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Search Search CSRC MENU Search Search Projects Publications Expand or Collapse Drafts for Public Comment All Public Drafts Final Pubs FIPS (standards) Special Publications (SP s ) IR (interagency/internal reports) CSWP (cybersecurity white papers) ITL Bulletins Project Descriptions Journal Articles Conference Papers Books Topics Expand or Collapse Security & Privacy Applications Technologies Sectors Laws & Regulations Activities & Products News & Updates Events Glossary About CSRC Expand or Collapse Computer Security Division Cryptographic Technology Software Security Group Hardware Security Group Security Engineering and Risk Management Applied Cybersecurity Division Cybersecurity and Privacy Applications National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Contact Us Information Technology Laboratory Computer Security Resource Center Publications NIST SP 800-204B Attribute-based Access Control for Microservices-based Applications using a Service Mesh Share to Facebook Share to X Share to LinkedIn Share ia Email Documentation Topics Date Published: August 2021 Author(s) Ramaswamy Chandramouli (NIST) , Zack Butcher (Tetrate) , Aradhna Chetal (TIAA) Abstract Deployment architecture in cloud-native applications now consists of loosely coupled components, called microservices, with all application services provided through a dedicated infrastructure, called a service mesh, independent of the application code. Two critical security requirements in this architecture are to build (1) the concept of zero trust by enabling mutual authentication in communication between any pair of services and (2) a robust access control mechanism based on an access control such as attribute-based access control (ABAC) that can be used to express a wide set of policies and is scalable in terms of user base, objects (resources), and deployment environment. This document provides deployment guidance for building an authentication and authorization framework within the service mesh that meets these requirements. A reference platform for hosting the microservices-based application and a reference platform for the service mesh are included to illustrate the concepts in the recommendations and provide the context in terms of the components used in real-world deployments. Deployment architecture in cloud-native applications now consists of loosely coupled components, called microservices, with all application services provided through a dedicated infrastructure, called a service mesh, independent of the application code. Two critical security requirements in this... See full abstract Deployment architecture in cloud-native applications now consists of loosely coupled components, called microservices, with all application services provided through a dedicated infrastructure, called a service mesh, independent of the application code. Two critical security requirements in this architecture are to build (1) the concept of zero trust by enabling mutual authentication in communication between any pair of services and (2) a robust access control mechanism based on an access control such as attribute-based access control (ABAC) that can be used to express a wide set of policies and is scalable in terms of user base, objects (resources), and deployment environment. This document provides deployment guidance for building an authentication and authorization framework within the service mesh that meets these requirements. A reference platform for hosting the microservices-based application and a reference platform for the service mesh are included to illustrate the concepts in the recommendations and provide the context in terms of the components used in real-world deployments. Hide full abstract Keywords attribute-based access control ; authentication policy ; authorization policy ; CI/CD ; DevSecOps ; JSON web token ; microservices-based application ; mutual TLS ; next generation access control ; policy enforcement point ; role-based access control ; service mesh ; service proxy ; zero trust Control Families None selected Documentation Publication: https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-204B Download URL Supplemental Material: None available Publication Parts: SP 800-204 SP 800-204A SP 800-204C SP 800-204D Document History: 01/26/21: SP 800-204B (Draft) 08/06/21: SP 800-204B (Final) Topics Security and Privacy access authorization , access control , authentication , zero trust Technologies cloud & virtualization HEADQUARTERS 100 Bureau Drive Gaithersburg, MD 20899 X (link is external) facebook (link is external) linkedin (link is external) instagram (link is external) youtube (link is external) rss govdelivery (link is external) Want updates about CSRC and our publications? 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