What Is Peer Authentication?
Peer authentication is the mesh setting that governs how workloads verify the identity of callers on inbound connections, typically by requiring mutual TLS. It can be strict, requiring mTLS, or permissive, accepting both plaintext and mTLS during migration. It establishes the trusted identity that authorization policies then act on.
Why it matters
Peer authentication is what enforces that internal traffic is encrypted and identity-checked. Setting it strict closes the gap that permissive mode leaves open during rollout.
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