains the resource.

The following diagram shows that an ingress violation occurs when a client outside the perimeter tries to access a project inside the perimeter:

An ingress violation due to NETWORK_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER.

Here is an example of an ingress violation:

ingressViolations: [
{
          targetResource: "projects/<RESOURCE_PROJECT_NUMBER>",
      source: "projects/<NETWORK_PROJECT_NUMBER>"
          servicePerimeter: "accessPolicies/<POLICY_NAME>/servicePerimeters/<PERIMETER_NAME>"
}
]

Where:

  • <RESOURCE_PROJECT_NUMBER> is the project number of the Google Cloud project that contains the resource.
  • <NETWORK_PROJECT_NUMBER> is the project number of the Google Cloud project that holds your VPC network.
  • <POLICY_NAME> is the numeric name of your access policy.
  • <PERIMETER_NAME> is the name of the service perimeter.

Resolution

To resolve this error, create an ingress or egress rule for your perimeter.

RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER

This issue occurs when a single request is accessing multiple resources but the resources are not in the same service perimeter. This issue occurs irrespective of where the client is located and whether the client has access to the resources.

The following diagram shows a client accessing resources from a project outside the perimeter and from a project within the service perimeter:

An egress violation due to a client accessing resources from a project outside the perimeter.

The following diagram shows a client accessing resources from projects which are in two different service perimeters but the perimeters do not communicate with each other:

An egress violation due to a client accessing resources from projects which are in two different service perimeters.

Here is an example of an egress violation:

egressViolations: [
{
  servicePerimeter: "accessPolicies/<POLICY_NAME>/servicePerimeters/<PERIMETER_NAME>"
  source: "projects/<RESOURCE_PROJECT_INSIDE_THIS_PERIMETER>"
  sourceType: "Resource"
  targetResource: "projects/<RESOURCE_PROJECT_OUTSIDE_THIS-PERIMETER>"
}
]

Where:

  • <POLICY_NAME> is the numeric name of your access policy.
  • <PERIMETER_NAME> is the name of the service perimeter.
  • <RESOURCE_PROJECT_INSIDE_THIS_PERIMETER> is the project number of the Google Cloud project that is within the perimeter.
  • <RESOURCE_PROJECT_OUTSIDE_THIS_PERIMETER> is the project number of the Google Cloud project that is outside the perimeter.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, create an egress rule for your perimeter.

NO_MATCHING_ACCESS_LEVEL

This issue occurs when the IP address, device requirement, or user identity doesn't match any ingress rules or access levels assigned to the perimeter. This means that a client that isn't a part of the Google Cloud network tries to access Google Cloud network resources from outside the perimeter. For example, the IP address corresponding to the callerIp field of the audit record doesn't match any CIDR ranges defined in the access levels for the service perimeter.

If the caller IP address is missing or appears as an internal IP address, then this violation might be due to a Google Cloud service that isn't integrated with VPC Service Controls. The reason could be that the Google Cloud service tries to access a protected service and fails, as expected.

To fix this issue, we recommend creating an ingress rule instead of an access level because an ingress rule provides granular access control.

The following diagram shows a client trying to access resources from outside the perimeter:

An ingress violation due to NO_MATCHING_ACCESS_LEVEL.

Here is an example of an ingress violation:

authenticationInfo: {
  principalEmail: "EMAIL"
}
requestMetadata: {
callerIp: "<PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS>"
deviceState: "Cross Organization"
}
ingressViolations: [
        {
          targetResource: "projects/<RESOURCE_PROJECT_NUMBER>",
          servicePerimeter: "accessPolicies/<POLICY_NAME>/servicePerimeters/<PERIMETER-NAME>"
        }
  ]

Where:

  • <EMAIL> is the email address of the service account or authenticated user.

    If you use a Google Cloud service that VPC Service Controls doesn't support, email addresses that belong to the domain google.com are redacted and replaced with google-internal. google-internal refers to internal Google-owned identities.

  • <PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS> is the IP address of the caller. For a caller from the internet, this will be the public IPv4 or IPv6 address.

