--- title: Authentication Policy description: Authentication policy for Istio services. location: https://istio.io/docs/reference/config/istio.authentication.v1alpha1.html layout: protoc-gen-docs generator: protoc-gen-docs number_of_entries: 11 ---

This package defines user-facing authentication policy.

## Jwt

JSON Web Token (JWT) token format for authentication as defined by RFC 7519. See OAuth 2.0 and OIDC 1.0 for how this is used in the whole authentication flow.

For example:

A JWT for any requests:

    issuer: https://example.com
    audiences:
    - bookstore_android.apps.googleusercontent.com
      bookstore_web.apps.googleusercontent.com
    jwksUri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json

A JWT for all requests except request at path `/health_check` and path with prefix `/status/`. This is useful to expose some paths for public access but keep others JWT validated.

    issuer: https://example.com
    jwks_uri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
    trigger_rules:
    - excluded_paths:
      - exact: /health_check
      - prefix: /status/

A JWT only for requests at path `/admin`. This is useful to only require JWT validation on a specific set of paths but keep others public accessible.

    issuer: https://example.com
    jwks_uri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
    trigger_rules:
    - included_paths:
      - prefix: /admin

A JWT only for requests at path of prefix `/status/` but except the path of `/status/version`. This means for any request path with prefix `/status/` except `/status/version` will require a valid JWT to proceed.

    issuer: https://example.com
    jwks_uri: https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json
    trigger_rules:
    - excluded_paths:
      - exact: /status/version
      included_paths:
      - prefix: /status/

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`issuer` | `string` | Identifies the issuer that issued the JWT. See issuer Usually a URL or an email address. Example: https://securetoken.google.com Example: 1234567-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com
`audiences` | `string[]` | The list of JWT audiences. that are allowed to access. A JWT containing any of these audiences will be accepted. The service name will be accepted if audiences is empty. Example:
    audiences:
    - bookstore_android.apps.googleusercontent.com
      bookstore_web.apps.googleusercontent.com
`jwksUri` | `string` | URL of the provider’s public key set to validate signature of the JWT. See OpenID Discovery. Optional if the key set document can either (a) be retrieved from OpenID Discovery of the issuer or (b) inferred from the email domain of the issuer (e.g. a Google service account). Example: `https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs` Note: Only one of jwks_uri and jwks should be used.
`jwks` | `string` | JSON Web Key Set of public keys to validate signature of the JWT. See https://auth0.com/docs/jwks. Note: Only one of jwks_uri and jwks should be used.
`jwtHeaders` | `string[]` | JWT is sent in a request header. `header` represents the header name. For example, if `header=x-goog-iap-jwt-assertion`, the header format will be x-goog-iap-jwt-assertion: <JWT>.
`jwtParams` | `string[]` | JWT is sent in a query parameter. `query` represents the query parameter name. For example, `query=jwt_token`.
`triggerRules` | `Jwt.TriggerRule[]` | List of trigger rules to decide if this JWT should be used to validate the request. The JWT validation happens if any one of the rules matched. If the list is not empty and none of the rules matched, authentication will skip the JWT validation. Leave this empty to always trigger the JWT validation.

## Jwt.TriggerRule

Trigger rule to match against a request. The trigger rule is satisfied if and only if both rules, excludedpaths and includepaths are satisfied.

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`excludedPaths` | `StringMatch[]` | List of paths to be excluded from the request. The rule is satisfied if request path does not match to any of the path in this list.
`includedPaths` | `StringMatch[]` | List of paths that the request must include. If the list is not empty, the rule is satisfied if request path matches at least one of the path in the list. If the list is empty, the rule is ignored, in other words the rule is always satisfied.

## MutualTls

TLS authentication params.

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`allowTls` | `bool` | WILL BE DEPRECATED, if set, will translates to `TLS_PERMISSIVE` mode. Set this flag to true to allow regular TLS (i.e without client x509 certificate). If request carries client certificate, identity will be extracted and used (set to peer identity). Otherwise, peer identity will be left unset. When the flag is false (default), request must have client certificate.
`mode` | `MutualTls.Mode` | Defines the mode of mTLS authentication.

## MutualTls.Mode

Defines the acceptable connection TLS mode.

Name | Description
--- | ---
`STRICT` | Client cert must be presented, connection is in TLS.
`PERMISSIVE` | Connection can be either plaintext or TLS, and client cert can be omitted.

## OriginAuthenticationMethod

OriginAuthenticationMethod defines authentication method/params for origin authentication. Origin could be end-user, device, delegate service etc. Currently, only JWT is supported for origin authentication.

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`jwt` | `Jwt` | Jwt params for the method.

## PeerAuthenticationMethod

PeerAuthenticationMethod defines one particular type of authentication, e.g mutual TLS, JWT etc, (no authentication is one type by itself) that can be used for peer authentication. The type can be progammatically determine by checking the type of the “params” field.

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`mtls` | `MutualTls (oneof)` | Set if mTLS is used.

