Tetrate, in partnership with the United States Air Force (USAF) Platform One team, has launched Authservice, an open source project that sets a new standard in cloud-native authentication and compliance. With OpenID Connect (OIDC) integration and seamless Kubernetes support, Authservice allows developers to protect APIs and web apps without application code.

Authservice offers scalability and operational simplicity in cloud environments as a drop-in replacement for the existing Istio authservice. Authservice uses Istio mesh sidecars and Kubernetes secrets to provide dynamic, automated support for authentication. Written entirely in Go, Authservice provides a more robust solution with greater developer and operational simplicity, advanced OIDC integration and seamless Kubernetes integration.

“Authservice is a groundbreaking advancement in cloud-native security, and we’re delighted to make it available as an open source project,” said Branden Wood, federal director at Tetrate. “Our collaboration with the Platform One team to create Authservice reflects our focus on creating scalable and compliant security solutions that meet the highest standards of the Department of Defense.”

Platform One is a cloud-based software development platform used by the USAF to build secure and compliant software applications. It provides a common set of tools, processes and security controls for software development across the USAF. Platform One uses Authservice to perform single sign on (SSO), and delivery of the new service is a crucial innovation stemming from Tetrate’s technology partnership with the USAF announced in May 2023.

Authservice is now available as a standard part of the Department of Defense software factory and to the broader community at large.

Tetrate supports Platform One with application networking and security services via Tetrate Istio Subscription (TIS), a product based on open source Istio service mesh and Envoy proxy, services essential for implementing a Zero Trust security model in highly regulated and mission-critical production environments like FedRAMP.

To deploy and augment Authservice, organizations can leverage TIS, which bolsters Authservice with additional layers of security, advanced traffic management and service mesh capabilities. TIS ensures a seamless, secure and efficient cloud-native environment and offers a comprehensive solution for those seeking to maximize their cloud-native deployments.