2. Requirements
2. Requirements
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2.1 Design Goals
2.1.1 Primary Goals
| Goal | Description |
|---|---|
| Defense in Depth | Multiple independent security layers such that compromise of one layer does not compromise the system |
| Zero Trust Posture | No implicit trust; all traffic must be explicitly authorized |
| OWASP Protection | Mitigate OWASP Top 10 and API Security Top 10 risks at the network layer |
| Tenant Isolation | Prevent cross-tenant communication unless explicitly permitted |
| Operational Simplicity | Centralized management with minimal operational burden |
2.1.2 Secondary Goals
| Goal | Description |
|---|---|
| GitOps Native | All security policies defined in version control |
| Observable | Security events integrated with monitoring and alerting |
| Auditable | Controls documented for compliance requirements |
| Extensible | Architecture accommodates future security capabilities |
2.2 Non-Goals
| Non-Goal | Rationale | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Application-level authorization | Business logic belongs in applications | RFC-IAM-0001 provides patterns |
| Service-to-service authentication | East-West traffic handled separately | RFC-WORKLOAD-IDENTITY |
| Secret management | Secrets have dedicated architecture | RFC-SECOPS-0001 |
| DDoS mitigation at network layer | Requires infrastructure-level controls | Cloud provider or CDN |
| Content inspection beyond HTTP | Deep packet inspection out of scope | Specialized tools if required |
2.3 Architectural Invariants
Invariants are rules that MUST always hold true. Violation of an invariant indicates a system failure or misconfiguration.
2.3.1 Traffic Protection Invariants
Invariant 1 — WAF Coverage
All external HTTP and HTTPS traffic MUST pass through the Web Application Firewall before reaching application workloads. Traffic that bypasses the WAF MUST NOT reach applications.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | All ingress HTTP/HTTPS traffic |
| Enforcement | Ingress architecture |
| Violation Impact | Applications exposed to unfiltered attacks |
Invariant 2 — TLS Minimum Version
All public endpoints MUST use TLS 1.2 or higher. TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 MUST NOT be accepted for any public-facing service.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | All public endpoints |
| Enforcement | Ingress TLS configuration |
| Violation Impact | Cryptographic weakness exposure |
Invariant 3 — Certificate Automation
Certificate provisioning for production endpoints MUST be automated. Manual certificate installation MUST NOT be used for production endpoints.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | Production TLS certificates |
| Enforcement | cert-manager automation |
| Violation Impact | Certificate expiry incidents |
Invariant 4 — WAF Detection Before Enforcement
New WAF rule sets MUST operate in detection mode before enforcement mode is enabled. Direct deployment to enforcement mode MUST NOT occur without a detection period.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | WAF rule deployment |
| Enforcement | Operational procedure |
| Violation Impact | False positive outages |
2.3.2 Network Policy Invariants
Invariant 5 — Default Deny Ingress
All tenant namespaces MUST have a default-deny ingress network policy. Traffic to pods MUST be explicitly allowed; implicit allow MUST NOT exist.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | All tenant namespaces |
| Enforcement | NetworkPolicy resources |
| Violation Impact | Unauthorized access possible |
Invariant 6 — Explicit Cross-Namespace Authorization
Cross-namespace traffic MUST be explicitly authorized through network policies. Implicit cross-namespace access MUST NOT exist.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | All namespace boundaries |
| Enforcement | NetworkPolicy resources |
| Violation Impact | Lateral movement possible |
Invariant 7 — Controlled Egress
Egress to the public internet from tenant namespaces MUST be controlled. Unrestricted egress MUST NOT be permitted from tenant workloads.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | Tenant namespace egress |
| Enforcement | NetworkPolicy resources |
| Violation Impact | Data exfiltration paths |
Invariant 8 — Guardrail Policy Precedence
