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Add mTLS app-to-app routing support (RFC draft)#535

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rkoster wants to merge 21 commits intodevelopfrom
feature/app-to-app-mtls-routing
Draft

Add mTLS app-to-app routing support (RFC draft)#535
rkoster wants to merge 21 commits intodevelopfrom
feature/app-to-app-mtls-routing

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@rkoster rkoster commented Mar 5, 2026

Summary

Implements Phase 1 (1a + 1b) of the App-to-App mTLS Routing RFC.

Note: This PR is a draft because the RFC for App-to-App mTLS Routing has not been approved yet.

Phase 1a: mTLS Infrastructure

  • Per-domain TLS configuration via GetConfigForClient callback
  • Domain-aware client certificate validation
  • XFCC header handling (sanitize_set mode) for mTLS domains
  • Configurable XFCC format: raw (base64 cert) or envoy (compact hash+subject)
  • BOSH job properties for router.mtls_domains

Phase 1b: Authorization

  • Identity extraction from Diego instance identity certificates
  • Authorization handler enforcing mTLS authorization rules
  • RFC-0027 compliant flat options: mtls_allowed_apps, mtls_allowed_spaces, mtls_allowed_orgs (comma-separated GUIDs), mtls_allow_any (boolean)
  • Route-registrar support for mTLS route options
  • RTR access logs emitted for denied requests (401/403)

Testing

  • Unit tests for all new handlers
  • Integration tests for end-to-end mTLS routing
  • BOSH template tests for configuration

Key Files Changed

GoRouter:

  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/config/config.go - MtlsDomainConfig struct
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/router/router.go - GetConfigForClient callback
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/handlers/clientcert.go - Domain-aware XFCC
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/handlers/identity.go - XFCC parsing
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/handlers/mtls_authorization.go - Authorization handler
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/mbus/subscriber.go - Route message parsing
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/route/pool.go - AllowedSources storage
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/gorouter/proxy/proxy.go - Handler wiring

Route Registrar:

  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/route-registrar/config/config.go - AllowedSources in Options
  • src/code.cloudfoundry.org/route-registrar/messagebus/messagebus.go - NATS message format

BOSH:

  • jobs/gorouter/spec - router.mtls_domains property
  • jobs/gorouter/templates/gorouter.yml.erb - Template configuration

Configuration Example

# BOSH manifest
router:
  mtls_domains:
  - domain: "*.apps.mtls.internal"
    ca_certs: "((diego_instance_identity_ca.certificate))"
    forwarded_client_cert: sanitize_set

# Route registration
routes:
- name: my-api
  uris: ["my-api.apps.mtls.internal"]
  options:
    mtls_allowed_apps: "frontend-app-guid"
    mtls_allowed_spaces: "trusted-space-guid"

Related PRs

rkoster added 21 commits March 4, 2026 11:38
- Add MtlsDomainConfig struct with domain-specific CA pool and forwarding modes
- Add MtlsDomains field and mtlsDomainMap for fast domain lookups
- Implement GetMtlsDomainConfig() for exact and wildcard domain matching
- Add processMtlsDomains() to validate and build CA pools per domain
- Support wildcard domains like *.apps.internal

This enables GoRouter to enforce different mTLS policies per domain.
- Add getTLSConfigForClient() callback to dynamically select TLS config
- For mTLS domains: require and verify client certs with domain CA pool
- For regular domains: use base TLS configuration
- Use SNI to determine which domain configuration to apply

This allows GoRouter to enforce client certificate validation only on
designated mTLS domains while leaving other domains unchanged.
- Add config parameter to NewClientCert() and clientCert struct
- Check if request is for an mTLS domain using GetMtlsDomainConfig()
- Use domain-specific ForwardedClientCert mode when applicable
- Update all call sites and tests to pass config

This allows different XFCC header handling policies per domain,
supporting both legacy and mTLS-secured routes simultaneously.
- Add router.mtls_domains property to gorouter job spec
- Implement ERB template validation and processing logic
- Validate required fields (domain, ca_certs) and optional forwarded_client_cert
- Support both wildcard (*.apps.internal) and exact domain matching

