--- title: Authorization Policy description: Configuration for access control on workloads. location: https://istio.io/docs/reference/config/security/authorization-policy.html layout: protoc-gen-docs generator: protoc-gen-docs weight: 20 aliases: [/docs/reference/config/authorization/authorization-policy] number_of_entries: 8 ---

Istio Authorization Policy enables access control on workloads in the mesh.

For example, the following authorization policy applies to workloads matched with label selector “app: httpbin, version: v1”.

It allows requests from: - service account “cluster.local/ns/default/sa/sleep” or - namespace “test” to access the workload with: - “GET” method at paths of prefix “/info” or, - “POST” method at path “/data”. when the request has a valid JWT token issued by “https://accounts.google.com”.

Any other requests will be rejected.

    apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
    kind: AuthorizationPolicy
    metadata:
     name: httpbin
     namespace: foo
    spec:
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: httpbin
         version: v1
     rules:
     - from:
       - source:
           principals: ["cluster.local/ns/default/sa/sleep"]
       - source:
           namespaces: ["test"]
       to:
       - operation:
           methods: ["GET"]
           paths: ["/info*"]
       - operation:
           methods: ["POST"]
           paths: ["/data"]
       when:
       - key: request.auth.claims[iss]
         values: ["https://accounts.google.com"]

Access control is enabled on a workload if there is any authorization policies selecting the workload. When access control is enabled, the default behavior is deny (deny-by-default) which means requests to the workload will be rejected if the request is not allowed by any of the authorization policies selecting the workload.

Currently AuthorizationPolicy only supports “ALLOW” action. This means that if multiple authorization policies apply to the same workload, the effect is additive.

Authorization Policy scope (target) is determined by “metadata/namespace” and an optional “selector”. - “metadata/namespace” tells which namespace the policy applies. If set to root namespace, the policy applies to all namespaces in a mesh. - workload “selector” can be used to further restrict where a policy applies.

For example,

The following authorization policy applies to workloads containing label “app: httpbin” in namespace bar.

    apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
    kind: AuthorizationPolicy
    metadata:
     name: policy
     namespace: bar
    spec:
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: httpbin

The following authorization policy applies to all workloads in namespace foo.

    apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
    kind: AuthorizationPolicy
    metadata:
     name: policy
     namespace: foo
    spec:

The following authorization policy applies to workloads containing label “version: v1” in all namespaces in the mesh. (Assuming the root namespace is configured to “istio-config”).

    apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
    kind: AuthorizationPolicy
    metadata:
     name: policy
     namespace: istio-config
    spec:
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         version: v1

## AuthorizationPolicy

AuthorizationPolicy enables access control on workloads.

For example, the following authorization policy denies all requests to workloads in namespace foo.

    apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
    kind: AuthorizationPolicy
    metadata:
     name: deny-all
     namespace: foo
    spec:

The following authorization policy allows all requests to workloads in namespace foo.

    apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1
    kind: AuthorizationPolicy
    metadata:
     name: allow-all
     namespace: foo
    spec:
     rules:
     - {}

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`selector` | `WorkloadSelector` | Optional. Workload selector decides where to apply the authorization policy. If not set, the authorization policy will be applied to all workloads in the same namespace as the authorization policy. | No
`rules` | `Rule[]` | Optional. A list of rules to specify the allowed access to the workload. If not set, access is denied unless explicitly allowed by other authorization policy. | No

## Condition

Condition specifies additional required attributes.

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`key` | `string` | The name of an Istio attribute. See the full list of supported attributes. | Yes
`values` | `string[]` | The allowed values for the attribute. | Yes

## Operation

Operation specifies the operations of a request.

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`hosts` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of hosts, which matches to the “request.host” attribute. If not set, any host is allowed. Must be used only with HTTP. | No
`ports` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of ports, which matches to the “destination.port” attribute. If not set, any port is allowed. | No
`methods` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of methods, which matches to the “request.method” attribute. For gRPC service, this should be the fully-qualified name in the form of “/package.service/method” If not set, any method is allowed. Must be used only with HTTP or gRPC. | No
`paths` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of paths, which matches to the “request.url_path” attribute. If not set, any path is allowed. Must be used only with HTTP. | No

## Rule

Rule allows access from a list of sources to perform a list of operations when the condition is matched.

Any string field in the rule supports Exact, Prefix, Suffix and Presence match: - Exact match: “abc” will match on value “abc”. - Prefix match: “abc” will match on value “abc” and “abcd”. - Suffix match: “abc” will match on value “abc” and “xabc”. - Presence match: “*” will match when value is not empty.

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`from` | `From[]` | Optional. from specifies the source of a request. If not set, any source is allowed. | No
`to` | `To[]` | Optional. to specifies the operation of a request. If not set, any operation is allowed. | No
`when` | `Condition[]` | Optional. when specifies a list of additional conditions of a request. If not set, any condition is allowed. | No

## Rule.From

From includes a list or sources.

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`source` | `Source` | Source specifies the source of a request. | No

## Rule.To

To includes a list or operations.

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`operation` | `Operation` | Operation specifies the operation of a request. | No

## Source

Source specifies the source identities of a request.

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`principals` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of source peer identities (i.e. service account), which matches to the “source.principal” attribute. If not set, any principal is allowed. | No
`requestPrincipals` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of request identities (i.e. “iss/sub” claims), which matches to the “request.auth.principal” attribute. If not set, any request principal is allowed. | No
`namespaces` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of namespaces, which matches to the “source.namespace” attribute. If not set, any namespace is allowed. | No
`ipBlocks` | `string[]` | Optional. A list of IP blocks, which matches to the “source.ip” attribute. Single IP (e.g. “1.2.3.4”) and CIDR (e.g. “1.2.3.0/24”) are supported. If not set, any IP is allowed. | No

## istio.type.v1beta1.WorkloadSelector

WorkloadSelector specifies the criteria used to determine if a policy can be applied to a proxy. The matching criteria includes the metadata associated with a proxy, workload instance info such as labels attached to the pod/VM, or any other info that the proxy provides to Istio during the initial handshake. If multiple conditions are specified, all conditions need to match in order for the workload instance to be selected. Currently, only label based selection mechanism is supported.

Field | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
`matchLabels` | `map<string, string>` | One or more labels that indicate a specific set of pods/VMs on which a policy should be applied. The scope of label search is restricted to the configuration namespace in which the resource is present. | Yes