service authn/z
authn/z by the service or network
SEAN
K.H.
LIAO
service authn/z
authn/z by the service or network
scenarios
service authn authz
The service handles authn and authz by itself.
The network just routes everything to it.
Advantages:
- can be deployed standalone
- dumb network
Disadvantages:
- disparate identities across services
- service needs state about authn / authz
service authn authz external identity
The service handles authn and authz,
but delegates authn to an external identity provider.
The network just routes everything to it.
Advantages:
- can be deployed standalone
- dumb network
- shared identity across services
Disadvantages:
- service needs state about authn / authz
network authn service authz
The network handles authn,
blocking/redirecting requests to be authenticated first.
The service trusts the identity provided by the network,
ex: as headers/jwt.
The service decides on authz based on provided identity.
Advantages:
- shared identity across services
- service doesn't need state about identity management
Disadvantages:
- always need to run beind proxy/mesh
- extra service to handle authn
- service still needs to map identity -> authz
network authn authz
The network handles authn and also authz,
deciding if requests should pass to service.
The service trusts all requests as valid.
Advantages:
- shared identity across services
- shared authz across services
- service doesn't need any state about authn authz
- unauthorized requests can be stopped at the edge
Disadvantages:
- always need to run behind proxy/mesh
- extra service(s) to handle authn authz
- pushes complexity into network
- moderately complex service will likely still need some knowledge of authz
(less of a problem if it can be stateless)
- network is likely only able to do coarse grained authz