## Policy

Policy defines what authentication methods can be accepted on workload(s), and if authenticated, which method/certificate will set the request principal (i.e request.auth.principal attribute).

Authentication policy is composed of 2-part authentication: - peer: verify caller service credentials. This part will set source.user (peer identity). - origin: verify the origin credentials. This part will set request.auth.user (origin identity), as well as other attributes like request.auth.presenter, request.auth.audiences and raw claims. Note that the identity could be end-user, service account, device etc.

Last but not least, the principal binding rule defines which identity (peer or origin) should be used as principal. By default, it uses peer.

Examples:

Policy to enable mTLS for all services in namespace frod. The policy name must be `default`, and it contains no rule for `targets`.

    apiVersion: authentication.istio.io/v1alpha1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      name: default
      namespace: frod
    spec:
      peers:
      - mtls:

Policy to disable mTLS for “productpage” service

    apiVersion: authentication.istio.io/v1alpha1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      name: productpage-mTLS-disable
      namespace: frod
    spec:
      targets:
      - name: productpage

Policy to require mTLS for peer authentication, and JWT for origin authentication for productpage:9000 except the path ‘/health_check’ . Principal is set from origin identity.

    apiVersion: authentication.istio.io/v1alpha1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      name: productpage-mTLS-with-JWT
      namespace: frod
    spec:
      targets:
      - name: productpage
        ports:
        - number: 9000
      peers:
      - mtls:
      origins:
      - jwt:
          issuer: "https://securetoken.google.com"
          audiences:
          - "productpage"
          jwksUri: "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs"
          jwt_headers:
          - "x-goog-iap-jwt-assertion"
          trigger_rules:
          - excluded_paths:
            - exact: /health_check
      principalBinding: USE_ORIGIN

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`targets` | `TargetSelector[]` | List rules to select workloads that the policy should be applied on. If empty, policy will be used on all workloads in the same namespace.
`peers` | `PeerAuthenticationMethod[]` | List of authentication methods that can be used for peer authentication. They will be evaluated in order; the first validate one will be used to set peer identity (source.user) and other peer attributes. If none of these methods pass, request will be rejected with authentication failed error (401). Leave the list empty if peer authentication is not required
`peerIsOptional` | `bool` | Set this flag to true to accept request (for peer authentication perspective), even when none of the peer authentication methods defined above satisfied. Typically, this is used to delay the rejection decision to next layer (e.g authorization). This flag is ignored if no authentication defined for peer (peers field is empty).
`origins` | `OriginAuthenticationMethod[]` | List of authentication methods that can be used for origin authentication. Similar to peers, these will be evaluated in order; the first validate one will be used to set origin identity and attributes (i.e request.auth.user, request.auth.issuer etc). If none of these methods pass, request will be rejected with authentication failed error (401). A method may be skipped, depends on its trigger rule. If all of these methods are skipped, origin authentication will be ignored, as if it is not defined. Leave the list empty if origin authentication is not required.
`originIsOptional` | `bool` | Set this flag to true to accept request (for origin authentication perspective), even when none of the origin authentication methods defined above satisfied. Typically, this is used to delay the rejection decision to next layer (e.g authorization). This flag is ignored if no authentication defined for origin (origins field is empty).
`principalBinding` | `PrincipalBinding` | Define whether peer or origin identity should be use for principal. Default value is USE_PEER. If peer (or origin) identity is not available, either because of peer/origin authentication is not defined, or failed, principal will be left unset. In other words, binding rule does not affect the decision to accept or reject request.

## PortSelector

PortSelector specifies the name or number of a port to be used for matching targets for authentication policy. This is copied from networking API to avoid dependency.

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`number` | `uint32 (oneof)` | Valid port number
`name` | `string (oneof)` | Port name

## PrincipalBinding

Associates authentication with request principal.

Name | Description
--- | ---
`USE_PEER` | Principal will be set to the identity from peer authentication.
`USE_ORIGIN` | Principal will be set to the identity from origin authentication.

## StringMatch

Describes how to match a given string. Match is case-sensitive.

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`exact` | `string (oneof)` | exact string match.
`prefix` | `string (oneof)` | prefix-based match.
`suffix` | `string (oneof)` | suffix-based match.
`regex` | `string (oneof)` | ECMAscript style regex-based match as defined by EDCA-262. Example: “^/pets/(.*?)?”

## TargetSelector

TargetSelector defines a matching rule to a workload. A workload is selected if it is associated with the service name and service port(s) specified in the selector rule.

Field | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
`name` | `string` | REQUIRED. The name must be a short name from the service registry. The fully qualified domain name will be resolved in a platform specific manner.
`ports` | `PortSelector[]` | Specifies the ports. Note that this is the port(s) exposed by the service, not workload instance ports. For example, if a service is defined as below, then `8000` should be used, not `9000`.
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      ...
    spec:
      ports:
      - name: http
        port: 8000
        targetPort: 9000
      selector:
        app: backend
Leave empty to match all ports that are exposed.