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Istio mTLS Encryption Deep Dive

How Istio implements mutual TLS using SPIFFE SVIDs, the certificate rotation lifecycle, and transport security.

🎯Key Takeaways
SPIFFE SVID = workload certificate (service account based)
Certificates auto-rotate every 24h (no manual management)
mTLS provides encryption + mutual identity verification

Istio mTLS Encryption Deep Dive

How Istio implements mutual TLS using SPIFFE SVIDs, the certificate rotation lifecycle, and transport security.

~1 min read
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What you'll learn
  • SPIFFE SVID = workload certificate (service account based)
  • Certificates auto-rotate every 24h (no manual management)
  • mTLS provides encryption + mutual identity verification

mTLS Certificate Flow

istiod acts as the Certificate Authority. Each sidecar gets a SPIFFE X.509 SVID (spiffe://cluster.local/ns/default/sa/myapp). Certificates are rotated every 24h by default. When pod-A calls pod-B: both sides present their certs, verify the other's SPIFFE identity, and encrypt the connection — all transparently.

Key takeaways

  • SPIFFE SVID = workload certificate (service account based)
  • Certificates auto-rotate every 24h (no manual management)
  • mTLS provides encryption + mutual identity verification

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Istio mTLS Modes: STRICT vs PERMISSIVE

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