This completes Phase 1a, enabling operators to configure per-domain
mTLS policies via BOSH deployment manifests.
- Add AllowedSources struct to subscriber.go with app_guids list
- Add AllowedSources field to RegistryMessage for NATS route messages
- Add AllowedSourceAppGUIDs to EndpointOpts and Endpoint structs
- Update Endpoint.Equal() to compare allowed source GUIDs
- Add helper function getAllowedSourceAppGUIDs()

This enables route registrations to specify which source apps are
authorized to access endpoints on mTLS domains. Work in progress
for Phase 1b authorization enforcement.
Ensures the allowed source app GUIDs are properly propagated from
EndpointOpts to the Endpoint instance.
- Create handlers/identity.go with XFCC header parsing logic
- Add CallerIdentity struct containing app GUID
- Add CallerIdentity field to RequestInfo
- Extract app GUID from certificate OU field (format: app:<guid>)
- Parse X-Forwarded-Client-Cert header with PEM certificate

The identity handler extracts the calling application's identity from
the client certificate, enabling authorization checks in downstream
handlers.
- Create handlers/mtls_authorization.go to enforce authorization
- Check if request is on an mTLS domain using config.IsMtlsDomain()
- Verify endpoint has AllowedSourceAppGUIDs configured
- Match caller identity app GUID against allowed sources list
- Return 403 Forbidden if caller not in allowed list
- Return 401 Unauthorized if no caller identity present
- Skip authorization for non-mTLS domains

This handler ensures only explicitly authorized apps can communicate
on mTLS-secured domains, completing the authorization enforcement
layer for Phase 1b.
- Add NewIdentity() handler after NewClientCert()
- Add NewMtlsAuthorization() handler after NewIdentity()
- Handlers execute in order: ClientCert -> Identity -> Authorization

Handler chain ensures:
1. XFCC header is processed and validated (ClientCert)
2. Caller identity is extracted from certificate (Identity)
3. Authorization is enforced on mTLS domains (MtlsAuthorization)

This completes the request processing pipeline for mTLS app-to-app
authorization in Phase 1b.
- Add AllowedSourceAppGUIDs field to RouteSchema and Route structs
- Add AllowedSources field to NATS Message struct
- Implement mapAllowedSources() helper to convert config to message format
- Include allowed_sources in route registration messages sent via NATS

This enables route-registrar to communicate authorization policies
to GoRouter when registering routes on mTLS domains. Route registrations
can now specify which source apps are allowed to access the endpoint,
completing the authorization data flow from app configuration through
to GoRouter enforcement.
Change all example domain names from *.apps.internal to *.apps.mtls.internal
to match the RFC specification. The .mtls. segment differentiates mTLS-authenticated
routing from direct container-to-container networking.

Changes:
- Update test files to use *.apps.mtls.internal
- Update BOSH job spec example to use *.apps.mtls.internal
- All 312 handler tests passing
Implement complete RFC-compliant authorization supporting apps, spaces,
organizations, and 'any authenticated app' policies per the app-to-app
mTLS routing RFC specification.

Changes:
- Expand AllowedSources struct with Apps/Spaces/Orgs/Any fields
- Update Endpoint and EndpointOpts to use expanded AllowedSources
- Enhance CallerIdentity to extract space and org GUIDs from cert OUs
- Implement multi-level authorization in mtls_authorization handler
- Update route-registrar to support expanded AllowedSources
- Add 12 new tests for space/org/any authorization scenarios

Authorization logic:
- If Any=true, allow any authenticated app (mutually exclusive)
- If Any=false, check Apps list, Spaces list, then Orgs list
- Allow if caller matches any level (app, space, or org)
- Default-deny if no AllowedSources or empty lists