  • <RESOURCE_PROJECT_NUMBER> is the project number of the Google Cloud project that contains the resource.

  • <POLICY_NAME> is the numeric name of your access policy.

  • <PERIMETER_NAME> is the name of the service perimeter.

Note that in this case, metadata.accessLevels could still be present since these access levels might not be specified in the violated perimeter.

SERVICE_NOT_ALLOWED_FROM_VPC

This issue occurs when a client tries to access Google Cloud resources from a VPC network. The client might send the request from a Compute Engine or Google Kubernetes Engine VM, or from an on-premises network through Cloud Interconnect or a VPN configured using a VPC network.

To fix this issue, ensure that the service being called is allowed by the VPC accessible services configuration of the service perimeter.

Example scenarios

The following examples cover issues that you might encounter while using VPC Service Controls.

Cloud Storage access from on-premises

In this example, VPC Service Controls blocks a request from an employee workstation (identified by callerIp) to a Cloud Storage bucket in project corp-storage.

The request generates the following audit log record:

{
 insertId:  "222lvajc6f7"
 logName:  "projects/corp-storage/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/_"
   ]
   violationReason:  "NO_MATCHING_ACCESS_LEVEL"
  }
  methodName:  "google.storage.NoBillingOk"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "b1d5:d26d:5b17:43fe:d358:586b:db59:9617"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/690885588241"
  serviceName:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-27T21:40:43.823209571Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "google.storage.NoBillingOk"
   project_id:  "corp-storage"
   service:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-27T21:40:42.973784140Z"
}

The corp-storage project is included in a service perimeter. The employee workstation is not a part of any networks within that perimeter. Because the employee workstation exists outside the perimeter, the request is blocked.

BigQuery access from VM outside of project

In this example, a VM that belongs to project 458854174376 (data-collector) attempts to run a BigQuery query against a dataset in project 798816221974 (corp-resources-protected) and it is denied.

The VM uses the following query:

bq --project=corp-resources-protected query 'select count(*) from babynames.yob2000'

The query returns the following output:

BigQuery error in query operation: VPC Service Controls: Request is
prohibited by organization's policy. Operation ID:
33643962-6a0f-4091-9283-bcdf7e9271f0

The following audit log record is generated:

{
 insertId:  "1ei551d2pdq"
 logName:  "projects/corp-resources-protected/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/1004338142803"
   ]
   violationReason:  "NETWORK_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery.jobs.create"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "10.105.0.2"
   callerNetwork:  "//compute.googleapis.com/projects/ameet-dataflow/global/networks/__unknown__"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/1004338142803"
  serviceName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-28T23:06:13.579882505Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery.jobs.create"
   project_id:  "corp-resources-protected"
   service:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-28T23:06:12.799656975Z"
}

In this example, the violationReason is NETWORK_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER. callerNetwork is included in addition to callerIp. The IP address is private and the network is provided to disambiguate it. The relevant resources at issue here are listed in two places: VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata.resourceNames and requestMetadata.callerNetwork (the project that owns the network).

The problem is that the corp-resources-protected project is inside a service perimeter, while data-collector, the project that includes the network that the VM belongs to, is not. In this case, access is denied as expected.

Cross-project BigQuery query

In this example, a VM that belongs to the perimeter-network project attempts to query the BigQuery instances of two different projects: corp-resources-protected, which is in the same service perimeter as perimeter-network, and corp-resources-public, which is not.

