🔒 Security Best Practices

This guide provides task-focused security recommendations for deploying and operating Control Core.

For secure diagnostics and support data-sharing guardrails, see:

• Observability & Trust
• Security of Support
• PBAC Operator Playbooks

📌 Overview

Control Core supports enterprise-grade security through policy-based access control, audit logging, and optional workload identity. Follow these practices to secure your deployment.

Security Layers

Security is applied at multiple layers from network to application:

📌 Access Management

• Use API keys securely: Store Bouncer API keys in secrets management; never commit them to source control.
• Rotate keys regularly: Rotate Control Plane and Bouncer API keys on a schedule.
• Least privilege: Grant users and services only the permissions they need.
• Enable MFA: Use multi-factor authentication for administrative access where supported.

🔒 Network Security

• TLS for all traffic: Use HTTPS for Control Plane and Bouncer; terminate TLS at load balancer or proxy.
• Restrict network access: Place Control Plane and Bouncers in private subnets; expose only necessary ports.
• Firewall rules: Allow only required ports (e.g., 443, 8080 for Bouncer, 8000 for Control Plane API).

📌 Cryptographic Workload Identity

Control Core provides advanced identity-based security for internal communications through cryptographic workload identity:

• Policy and Control Plane Hardening - What hardening protects, potential effects, and troubleshooting (API keys, SPIRE, deny-by-default)
• Cryptographic Workload Identity - Enterprise-grade zero-trust security with mTLS, automatic certificate rotation, and compliance alignment (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST, FedRAMP)
• Work ID Configuration - Technical setup guide for enabling workload identity

📌 Data Protection

• Data masking: Use policy-driven data masking for sensitive API responses. See Rego Guidelines for masked_response patterns.
• Audit logging: Enable and retain audit logs for compliance. See Audit Logs.
• Secrets: Store database credentials, API keys, and tokens in your platform's secrets manager (e.g., Kubernetes Secrets, AWS Secrets Manager).

🔒 Monitoring and Compliance

• Audit logs: Review audit logs for unauthorized access or policy changes.
• Health checks: Use Bouncer and Control Plane health endpoints for monitoring.
• License and telemetry: Configure Telemetry for license verification; use encrypted transmission.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

For more, see the Troubleshooting Guide.

📘 Related Guides

• Cryptographic Workload Identity - Enterprise security and compliance overview
• Work ID Configuration - Technical setup guide
• Administrator Guide - Configuration and user management
• Bouncer Deployment - Securing the policy enforcement layer
• Rego Guidelines - Policy security patterns