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Authentication in microservices (feddit.dk)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/programming@programming.dev
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I hope this post fits in this community :)

I'm trying to wrap my head around how authentication works with micro services.

Say we have a system, with a frontend, that communicates with an API gateway, which in turn communicates with all the micro services.

As I understand it, we authenticate the client in the API gateway, and if we trust the client, the request are forwarded to the micro services.

However, what is stopping a malicious actor from bypassing the API gateway and communicating directly to the micro services ?

Do we solve this problem using a firewall, so only trusted traffic reaches the micro services ?

Or do we still have API keys between the API gateway and the micro services ?

Or is there a third way ? :)

All the articles I've read seem to assume, that we can trust all traffic entering the micro services

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[–] 5 points 9 months ago

Modelling how you want to handle trust in your architecture doesn't have a best answer really. Many ways to pet a cat, and all that jazz. Some prefer to trust only end to end, meaning not just establishing trust at the API entry, but all the way to the backend. There are arguments to be made for doing it either way. As long as your services behind the API gateway are in a private network, it is maybe okay to establish complete trust here and you could even terminate TLS and use clear communications. Another more secure pattern is to authenticate the call to the API, authorize which backends can be called, then verify the source caller in the backend as well.

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