The VM uses the following command:

bq query --use_legacy_sql=false \
  'select count(priv.name),count(pub.name) from \
  `corp-resources-protected.babynames.yob2000` as priv, \
  `corp-resources-public.babynames.yob2000` as pub'

The query returns the following output:

BigQuery error in query operation: Error processing job
'example:bqjob_r211e6f6eec928ffb_000001675c996aa8_1': VPC Service Controls:
Request is prohibited by organization's policy. Operation ID:
dc4fc177-4850-4fc5-b2e7-8c33f302149a

The following audit log record is generated:

{
 insertId:  "17kg4exd24ag"
 logName:  "projects/perimeter-network/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/117961063178"
    1:  "projects/690885588241"
   ]
   violationReason:  "RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery.tables.getData"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "130.211.225.66"
   callerNetwork:  "//compute.googleapis.com/projects/perimeter-network/global/networks/__unknown__"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/927005422713"
  serviceName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-28T20:48:51.384237810Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery.tables.getData"
   project_id:  "perimeter-network"
   service:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-28T20:48:50.561884949Z"
}

Looking at callerNetwork and VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata.resourceNames, we can see three projects: perimeter-network, 117961063178 (corp-resources-public), and 690885588241 (corp-resources-protected). Recall that corp-resources-public is not in the same service perimeter as perimeter-network and corp-resources-protected.

The violationReason, RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER indicates that some resource in the request is outside of a perimeter that applies to the request. In this case, that resource is corp-resources-public.

Move Cloud Storage file inside perimeter

In this example, a VM in project perimeter-network uses a command to move a file from one Cloud Storage bucket, located in project corp-resources-protected, to another bucket, located in project corp-resources-public.

The VM uses the following command:

gcloud storage mv gs://corp-resources-private-1/yob2000.txt gs://corp-resources-public-1/babynames/

The command returns the following output:

Copying gs://corp-resources-private-1/yob2000.txt [Content-Type=text/plain]...
AccessDeniedException: 403 Request violates VPC Service Controls.

The following audit log record is generated:

{
 insertId:  "1xxnssmd2hqo"
 logName:  "projects/perimeter-network/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/_/buckets/corp-resources-public-1"
   ]
   violationReason:  "NETWORK_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "google.storage.BillingRequiredRead"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "130.211.225.66"
   callerNetwork:  "//compute.googleapis.com/projects/perimeter-network/global/networks/__unknown__"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/927005422713"
  serviceName:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  status: {…}
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-28T00:45:31.531623485Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "google.storage.BillingRequiredRead"
   project_id:  "perimeter-network"
   service:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-28T00:45:31.351140381Z"
}

In this case, the log is less clear because the method listed is BillingRequiredRead and the action taken is move. This is a limitation of VPC Service Controls's present audit log functionality.

While the reason is less clear, this audit log record indicates that some resource in the request is outside of a perimeter that applies to the request. In this case, that resource is corp-resources-public.

Move Cloud Storage file outside perimeter

In this example, a VM in project public-network uses a command to move a file from one Cloud Storage bucket, located in project corp-resources-protected, to another bucket, located in project corp-resources-public.

The corp-resources-protected project is protected by a service perimeter. The public-network and corp-resources-public projects exist outside the perimeter.

The VM uses the following command:

gcloud storage mv gs://corp-resources-private-1/yob2000.txt gs://corp-resources-public-1/babynames/

The command returns the following output:

Copying gs://corp-resources-private-1/yob2000.txt [Content-Type=text/plain]...
AccessDeniedException: 403 Request violates VPC Service Controls.

The following audit log record is generated:

{
 insertId:  "10moqhsch9v"
 logName:  "projects/corp-resources-private/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/_/buckets/corp-resources-private-1/objects/yob2000.txt"
    1:  "projects/_/buckets/corp-resources-public-1/objects/out.txt"
   ]
   violationReason:  "RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "google.storage.Write"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "2620:15c:2c4:203:63d6:5eb8:418d:c034"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/1004338142803"
  serviceName:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-30T16:34:46.948010626Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "google.storage.Write"
   project_id:  "corp-resources-private"
   service:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-30T16:34:46.898098978Z"
}

In this example, the audit log indicates that one cannot copy data across the boundary of a service perimeter (both resources are in the audit log record). Recall that the request originates from outside the perimeter (the VM in public-network), and that one of the buckets exists outside the perimeter (corp-resources-public-1).

From outside the perimeter, one is able to write to bucket corp-resources-public-1, so the check that failed in the previous example passes. However, the subsequent check to actually copy the data fails.

