Authentication helps control access to cluster resources by first verifying a user’s identity. In Kubernetes, the API server needs to verify the identity of every request it receives. Such requests may come from a program like a pod or from a human user. Since Kubernetes lacks a built-in feature for authenticating users, you’ll need to rely on auth providers for this service. Fortunately, the container orchestration platform accommodates a variety of authentication providers.Among the options fo...

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an authentication mechanism for securing web applications. LDAP is popular because it's lightweight and scales easily — features that appeal to developers, but mean that LDAP databases often store large amounts of valuable information. This makes them an attractive target for attackers. Applications construct LDAP queries derived from user inputs to access and manipulate the information stored in LDAP databases. Ideally, the app should validate and...

Kubernetes uses secret objects, called Secrets, to store OAuth tokens, secure shell (SSH) keys, passwords, and other secret data. Kubernetes Secrets allow us to keep confidential data separate from our application code by creating it separately from pods. This segregation, along with well-formed role-based access control (RBAC) configuration, reduces the chances of the Secret being exposed — and potentially exploited — when interacting with pods, thereby increasing security.While Kubernetes Secr...

Connectivity is more valuable to today’s businesses than ever. Partly, this is because many business-critical operations are happening online. Employees are connecting using collaborative software. Customers are seeking support and placing orders online. At the same time, suppliers and partners are transmitting data online. All their success depends on network capacity and reliability. This, and the increased adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the cloud, is putting pressure on network...