Hey there! Microservices enable building nimble applications by breaking them into independent components. This helps scale specific functions faster and makes changes easier. But microservices also pose unique security challenges compared to monoliths.
Don’t worry! By following the right approaches, you can address these additional risks. This comprehensive guide shares insider tips to secure microservices based on industry best practices and real-world experience. Read on to learn the key steps you need to take to protect your distributed services from cyber threats and meet compliance needs.
Microservices Security Pitfalls at a Glance
First, let’s quickly understand why security becomes trickier with microservices:
- Increased attack surface with more APIs, external access points
- Complex identity and access control across services
- Vulnerabilities in managing service-to-service communication
- Container images/serverless functions may harbor flaws
- Service discovery mechanisms can be exploited
Research shows that over 70% of companies have suffered security breaches due to microservices, costing an average of $320,000 per incident.
The decentralized nature, technology heterogeneity and operational complexity of these architectures tend to magnify risks.
But don’t lose heart! By applying the following security best practices tailored to microservices environments, you can develop robust safeguards.
#1 Bake In Security from Day 1
Trying to bolt on security as an afterthought costs 100x more. Make sure it is built-in right from initial architecture reviews:
Here are 4 key principles to drive secure microservices design:
| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Secure by Design | Architect zero-trust models, layered defenses etc. upfront |
| Default Safety | Components should fail safe in case of crashes, outliers etc. |
| Least Privilege | Services must have minimal access to other services |
| Defense in Depth | Apply controls at multiple layers like network, IAM, app monitoring etc. |
Getting these fundamentals right from the start prevents costly security issues down the road.
"A stitch in time saves nine" – this adage holds very true with microservices security as well.
#2 Layer Security Defenses
The defense in depth shares security responsibilities across multiple controls:
With a breach at one layer not exposing your entire ecosystem, this model minimizes risk, making attacks harder to execute:
- Network Security: Perimeter defenses like firewalls, API gateways
- Access Controls: Identity and access management
- Data Security: Encryption for data protection
- Analytics: Anomaly detection, behaviour analysis
You get the best protection with decent safeguards at each layer vs. overinvesting in a single defense vector.
#3 Lock Down Container Environments
Since most microservices deployments leverage containers, hardening them is critical:
- Use immutable container patterns i.e. rebuild images from scratch to prevent drift
- Frequently scan images for malware or app vulnerabilities using tools like Clair, Anchore
- Apply least privilege permissions to reduce lateral movement risks
- Limit resource usage through quotas as a DoS protection tactic
These steps drastically shrink the attack surface from containers.
#4 Implement Strong Access Controls
Microservices architectures involve many decentralized authentication and authorization touch points:
Hence getting identity and access right is crucial:
- Enforce multifactor authentication (MFA) for end users
- Utilize standard protocols like OAuth 2.0 for authentication, authorization and protected resource access
- Issue short-lived JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for inter-service authentication
- Model fine-grained access policies aligned to zero trust principles
These mechanisms help manage identities and access in distributed environments securely.
#5 Encrypt Inter-Service Communications
Different microservices frequently need to interact with each other. Encrypt these inter-service communications using mutual TLS:
- Service 1 authenticates Service 2
- Service 2 authenticates Service 1
- This establishes trust in both directions
Benefits of mutual TLS:
- Prevents man-in-the-middle attacks
- Stops compromised services from spreading laterally
You can also use signed JWT tokens for service-to-service calls as an alternative.
#6 Funnel Access Through API Gateways
Each microservice exposing APIs directly increases attack vectors like DDoS, brute force etc.
API gateways offer a single entry point to front these services:
Key advantages:
- Enforces consistent policies like OAuth, rate limiting etc.
- Routing to appropriate backend services
- Reduces direct exposure of services
Popular API gateways like Kong, Tyk and Gravitee provide these protections.
#7 Classify and Limit API Access
Not all APIs are created equal. Classify them into trust zones based on sensitivity:
- External: Accessible on internet, highest risks
- Internal: Back-office apps for enterprise users only
- Partner: Limited access for 3rd party integration
- Private: Internal only APIs for service-to-service communication
Tailor your controls to the API types – eg. MFA for external, network segmentation for internal APIs etc.
#8 Enforce Request Rate Limiting
Unprotected APIs become easy targets for denial of service attacks. Implement throttling policies based on client attributes:
Typical approaches:
- Limits based on IP, user identity etc.
- Allow 100 requests/minute per client
- Burstable limits (eg. allow spikes but not sustained loads)
Rate limiting is natively supported by API gateways, WAFs, code libraries like Spring Cloud Gateway.
#9 Centralize Protection Monitoring
Given microservices environments are vast attack surfaces, manual tracking for threats is impossible. Instead take these steps to enable security automation:
Capabilities like:
- Log analysis to identify anomalies
- API scanning for newly disclosed vulnerabilities
- Auto-scaling WAFs based on traffic spikes
- Quarantining risky workloads
Tools like Prisma Cloud simplify this by correlating signals across infrastructure and applications.
#10 Safeguard Sensitive Data
With data protection regulations like GDPR in place, data security has become non-negotiable – including for microservices dealing with PII and other confidential data.
Essential practices:
- Encrypt network traffic always (TLS)
- Tokenize sensitive data like credit cards
- Encrypt data before storing in databases
- Mask data in logs/error messages
Get data security right from start to reduce breach impact later.
#11 Harness Container Orchestrator Capabilities
Managed container orchestrators like Kubernetes provide integrated security capabilities:
- Network segmentation through policies
- Workload isolation between teams
- Secrets management securely
- Minimized cluster footprint through principle of least privilege
Additionally, tools like Open Policy Agent (OPA) further help enforce policies for microservices declarative-ly.
#12 Perform Security Testing
The only way to effective security validation is through consistent testing along multiple vectors:
- SAST/DAST: Static & dynamic analysis testing
- Pen testing: Simulate compromise scenarios
Shift security testing left by embedding into CI/CD pipelines to find issues early.
In microservices, security cannot be just one team‘s purview. Encourage shared ownership instead:
Promote practices like:
- Security code reviews for every code change
- Tracking vulnerabilities in team boards
- Cross-functional security KPIs
- Having designated security champions in squads
This model helps instill application security across the entire org.
Wrapping Up
I hope these microservices security best practices give you clarity on protecting your distributed applications effectively. The key is tackling this early not as an afterthought, investing in automation and shared ownership models.
Here is a quick recap of the crucial tips we just discussed:
Feel free to bookmark this guide and share it with anyone building microservices-based systems! Let me know in the comments if you have any other recommendations to share.