This example demonstrates how sometimes a single user operation results in multiple internal operations that must pass VPC Service Controls enforcement.

BigQuery dataset copy from VM inside perimeter

In this example, a VM in project 927005422713 (perimeter-network) tries to copy a BigQuery dataset from project corp-resources-private to corp-resources-public (117961063178). perimeter-network and corp-resources-private share a perimeter, while corp-resources-public exists outside the perimeter.

The VM uses the following command:

bq cp corp-resources-private:babynames.yob2000 \
  corp-resources-public:babynames.yob2000

The command returns the following output:

BigQuery error in cp operation: VPC Service Controls: Request is prohibited by
organization's policy. Operation ID: c00dbc44-460f-4bd0-9d09-cda98ac800f9

The following audit log record is generated:

{
 insertId:  "146o5fd2hbp"
 logName:  "projects/perimeter-network/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/117961063178"
   ]
   violationReason:  "RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery.tables.get"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "131.201.221.16"
   callerNetwork:  "//compute.googleapis.com/projects/perimeter-network/global/networks/__unknown__"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/927005422713"
  serviceName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-28T00:27:05.688803777Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery.tables.get"
   project_id:  "perimeter-network"
   service:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-28T00:27:05.378584819Z"
}

In this example, there is no single underlying API action that shows all the resources at play in this request due to limitations of the logging mechanism and the distributed architecture of BigQuery.

The audit log record indicates that the operation failed because in order to copy the data, BigQuery must access the target project (corp-resources-public) using the network in project perimeter-network (the source of the request). Recall that corp-resources-public is outside the perimeter that protects perimeter-network. The request is denied as an attempt to exfiltrate data to corp-resources-public.

This example illustrates that one conceptual operation, such as copying data, can trigger multiple attempts to access data from different storage systems, such as Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and Bigtable. Based on how the operation is executed, the generated audit log record differs from the original user command. Also, when multiple checks within a given service are made and potentially fail, the generated audit log record looks different from the original user command.

Dataproc job reading from project

This example shows how to debug indirect VPC Service Controls errors that occur when using data processing services like Dataproc.

In this example, a Dataproc cluster is running in a project protected by VPC Service Controls. Hello-world.py is a pyspark job that attempts to access data from Cloud Storage bucket inside the perimeter and then write it to another bucket that exists outside the perimeter. VPC Service Controls blocks the operation that writes data to a bucket outside the perimeter.

The following command is used to execute Hello-world.py:

gcloud dataproc jobs submit pyspark hello-world.py --cluster test-cluster-new2

The command returns the following output:

Job [50f16ca8-5102-442b-a545-eed5e4f5f5da] submitted.
Waiting for job output...
18/11/29 00:31:34 INFO org.spark_project.jetty.util.log: Logging initialized @2552ms
18/11/29 00:31:34 INFO org.spark_project.jetty.server.Server: jetty-9.3.z-SNAPSHOT
18/11/29 00:31:34 INFO org.spark_project.jetty.server.Server: Started @2640ms
18/11/29 00:31:34 INFO org.spark_project.jetty.server.AbstractConnector: Started ServerConnector@1f1c18ec{HTTP/1.1,[http/1.1]}{0.0.0.0:4040}
18/11/29 00:31:34 INFO com.google.cloud.hadoop.fs.gcs.GoogleHadoopFileSystemBase: GHFS version: 1.6.4-hadoop2
18/11/29 00:31:35 INFO org.apache.hadoop.yarn.client.RMProxy: Connecting to ResourceManager at test-cluster-new2-m/10.246.0.3:8032
18/11/29 00:31:37 INFO org.apache.hadoop.yarn.client.api.impl.YarnClientImpl: Submitted application application_1522454176466_0005
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/50f16ca8-5102-442b-a545-eed5e4f5f5da/hello-world.py", line 8, in <module>
    lear.saveAsTextFile("gs://corp-resources-public-1/out.txt")
  File "/usr/lib/spark/python/lib/pyspark.zip/pyspark/rdd.py", line 1553, in saveAsTextFile
  File "/usr/lib/spark/python/lib/py4j-0.10.4-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway.py", line 1133, in __call__
  File "/usr/lib/spark/python/lib/py4j-0.10.4-src.zip/py4j/protocol.py", line 319, in get_return_value
py4j.protocol.Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling o49.saveAsTextFile.
: java.io.IOException: Error accessing: bucket: corp-resources-public-1, object: out.txt
    at com.google.cloud.hadoop.gcsio.GoogleCloudStorageImpl.wrapException(GoogleCloudStorageImpl.java:1767)
$sp(PairRDDFunctions.scala:961)

