🦝 The Top 10 List of Istio Security Risks and Mitigation Strategies

The presentation discusses the importance of security in a service mesh like Istio and identifies the main threat actors and potential risks. The main thesis is that security is complex and requires a combination of protection mechanisms across multiple layers.

• Security in a service mesh involves protecting multiple layers, including the underlying infrastructure, Kubernetes platform, Istio service mesh, and applications
• Misconfiguration is a major security risk and is often caused by human error
• The main threat actors include internal attackers, contributors to Istio and third-party dependencies, and untrusted users
• A survey will be conducted to identify common security incidents and curate a list of best practices
• Security requires a combination of protection mechanisms and policies based on the assumption that attackers are already inside the network

The presenter shared an anecdote about an attack where malicious software was included in a library through a typo in GitHub. The library was eventually merged into Istio and deployed, allowing the attacker to take advantage of the vulnerability.

CNCF is developing its first ever Top 10 list of security risks facing Istio deployments. As a community-driven effort, it draws on the expertise of a wide range of security professionals and cloud native computing experts to ensure the list reflects the most current and relevant security risks facing cloud native applications.The Top 10 will help organizations prioritize their security efforts and focus on the most significant security risks that they may face. By understanding and addressing these risks, organizations can better protect against malicious attacks, data breaches, and other security incidents.In this talk we'll cover what's in the list, the selection criteria for it, and discuss strategies organizations should take to mitigate these critical risks to cloud native computing security.