Creating a Central Authorization Layer using Cloud IAP

In this lab, you will be securing your application using Cloud Identity Aware Proxy. You will first create a simple Python application that you will deploy on the App Engine and then you will enable Cloud IAP to create a Central Authorization Layer.

What is Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy?

Cloud IAP establishes a central authorization layer for an application accessed on a browser. IAP has resolved problems like direct endpoint access. To avoid such cases, IAP is used. When users try to access the endpoint URL, a prompt will appear for Google Sign In, if you are in the allowed member list, you will be able to access otherwise you will get an access denied error.

It is done at the application layer. If your application is on-premise, IAP Connector can be used.

Drawbacks

• Internal traffic inside VM/GAE/GKE can bypass IAP.
• If you are using a third-party CDN, cached content might be served to unauthorized users.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this lab you will be able to:

• Secure your applications by allowing URL access only for trusted members.
• Providing application-level security instead of network-level security.
• Authenticate and authorize application users with OAuth.

Intended Audience

This lab is intended for:

• Software Developers
• Network Engineers
• Security Engineers

Prerequisites

You should possess:

• A basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and Python

Updates

May 14th, 2025 - Updated lab environment. Updated screenshots and instructions to reflect the latest UI

June 13th, 2024 - Resolved IAM permission issue

May 16th, 2024 - Updated Python version

March 10th, 2023 - Updated the command for outputting the URL for the web application