 (truncated)

Caused by: com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonResponseException: 403 Forbidden
{
  "code" : 403,
  "errors" : [ {
    "domain" : "global",
    "message" : "Request violates VPC Service Controls.",
    "reason" : "vpcServiceControls"
  } ],
  "message" : "Request violates VPC Service Controls."
}
    at com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonResponseException.from(GoogleJsonResponseException.java:145)

 (truncated)

18/11/29 00:31:43 INFO org.spark_project.jetty.server.AbstractConnector: Stopped Spark@1f1c18ec{HTTP/1.1,[http/1.1]}{0.0.0.0:4040}
ERROR: (gcloud.dataproc.jobs.submit.pyspark) Job [50f16ca8-5102-442b-a545-eed5e4f5f5da] entered state [ERROR] while waiting for [DONE].

Note the IO exception that occurs when the saveAsTextFile method is called. Cloud Storage returns a 403 error with the message Request violates VPC Service Controls. The error indicates that the Cloud Storage audit log operation must be reviewed.

In the audit logs for the perimeter-network project, where the command was executed, there is an audit log record for the saveAsTextFile operation:

{
 insertId:  "qdj1o9d1run"
 logName:  "projects/corp-resources-private/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/_/buckets/corp-resources-public-1/objects/out.txt"
   ]
   violationReason:  "RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "google.storage.BillingRequiredRead"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "10.246.0.3"
   callerNetwork:  "//compute.googleapis.com/projects/corp-resources-private/global/networks/__unknown__"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/1004338142803"
  serviceName:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-29T00:31:43.666227930Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "google.storage.BillingRequiredRead"
   project_id:  "corp-resources-private"
   service:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-29T00:31:43.608250320Z"
}

Due to audit log limitations, the methodName for Cloud Storage is listed as Read even though it is actually a write operation. The audit log record indicates that the operation failed because a network in project corp-resources-private was attempting to access the data (writing, in this case) of a resource in bucket corp-resources-public-1. Due to the limitations of the Cloud Storage audit log, it is not clear which project bucket corp-resources-public-1 belongs to.

To identify the project that contains corp-resources-public-1, use the following command:

gcloud storage ls gs://corp-resources-public-1 --buckets --log-http 2>&1 | grep projectNumber

The command returns the following output: "projectNumber": "117961063178",

117961063178 is project corp-resources-public, which is outside perimeter. Thus, the failure is expected.

Error due to unsupported services

Some Google Cloud services depend on other Google Cloud services as part of their implementation. If an unsupported service such as App Engine is used inside a project that is protected by a perimeter, the service's resources might not be accessible.

For information about known problematic cases, see Known service limitations.

Unsupported service with restricted VIP

Attempting to access an API that is not supported by the VPC Service Controls restricted VIP results in a 403 error. For example, VPC Service Controls does not support App Engine, so the App Engine Admin API is not available when using the restricted VIP.

