Microservice Sidecar Authentication for Zero Trust Service Requests
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Solution Overview
Problem
Microservice architectures face security challenges due to the independence of microservices, which complicates the inclusion of security features and policies, necessitating a method to identify untrustworthy microservices in a zero trust environment.
Innovation Solution
A system with policy engine sidecars intercepts service requests and responses, generates transaction challenges, and transmits tokens to authenticate microservices, alerting a central policy server upon response failures to identify untrustworthy microservices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If microservices are deployed independently with reduced dependencies, then service flexibility and adaptability are improved, but security management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A policy engine sidecar is introduced as an intermediary component between microservices. This sidecar handles authentication, authorization, and security policy enforcement, allowing microservices to maintain independence while simplifying security management through a dedicated security intermediary layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The security functionality is segmented into separate policy engine sidecars deployed with each microservice. This segmentation allows security policies to be enforced at the service level without coupling security logic into the microservices themselves, maintaining flexibility while managing complexity.
2Reliability
If authentication and authorization checks are performed for every service request, then security reliability is improved, but request processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
Authentication tokens are issued in advance during service registration or initial authentication. These pre-issued tokens are then validated during service requests, eliminating the need for re-authentication and reducing processing time while maintaining security reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the policy engine sidecar monitors authentication status and authorization decisions. This feedback allows for dynamic policy adjustments and caching of authorization results, reducing repeated processing time while maintaining high security reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for reporting an untrustworthy microservice includes intercepting, at a first policy engine sidecar of a first microservice, a service request from the first microservice to a second microservice. The service request includes services requested from the second microservice. The method includes generating a transaction challenge and transmitting the service request, a first token identifying the first microservice, and the transaction challenge to the second microservice. The method includes intercepting a service request response from a second microservice to the first microservice and transmitting a microservice alert to a central policy server in response to a service request response failure. The service request response failure includes a failure in determining that the service request response includes a second token properly identifying the second microservice and an acceptable transaction challenge response. The microservice alert includes an identifier of the second microservice and an indication of the service request response failure.