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Request Size Limiting

For security reasons, we suggest enabling this plugin for any Service you add to Kong Gateway to prevent a DOS (Denial of Service) attack.

Block incoming requests whose body is greater than a specific size in megabytes.

Configuration Reference

This plugin is compatible with requests with the following protocols:

  • http
  • https

This plugin is compatible with DB-less mode.

In DB-less mode, Kong Gateway does not have an Admin API. If using this mode, configure the plugin using declarative configuration.

Enabling the plugin on a Service

Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Service by making the following request:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/services/<service>/plugins \
    --data "name=request-size-limiting"  \
    --data "config.allowed_payload_size=128" \
    --data "config.size_unit=megabytes" \
    --data "config.require_content_length=false"

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <request-size-limiting-example>
config: 
  allowed_payload_size: 128
  size_unit: megabytes
  require_content_length: false
plugin: request-size-limiting

Next, apply the KongPlugin resource to a Service by annotating the Service as follows:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: <service>
  labels:
    app: <service>
  annotations:
    konghq.com/plugins: <request-size-limiting-example>
spec:
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 80
    protocol: TCP
    name: <service>
  selector:
    app: <service>
Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any Service, Consumer, or Route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a Service by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: request-size-limiting
  service: <service>
  config: 
    allowed_payload_size: 128
    size_unit: megabytes
    require_content_length: false

<service> is the id or name of the Service that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin on a Route

Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Route with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/routes/<route>/plugins \
    --data "name=request-size-limiting"  \
    --data "config.allowed_payload_size=128" \
    --data "config.size_unit=megabytes" \
    --data "config.require_content_length=false"

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <request-size-limiting-example>
config: 
  allowed_payload_size: 128
  size_unit: megabytes
  require_content_length: false
plugin: request-size-limiting

Then, apply it to an ingress (Route or Routes) by annotating the ingress as follows:

apiVersion: networking/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: <route>
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
    konghq.com/plugins: <request-size-limiting-example>
spec:
  rules:
  - host: examplehostname.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /bar
        backend:
          serviceName: echo
          servicePort: 80
Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any Service, Consumer, or Route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a Route by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: request-size-limiting
  route: <route>
  config: 
    allowed_payload_size: 128
    size_unit: megabytes
    require_content_length: false

<route> is the id or name of the Route that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin on a Consumer

Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin on a Consumer with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/consumers/<consumer>/plugins \
    --data "name=request-size-limiting"  \
    --data "config.allowed_payload_size=128" \
    --data "config.size_unit=megabytes" \
    --data "config.require_content_length=false"

You can combine consumer.id, service.id, or route.id in the same request, to further narrow the scope of the plugin.

First, create a KongPlugin resource:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongPlugin
metadata:
  name: <request-size-limiting-example>
config: 
  allowed_payload_size: 128
  size_unit: megabytes
  require_content_length: false
plugin: request-size-limiting

Then, apply it to a Consumer by annotating the KongConsumer resource as follows:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongConsumer
metadata:
  name: <consumer>
  annotations:
    konghq.com/plugins: <request-size-limiting-example>
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
Note: The KongPlugin resource only needs to be defined once and can be applied to any Service, Consumer, or Route in the namespace. If you want the plugin to be available cluster-wide, create the resource as a KongClusterPlugin instead of KongPlugin.

For example, configure this plugin on a Consumer by adding this section to your declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: request-size-limiting
  consumer: <consumer>
  config: 
    allowed_payload_size: 128
    size_unit: megabytes
    require_content_length: false

<consumer> is the id or username of the Consumer that this plugin configuration will target.

Enabling the plugin globally

A plugin which is not associated to any Service, Route, or Consumer is considered global, and will be run on every request. Read the Plugin Reference and the Plugin Precedence sections for more information.

Admin API
Kubernetes
Declarative (YAML)

For example, configure this plugin globally with:

$ curl -X POST http://<admin-hostname>:8001/plugins/ \
    --data "name=request-size-limiting"  \
    --data "config.allowed_payload_size=128" \
    --data "config.size_unit=megabytes" \
    --data "config.require_content_length=false"

Create a KongClusterPlugin resource and label it as global:

apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
kind: KongClusterPlugin
metadata:
  name: <global-request-size-limiting>
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
  labels:
    global: \"true\"
config: 
  allowed_payload_size: 128
  size_unit: megabytes
  require_content_length: false
plugin: request-size-limiting

For example, configure this plugin using the plugins: entry in the declarative configuration file:

plugins:
- name: request-size-limiting
  config: 
    allowed_payload_size: 128
    size_unit: megabytes
    require_content_length: false

Parameters

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

Form ParameterDescription
name

Type: string		 The name of the plugin to use, in this case request-size-limiting.
service.id

Type: string		 The ID of the Service the plugin targets.
route.id

Type: string		 The ID of the Route the plugin targets.
consumer.id

Type: string		 The ID of the Consumer the plugin targets.
enabled

Type: boolean

Default value: true		 Whether this plugin will be applied.
config.allowed_payload_size
required

Type: integer

Default value: 128

Allowed request payload size in megabytes. Default is 128 megabytes (128000000 bytes).
config.size_unit
required

Type: string

Default value: megabytes

Size unit can be set either in bytes, kilobytes, or megabytes (default). This configuration is not available in versions prior to Kong Enterprise 1.3 and Kong Gateway (OSS) 2.0.
config.require_content_length
optional

Type: boolean

Default value: false

Set to true to ensure a valid Content-Length header exists before reading the request body.