For example, suppose the following command is used to list all App Engine services within a service perimeter:

gcloud app services list

The command returns the following output:

ERROR: (gcloud.app.services.list) User [***] does not have permission to access apps instance [***] (or it may not exist): <!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=en>
  <meta charset=utf-8>
  <meta name=viewport content="initial-scale=1, minimum-scale=1, width=device-width">
  <title>Error 403 (Forbidden)!!1</title>
  <style>
    *{margin:0;padding:0}html,code{font:15px/22px arial,sans-serif}html{background:#fff;color:#222;padding:15px}body{margin:7% auto 0;max-width:390px;min-height:180px;padding:30px 0 15px}* > body{background:url(//www.google.com/images/errors/robot.png) 100% 5px no-repeat;padding-right:205px}p{margin:11px 0 22px;overflow:hidden}ins{color:#777;text-decoration:none}a img{border:0}@media screen and (max-width:772px){body{background:none;margin-top:0;max-width:none;padding-right:0}}#logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/1x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) no-repeat;margin-left:-5px}@media only screen and (min-resolution:192dpi){ #logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/2x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) no-repeat 0% 0%/100% 100%;-moz-border-image:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/2x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) 0}}@media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:2){ #logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/2x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:100% 100%}}#logo{display:inline-block;height:54px;width:150px}
  </style>
  <a href=//www.google.com/><span id=logo aria-label=Google></span></a>
  <p><b>403.</b> <ins>That's an error.</ins>
  <p>Your client does not have permission to get URL <code>/v1/apps/***/services</code> from this server.  <ins>That's all we know.</ins>

This type of error is expected for services that are not supported by VPC Service Controls and not available on the restricted VIP. If this error occurs for a service that is supported by VPC Service Controls, then we recommend that you check the known service limitations for that service to see if it is a known limitation. Otherwise, the issue must be reported.

Log export to project outside perimeter

In this example, a log export is blocked by VPC Service Controls. The export destination, project corp-resources-public, is outside of the VPC Service Controls perimeter, while the sink is created on project perimeter-network, which is inside the perimeter.

For example, suppose the following command is used:

gcloud logging sinks describe example-sink

The command returns the following output:

destination: bigquery.googleapis.com/projects/corp-resources-public/datasets/logs
filter: |-
  resource.type="audited_resource"
  resource.labels.service="bigquery.googleapis.com"
name: example-sink
outputVersionFormat: V2
writerIdentity: serviceAccount:p927005422713-439672@gcp-sa-logging.iam.gserviceaccount.com

The following audit log record is generated:

{
 insertId:  "e5i2i8cbqw"
 logName:  "projects/perimeter-network/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "corp-resources-public"
   ]
   violationReason:  "RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "google.cloud.bigquery.v2.TableDataService.InsertAll"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "2002:a49:8c51::"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/927005422713"
  serviceName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-11-29T17:32:19.287138882Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "google.cloud.bigquery.v2.TableDataService.InsertAll"
   project_id:  "perimeter-network"
   service:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-11-29T17:32:19.054662413Z"
}

The audit log record is generated for BigQuery, not for Logging. This is because BigQuery is the sink service that Logging is attempting to write to.

The export fails because corp-resources-public exists outside the perimeter that protects perimeter-network.

This example shows that for cases where one Google Cloud service calls another using a managed service account that is internal to Google Cloud, such as [email protected], the "network project" (in this case, perimeter-network) of the request is derived from that identity. The same identity represents the log export resource itself.

This pattern is common in Google Cloud and applies to numerous cases of service-to-service interaction.

BigQuery extract to Cloud Storage

This example describes how to debug failed BigQuery extractions to Cloud Storage.

In this example, corp-resources-private and perimeter-network are projects protected by a service perimeter. corp-resources-public is a project that exists outside the perimeter.

Suppose the following command was used:

bq extract babynames.yob2000

The command returns the following output:

gs://corp-resources-public-1/export.txt
Waiting on bqjob_r47ee34109d02b41_000001676b27157c_1 ... (1s) Current status: DONE
BigQuery error in extract operation: Error processing job 'corp-resources-private:bqjob_r47ee34109d02b41_000001676b27157c_1': Access
Denied: BigQuery BigQuery: Permission denied while writing data.

In this case, the error does not specifically implicate VPC Service Controls. A similar error is shown if there is an Identity and Access Management failure.