Platform guardrail policies MUST NOT be overridable by tenant-level policies. Guardrails MUST take precedence over tenant policies.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | Platform security policies |
| Enforcement | Policy hierarchy |
| Violation Impact | Security bypass |
2.3.3 Observability Invariants
Invariant 9 — Blocked Request Logging
All blocked requests MUST be logged with sufficient context for incident response. Context MUST include source IP, target, rule triggered, and timestamp.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | WAF and network policy blocks |
| Enforcement | Logging configuration |
| Violation Impact | Incident response hindered |
Invariant 10 — Network Flow Observability
Network flow data MUST be observable for troubleshooting and audit purposes. Flow logs MUST be available for security analysis.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | All cluster network traffic |
| Enforcement | CNI observability features |
| Violation Impact | Troubleshooting blind spots |
Invariant 11 — Monitoring Integration
WAF security events MUST be integrated with the platform monitoring and alerting system. Critical security events MUST trigger alerts.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | WAF security events |
| Enforcement | Monitoring integration |
| Violation Impact | Delayed incident detection |
2.3.4 GitOps Invariants
Invariant 12 — Policy Version Control
Network policy definitions MUST be stored in Git and applied via GitOps. Manual policy creation outside Git MUST NOT be used for production.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | All network policies |
| Enforcement | GitOps workflow |
| Violation Impact | Configuration drift, audit gaps |
Invariant 13 — WAF Rule Version Control
WAF rule customizations MUST be version controlled. Ad-hoc rule changes MUST NOT be made outside version control.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | WAF rule customizations |
| Enforcement | GitOps workflow |
| Violation Impact | Untracked security changes |
Invariant 14 — Automated Secret Management
TLS secrets MUST be managed via automated systems (cert-manager or ESO). Manual secret creation MUST NOT be used for TLS certificates.
| Aspect | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Scope | TLS certificate secrets |
| Enforcement | Automation tooling |
| Violation Impact | Secret sprawl, expiry incidents |
2.4 Invariant Summary
| ID | Category | Statement |
|---|---|---|
| INV-1 | Traffic | All external HTTP/HTTPS traffic MUST pass through WAF |
| INV-2 | Traffic | All public endpoints MUST use TLS 1.2+ |
| INV-3 | Traffic | Certificate provisioning MUST be automated |
| INV-4 | Traffic | WAF rules MUST operate in detection before enforcement |
| INV-5 | Network | All tenant namespaces MUST have default-deny ingress |
| INV-6 | Network | Cross-namespace traffic MUST be explicitly authorized |
| INV-7 | Network | Egress to internet MUST be controlled |
| INV-8 | Network | Platform guardrails MUST NOT be overridable |
| INV-9 | Observability | All blocked requests MUST be logged |
| INV-10 | Observability | Network flows MUST be observable |
| INV-11 | Observability | WAF events MUST integrate with monitoring |
| INV-12 | GitOps | Network policies MUST be in Git |
| INV-13 | GitOps | WAF customizations MUST be version controlled |
| INV-14 | GitOps | TLS secrets MUST be automated |
2.5 Success Criteria
2.5.1 Security Criteria
| Criterion | Measurement |
|---|---|
| OWASP Top 10 coverage | WAF blocks all standard OWASP test payloads |
| Zero trust enforcement | No implicit allow policies exist |
| Tenant isolation | Cross-namespace probes fail by default |
| Bot mitigation | Challenge mechanisms activate for suspicious traffic |
2.5.2 Operational Criteria
| Criterion | Measurement |
|---|---|
| Certificate automation | Zero manual certificate operations |
| Policy drift | Git state matches cluster state |
| Alert coverage | Critical events trigger notifications |
| Recovery time | WAF mode can be toggled within defined threshold |
2.5.3 Compliance Criteria
| Criterion | Measurement |
|---|---|
| SOC 2 CC6.6 | WAF controls documented |
| PCI DSS 6.6 | WAF implementation evidence |
| ISO 27001 A.13.1 | Network segmentation documentation |
Document Navigation
| Previous | Index | Next |
|---|---|---|
| ← 1. Introduction | Table of Contents | 3. Architecture → |
End of Section 2