What Is mTLS? How To Implement It With Istio

This is a detailed guide on mTLS and how to implement it with Istio service mesh. We will be covering the following topics here:

  • Understanding mTLS protocol wrt TCP/IP suite
  • SSL vs TLS vs mTLS
  • Why is mTLS important?
  • Use-cases of mTLS
  • Certificate Authority, Publick keys, X.509 certificate: Must-know mTLS concepts
  • How does mTLS work?
  • How to enable mTLS with Istio service mesh
  • Certificate management for mTLS in Istio

What Is mTLS?

Mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to authenticate two parties and secure their communication in the network. mTLS protocol is an extension of TLS protocol where both the parties- web client and web server- are authenticated. The primary aim of mTLS is to achieve the following:

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