The following audit log record is generated:

{
 insertId:  "4gbh6pe8jld7"
 logName:  "projects/corp-resources-private/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  methodName:  "jobservice.jobcompleted"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "10.5.0.4"
   callerNetwork:  "//compute.googleapis.com/projects/perimeter-network/global/networks/__unknown__"
   callerSuppliedUserAgent:  "google-api-python-client/1.6.5 (gzip),gzip(gfe)"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/corp-resources-private/jobs/bqjob_r47ee34109d02b41_000001676b27157c_1"
  serviceData: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.bigquery.logging.v1.AuditData"
   jobCompletedEvent: {
    eventName:  "extract_job_completed"
    job: {
     jobConfiguration: {
      extract: {
       destinationUris: [
        0:  "gs://corp-resources-public-1/export.txt"
       ]
       sourceTable: {
        datasetId:  "babynames"
        projectId:  "corp-resources-private"
        tableId:  "yob2000"
       }
      }
     }
     jobName: {
      jobId:  "bqjob_r47ee34109d02b41_000001676b27157c_1"
      location:  "US"
      projectId:  "corp-resources-private"
     }
     jobStatistics: {
      createTime:  "2018-12-01T19:03:03.908Z"
      endTime:  "2018-12-01T19:03:05.494Z"
      startTime:  "2018-12-01T19:03:04.013Z"
     }
     jobStatus: {
      additionalErrors: [
       0: {
        code:  7
        message:  "Access Denied: BigQuery BigQuery: Permission denied while writing data."
       }
      ]
      error: {
       code:  7
       message:  "Access Denied: BigQuery BigQuery: Permission denied while writing data."
      }
      state:  "DONE"
     }
    }
   }
  }
  serviceName:  "bigquery.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   message:  "Access Denied: BigQuery BigQuery: Permission denied while writing data."
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-12-01T19:03:05.532169998Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   project_id:  "corp-resources-private"
  }
  type:  "bigquery_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-12-01T19:03:05.503Z"
}

In this audit log record, [email protected] is identified as the identity attempting to run the operation. In this example, assume that [email protected] has the required IAM permissions to execute the command.

As IAM permissions are not the issue, the next step is to check for VPC Service Controls failures.

The audit log record for the destination service (Cloud Storage) contains detailed reasons for the failure:

{
 insertId:  "1bq397kcfj1"
 logName:  "projects/corp-resources-private/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy"
 protoPayload: {
  @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"
  authenticationInfo: {
   principalEmail:  "[email protected]"
  }
  metadata: {
   @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
   resourceNames: [
    0:  "projects/1004338142803"
    1:  "projects/_/buckets/corp-resources-public-1"
   ]
   violationReason:  "RESOURCES_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER"
  }
  methodName:  "google.storage.BillingRequiredRead"
  requestMetadata: {
   callerIp:  "10.5.0.4"
   callerNetwork:  "//compute.googleapis.com/projects/perimeter-network/global/networks/__unknown__"
   destinationAttributes: {
   }
   requestAttributes: {
   }
  }
  resourceName:  "projects/1004338142803"
  serviceName:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  status: {
   code:  7
   details: [
    0: {
     @type:  "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure"
     violations: [
      0: {
       type:  "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS"
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
   message:  "Request is prohibited by organization's policy"
  }
 }
 receiveTimestamp:  "2018-12-01T19:03:05.617451586Z"
 resource: {
  labels: {
   method:  "google.storage.BillingRequiredRead"
   project_id:  "corp-resources-private"
   service:  "storage.googleapis.com"
  }
  type:  "audited_resource"
 }
 severity:  "ERROR"
 timestamp:  "2018-12-01T19:03:05.420005215Z"
}

From this log, it is clear that the two projects 1004338142803 (corp-resources-private-1) and corp-resources-public are both being used to complete the command. Because those projects do not share a perimeter, the extract job fails.

This example illustrates that in complex multi-service operations, the audit logs for both the source and destination services might contain useful debugging data.