All 324 handler tests passing
Add end-to-end integration tests covering:
- mTLS domain configuration and client certificate requirements
- App-level, space-level, and org-level authorization
- Multi-level authorization with OR logic
- 'Any authenticated app' authorization (any=true)
- Default-deny behavior for mTLS domains
- X-Forwarded-Client-Cert header forwarding

Test helpers added:
- CreateInstanceIdentityCert() generates certificates with app/space/org GUIDs in OUs
- registerWithAllowedSources() registers routes with authorization policies

Integration tests require:
- NATS server (set NATS_SERVER_BINARY env var)
- Full GoRouter runtime environment
- Can be run with: ginkgo --focus='App-to-App mTLS' integration/

Complements 324 passing unit tests with full end-to-end scenarios.
- Restore locket/lock package required by routing-api
- Restore cactus/go-statsd-client package
- Remove routing-api from vendor (it's a local submodule, not a vendored dep)
- Remove routing-api from go.mod (local packages are resolved directly)

This fixes the BOSH release build that was broken by unintended vendor
changes in the 'Fix domain names to match RFC specification' commit.
The authorization handler was checking reqInfo.RouteEndpoint which is nil
at handler execution time. Changed to use reqInfo.RoutePool which is set
by the Lookup handler earlier in the chain.

Added AllowedSources() and ApplicationId() methods to EndpointPool to
support the authorization check at the pool level.
CAPI stores allowed_sources inside the route options JSON field, while
route-registrar uses top-level allowed_sources. Updated GoRouter to check
both locations with top-level taking precedence.

- Added AllowedSources field to RegistryMessageOpts struct
- Added getEffectiveAllowedSources() method to check both locations
- Exported MakeEndpoint method for testing
- Added unit tests for nested allowed_sources parsing
The clientcert.go sanitize() function produces XFCC headers with raw base64
certificate data (no PEM markers). The identity handler previously only
supported Envoy-style Cert="<PEM>" format. Now it supports both formats:

1. GoRouter format: raw base64 without PEM markers
2. Envoy format: Cert="<PEM>" for compatibility

This fixes the 'no-caller-identity' error in mTLS authorization.
Rename the AllowedSources struct and related fields/methods to
MtlsAllowedSources throughout the codebase for better clarity
and consistency with the feature naming.

Changes include:
- gorouter/route/pool.go: Rename struct and methods
- gorouter/mbus/subscriber.go: Rename struct, update JSON tags
- gorouter/handlers/mtls_authorization.go: Update variable names
- route-registrar/config/config.go: Rename struct, update JSON/YAML tags
- route-registrar/messagebus/messagebus.go: Rename helper functions

All tests updated to use new naming convention.
Add xfcc_format configuration option for mTLS domains:
- 'raw' (default): Full base64-encoded certificate (~1.5KB)
- 'envoy': Compact 'Hash=<sha256>;Subject="<DN>"' format (~250 bytes)

The Envoy format is ~6x smaller, reducing header overhead for
high-volume app-to-app communication.

Identity extraction in the identity handler now supports both formats,
parsing the Subject DN from either raw certificates or Envoy format
to extract app/space/org GUIDs.
Set RouteEndpoint on RequestInfo before returning 401/403 responses
so that access logs are emitted to the target app's log stream.

This allows operators to see denied requests in 'cf logs <app>'
for the backend app, which is essential for debugging authorization
issues in mTLS app-to-app communication.
RFC-0027 requires options values to be only strings, numbers, or
booleans - not nested objects/arrays. Updated:

- RegistryMessageOpts: Use flat fields (mtls_allowed_apps,
  mtls_allowed_spaces, mtls_allowed_orgs, mtls_allow_any) with
  comma-separated GUIDs instead of nested MtlsAllowedSources struct

- parseCommaSeparatedGUIDs(): New helper to split comma-separated
  GUID strings into slices

- getEffectiveMtlsAllowedSources(): Parse flat options from Options
  struct while maintaining top-level MtlsAllowedSources precedence
  for route-registrar compatibility

- Tests: Updated to verify flat options parsing
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