RequestAuthentication

5 minute read

RequestAuthentication

RequestAuthentication defines what request authentication methods are supported by a workload. It will reject a request if the request contains invalid authentication information, based on the configured authentication rules. A request that does not contain any authentication credentials will be accepted but will not have any authenticated identity. To restrict access to authenticated requests only, this should be accompanied by an authorization rule. Examples:

Require JWT for all request for workloads that have label app:httpbin

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "issuer-foo"
    jwksUri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "issuer-foo"
    jwksUri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]

A policy in the root namespace (“istio-system” by default) applies to workloads in all namespaces in a mesh. The following policy makes all workloads only accept requests that contain a valid JWT token.

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: req-authn-for-all
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "issuer-foo"
    jwksUri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: require-jwt-for-all
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: req-authn-for-all
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "issuer-foo"
    jwksUri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: require-jwt-for-all
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]

The next example shows how to set a different JWT requirement for a different host. The RequestAuthentication declares it can accept JWTs issued by either issuer-foo or issuer-bar (the public key set is implicitly set from the OpenID Connect spec).

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "issuer-foo"
  - issuer: "issuer-bar"
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["issuer-foo/*"]
    to:
    - operation:
        hosts: ["example.com"]
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["issuer-bar/*"]
    to:
    - operation:
        hosts: ["another-host.com"]

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "issuer-foo"
  - issuer: "issuer-bar"
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["issuer-foo/*"]
    to:
    - operation:
        hosts: ["example.com"]
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["issuer-bar/*"]
    to:
    - operation:
        hosts: ["another-host.com"]

You can fine tune the authorization policy to set different requirement per path. For example, to require JWT on all paths, except /healthz, the same RequestAuthentication can be used, but the authorization policy could be:

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]
  - to:
    - operation:
        paths: ["/healthz"]

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: httpbin
  namespace: foo
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: httpbin
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]
  - to:
    - operation:
        paths: ["/healthz"]

[Experimental] Routing based on derived metadata is now supported. A prefix ‘@’ is used to denote a match against internal metadata instead of the headers in the request. Currently this feature is only supported for the following metadata:

request.auth.claims.{claim-name}[.{nested-claim}]* which are extracted from validated JWT tokens. Use the . or [] as a separator for nested claim names. Examples: request.auth.claims.sub, request.auth.claims.name.givenName and request.auth.claims[foo.com/name]. For more information, see JWT claim based routing.

The use of matches against JWT claim metadata is only supported in Gateways. The following example shows:

RequestAuthentication to decode and validate a JWT. This also makes the @request.auth.claims available for use in the VirtualService.
AuthorizationPolicy to check for valid principals in the request. This makes the JWT required for the request.
VirtualService to route the request based on the “sub” claim.

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: jwt-on-ingress
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: istio-ingressgateway
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "example.com"
    jwksUri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: require-jwt
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: istio-ingressgateway
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]
---
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: route-jwt
spec:
  hosts:
  - foo.prod.svc.cluster.local
  gateways:
  - istio-ingressgateway
  http:
  - name: "v2"
    match:
    - headers:
        "@request.auth.claims.sub":
          exact: "dev"
    route:
    - destination:
        host: foo.prod.svc.cluster.local
        subset: v2
  - name: "default"
    route:
    - destination:
        host: foo.prod.svc.cluster.local
        subset: v1

apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: RequestAuthentication
metadata:
  name: jwt-on-ingress
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: istio-ingressgateway
  jwtRules:
  - issuer: "example.com"
    jwksUri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
---
apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1
kind: AuthorizationPolicy
metadata:
  name: require-jwt
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: istio-ingressgateway
  rules:
  - from:
    - source:
        requestPrincipals: ["*"]
---
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1alpha3
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: route-jwt
spec:
  hosts:
  - foo.prod.svc.cluster.local
  gateways:
  - istio-ingressgateway
  http:
  - name: "v2"
    match:
    - headers:
        "@request.auth.claims.sub":
          exact: "dev"
    route:
    - destination:
        host: foo.prod.svc.cluster.local
        subset: v2
  - name: "default"
    route:
    - destination:
        host: foo.prod.svc.cluster.local
        subset: v1

Field Type Description Required

Field	Type	Description	Required
`selector`	`WorkloadSelector`	Optional. The selector decides where to apply the request authentication policy. The selector will match with workloads in the same namespace as the request authentication policy. If the request authentication policy is in the root namespace, the selector will additionally match with workloads in all namespaces. If not set, the selector will match all workloads. At most one of the selector and targetRef can be set.	No
`targetRef`	`PolicyTargetReference`	Optional. The targetRef specifies the gateway the policy should be applied to. The targeted resource specified will determine which workloads the request authentication policy to. The targeted resource must be a `Gateway` in the group `gateway.networking.k8s.io`. The gateway must be in the same namespace as the request authentication policy. If not set, the policy is applied as defined by the selector. At most one of the selector and targetRef can be set. Waypoint proxies will not respect selectors even if they match.	No
`jwtRules`	`JWTRule[]`	Define the list of JWTs that can be validated at the selected workloads’ proxy. A valid token will be used to extract the authenticated identity. Each rule will be activated only when a token is presented at the location recognized by the rule. The token will be validated based on the JWT rule config. If validation fails, the request will be rejected. Note: Requests with multiple tokens (at different locations) are not supported, the output principal of such requests is undefined.	No

selector

WorkloadSelector

Optional. The selector decides where to apply the request authentication policy. The selector will match with workloads in the same namespace as the request authentication policy. If the request authentication policy is in the root namespace, the selector will additionally match with workloads in all namespaces.

If not set, the selector will match all workloads. At most one of the selector and targetRef can be set.

targetRef

PolicyTargetReference

Optional. The targetRef specifies the gateway the policy should be applied to. The targeted resource specified will determine which workloads the request authentication policy to. The targeted resource must be a Gateway in the group gateway.networking.k8s.io. The gateway must be in the same namespace as the request authentication policy.

If not set, the policy is applied as defined by the selector. At most one of the selector and targetRef can be set. Waypoint proxies will not respect selectors even if they match.

jwtRules

JWTRule[]

Define the list of JWTs that can be validated at the selected workloads’ proxy. A valid token will be used to extract the authenticated identity. Each rule will be activated only when a token is presented at the location recognized by the rule. The token will be validated based on the JWT rule config. If validation fails, the request will be rejected. Note: Requests with multiple tokens (at different locations) are not supported, the output principal of such requests is undefined.