Header Cert Authentication Configuration

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Configuration

Compatible protocols

The Header Cert Authentication plugin is compatible with the following protocols:

grpc, grpcs, http, https

Parameters

Here's a list of all the parameters which can be used in this plugin's configuration:

• name or plugin

  string required

  The name of the plugin, in this case header-cert-auth.

  • If using the Kong Admin API, Konnect API, declarative configuration, or decK files, the field is name.
  • If using the KongPlugin object in Kubernetes, the field is plugin.

• instance_name

  string

  An optional custom name to identify an instance of the plugin, for example header-cert-auth_my-service.

  The instance name shows up in Kong Manager and in Konnect, so it's useful when running the same plugin in multiple contexts, for example, on multiple services. You can also use it to access a specific plugin instance via the Kong Admin API.

  An instance name must be unique within the following context:

  • Within a workspace for Kong Gateway Enterprise
  • Within a control plane or control plane group for Konnect
  • Globally for Kong Gateway (OSS)

• service.name or service.id

  string

  The name or ID of the service the plugin targets. Set one of these parameters if adding the plugin to a service through the top-level /plugins endpoint. Not required if using /services/{serviceName|Id}/plugins.

• route.name or route.id

  string

  The name or ID of the route the plugin targets. Set one of these parameters if adding the plugin to a route through the top-level /plugins endpoint. Not required if using /routes/{routeName|Id}/plugins.

• enabled

  boolean default: true

  Whether this plugin will be applied.

• config

  record required
  • certificate_header_name

    string required

    Name of the header that contains the certificate, received from the WAF or other L7 downstream proxy.

  • certificate_header_format

    string required Must be one of: base64_encoded, url_encoded

    Format of the certificate header. Supported formats: base64_encoded, url_encoded.

  • secure_source

    boolean required default: true

    Whether to secure the source of the request. If set to true, the plugin will only allow requests from trusted IPs (configured by the trusted_ips config option).

  • anonymous

    string

    An optional string (consumer UUID or username) value to use as an “anonymous” consumer if authentication fails. If empty (default null), the request fails with an authentication failure 4xx. Note that this value must refer to the consumer id or username attribute, and not its custom_id.

  • consumer_by

    array of type string default: username, custom_id Must be one of: username, custom_id

    Whether to match the subject name of the client-supplied certificate against consumer’s username and/or custom_id attribute. If set to [] (the empty array), then auto-matching is disabled.

  • ca_certificates

    array of type string required

    List of CA Certificates strings to use as Certificate Authorities (CA) when validating a client certificate. At least one is required but you can specify as many as needed. The value of this array is comprised of primary keys (id).

  • cache_ttl

    number required default: 60

    Cache expiry time in seconds.

  • skip_consumer_lookup

    boolean required default: false

    Skip consumer lookup once certificate is trusted against the configured CA list.

  • allow_partial_chain

    boolean required default: false

    Allow certificate verification with only an intermediate certificate. When this is enabled, you don’t need to upload the full chain to Kong Certificates.

  • authenticated_group_by

    string default: CN Must be one of: CN, DN

    Certificate property to use as the authenticated group. Valid values are CN (Common Name) or DN (Distinguished Name). Once skip_consumer_lookup is applied, any client with a valid certificate can access the Service/API. To restrict usage to only some of the authenticated users, also add the ACL plugin (not covered here) and create allowed or denied groups of users.

  • revocation_check_mode

    string default: IGNORE_CA_ERROR Must be one of: SKIP, IGNORE_CA_ERROR, STRICT

    Controls client certificate revocation check behavior. If set to SKIP, no revocation check is performed. If set to IGNORE_CA_ERROR, the plugin respects the revocation status when either OCSP or CRL URL is set, and doesn’t fail on network issues. If set to STRICT, the plugin only treats the certificate as valid when it’s able to verify the revocation status.

  • http_timeout

    number default: 30000

    HTTP timeout threshold in milliseconds when communicating with the OCSP server or downloading CRL.

  • cert_cache_ttl

    number default: 60000

    The length of time in milliseconds between refreshes of the revocation check status cache.

  • default_consumer

    string

    The UUID or username of the consumer to use when a trusted client certificate is presented but no consumer matches. Note that this value must refer to the consumer id or username attribute, and not its custom_id.

  • http_proxy_host

    string

    A string representing a host name, such as example.com.

  • http_proxy_port

    integer between: 0 65535

    An integer representing a port number between 0 and 65535, inclusive.

  • https_proxy_host

    string

    A string representing a host name, such as example.com.

  • https_proxy_port

    integer between: 0 65535

    An integer representing a port number between 0 and 65535, inclusive.