Mutual TLS (mTLS) is a core security feature of service meshes. It ensures that communication between services is encrypted and authenticated in both directions. This is achieved by each service having a certificate and verifying the certificate of the service it's communicating with. Service meshes automate the distribution, rotation, and management of these certificates, simplifying security operations. This is done at the infrastructure/platform level, without requiring changes to the application code itself.
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A) Service meshes enhance internal security within the cluster, but they don't replace perimeter security. Firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and other perimeter security measures are still necessary to protect the overall infrastructure from external threats.
B) Service meshes primarily focus on securing communication between services (data in transit). Encryption at rest is a separate concern typically handled by other mechanisms like disk encryption or database encryption. While some service meshes might offer integrations with secrets management systems, they don't directly handle data-at-rest encryption within containers.
C) While service meshes support zero-trust principles by enforcing strong authentication and authorization between services, they don't inherently block all external network access. External access is controlled through other mechanisms like network policies, ingress controllers, and API gateways.