Perimeter access through Cloud NAT gateway

In this example, assume that project A from Org A is not configured within any perimeter. Project B is secured by a perimeter in a different organization. Private resources on project A use Cloud NAT gateway to reach the internet and Google APIs and services. An access level is configured on project B to allow access based on the external gateway IP addresses of project A.

A VM that belongs to project A (which can be a Google Kubernetes Engine node) attempts to access a protected resource in project B but the connection fails, and the following audit log record is generated in project B:

{
  "protoPayload": {
    "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog",
    "status": {
      "code": 7,
      "message": "Request is prohibited by organization's policy. vpcServiceControlsUniqueIdentifier: kmpY9Fgfuhgi2NE90lURjFWuiS1nGRqxCw4L12HdW8h46Un__-_LZw",
      "details": [
        {
          "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.PreconditionFailure",
          "violations": [
            {
              "type": "VPC_SERVICE_CONTROLS",
              "description": "kmpY9Fgfuhgi2NE90lURjFWuiS1nGRqxCw4L12HdW8h46Un__-_LZw"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    "authenticationInfo": {
      "principalEmail": "[email protected]",
      "serviceAccountKeyName": "//iam.googleapis.com/projects/my-project/serviceAccounts/[email protected]/keys/<code><var>ACCOUNT_KEY</var></code>"
    },
    "requestMetadata": {
      "callerIp": "gce-internal-ip",
      "requestAttributes": {},
      "destinationAttributes": {}
    },
    "serviceName": "cloudfunctions.googleapis.com",
    "methodName": "google.cloud.functions.v1.CloudFunctionsService.ListFunctions",
    "resourceName": "<code><var>PROJECT_ID_1</var></code>",
    "metadata": {
      "violationReason": "NETWORK_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER",
      "resourceNames": [
        "projects/<code><var>PROJECT_ID_2</var></code>/locations/-"
      ],
      "securityPolicyInfo": {
        "servicePerimeterName": "accessPolicies/<code><var>ACCESS_POLICY</var></code>/servicePerimeters/us_sandbox",
        "organizationId": "<code><var>ORGANIZATION_ID</var></code>"
      },
      "deviceState": "Unknown",
      "vpcServiceControlsUniqueId": "kmpY9Fgfuhgi2NE90lURjFWuiS1nGRqxCw4L12HdW8h46Un__-_LZw",
      "ingressViolations": [
        {
          "targetResource": "projects/<code><var>PROJECT_ID_1</var></code>",
          "servicePerimeter": "accessPolicies/<code><var>ACCESS_POLICY</var></code>/servicePerimeters/<code><var>PERIMETER_NAME</var></code>",
          "source": "<code><var>PROJECT_ID_2</var></code>"
        }
      ],
      "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
    }
  },
  "insertId": "tzf7fd103i",
  "resource": {
    "type": "audited_resource",
    "labels": {
      "service": "cloudfunctions.googleapis.com",
      "method": "google.cloud.functions.v1.CloudFunctionsService.ListFunctions",
      "project_id": "<code><var>PROJECT_ID_2</var></code>"
    }
  },
  "timestamp": "2024-04-02T19:56:10.770681816Z",
  "severity": "ERROR",
  "logName": "projects/<code><var>PROJECT_ID_2</var></code>/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy",
  "receiveTimestamp": "2024-04-02T19:56:11.463811603Z"
}

The callerIp resource does not record an external IP address. Instead of the Cloud NAT gateway external IP address, the callerIp resource shows gce-internal-ip.

The callerIp field is redacted to gce-internal-ip when the requests originate from a different project or organization and the source Compute Engine VM does not have an external IP address.

Cloud NAT has an integration with Private Google Access that automatically enables Private Google Access on the resource's subnet, and keeps the traffic to Google APIs and services internal as opposed to routing it to the internet using the Cloud NAT gateway external IP address.

In this case, as the traffic is routed within the internal Google network, the RequestMetadata.caller_ip field of the AuditLog object is redacted to gce-internal-ip. To fix this, instead of using the Cloud NAT gateway external IP address in the access level for IP-based allowlist, configure an ingress rule to allow from the project or service account.

What's next